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"Sri Lanka has been regarded as a model democracy among former British colonies. It is lauded for its impressive achievement in terms of human development indicators. However, Sri Lanka's modern history can also be read as a tragic story of inter-ethnic inequalities and tensions, resulting in years of violent conflicts. Two long spells of anti-state youth uprisings were followed by nearly three decades of civil war, and most recently a renewed upsurge of events are examples of the ongoing uneasy project of state-building. This book discusses that state-building in Sri Lanka is centred on the struggle for hegemony amidst a kind of politics that rejects individual and group equality, opposes the social integration of marginalised groups and appeals to narrow, fearful and xenophobic tendencies among the majority population and minorities alike. It answers the pressing questions of: How do the dynamics of intra-Sinhalese class relations and Sinhalese politics influence the trajectories of post-colonial state-building? What tensions emerge over time between Sinhalese hegemony-building and the wider state-building? How do these tensions manifest in majority and minority relationships?"--
List of contents
Dedication; Preface; List of Tables; List of Acronyms; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Politics of judgement; 3. From nationalism to ethnic supremacy; 4. Political patronage: Underbelly of everyday politics; 5. State institutions and patronage politics; 6. War and peace as politics by other means; 7. What came after war?; Bibliography; Annexes; Index.
About the author
Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits is assistant professor in Conflict and Peace Studies at International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her research interests lie in the intersections of conflict, peace and development.
Summary
It departs from the dominant liberally oriented scholarship produced on Sri Lanka in the past three decades. It re-introduces the neo-Marxist approaches through the works of Antonio Gramsci and draws attention to class and inter-ethnic class relations as useful variables in the contemporary political analysis.
