Political survival through strategic reconciliation : the case of Muslim minority in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research examines how the mainstream Sri Lankan Muslim civil society organizations have responded to the Sinhala Buddhist ideological paradigm in post-war Sri Lanka. The ideology perceives that the Sinhala Buddhists are actual citizens of Sri Lanka, and the minorities are ‘others’ or ‘guests.’ Hence, the ideology plays a structural role in generating anti-Muslim sentiments in post-war Sri Lanka. Based on the primary and secondary data and the thematic qualitative analysis, this research builds an argument, through analysing discourses and activities of the selected mainstream Muslim organizations, that minorities pick strategies for their struggle against majoritarian state and ideology, taking their political and other demographical realities into account. So, contrary to prevailing wisdom that argues that minorities attempt to deconstruct the majoritarian ideological foundation in their struggle for equality, dominant and mainstream Muslim civil society organizations in Sri Lanka have chosen to reconcile with it while resisting only its practical implications upon the community. Even though this strategy brings self-contradictory elements into play on theoretical grounds, the Muslim civil society organizations think that it is a practically reasonable strategy given the developing socio-political context of the state. Hence, their choices are not static but rather dynamic.