Language and National Identity: The Sinhalese and Others over the Centuries

Michael Roberts, reprinting an article published in 2003 in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Summer 2003, 9: 75-102.**

 ABSTRACT: The collective identity of Sinhala-speakers over four centuries dating from the 1590s is analyzed with due attention to the structural form of (a) the Kingdom of Kandy and (b) the British colonial regime that took control of the whole island by 1815/18. The analysis dwells on the modes of oral, visual-iconic and written forms of cultural transmission that pre-dated print technology, while drawing attention to the relative uniformity of the Sinhala language in both geographical and temporal scale. A semantic pattern of political alliances based on the opposition of inside to outside which works contextually like a nestling Chinese-box is one dimension of this linguistic order. This supported the tendency of Sinhalese representations to adopt an associational logic which merged past enemies (the wicked Tamils) with contemporary enemies (the Portuguese, the English) during the liberation struggles of the Kandyan state and its militia in the pre-1818 period. Such tendencies and the continuation of disparaging epithets coined during the period of Portuguese imperial intrusion into the vocabulary of the twentieth century must inform any theoretical efforts to distinguish the collective consciousness of the Sinhalese after the substantial transformations initiated under the British from that which is expressed so powerfully in the war poems of the pre-British period.

The BBS That My Mother Likes = An Emblem for the Sri Lankan Equivalent of Middle America

Darshanie Ratnawalli  courtesy of the Nation and the Colombo Telegraph, with the latter drawing a volatile discussion which readers may wish to view … SEE note below pertinent to that discussion

I am the legitimate issue of a woman who unabashedly claims to admire the Bodu Bala Sena. This affords me a critical perspective into the issue, without which everyone is floundering like headless chickens. There may be other people, whose mothers etc. harbor soft spots for the BBS. But because they are not me, they would either try to keep these mothers in the closet or, in contradistinction, empathize with these soft spots; whereas I…Well you shall see.

My mother represents the Sri Lankan equivalent of Middle America and, as such, the demographic bloc that makes or breaks any movement dependent on mass support for its success. In Middle America (SL), one becomes a Buddhist by being a stakeholder of the Buddha Sāsana (deliberately called henceforth, the Buddhist Church of Lanka) and by emotionally aligning oneself with the age-old mission of fostering this Sāsana on this soil for the allocated five thousand years.  Once one has fulfilled this basic requirement adherence to Buddhism proper becomes peripheral and is largely left to personal discretion.

Bodu Bala Sena and the global context of Islamophobia

Chandre Dharmawardana

The Bodu-Bala Sena (BBS) is a political movement crystallizing mainly around Sinhala-Buddhist advocates of strong anti-Islamism. The knee-jerk reaction of opportunist political observers is to regard this as an example of a majoritarian populace behaving brutally, after having `caused Sinhala-Tamil terror’ by allegedly provoking the Tamils with ‘Sinhala-only’ discrimination. The BBS has also provided fodder for anti-government critics as well as the usual `I told you so’ liberals who believe that mass movements can be corrected by a little bit of sermonizing by `good monks’ holding vigils around the Lipton circus.

Vorsicht! “Deutsche Bank” penetrates Australian Shores. Australia in a Tizz

Ben Packham, in The Australian, 10 april 2013  with title “Asylum boat’s arrival on mainland may force border patrol rethink”

 The boat carrying 66 Sri Lankans arrived in Geraldton harbour, 430km north of Perth, at 12.45pm local time yesterday en route to New Zealand. Picture: Graeme Gibbons Source: News Limited

BORDER protection authorities will review the adequacy of asylum boat patrols after a vessel carrying 66 Sri Lankans made it to the West Australian mainland undetected.  Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the boat, which arrived in Geraldton yesterday, is believed to have sailed direct from Sri Lanka. He said it appeared to have taken a much longer and more southerly route than most asylum-seeker vessels, keeping it at sea for 44 days.

“I’m concerned,” Mr Clare told ABC radio. “I’ve asked Customs and Border Protection to review the circumstances of this case and advise me whether there needs to be changes to the way in which we patrol the seas in the north-west.The point to stress is this is very unusual. We haven’t had a boat head for the mainland and make the mainland now in about five years. It’s a much shorter journey for people to travel to Cocos Island or to Christmas Island.”

BBS and Burma – Given Parallels, Any Links? A BBC Account

Jonathan Head, BBC, 4 April 2013 : “What is behind Burma’s wave of religious violence?”

 ”After Muslim neighbourhoods were levelled, only scavengers could be seen at the site of the destruction”

Last month more than 40 people died in violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the central Burmese town of Meiktila. The BBC’s South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head looks at the causes of the violence. At first sight it appears that Meiktila has been hit by a natural disaster. Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled, homes of brick and cement smashed to rubble. Then you notice holes pounded into the walls that are still standing, clearly made by human hands. It was anger, not nature, that wreaked this destruction. The families and shop-owners that occupied these buildings have disappeared. The only people are the scavengers, salvaging anything of value left in the ruins. A Muslim community that dates back many generations has been wiped out.

