Tamil identity in Sri Lanka: a secular state of becoming

Abstract

Since the island nation of Sri Lanka attained independence in 1948, it has experienced periods of civil unrest marked by riots and government implemented curfews. In the mid-1980s this agitation erupted into civil war between two parties: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government. Each is associated with a different ethnic group and a very particular nationalist rhetoric. Kristian Stokke and Anne Kirsti Ryntveit, "The Struggle For Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka,”Growth and Change 31 (2000): 285. The LTTE, a group of militant separatists, claims to represent the Tamil population of the north and east, while the Sri Lankan government is mostly comprised of politicians belonging to the island's ethnic majority - the Sinhalese. Serena Tennekoon, "Newspaper Nationalism: Sinhala Identity as Historical Discourse," in Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict, ed. Jonathon Spencer (London: Routledge, 1990), 205.