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Palgrave Macmillan

War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka

After the End

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Rachel Seoighe

    1. Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom

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  • Provides timely analysis of Sri Lanka’s post-war nation-building project
  • Considers the demands of the global liberal order and the workings of international forces on post-war Sri Lanka
  • Examines this exclusionary form of nationalism in political performances and the authorship of public space

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict (PSCAC)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 1-37

  3. A History of War in the Post-colonial State

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 39-92

  4. The End: Atrocity in a State of Denial

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 93-151

  5. Post-war Lived Experience: ‘Sinhalisation’

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 153-191

  6. Tamil Separatism and Commemorative Practices

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 193-246

  7. Transnational Discourses of Terrorism, Humanitarianism and Sovereignty

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 247-276

  8. Sri Lankan Reconciliation and the Appropriation of Transitional Justice

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 277-318

  9. Conclusion: Consolidating the ‘National Story’

    • Rachel Seoighe
    Pages 319-327

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 329-378
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Keywords

About this book

This book begins from a critical account of the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, tracing themes of nationalism, discourse and conflict memory through this period of immense violence and into its aftermath. Using these themes to explore state crime, atrocity and its denial and representation, Seoighe offers an analysis of how stories of conflict are authored and constructed. This book examines the political discourse of the former Rajapaksa government, highlighting how fluency in international discourses of counter-terrorism, humanitarianism and the ‘reconciliation’ expected of states transitioning from conflict can be used to conceal and deny state violence.



Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, academics, politicians, state representatives and international agency staff, and three months of observation in Sri Lanka in 2012, Seoighe demonstrates how the Rajapaksa government re-narrativised violence through orchestrated techniquesof denial and mass ritual discourse. It drew on and perpetuated a heightened majoritarian Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism which consolidated power under Sinhalese political elites, generated minority grievances and, in turn, sustained the repression and dispossession of the Tamil community of the Northeast. A detailed and evocative study, this book will be of special interest to scholars of conflict studies, political violence and critical criminology.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom

    Rachel Seoighe

About the author

Rachel Seoighe is a Criminologist and Socio-Legal Scholar and a Lecturer in Criminology (Human Rights and Criminal Justice) at Middlesex University’s Department of Criminology and Sociology, UK.

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