Sinhalese politicians frame both protection and violence toward Tamils as majority prerogative

Evidence

Thus, cabinet minister Gamini Dissanayake, in a speech to Tamil estate workers on September 5, 1983—only a month after the most infamous anti-Tamil riots—said: … Who attacked you? Sinhalese. Who protected you? Sinhalese. It is we who can attack and protect you. They are bringing an army from India. It will take 14 hours to come from India. In 14 minutes, the blood of every Tamil in the country can be sacrificed to the land by us. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 187

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘we who can attack and protect you’ framing parallels the manufactured-external-threat logic powering in-group solidarity that the reader is studying across cases. — connects to: Nationalists pursue war to deliberately displace Tamils and boost Sinhalese dominance — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 278; Anti-Christian violence endangers the language-based Sinhalese unity against Tamils. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 241; Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 78 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Nationalists pursue war to deliberately displace Tamils and boost Sinhalese dominance #expands (0.85) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 278
• Extremist Sinhalese parties weaponized Buddhism against Tamil devolution #expands (0.85) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 157
• Electoral majoritarianism in 1956 gave rise to anti-Tamil violence and empowered extremists. #expands (0.82)
• Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact #expands (0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 78
• Sinhalese nationalists engineered demographic consolidation of Tamil regions through state land seizure. #expands (0.78)
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology commands broad popular support in Sri Lanka #corroborates (0.75)
• Anti-Christian violence endangers the language-based Sinhalese unity against Tamils. #complicates (0.72) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 241