{"id":175405,"date":"2017-03-23T12:58:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T07:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=175405"},"modified":"2017-03-28T12:52:54","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T07:22:54","slug":"histrionic-voice-as-spark-for-ethnic-violence-political-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/histrionic-voice-as-spark-for-ethnic-violence-political-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Histrionic Voice As Spark For Ethnic Violence & Political Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Roberts<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

Anguish and grief are powerful emotions that can contort and wrack a body. While \u2018suggesting\u2019 helplessness, the anguish that engulfs a person can also empower that person \u2026 and others connected to that person by commonalities of interest\/emotion. In this manner anguish can transcend obstacles, generate waves of bitterness and swell into paths of retributory hate and punishment. The \u2018little\u2019 drops of tears can swell metaphorically into \u2018waves\u2019 \u2013 and even inspire enraged mobs (mostly male) bent on punishing the purported root of the tears, a recalcitrant Other, an enemy family or \u201ccommunity\u201d deemed to be the cause of that expressive anguish or deemed to have transcended local norms. In southern Lanka that community can be a neighbouring caste grouping or ethnic group or religious group (Muslim Moor,[1]<\/a> Hindu, Buddhist, Christian).<\/p>\n

Let me highlight the argument by presenting an unusual juxtaposition.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the two images are quite disconnected both in terms of time and place. The absurdity of this juxtaposition is a shock tactic. The contrast is deliberately cast to stress the analytical connections in a hypothesis I am mounting here.<\/p>\n

Most readers will be familiar with the context surrounding the first picture, so let me elaborate on the circumstances generating the second image from Bhagalpur. The second image was collected by me in 1995 when I spent several months in Delhi researching \u201ccommunal violence\u201d in modern India as a means of enhancing my examination of ethnic pogroms and violence in Sri Lanka.[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Anti-Muslim Bhagalpur Pogrom of October 1989<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Indian English lexicon is firmly stuck in the British nomenclature of \u201criots\u201d and does not distinguish small-scale local assaults from what are distinctively pogroms aimed at the minority in a city or region, usually Muslim in northern India (but also Sikh after Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984). The violence in Bhagalpur embraced around 250 villages as well as Bhagalpur city and around 1000 people were killed, with over 900 being Muslim\u2014making it the worst instance of Hindu-Muslim violence in independent India up to that moment. The scale of death and violence renders it into a \u201cpogrom\u201d in my categorical scheme, one which restricts the concept \u201criots\u201d for smaller-scale violence and for clashes where both parties inflict limited death and destruction on each other.[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

xpressive Grief displayed by a Sri Lankan Tamil woman at a protest demonstration before David Cameron by persons whose kin have been missing in the course of Eelam War IV<\/p><\/div>\n

The general All-India circumstance that provided the background for the Bhagalpur pogrom was the Ram Janmabhoomi<\/a> campaign seeking to construct a Hindu temple at Ayodhya<\/a> in place of the demolished Babri mosque<\/a>. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad had organised a movement in Bihar to collect bricks (shilas<\/em>) for this purpose. At this point two different rumours \u2013 both surely concocted and spurious — circulated among the Hindu populace, one stating that nearly 200 Hindu university students had been killed by the Muslims, while the other claimed that 31 Hindu boys had been murdered with their bodies dumped in a well at the Sanskrit College.[4]<\/a> Mobs of Hindu men and boys set out to administer retribution \u2026\u2026 and our image presents one such deadly crowd. Though Muslims in localities with some concentrations also fought back or sought vengeance themselves, the demographic imbalances meant that it was, for the most part, a pogrom targeting the minority Muslims.[5]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

So, here at Bhagalpur in 1989, one witnessed the impact of rumour-mongers in sparking and sustaining assaults on a \u2018party\u2019 deemed to be at fault. This has been commonplace in the history of \u201ccommunal violence\u201d in India, Ceylon and Sri Lanka. It sets up my progression towards detailing this process of instigation in (a) the 1958 mini-pogrom aimed at Tamils and (b) the 1915 pogrom directed at the \u201cMohammedans\u201d[6]<\/strong><\/a> (that is, Moors) in the south-western quadrant of what was then British Ceylon.<\/p>\n

However, a detour is pursued at this point \u2013 one that links up with our first image of a wailing woman in order to illustrate the persuasive and empowering capacity of tears and grief.<\/p>\n

Tears and Anguish as Empowering<\/strong><\/p>\n

I focus here on an ethnographic event from the early 1970s that has no connection whatsoever with ethnic confrontation. Living in Peradeniya then my family interacted closely with another middle-class family of similar composition: namely, a foreign wife and a local middle class man. Let me call the latter couple \u201cKiwi.\u201d In the highly restricted economic and embargo circumstances of that time, presents of tinned food and other goodies from abroad were subject to restrictions. On a couple of occasions the Kiwis were told that parcels from the wife\u2019s homeland were embargoed at the Customs office. Mrs Kiwi went to the office. When informed about the restraints and duties due, she burst into tears. The officer (invariably a man in those times[7]<\/a>) relented and released the goods.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Kiwi was not an experienced actress familiar with the forms of \u201cmethod acting<\/a>\u201d associated with Konstantin Stanislavski<\/a>.[8]<\/strong><\/a> Nor was she among the Sri Lankan women who were professional mourners<\/a> who excelled in performative wailing and lamentation at funerals in some localities (Sinhala and Tamil both) in the island.[9]<\/strong><\/a> So I surmise that any population has some women and men with this natural ability to summon anguish at will[10]<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 and especially during volatile tension-ridden circumstances arising from local familial or political conflict or, alternatively, at moments of mourning. This capacity is illustrated in yet another second-hand anecdote: after Justin Labrooy informed me that he recalls a scene of wailing women at a funeral in the Christian belt on the Moratuwa seaboard, I asked a friend in Colombo if he had experienced the practice of wailing women in the past during his Moratuwa days. He had not. More recently, however, after the funeral of a relative in Colombo some of his Moratuwa kin had returned to their locality and announced that the \u201cP\u2026 family\u201d had forgotten HOW TO CRY. Such capacities must be kept in mind by Westernized personnel when addressing conflictual or traumatic scenarios in South Asia.<\/p>\n

