State ethnic-cleansing policies have measurably increased the Sinhalese share

Evidence

Indeed, the percentage of Sinhalese and Buddhists has increased due to the ethnic conflict and the subsequent exodus of thousands of Tamils from the island, coupled with the state’s discriminatory policies toward its Indian Tamils, which caused thousands more among the third and fourth generation born in Sri Lanka to be forcibly resettled in India—so that the island’s Indian Tamil population dropped from 11.73 percent in 1946 to 5.52 percent in 1981. For example, in 1911 the Sinhalese and Buddhists accounted for 66.1 percent and 60 percent, respectively (Denham 1912: 196, 245), which means that by 1981 the Sinhalese percentage had increased by 8 percent and Buddhists had increased by an equally impressive 9 percent. This obsession with population figures gets the least publicity; yet it is an important part of the nationalist mindset because it is associated with security, majoritarianism, and domination. Thus a prominent monk noted, “When 74% of the population [Sinhalese] is united what can 26% [minorities] do” (quoted in Tambiah 1992: 124). — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 277

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The manufactured-threat narrative persists and sharpens even as the majority’s actual demographic position improves — group solidarity here intensifies rather than relaxes as the supposed threat shrinks, the reverse of a threat-removal-decay model.
• XREF: Ties directly to the reader’s core question: does solidarity decay when the manufactured threat recedes, or does the group manufacture a new enemy? Here majority share grows yet anxiety persists. — connects to: State expulsion and ethnic conflict raised the Sinhalese share of Sri Lanka’s population. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 277; Sinhalese nationalist population-counting is driven by security and majoritarian domination fears. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 277; Sinhalese nationalists engineered demographic consolidation of Tamil regions through state land seizure.

Broader Connections

• State expulsion and ethnic conflict raised the Sinhalese share of Sri Lanka’s population. #corroborates (0.95) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 277
• Sinhalese nationalists engineered demographic consolidation of Tamil regions through state land seizure. #expands (0.80)
• Sinhalese nationalist population-counting is driven by security and majoritarian domination fears. #expands (0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 277