Post-Independence Politics Sample Clauses

Post-Independence Politics. Political parties were, in the post-colonial period, largely formed on the basis of ethnicity as the Tamils and the Sinhalese asserted their separate identities and cultural rights. The introduction of an ethnic competitive element to the democratic process paved the way for clashes in political interests between the majority ethnic groups and the Tamils, the country’s largest minority (Abeyratne, 2004:7). Increasingly, post-independence polarisation on the basis of race or ethnicity resulted from the marginalisation of minorities in the Sinhalese-dominated system and minority experiences of discrimination. Using the cultural tools of language and religion to mobilise the majority population in their favour, and exploiting a “swollen” Sinhala majoritarian post-colonial urge to reclaim the island for Sinhalese-Buddhists, the Sinhala- dominated government oversaw the official adoption of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism as the state’s hegemonic ideology (Rampton, 2011). The Official Language Xxx 0000 (hereafter the “Sinhala Only Act” as colloquially known in Sri Lankan political and academic circles) represented the crux of this political behaviour. Under the leadership of S.W.R.D. Xxxxxxxxxxxx, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) “espoused competitive Sinhala chauvinism and economic nationalism to outbid his electoral enemies, particularly the liberal- leaning ruling UNP” (United National Party) (Xxxxxxx, 2013: 4). Passing this Act represented a “landmark moment in the hegemonisation of Sinhala nationalism” (Rampton, 2011: 259; XxXxxxx, 2004). The suppression of the interests of the minority and a pattern of political subjugation and ethnic politicking was institutionalised. 18 The use of “religio-ethnic symbolic sentiments” secured the election of the SLFP, which promised to safeguard the interests of Buddhists (Xxxxxxx, 2013: 4) Sinhala language policies arising from the Sinhala Only Act were powerful mobilisers along ethnic lines, especially among the rural Sinhalese population, and fuelled ethnic antagonisms rooted in ethno-linguistic symbols and discrimination (XxXxxxx, 2004; Xxxxxxx and Xxxxxx, 2008). The SLFP campaigned heavily in Sinhalese villages and customarily relied upon socially and politically influential groups including the Buddhist order to reach Sinhalese villages and influence the political decisions of villagers (Xxxxxxx, 2013). The grievances voiced by Tamil politicians were largely in response to the Sinhalese monopoly on political power a...