Wages of majoritarianism

With President Gotabaya Rajapaksa leaving the country, Sri Lanka has plumbed new depth into its descent into the chaos building over the last two months. The roots of the crisis go deep into the majoritarian politics the ruling dispensation pursued ever since the LTTE-led insurgency was crushed in 2009 in the Tamil dominated North-eastern province with the elimination of its commander V. Prabhakaran.

Polarisation of people along ethnic, religious and linguistic lines had been in process ever since Sri Lanka attained its freedom in 1948. The two major political parties had been competing with each other in construction and nurturing of Sinhala-Buddhist identity and constituency and devising ways to subjugate and suppress the ethnic Tamil, Muslim and Christian identities since then.

The proximity to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu with 72 million Tamils was the major bugbear for the politicians engaged in fanning the xenophobia. Smashing of the ego of the inland Tamil nationalists following the protracted civil war came as the golden opportunity for the ruling dispensation to up the ante further and usurp the entire credit for the ‘conquest’ over the principal villain.

The Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism feeds itself solely on the anxiety and fear of the large Tamil population across the Palk Straits. Following the 2020 victory at the elections, Rajapaksas came to be known as the first family of the island nation. The family controlled nearly 70% of the national budget and used every trick in their bag to bribe, engineer defections and malign the image of the rivals and the opposition.

It muzzled the independent media, terrorized the civil society, expanded the family’s influence within the private sector, especially among the banking and the finance companies and set up a network of surveillance.

Former military general Sarath Fonseka who delivered the conquest, was arrested, court martialled and jailed for running against Mahinda Rajapaksa during his first presidential bid in 2010.(He was conferred Field Marshal by Mahinda’s successor Maithiripala Sirisena). Hopes that the national government would respect the ethnic diversity, ensure inclusiveness and mitigate the sense of alienation were dashed by the militaristic approach towards the Tamils.

Military was given free hand to set up even more camps, run hotels and farms and set up tourists and business ventures. Presence of military personnel was ensured in functions organized in Tamil villages to expand the web of surveillance. Sinhala-Buddhist groups began to turn their ire against the Muslims after 2012. Till then they were considered the ‘good minority’ as some of them had helped the military by spying upon Tamil militant groups.

The blatantly racist anti-Islamic (and anti-Christian too) Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) has been regularly launching attacks against the two minorities since a mosque in Dambulla was destroyed by Buddhist clerics in 2012. Police were mute spectators during all such violent incidents. Increased polarization among communities has also been precipitated by gradual disappearance of English-speaking elite and professional classes, the leftleaning parties and trade union. These sections used to act as bridges between various social components.

The majoritarian belief that the Government is the chief representative of the Sinhala-Buddhists majority has led to increasing refrain of “ape aduwa” (meaning “our Government”). This allowed the Rajapaksa Government to ride roughshod over sensitivities of all except the majority community and take up projects that symbolized megalomania with complete disregard to the actual needs of the people. The island nation is today suffering the wages of majoritariansim gone berserk. Sri Lanka will primarily need to confront polarization and develop a new narrative of coexistence, inclusiveness, and even economic democracy.