Political groups adopt nationalist rhetoric opportunistically
Evidence
The JVP initially sympathized with the Tamils’ plight and even argued that its cadres and Tamil rebels were fighting against the same oppressive regime, but the party changed its position and embraced nationalistic rhetoric when doing so suited its purposes. The JVP turned especially nationalistic after the July 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord was signed. The accord was exceedingly unpopular in the mostly Sinhalese south, and the banned JVP Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology 25 vilified the Indian presence and conducted a murderous campaign seeking to topple the government. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 159
Categorization
- XREF: Mirrors the manufacturing-the-enemy theme in the reader’s broader research on solidarity sustained by constructed external threats; JVP flipped its stance when nationalism became electorally/popularly useful. — connects to: Sacralized territorial rhetoric travels across unrelated national conflicts; Nationalists borrow others’ sacralized land narratives as strategic templates — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 184; Language policy framed as zero-sum triggered counter-nationalism. (+14 more)
Broader Connections
- Official nationalism is an anticipatory strategy by threatened dominant groups
#expands(0.85) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 385 - Antisemitic parties organized supranationally while posing as reactionary nationalists
#exemplifies(0.85) - Generic nationalist slogans can mask a bloc’s concrete class interests
#corroborates(0.80) - Feminist rhetoric can function as a tool of imperial and nationalist agendas
#exemplifies(0.80) - The rhetorical conflict between ethno-nationalism and financial markets dissolved once populists took power
#exemplifies(0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 250 - Popular nationalism reproduced exclusion by demanding linguistic uniformity
#exemplifies(0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 386 - Nationalist theory translations were politically deployed to intervene in local conflicts
#exemplifies(0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 828