Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri LankaIn the mid-1950s, Sri Lanka s majority Sinhalese politicians began outbidding one another on who could provide the greatest advantages for their community, using the Sinhala language as their instrument. The appeal to Sinhalese linguistic nationalism precipitated a situation in which the movement to replace English as the country s official language with Sinhala and Tamil (the language of Sri Lanka s principal minority) was abandoned and Sinhala alone became the official language in 1956. The Tamils subsequent protests led to anti-Tamil riots and institutional decay, which meant that supposedly representative agencies of government catered to Sinhalese preferences and blatantly disregarded minority interests. This in turn led to the Tamils mobilizing, first politically then militarily, and by the mid-1970s Tamil youth were bent on creating a separate state. |
Contents
Ethnic Identities and Politics Before Independence | 21 |
Sri Lankas Ethnic Composition in 1946 1971 and 1981 | 22 |
From Linguistic Parity to SinhalaOnly | 42 |
Percentage of Literates to Total Population Aged Five | 44 |
The Official Language Act of 1956 | 73 |
Government Staff Posts Held by Sinhalese and Tamils 1957 | 120 |
Sri Lankas Population 18711968 | 136 |
From Linguistic Nationalism to Civil War | 143 |
Conclusion | 191 |
Appendixes | 207 |
F The Tamil Language Special Provisions Regulations 1966 | 213 |
Notes | 225 |
120 | 234 |
136 | 240 |
253 | |
267 | |
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Common terms and phrases
anti-Tamil riots B-C Pact Bandaranaike bhikkhus British Buddhist campaign Ceylon Chelvanayakam claimed Colombo colonization constitution Council country's culture Debates demands Eastern Provinces election elites English ensure ethnic conflict ethnic outbidding ethnocentric ethnocracy Federal Party forces FP's G. G. Ponnambalam groups guage House of Representatives Ibid Indian Tamils institutional decay ISGA island J. R. Jayewardene Jaffna July Kotelawala Kumaratunga language issue leaders linguistic parity LTTE LTTE's majority marginalized Mettananda minority mobility northeast Northern and Eastern Official Language Act opposed parliament parliamentary peace percent political polyethnic Ponnambalam Prabhakaran prime minister protest rebels religion rhetoric S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike satyagraha Senanayake Sinhala language Sinhala-only policy Sinhalese and Tamils Sinhalese Buddhist Sinhalese nationalists Sinhalese politicians Sinhalese-Tamil SLFP Soulbury Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Tamils structure Suntharalingam swabasha TAMIL EELAM Tamil language Tamil Nation Tamil politicians Tamil youth Tamil-speaking Tigers tion violence
References to this book
International Mediation in Civil Wars: Bargaining with Bullets Timothy D Sisk No preview available - 2008 |