Sri Lankan ethnic claims rest on manufactured mytho-history, not primordial identity.
Evidence
The nationalist ideology is influenced by Sinhalese Buddhist mytho-history that was deployed by monks and politicians in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries to assert that Sri Lanka is the designated sanctuary for Theravada Buddhism, belongs to Sinhalese Buddhists, and Tamils and others live there only due to Sinhalese Buddhist sufferance. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 718
Categorization
- QUESTION: This directly addresses the reader’s research aim: when is the mytho-history ‘deployed’ relative to specific political pressures, and does it decay or regenerate when the LTTE threat recedes?
- XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s core question about constructed enemies sustaining group solidarity. — connects to: Sinhalese claims to primordial ownership rest on the Mahavamsa’s mytho-history. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 64; Sri Lanka’s founding myth actually makes Tamils cofounders of the nation — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 73; National identity is built on manufactured ancestral myth, not primordial history. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 74 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact
#corroborates(0.95) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 78 - Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism is reactive, not primordial
#qualifies(0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 105 - Sinhalese Buddhist mytho-history is marshalled to justify ethnic violence, not peace.
#qualifies(0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 46