Resource Library

Everyday Ethnicity in Sri Lanka

Up-Country Tamil Identity Politics

Author : Bass, Daniel

Publisher: Social Scientists Association

Place of Publish: Sri Lanka, Colombo

Year: 2013

Page Numbers: 227

Acc. No: 4863

Class No: 323 BAS-SL

Category: Books & Reports

Subjects: Civil and Political Rights

Type of Resource: Monograph

Languages: English

ISBN: 978-955-0762-37-8

Over the past thirty years, Up-country (Indian) Tamils generally have tried to secure their vision of living within a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka, not within Tamil Eelam, the separatist dream that ended with the civil war in 2009. Exploring Sri Lanka within the deep history of colonial-era South Asian plantation diasporas, the book argues Up-country Tamils form a "diaspora next-door" to their ancestral homeland. It moves beyond simplistic Sinhala-Tamil binaries and shows how Sri Lanka,s ethnic troubles actually have more in common with similar battles that diasporic Indians have faced in Fiji and Trinidad than with Hindu-Muslim communalism in neighbouring India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shedding new light on issues of agency, citizenship, displacement and re-placement within the formation of diasporic communities and identities, this book demonstrates the ways that culture workers, including politicians, trade union leaders, academics and NGO workers, have facilitated the development of a new identity as Up-country Tamil. It is of interest to academics working in the fields of modern South Asia, diaspora, violence, post-conflict nations, religion and ethnicity. https://www.routledge.com/Everyday-Ethnicity-in-Sri-Lanka-Up-country-Tamil-Identity-Politics/Bass/p/book/9780415526241