The myth of two-millennia-old ethnic enmity is fabricated

Evidence

There is no gainsaying that the mythohistorical Mahavamsa has provided Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese a unique identity; but the claim that the Sinhalese and Tamils were enemies in the island over two millennia is fallacious. This is because the identity the Sinhalese built over time privileged Buddhism even as it accommodated other religions and nationalities. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1321

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the reader’s working hypothesis that group solidarity depends on manufactured enemies and invented pasts rather than primordial enmity. — connects to: The Kosovo-as-holy-land discourse is a modern nationalist invention, not ancient tradition — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1465; Founding myths silently bury inconvenient facts of shared ancestry — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 73