Ethnic nationalism: What lies beneath…

We continue our reflection on the ha-ho over Halal. This week, we explore some of the thinking behind ethnically loaded bias, bigotry, and other silliness prejudicial to the state of the nation. The kind of ultranationalism that is increasingly becoming the currency of our nation-state makes several assumptions.

Firstly, that the dominance of a singular ethnicity is normative. In Sri Lanka, it is the Sinhalese (although some may argue that it is a smaller subset of this demographic – a few, far more ardent, Sinhala-Buddhists practising ethno-nationalist chauvinism – who are indicated).

Secondly, that this ethnic group’s dominance in every sphere of national life is natural. While many truly patriotic citizens would be reluctant to admit it, the Sinhalese have cornered the market of post-conflict power and influence. That a few can point to outstanding exceptions (for e.g. the late lamented Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar) only proves the general rule. And since the departure of the much-loved Muttiah Muralitharan from the national cricket team, a cannier breed of cynical chauvinists has lost their poster-boy for the much-paraded equality of the island’s diverse ethnicities. If some Tamils and a few Muslims head business chambers, hold top academic posts, high-fly Sri Lanka’s flag overseas… that hardly proves arguments about ethnic equality. In the aftermath of recent UNHRC imbroglios, an ambassador of Tamil ethnicity briefly became the pin-up girl for the proudly boasted ethos of egalitarianism in the island. Ironically, she is admired by moderates, too!

Thirdly, there is the thinking that the dominant ‘race’ can (indeed, must) actively and aggressively endorse the majoritarian status quo. Some insist that so must everyone else; or else, suffer often severe consequences. A plethora of alleged offenders of this pernicious form of patriotism – from an attorney killed in 2000, through an insightful if outspoken journalist abducted and assassinated in 2005, to a parliamentarian publicly gunned down in 2006 – have dared to cross the line against ethnic chauvinism. They, all Tamils, have paid the ultimate price. Others of an arguably lower profile once languished – several years after the ethnic war ended – in makeshift camps, under inhumane conditions, for the ‘crime’ of subscribing to self-determination for their ethnic minority.

Fourthly, those who oppose arguably chauvinistic regimes are (ironically enough) caricatured in the nationalism-prone Sinhala media and propaganda discourse as “racist traitors”. It is ‘demonstrated’ and ‘proven’ that the prejudices of these dissenters tantamount to ‘bigoted views’ and ‘vested interests’. Many such detractors are Tamils, although sometimes certain Sinhalese are similarly charged with making trouble. Those who survive the attacks of supporters of the incumbent political regime have suffered the ignominy of such epithets in the past. They continue to endure present calumny. Some of them include Tamil-nationalist parliamentarians; political activists with Western connections and neo-liberal sympathies; and numerous journalists who have been killed, compelled to flee the country, or chose to go underground at home and abroad. Many of these are ethnic Muslims, Tamils, Burghers. One wonders whether they will suffer the libel of being branded ‘unpatriotic’ for defending their ideals and championing the cause of justice and equality for ethnic minorities in future? Probably so: though one hopes not. Until, and unless, civil society (ideally, conscientised and led by the average Sri Lankan citizen in a position of some influence) suitably challenges, sustainably critiques, and successfully countermands our chauvinistic zeitgeist. Or the powers that be see the real danger to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka in the emerging ethos of ethnic nationalism and act expeditiously to stem the tide, arrest the rot, reverse the flow…

Finally, that some who see themselves as “we few sons of the soil” feel that they must “assert ourselves” against “the invasive other” to safeguard “our homeland” – by threats, intimidation, subjugation, domination, and even elimination. The calibre of those subscribing to this chauvinism putatively span the gamut from formerly incarcerated ex-army top brass who saw ethnic minorities as ‘guests’ of the ethnic majority ‘hosts’ to clearly racist senior bureaucrats (elected ministers and appointed mandarins alike) who appeal to ethnic lobbies in their policies and practices. Their proclivities at times in the past provided cannon-fodder for exposés courtesy of our international interlocutors, to the chagrin of frustrated ‘patriots’. Such imbroglios only emphasise what an erstwhile French defender of his realm against Nazism once said: “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first. Nationalism is when hate for people other than your own comes first.”

Sinhalese academics themselves have shown how extreme nationalism can claim the entire island as ‘belonging’ to one ethnicity, refusing to acknowledge sundry minorities too as integral to the Sri Lankan polity. We have all been through the horrific carnage perpetrated by extremist Tamil nationalists who disagreed strongly with their Sinhalese protagonists. Must we now bait the sleeping bear of Muslim nationalism to set the country ablaze again; because our erstwhile happy hunting grounds has been, in a sense, invaded and occupied by yet another ‘Other’?

The pithy observation that “nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill” describes well the posturing that both Sinhalese and Tamil ultra-nationalism has adopted in recent times. We must therefore ask ourselves whether the SinhalaBuddhist vs. Islamist scramble is one of chauvinisms in conflict? Or is it evidence of ethnically loaded nationalisms that have been unable to coexist within an island state? The answer will help us all to see the present concern of pro-Islamist ethnic assertions (or simply being Muslim and practising Islam in a pluralist society) – and also the egregious responses it has evoked – in a more moderate, meaningful, and hopefully peaceably measured light.