Nationalist demographic anxiety targets the ethnic minority despite lower population density there

Evidence

The nationalists are obviously concerned that the population density in the south is 599 persons per square kilometer but only 167 persons per square kilometer in the northeast (Sunday Times 2004b). Despite the relatively rampant development that has taken place in the south (especially when compared to the northeast’s blight), the nationalists monomaniacally compare the south with the northeast and focus on population growth merely to perpetuate Sinhalese Buddhist domination. Sri Lanka’s government seems to share their concern: a 2004 circular announced that the eighty-four-day maternity leave allowed government employees for their first two children will now apply without a limit. Since nearly 95 percent of all government servants are Sinhalese, little danger exists that such a program would overly benefit ethnic minorities. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 292

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to manufactured-enemy dynamics in Muslim-majority/anti-Muslim literature I am reading and to majority-minority demographic anxieties studied elsewhere. — connects to: Nationalists frame demographic fertility as a weapon for territorial control — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 289; Nationalist demography anxiety is manufactured to justify domination, not rational demographic concern. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 292; Demographic anxiety drives demagogues to scapegoat racial minorities

Broader Connections

• Nationalist demography anxiety is manufactured to justify domination, not rational demographic concern. #corroborates (0.88) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 292
• Demographic anxiety drives demagogues to scapegoat racial minorities #contradicts (0.80)