Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Author: A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9780774807593

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Through a succession of key stages since Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) became independent in 1948, its Tamil minority, historically concentrated in the north and east but with an important segment in Colombo, became alienated from the Sinhalese majority and, after peaceful opposition failed to secure its rights, resorted to an armed struggle. The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) today appear to hold the key to their people’s future. While they have suffered setbacks, including the loss of the Tamil capital, Jaffna, they remain a potent guerrilla force, able to strike with impunity at both military and civilian targets. The Tigers’ grip on the Tamil population seems secure, as does their overseas support and funding from Tamil exiles in Britain, Canada, and Australia. This book offers a concise history of the Sri Lankan Tamil nation, its culture, social make-up, and political evolution. In a final chapter, A. J. V. Chandrakanthan gives a first-hand account of life and attitudes inside the embattled Tamil areas today. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick. He is the author of The Break-Up of Sri Lanka and S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism. A. J. V. Chandrakanthan teaches in the Department of Theology at Concordia University, Montreal.


Book Synopsis Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism by : A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Download or read book Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism written by A. Jeyaratnam Wilson and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a succession of key stages since Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) became independent in 1948, its Tamil minority, historically concentrated in the north and east but with an important segment in Colombo, became alienated from the Sinhalese majority and, after peaceful opposition failed to secure its rights, resorted to an armed struggle. The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) today appear to hold the key to their people’s future. While they have suffered setbacks, including the loss of the Tamil capital, Jaffna, they remain a potent guerrilla force, able to strike with impunity at both military and civilian targets. The Tigers’ grip on the Tamil population seems secure, as does their overseas support and funding from Tamil exiles in Britain, Canada, and Australia. This book offers a concise history of the Sri Lankan Tamil nation, its culture, social make-up, and political evolution. In a final chapter, A. J. V. Chandrakanthan gives a first-hand account of life and attitudes inside the embattled Tamil areas today. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick. He is the author of The Break-Up of Sri Lanka and S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism. A. J. V. Chandrakanthan teaches in the Department of Theology at Concordia University, Montreal.


Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Author: A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2000-05

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 9780774807609

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The militarisation of the Sinhala-Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka began in the 1970s when attempts to reconcile by peaceful means the Tamils' claim for basic individual and collective rights with the Sinhalese need to allay their chronic sense of insecurity finally failed. Since then the struggle has intensified, erupting successively in the burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, and the army's assault on Jaffna in 1995. The mainly Hindu Sri Lankan Tamils have always been separated by language, religion, and history from the Buddhist Sinhalese although the minority community in the island vastly outnumbers the Sinhalese when the 40 million Tamils in South India are taken into account. The author's analysis is informed by first-hand knowledge and personal contact with many of the actors involved.


Book Synopsis Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism by : A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Download or read book Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism written by A. Jeyaratnam Wilson and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2000-05 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The militarisation of the Sinhala-Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka began in the 1970s when attempts to reconcile by peaceful means the Tamils' claim for basic individual and collective rights with the Sinhalese need to allay their chronic sense of insecurity finally failed. Since then the struggle has intensified, erupting successively in the burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, and the army's assault on Jaffna in 1995. The mainly Hindu Sri Lankan Tamils have always been separated by language, religion, and history from the Buddhist Sinhalese although the minority community in the island vastly outnumbers the Sinhalese when the 40 million Tamils in South India are taken into account. The author's analysis is informed by first-hand knowledge and personal contact with many of the actors involved.


