” Sovereignty as Tension: Sri Lanka and Its North-​East” by Mahendran Thiruvarangan

“Even as neo-​liberalism attempts to trans-​nationalize the globe, the nation continues to be popular among many communities in both Europe and the postcolony. For Marxist postcolonial thinkers like Neil Lazarus (1999:48) and Timothy Brennan (1999:25 – 26), the nation and the nation-​state function mainly as communities of resistance to globalization and American-​centered global cosmopolitanism. But in places like the UK, Spain and Belgium and in many parts of the postcolony such as Somalia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the nation exists as a vibrant political entity primarily because it refuses to tolerate the character of the state under which it lives and due to its desire to have a state exclusively for itself. Nations in these places predicate their demand for self-​rule on historical claims over territory, the differences that they draw between themselves and other nations in terms of culture and language and the ripening of their collective self-​consciousness into nationhood. The dominance of one nation over others in these places intensifies the marginalized nation’s thirst for national liberation. Claiming to resist the hegemonic Sinhala-​Buddhist nationalist project of the Sri Lankan state, Tamil nationalism invokes many of these arguments to legitimize the Tamils’ right to self-​determination in the north-​east of Sri Lanka which the nationalist narrative inscribes as the historical habitat of the Tamils.”

see: http://criticallegalthinking.com/2015/08/03/sovereignty-as-tension-sri-lanka-and-its-north-east/

“Targeting Lanka: Playing Ball with Tamil Extremism 2008-14” by Michael Roberts

The emergence and sharpening of Tamil nationalism from the 1940s to the 1980s is a complex tale which cannot be easily summarized in a few strokes. It is a tale of Sinhala extremism at one pole and Tamil extremism at the other pole feeding off each other. At the same time, the divisions within each extreme (that is, the existence of several competing parties with chauvinist positions) disabled steps towards moderation. Moreover, this major strand of political contestation – the Sinhala/Tamil divide — was complicated by strands of Leftist and Naxalite thinking that encouraged both Sinhalese and Tamil youth to move towards revolutionary struggle.

via: http://groundviews.org/2015/07/23/targeting-lanka-playing-ball-with-tamil-extremism-2008-14/

“67 Years of Independence, Nation Building and the Future of Tamils in Sri Lanka” by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

“Sri Lanka will Celebrate its Sixty-seventh Anniversary of Independence from the United Kingdom this Wednesday. The country then known as Ceylon obtained full freedom from the British on February 4th 1948.Independent Ceylon/Sri Lanka / has faced many challenges and problems in the past 67 years. We have had military coup attempts, communal riots, pogroms, armed revolts, external military intervention, assassinations of heads of state, terrorist violence and above all a long secessionist war that threatened to tear apart the country.”

via: http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/38077

“Generating Calamity, 2008-2014: An Overview of Tamil Nationalist Operations and Their Marvels” by Michael Roberts

In sum, the propaganda drive initiated by the LTTE and sustained by an ever-growing body of Tamil and other supporters from late 2008 to the present day has secured astonishing success. It is a monument that exemplifies the methods an organisation can use to fool a wide spectrum of intelligent people all over the world, besides drawing support from powerful agencies in powerful state capitals. This success, no doubt, was aided by arcane forces hidden within such state agencies, but I am no Snowden and cannot dwell on these factors in any useful or intelligent way.

via: http://groundviews.org/2014/04/10/generating-calamity-2008-2014-an-overview-of-tamil-nationalist-operations-and-their-marvels/

source: groundviews.org