India’s ‘Rotten Diplomacy’ in Sri Lanka Breeds Loathing in Lanka

Samanthi Subramanium in New York Times …. http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/indias-rotten-diplomacy-in-sri-lanka-breeds-loathing/imes

As a rule, living in Sri Lanka means encountering some of the friendliest people on earth. But since the civil war ended in 2009, it must be said, there is a startlingly consistent loathing for India, and a doubled such loathing for Tamils from India. This manifests all in the abstract, for the most part, but it is there nonetheless. Among other reasons, the Sinhalese are angry with India for funding and training the Tamil Tigers in their infancy, helping them become the monsters they became, and it is difficult to argue this point. The Tamils are angry with India for not intervening more decisively in the waning weeks of the war, to help stop the civilian carnage that occurred – and it is difficult to argue this point also.

Student group says no to Lanka in IPL

Special Correspondent in The Hindu …..http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/student-group-says-no-to-lanka-in-ipl/article4544729.ece

The Students Federation for Free Eelam is planning to petition the city police commissioner to urge him not to grant permission for the IPL cricket matches in Chennai, if Sri Lankan players are participating. The first IPL match this season is to be played between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium on April 6. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s application seeking a public resort licence to conduct the match is pending with the city police.

Stirring the Pot about Sri Lankan Asylum-Seekers

SEE a range of articles plus Emily Howie’s summary of previous news items

I: Surge Sri Lanka ‘payback’ … by Cameron Stewart & Paul Maley in The Australian, 2 February 2013

THE surge in asylum-seeker boats to Australia may have been quietly sanctioned at senior levels of the Sri Lankan government as a political payback for Australia’s attempts to make Colombo answer for alleged atrocities committed during its civil war. The theory has been discussed by Gillard government officials. It follows a widely asserted belief within the Australian government that a powerful Sri Lankan government official may be “complicit” in the people-smuggling trade and has facilitated the passage of dozens of boats to Australia during the past 10 months. The Australian yesterday revealed that the official is close to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Gillard government has chosen not to confront the official, fearing that a confrontation could cause the official to step up his alleged people-smuggling activities and further undermine what has otherwise been good co-operation with members of the Sri Lankan government on people-smuggling.

A Son stands bravely and simply by his Mother, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, Chief Justice

Shaveen Bandaranayake

My mother is the 43rd Chief justice of this country. She is also the 1st female Chief Justice in this country’s 200+ year history. She is an academic, one who possessed a PhD in Law before it went on sale. She is also a loving sister, mother and a wife. She is a hardworking woman who loves her country dearly and wishes to preserve its seemingly flailing integrity. She is not a politician. She is not the kind of person who expects to do something and expect something in return. She is also not the kind of person who would waver or change under pressure or intimidation. She is not going to change her conscience on a whim. There have been many occasions in which she could have given in and been rewarded lavishly. Most people are unaware of who my mother really is. Until recently, seldom would anyone have heard anything from her or about her. She has always believed that as a judge and as the Chief Justice, she must not socialize or be seen to favour any party. It is not that she is not a sociable person. It is purely because she feels it’s a burden she must carry in order to uphold the integrity of the august position which she holds. Is that incapacity? Is that misbehaviour? The powers that be claim the impending impeachment to be one to uphold democracy and the concept of separation of powers. Frankly, in my humble opinion, it is one of vengeance. It is one of spite and pure hatred.

The Horrendous Failures in the Education Sector in Sri Lanka

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, in The Daily Mirror,22 October 2012, where the title runs: “The Myth of Free Education“

The Federation of University Teachers’ Association (FUTA) and the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) in Sri Lanka have been on a long campaign to “protect free education”. I will be dealing with both the semantics and substance of “free education” in Sri Lanka in this think piece. The fundamental truth is that NOTHING IS FREE IN THE WORLD of human beings. Every single citizen of Sri Lanka pays several taxes to the government for the provision of public goods (for e.g.infrastructure)  and services (for e.g. education, health). Since between 70-75% of the
total revenue of the government accrues from indirect (consumption) taxes every single citizen pays various taxes to the government daily
during their entire lifetime. Therefore, every household pays for the education of their children albeit indirectly through the payment of
direct (income) and indirect taxes to the government. Besides, there is rampant corruption in admissions to popular schools  throughout Sri Lanka which makes a mockery of the free education system because of payment of bribe to secure admission. In addition, almost all the parents pay to send their children to private tutories from grade one onwards because most schools in the country hardly teach anything worthwhile despite being nominally free-of-cost.