Nationalists dismiss Tamil grievances as manufactured conspiracies.
Evidence
Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists typically claim that Tamils exaggerate their grievances against the state; they argue that anti-Tamil riots, especially the 1983 riots, were set off by a few Sinhalese thugs and individuals within the governing UNP regime and that anti-Buddhist elements, both local and foreign, conspire to use the riots to tarnish the image of Buddhism; they defend the military’s malpractices in the northeast no matter how much evidence points to soldiers’ culpability; and they malign all who call for peace talks with the LTTE. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 236
Categorization
- XREF: Mirror of the reader’s question reversed: nationalists here treat Tamil grievances as manufactured (external agents tarnishing Buddhism) while treating their own ethnic worldview as primordial — the same construction move applied asymmetrically to self and other. Connects to Laitin’s and Fearon’s work on ethnic myth-making and the double-standard logic of identity claims. — connects to: Sinhalese nationalists co-opt Tamils who subordinate Tamil grievances to the nationalist order — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 325; Nationalists weaponize LTTE atrocities to frame accommodation as treason. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 235; Threat-hardened nationalists treat peace advocates as traitors rather than as correcting voices. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 207
Broader Connections
- Nationalists weaponize LTTE atrocities to frame accommodation as treason.
#expands(0.82) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 235 - Sinhalese nationalists co-opt Tamils who subordinate Tamil grievances to the nationalist order
#corroborates(0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 325 - Threat-hardened nationalists treat peace advocates as traitors rather than as correcting voices.
#expands(0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 207