Tamils and the Nation

Tamils and the Nation

Author: Madurika Rasaratnam

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780190498320

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Why are relations between politically mobilised ethnic identities and the nation-state sometimes peaceful and at other times fraught and violent? Madurika Rasaratnam's book sets out a novel answer to this key puzzle in world politics through a detailed comparative study of the starkly divergent trajectories of the 'Tamil question' in India and Sri Lanka from the colonial era to the present day. Whilst Tamil and national identities have peaceably harmonised in India, in Sri Lanka these have come into escalating and violent contradiction, leading to three decades of armed conflict and simmering antagonism since the war's brutal end in 2009. Tracing these differing outcomes to distinct and contingent patterns of political contestation and mobilisation in the two states, Rasaratnam shows how, whilst emerging from comparable conditions and similar historical experiences, these have produced very different interactions between evolving Tamil and national identities, constituting in India a nation-state inclusive of the Tamils, and in Sri Lanka a hierarchical Sinhala-Buddhist national and state order hostile to Tamils' political claims. Locating these dynamics within changing international contexts, she also shows how these once largely separate patterns of national-Tamil politics, and Tamil diaspora mobilisation, are increasingly interwoven in the post-war internationalisation of Sri Lanka's ethnic crisis.


Book Synopsis Tamils and the Nation by : Madurika Rasaratnam

Download or read book Tamils and the Nation written by Madurika Rasaratnam and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are relations between politically mobilised ethnic identities and the nation-state sometimes peaceful and at other times fraught and violent? Madurika Rasaratnam's book sets out a novel answer to this key puzzle in world politics through a detailed comparative study of the starkly divergent trajectories of the 'Tamil question' in India and Sri Lanka from the colonial era to the present day. Whilst Tamil and national identities have peaceably harmonised in India, in Sri Lanka these have come into escalating and violent contradiction, leading to three decades of armed conflict and simmering antagonism since the war's brutal end in 2009. Tracing these differing outcomes to distinct and contingent patterns of political contestation and mobilisation in the two states, Rasaratnam shows how, whilst emerging from comparable conditions and similar historical experiences, these have produced very different interactions between evolving Tamil and national identities, constituting in India a nation-state inclusive of the Tamils, and in Sri Lanka a hierarchical Sinhala-Buddhist national and state order hostile to Tamils' political claims. Locating these dynamics within changing international contexts, she also shows how these once largely separate patterns of national-Tamil politics, and Tamil diaspora mobilisation, are increasingly interwoven in the post-war internationalisation of Sri Lanka's ethnic crisis.


Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Author: Murugar Gunasingam

Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Published: 2014-07-10

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781500464110

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Dr. Murugar Gunasingam has completed a pathbreaking and pioneering study of the Eelam Tamil quest for self-determination under the able guidance of my good friend and one-time colleague, the late Dr. Sinnappah Arasaratnam. This study in my view will receive the plaudits of all students of Sri Lanka's politics and modern history. For this meticulous work of scholarship, Dr. Gunasingam was justly awarded the degree of Ph.D by the University of Sydney. In undertaking this study, Dr. Gunasingam has left no stone unturned in his search for bibliographic material. Not only has he focused on almost every available source but he has also brought an analytical mind to bear on their veracity. His critical bibliography will be most welcomed by the world of Sri Lanka scholars and we are all in his debt for his untiring efforts. Some of his sources are highly original and they see the light of day for the first time. Nationalism is a many faceted phenomenon in our present world of bloody ethnic strife, a fact of life which was not foreseen by any of the great social scientists or thinkers of the past. What effects such self-destructive and internecine ethnic strife will have on global equilibrium is fearful to contemplate. The examples of Kosovo and Rwanda, leave alone other uncared for and lonely outposts on the globe, are still to unfold themselves in the final reckoning. For ethnicity is global and infectious reaching almost epidemic proportions in countries where minority groups strive for a fair share of the ever-shrinking national pie and feel neglected, if not adequately cared for, and are not endowed with equal rights with an independent judiciary and enlightened forward-looking political leadership, especially from the majority ethnic group. Dr. Gunasingam has raised these questions with all their ramifications in his comprehensive thesis.


