Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict

The volume is organized into three major parts. The opening chapter, “The Power of the Past,” frames the central problem: how historical narratives are used in Sri Lankan political crisis and ethnic conflict. Part I, “Colonialism, History and Racism,” examines the generation of communal identities, Sinhala ideology in history and historiography, British-period historical images, and the politics of the Tamil past. Part II, “History at a Moment of Crisis,” shifts from broad historiography to local and social contexts, including nationalist rhetoric in village communities, the multiple pasts of an east coast Tamil community, and the use of national history in rural development. Part III, “The Politics of the Past,” analyzes J. R. Jayewardene’s political use of righteousness and realpolitik, newspaper nationalism and Sinhala historical discourse, and the relationship between sacred places and violent spaces. Together, the essays present Sri Lanka’s conflict as a historically constructed and politically intensified crisis shaped by colonial categories, nationalist ideology, contested memory, local practice, and competing claims to the island’s past.