Who are you?

Identity and Politics

What is Identity?  Identity can be defined as “a sense of separate and unique selfhood”…… –How people see themselves  Determined by a network of social and other relationships which differentiate people from people  Identity is a broad concept based on gender, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, etc….

Identity in Western Societies  Refers to exercising choice-eg. Lifestyle choice  Implies difference

What is Identity Politics?  Identity politics calls for full and formal recognition of the difference – Adapting and even celebrating it –Calls for a shift from universalism to particularism  Recognition of a significant cultural difference within the society  Also called politics of difference  Identity links the personal to the social  Sees the individual as embedded in a particular cultural, social, institutional and ideological context ( Heywood 2007: 212).

Origin of Identity Politics?  Post colonial theories  Emerged from the collapse of the European empires during the early post-1945 period (Heywood 2007: 212).

Core Feature  Challenged to overturn the cultural dimension of imperial rule by establishing the legitimacy of non-western and sometimes anti western political ideas and traditions  Edward Said critiqued Eurocentrism through his notion of “orientalism”….. “ belittled and demeaned” non-western people and culture – Eg. “mysterious East, “instructable Chinese” and “Lustful Turks” ( Heywood 2007: 212).  Rise of Black consciousness movement in 1960s in the USA  Growing political assertiveness, expressed through ethnic nationalism of cultural groups in various parts of the world determines identity politics (ibid.: 212).

Identity Politics in Sri Lanka  Sinhalese and Tamil identity politics  Historical claims constructed IDP, contested and evolved into cultural contestation, cultural contestation transformed into ethnic conflict  Political parties were formed on ethnic lines –Tamil Rule Party or Freedom Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP)  Ethnic nationalism was introduced into politics –Stress on Sinhalese consciousness - Buddhism and language –Take power from English educated, urban elite and the idea of building Sinhala nation through the villages  Ethnic conflict becomes separate nationalism  Sought to seek separate homeland for Tamils (Eller 2002: 126).

Identity Politics in Sri Lanka- Contd.  Citizenship Act No.18 of September 21, 1948 established criteria for citizenship that most Indian Tamils could not meet –Individual born before October required two generations of Sri Lankan descent  The compulsory study of Sinhala language at the secondary school level  Bandaranaike’s Sinhalese nationalist government built politics on the basis Sinhala culture  Sinhala made official language through the Official Language Act, No 33 of 1956  Sinhalese peasants resettlement in thinly populated land of that Tamils considered their own (Eller 2002: ).