Nationalist myths date mainly to the nineteenth century and impede shared identity

Evidence

Myths clearly have been used, especially since the nineteenth century, for politicking purposes and have been deleterious to the fashioning of a peaceful polyethnic society with a common Sri Lankan identity. Sinhalese and Tamil claims and counterclaims notwithstanding, Buddhism thrived in Sri Lanka even as it lost its luster in the rest of South Asia. Thanks to the creativity of certain outstanding monarchs, the island’s Buddhists crafted a remarkable civilization even as some among them later used their religion to craft an insidious nationalist ideology. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 84

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is central to the reader’s thesis: the nineteenth-century origin of these myths (colonial-era construction) strongly supports the manufactured-enemy framing over primordial identity. Which specific 19th-century developments manufactured the myth?
• ADDENDUM: Parallels the Grafting & Growth essay’s theme of infrastructure/traditions being used and abused: here a real Buddhist civilization is twisted into an exclusionary ideology — a construction-then-corruption arc worth the reader’s note.
• XREF: connects to: National identities are imagined modern constructs rather than primordial bonds; National mythologies depend on suppressing contrary histories — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 284; Sacralized nationalist myth suppresses concrete land history and indigenous presence — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 355 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• National mythologies depend on suppressing contrary histories #expands (0.95) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 284
• National identities are imagined modern constructs rather than primordial bonds #expands (0.85)