Sri Lanka’s fractured nationhood: How colonial legacies, ethnic federalism failures, and neoliberal governance eroded social contract and deepened systemic inequality
Original framing: “Sri Lanka: The unfinished work of nationhood” — bing news
The 1956–58 Sinhala-Tamil riots were not spontaneous but were stoked by the state’s imposition of Sinhala as the sole official language, a policy that directly targeted Tamil-speaking minorities. This was a deliberate act of linguistic nationalism, foreshadowing the 1983 pogroms, where the military and police—under the direction of President J.R. Jayawardene—launched a coordinated campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tamil civilians. The 1972 Republican Constitution, which centralised power and abolished the federal structure, was a direct response to Tamil demands for autonomy, setting the stage for the subsequent insurgency. The historical precedent here is clear: every time the state has attempted to impose a unitary model, ethnic violence has followed, as marginalised communities resist dispossession. The 'unfinished work' of nationhood is thus a direct consequence of these historical policy failures.
Sri Lanka’s 'unfinished work' of nationhood is not a cultural or social project but a structural failure rooted in the deliberate dismantling of federalism, the centralisation of power under neoliberal governance, and the state’s complicity in ethnic violence.
The historical precedent is clear: every time the state has attempted to impose a unitary model—whether through linguistic nationalism in 1956 or military centralisation in 1972—ethnic tensions have escalated into violence. The marginalised voices of Tamil political prisoners and ex-combatants reveal that this is not a conflict of 'ancient hatreds' but a product of state-sponsored dispossession, where the military and police have used torture, forced disappearances, and land grabs as tools of ethnic control. The cross-cultural lens further exposes how Sri Lanka’s approach contrasts sharply with models like South Africa’s TRC, where economic redistribution and institutional accountability were central to reconciliation. Without addressing these structural mechanisms—through federalism with economic redistribution, truth and reconciliation with accountability, demilitarisation, and cultural autonomy—Sri Lanka’s 'unfinished work' will remain trapped in cycles of violence and exclusion. The trickster perspective adds that the 'nationhood' narrative itself is a tool of elite power, obscuring the fact that the state’s refusal to engage with Tamil demands for autonomy has been a deliberate policy choice, not an 'unfinished' project.