The upsurge of islamiphobia in Sri Lanka
BY ATHITHAN JAYAPALAN-
Throughout the 20th century, a predatory Sinhala nationalism developed as both the state and the Sinhala political elite consolidated power through chauvinistic nationalist mobilization. The ideology was predatory as it sowed animosity and sanctioned violence in its narrowest form against non-Buddhist and in its broader form against non-Sinhala speaking communities in the island. In 1915 the Muslim communities in the South braced themselves for a major pogrom as a direct consequence of the ascending aggressive Sinhala national consciousness. What began as attacks on the commerce capital establishments of South Indian Muslims in Kandy, spread quickly against all Muslims in the South. Moreover the growing nationalism which in the course of independence found a patron through the nation-state, increasingly incited Sinhala mobs to indulge in systematic attacks on Tamils and their property in the sporadic but numerous anti-Tamil riots which ravaged the island. The overall effect of these successive riots was that of destabilizing the Tamil speaking communities who lived in the southern regions of the island.
BY ATHITHAN JAYAPALAN-