Nationalist demography anxiety is manufactured to justify domination, not rational demographic concern.
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. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 292
Categorization
- XREF: Directly feeds the core research question on manufactured enemies: the overwhelmingly majority Sinhalese population reads a lower-population minority region as a threat worth obsessing over. — connects to: Removing a named external threat intensifies rather than softens dominant-group nationalism. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1391; Official nationalism serves threatened ruling classes, not great powers alone — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 380; Fear of Muslims is a Western projection, not a response to them (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Official nationalism is an anticipatory strategy by threatened dominant groups
#responds-to(0.78) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 385 - Official nationalism serves threatened ruling classes, not great powers alone
#corroborates(0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 380 - Removing a named external threat intensifies rather than softens dominant-group nationalism.
#expands(0.72) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1391 - Fear of Muslims is a Western projection, not a response to them
#expands(0.72)