Critical Juncture II

The year 1956 is pivotal in the ethnic politics of Sri Lanka. It is the year in which ethnic chauvinism was first employed by a political party to contest and win a general election and to form a national government. In the past, ethnic sentiments had been stirred and harnessed by politicians, but by and large, ethnic chauvinism was either an unstated element in elections or a relatively insignificant sideshow.’ This changed in 1956 with the campaign and election of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and his SLFP in an electoral coalition called the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP). The election politicized issues which continue to resonate, antagonize and mobilize today: the ‘rehabilitation and restoration’ of Buddhism to a pre-eminent position in society; the use of the indigenous Sinhala language; and the fostering of Sinhalese national identity by the state. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Chauvinism · Ethnic group · Government (linguistics) · Indigenous · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies