What Is A Nation? How Different Is It From Nation-State?
By Siri Gamage -March 7, 2015
Dr. Siri Gamage
In a recent article by Dayan Jayatilleka (Colombo Telegraph, March 3 2015) has stated that Tamils in Sri Lanka are an ethnic minority but not a nation. However, Sinhalese are a nation within the broader Sri Lankan nation. The basis for his argument is that the Sinhalese are the majority in demographic terms whereas the Tamils are a numerical minority. In essence, he is using the demographic factor to define a nation. This is not only quite misleading but also goes against the developments in the international law, minority rights, UN deliberations in regard to indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities around the world during the last few decades. I believe the confusion here can be partly eliminated by employing the distinction between a nation-state and a nation.
Jayatilleka further states that ‘One may well ask, “what is wrong in the claim of Tamil nationhood?” Probably nothing, except for the fact that the claim is made here in Sri Lanka. The Tamils may or may not be a nation, but if they are, it would be in Tamil Nadu, not in Sri Lanka’ (CT March 3, 2015). This is a quite interesting but also a concerning argument coming from a political scientist of repute who should know that this is not a feasible option for Sri Lankan Tamils. Sri Lankan Tamils, though having close cultural and ethnic relations with those in Tamil Nadu, are for all intents and purposes citizens of Sri Lanka –Not Tamil Nadu. If they are seeking nation status within the Sri Lankan nation-state, then their claim should be assessed on its own merit.
Jayatilleka seems to recognize that there is a broader, emergent nation called Sri Lankan nation but his criteria applies only to the Sinhalese –not the Tamils who he considers as ‘ethnic or national minority’ (CT March 3 2015). This is a highly discriminatory criteria to use in this day and age when the discourses about nation-state vs. nation have progressed so much to the extent that there is absolutely no place for this sort of misleading and biased criteria in the broader community of international scholarship or in the international law field.
The article by Jayatilleka raises several pertinent questions also. Firstly, is the use of demographic factor to define a nation widely accepted in international law, political and social sciences, by governments and by those ethnic and indigenous minorities seeking nation status around the world? In other words, where does this idea derive its authenticity or legitimacy perhaps other than in his own imagination? Secondly, using this definition how many other majorities in various countries could be considered as nations? For example, are Brahmin Hindus in India a nation but the Tamils in Tamil Nadu or other linguistic minorities not a nation? Thirdly, are there characteristics of a nation other than the demographic factor? Fourthly, is it possible to define a nation in Sri Lanka purely by what the Sinhala and Tamil political leaders have said in the past without giving due regard to the developments in the global context, in particular within the UN and its agencies plus in international law? Fifthly, is it possible to discard two-nation theory merely because it has ‘become a dirty word in neighbouring India’ (Colombo Telegraph, March 3, 2015)? Sixthly, do ethnic and indigenous minorities with historical, cultural, and territorial connection to a given land have the right to seek nation status within a nation-state even though the governments in the nation-states may reject such rights?Read More
