Description

The last six decades have witnessed many violent conflicts1 across the world; only a few of
which have been successfully resolved2. The protracted conflict in Sri Lanka continues to
cause death, destruction and devastation, particularly to those living in the north and the east.
Recent infantile and chauvinist statements of the country’s elite express their belief that the
current phase of political violence is mainly due to the LTTE’s terrorist activities and that
once the LTTE is defeated militarily so will the national question (National Post 2008).
History tells a different story. Unless the root causes of the conflict are genuinely addressed,
political violence will continue to grow.
The island’s post-1948 political leadership did not come into being as a result of a coherent
anti-colonial struggle that unified its people. The neo-colonial establishment not only carried
forward the policies and practices of the exclusively colonial, mono-cultural and unitary
administration, which were not only incongruent with the culturally and linguistically diverse
nature of its inhabitants, but also their socio-economic, political and cultural expectations.
The post-colonial Sri Lankan state never considered it significant to protect the dignity and
security of marginalised and disadvantaged social groups. Domestic issues were viewed and
dealt with in a mindset of a conflict paradigm3. Peaceful demands for social equity, justice,
security and dignity were continuously disregarded and/or violently suppressed. The indignity
and insecurity caused by such attacks on the physical and psychological integrity of
individuals and communities thus motivated them to take up arms.
This paper looks at aspects of political violence in Sri Lanka such as its complexity, the
radicalisation of youth, responses of the state and the left, current developments, and the need
to view and deal with it on an interactionist paradigm, if an end to this destructive conflict is
genuinely sought.