Sinhalese nationalists co-opt Tamils who subordinate Tamil grievances to the nationalist order

Evidence

Buddhist nationalists are not averse to collaborating with Tamil politicians, provided the latter do not seek to rebel against the nationalist ideology. This explains the nationalists’ support for anti-LTTE Tamil parties and paramilitaries and for Tamils like the late foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. It is instructive that Kadirgamar almost never acknowledged the human rights violations committed against Tamils, even though he rarely missed an opportunity to promote his being Tamil, through which he sought to burnish the government’s image. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 325

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core question about manufactured vs. primordial enmity — group solidarity here is policed ideologically (acquiescence to the ideology buys inclusion), not by ethnic ascription per se. — connects to: Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology commands broad popular support in Sri Lanka; Tamils face durable subordinate citizenship even after the civil war ends — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 302; Nationalists dismiss Tamil grievances as manufactured conspiracies. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 236
• QUESTION: Kadirgamar’s self-presentation as Tamil to bolster government legitimacy — worth probing whether professed identity functions as a loyalty signal that substitutes for acknowledging harm, echoing the conviction-vs-behavior divergence.