The Bitter Harvest of Divisive Nationalisms in Sri Lanka: In Search of a Different ‘Logic’

There has been a terrifying ‘logic’ to the protracted civil war in Sri Lanka which came to its very sad conclusion in the third week of May 2009. It is easy to understand why people living in Colombo and the south-western part of Sri Lanka felt very relieved and even enthused by the brutal crushing of the Tamil Tiger after twenty-six years of insecurity and conflict. However, any sense of victory was tempered by the growing realization that as many as 20,000 civilians were killed in the final stages of the war between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers.1 Furthermore, the crushing of the Tamil Tigers could turn out to be a very pyrrhic victory indeed because the enormous cost to the civilian population has undoubtedly intensified intergenerational bitterness that could result in future violent uprisings in the country’s north-east.