Book Synopsis Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism by : Murugar Gunasingam

Download or read book Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism written by Murugar Gunasingam and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2014-07-10 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. Murugar Gunasingam has completed a pathbreaking and pioneering study of the Eelam Tamil quest for self-determination under the able guidance of my good friend and one-time colleague, the late Dr. Sinnappah Arasaratnam. This study in my view will receive the plaudits of all students of Sri Lanka's politics and modern history. For this meticulous work of scholarship, Dr. Gunasingam was justly awarded the degree of Ph.D by the University of Sydney. In undertaking this study, Dr. Gunasingam has left no stone unturned in his search for bibliographic material. Not only has he focused on almost every available source but he has also brought an analytical mind to bear on their veracity. His critical bibliography will be most welcomed by the world of Sri Lanka scholars and we are all in his debt for his untiring efforts. Some of his sources are highly original and they see the light of day for the first time. Nationalism is a many faceted phenomenon in our present world of bloody ethnic strife, a fact of life which was not foreseen by any of the great social scientists or thinkers of the past. What effects such self-destructive and internecine ethnic strife will have on global equilibrium is fearful to contemplate. The examples of Kosovo and Rwanda, leave alone other uncared for and lonely outposts on the globe, are still to unfold themselves in the final reckoning. For ethnicity is global and infectious reaching almost epidemic proportions in countries where minority groups strive for a fair share of the ever-shrinking national pie and feel neglected, if not adequately cared for, and are not endowed with equal rights with an independent judiciary and enlightened forward-looking political leadership, especially from the majority ethnic group. Dr. Gunasingam has raised these questions with all their ramifications in his comprehensive thesis.


Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism

Author: Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9780143027898

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In This Informed Historical Account, The Author Traces The Growth And Transformation Of Tamil Consciousness In Sri Lanka From A Movement To Safeguard Cultural Identity To A Political Struggle For A Separate State. He Also Examines The Social And Caste Structure Of The Sri Lankan Tamils And Their Linguistic, Cultural And Literary Heritage. He Describes Their Political And Cultural Activity In The Nineteenth Century And The Expressions Of Rising Tamil Consciousness In The Twentieth Century. · Draws On First-Hand Research.


Book Synopsis Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism by : Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson

Download or read book Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism written by Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In This Informed Historical Account, The Author Traces The Growth And Transformation Of Tamil Consciousness In Sri Lanka From A Movement To Safeguard Cultural Identity To A Political Struggle For A Separate State. He Also Examines The Social And Caste Structure Of The Sri Lankan Tamils And Their Linguistic, Cultural And Literary Heritage. He Describes Their Political And Cultural Activity In The Nineteenth Century And The Expressions Of Rising Tamil Consciousness In The Twentieth Century. · Draws On First-Hand Research.


S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947-1977 : a Political Biography

S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947-1977 : a Political Biography

Author: A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13:

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Then in 1947, on the eve of Ceylon becoming independent under a Sinhala-dominated government, he entered Parliament with the aim of protecting the threatened interests of the Tamil minority.


Book Synopsis S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947-1977 : a Political Biography by : A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Download or read book S.J.V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947-1977 : a Political Biography written by A. Jeyaratnam Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Then in 1947, on the eve of Ceylon becoming independent under a Sinhala-dominated government, he entered Parliament with the aim of protecting the threatened interests of the Tamil minority.


Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

Author: Rajesh Venugopal

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-10-18

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1108428797

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Examines the relationship between the ethnic conflict and economic development in modern Sri Lanka.


Book Synopsis Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka by : Rajesh Venugopal

Download or read book Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka written by Rajesh Venugopal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the relationship between the ethnic conflict and economic development in modern Sri Lanka.


Blowback

Blowback

Author: Neil DeVotta

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780804749244

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In 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.


Book Synopsis Blowback by : Neil DeVotta

Download or read book Blowback written by Neil DeVotta and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 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.


Pathways of Dissent

Pathways of Dissent

Author: R Cheran

Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited

Published: 2009-11-20

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9788132102229

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This book endeavors to fill an important academic gap through its collection of ten in-depth essays that present a wide perspective of the subject. The book holistically portrays Tamil nationalism from various disciplinary perspectives like history, political science, international relations, art, literature, sociology, and anthropology. In doing so, it tries to understand the nature of nationalism as it emerges in these areas and adds to the richness and complexity of the problematic. The significance of this collection is not only its breadth of vision, but also the origins of the hypotheses.


Book Synopsis Pathways of Dissent by : R Cheran

Download or read book Pathways of Dissent written by R Cheran and published by SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited. This book was released on 2009-11-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book endeavors to fill an important academic gap through its collection of ten in-depth essays that present a wide perspective of the subject. The book holistically portrays Tamil nationalism from various disciplinary perspectives like history, political science, international relations, art, literature, sociology, and anthropology. In doing so, it tries to understand the nature of nationalism as it emerges in these areas and adds to the richness and complexity of the problematic. The significance of this collection is not only its breadth of vision, but also the origins of the hypotheses.


Assembling Ethnicities in Neoliberal Times

Assembling Ethnicities in Neoliberal Times

Author: Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 2019-10-15

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0810140764

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Assembling Ethnicities in Neoliberal Times: Ethnographic Fictions and Sri Lanka’s War argues that the bloody war fought between the Sri Lankan state and the separatist Tamil Tigers from 1983 to 2009 should be understood as structured and animated by the forces of global capitalism. Using Aihwa Ong’s theorization of neoliberalism as a mobile technology and assemblage, this book explores how contemporary globalization has exacerbated forces of nationalism and racism. Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham finds that ethnographic fictions have both internalized certain colonial Orientalist impulses and critically engaged with categories of objective gazing, empiricism, and temporal distancing. She demonstrates that such fictions take seriously the task of bearing witness and documenting the complex productions of ethnic identities and the devastations wrought by warfare. To this end, Assembling Ethnicities explores colonial-era travel writing by Robert Knox (1681) and Leonard Woolf (1913); contemporary works by Michael Ondaatje, Romesh Gunesekera, Shobasakthi, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, and Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan; and cultural festivals and theater, including vernacular performances of Euripides’s The Trojan Women and women workers’ theater. The book interprets contemporary fictions to unpack neoliberalism’s entanglements with nationalism and racism, engaging current issues such as human rights, the pastoral, Tamil militancy, immigrant lives, feminism and nationalism, and postwar developmentalism.


Book Synopsis Assembling Ethnicities in Neoliberal Times by : Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham

Download or read book Assembling Ethnicities in Neoliberal Times written by Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assembling Ethnicities in Neoliberal Times: Ethnographic Fictions and Sri Lanka’s War argues that the bloody war fought between the Sri Lankan state and the separatist Tamil Tigers from 1983 to 2009 should be understood as structured and animated by the forces of global capitalism. Using Aihwa Ong’s theorization of neoliberalism as a mobile technology and assemblage, this book explores how contemporary globalization has exacerbated forces of nationalism and racism. Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham finds that ethnographic fictions have both internalized certain colonial Orientalist impulses and critically engaged with categories of objective gazing, empiricism, and temporal distancing. She demonstrates that such fictions take seriously the task of bearing witness and documenting the complex productions of ethnic identities and the devastations wrought by warfare. To this end, Assembling Ethnicities explores colonial-era travel writing by Robert Knox (1681) and Leonard Woolf (1913); contemporary works by Michael Ondaatje, Romesh Gunesekera, Shobasakthi, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, and Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan; and cultural festivals and theater, including vernacular performances of Euripides’s The Trojan Women and women workers’ theater. The book interprets contemporary fictions to unpack neoliberalism’s entanglements with nationalism and racism, engaging current issues such as human rights, the pastoral, Tamil militancy, immigrant lives, feminism and nationalism, and postwar developmentalism.