The argument here is that Mrs. Kiwi\u2019s lamentation was transformative and enabling. It moved the official to action. As such, this example serves to highlight those displays of anguish which stir people, usually men, to retribution directed at the source(s) of anguish, whether a person, a rival family or political entity, a caste group, an ethnic group or a religious community.<\/p>\n

Here, then, the focus is upon ANGUISH and GRIEF as energizers and incendiary sparks that foment HATE \u2026 and violent acts of retribution. By moving away from ethnic rivalries to a wide range of disputations, the intent here is to highlight the dangerous force of anguish \u2026 and its transformative power.<\/p>\n

Acts of retribution can be restricted by relative scales of power because those poor or low in the caste hierarchy or outnumbered in a locality are constrained in the actions open to them.[11]<\/strong><\/a> However, in Sri Lanka over the last few centuries, as we know from anecdotal\/experiential knowledge as well as numerous accounts and studies, such retributive incidents and pathways have been common. Vengeance in Sri Lanka takes many forms: (a) malicious rumour; (b) a court case; (c) recourse to a sorcerer or sorcery technique \u2013 often intended homicide at one remove;[12]<\/strong><\/a> and (d) violence involving verbal vilification, assaults, arson, fire-bombing, dynamiting. The more violent acts of retribution and vigilante action that merit the label \u201cpogrom\u201d occur where the \u2018injured party\u2019 as attacking party is in a majority and wields local or district power.<\/p>\n

In the Sinhala modalities of thought the morality behind such retributory action was (is) embodied in the term guti dheema<\/em> — teaching a lesson.[13]<\/strong><\/a> What was being pursued via such vigilante action was the disciplining of a recalcitrant other. Mutatis mutandis<\/em>, this principle could even apply to the thinking of those (often weaker parties) pursuing retribution through recourse to sorcery or the institution of vexatious litigation.<\/p>\n

The ethnographic findings of the sociologists, Obeyesekere, Kapferer, Spencer, Hettige, Bastin, Tudor Silva, Premakumara de Silva as well as the work of John Rogers and myself are among the sources that enable me to present the picture above. This summary in its turn provides the context for the focus on grief-stricken rumour-mongering as the spark for ethnic and\/or religious violence in Sri Lanka \u2013 instances where the Sinhala majority in some localities have pursued violent assaults against either the Moors[14]<\/a> or the Tamils in their midst. The most notable of these instances have been the (A) the pogrom against the Moors in mid-1915; (B) the mini-pogrom against the Tamils in 1958; (C) the \u201criots of 1977\u201d involving localised ethnic clashes;[15]<\/strong><\/a> and (D) the pogrom against the Tamils in July 1983.<\/p>\n

The incendiary power of rumour, and thus, invariably, the impact of angry and\/or anguished voices, was deeply etched in every one of these violent eruptions. The best evidence comes from the 1915 pogrom, but let me begin with an account of the mini-pogrom in late-May 1958 because I was residing in Galle then and because of the details provided by Tarzie Vittachi and James Manor.[16]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

1958 Violence <\/strong><\/p>\n

The violence on this occasion was preceded and set-up by the tensions associated with the Sinhala-Only campaign that brought SWRD Bandaranaike and the MEP to power in 1956, the violence to which Tamils in the Gal Oya locality were subject in 1956,[17]<\/strong><\/a> the Tamil satyagraha <\/em>campaign in opposition to the government\u2019s language policy which involved the tarring of the shri <\/em>sign on buses in early 1958, and counter-campaigns defacing Tamil lettering in Colombo, the siege of Bandaranaike\u2019s home at Rosmead Place by extremist bhikkhus<\/em>,[18]<\/strong><\/a> and the unilateral abrogation of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1957 in April 1958. Against this background the Tamil Federal Party\u2019s convention at Vavuniya in May 1958 provided the immediate tension-raising political circumstance.<\/p>\n

At this point on the 23rd<\/sup> May 1958 there seem to have been two incidents in the Eravur area involving the derailment of the Batticaloa-Colombo train, with one resulting in the deaths of three persons according to Manor and two Sinhalese, a policeman and a porter, according to Vittachi.[19]<\/strong><\/a> Sinhalese mobs in Polonnaruva and nearby towns (Giritale, Minneriya) went marauding for Tamils \u2013 with some of the initial attacks being launched around 6.00 pm as dusk commenced. Significantly, some of the marauding bands were referred to as \u201csinhala hamudaawa<\/em>\u201d (raising comparisons with the emergence of the bodu bala sena<\/em> in 2014).[20]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

While Tamil crowds on the Batticaloa coast (in Eravur?) went marauding as well, the reactions in many Sinhala areas were far more severe. The killing of a Sinhalese gentleman named Seneviratne at Gal Oya on the 25th <\/sup>May as a result of some private vendetta entered the array of wild rumours about Tamil atrocities. These fabricated tales included lurid specifics: a Sinhala baby had been thrust into a barrel of boiling tar; a female Sinhala teacher from Panadura had had her breasts cut off in Batticaloa.<\/p>\n

The pre-existing prejudices and heightened political tensions of that day were adequate for some segments of the Sinhala population to be stirred into action \u2013 having accepted the veracity of such specifics. Sinhala mobs seeking revenge were spawned in several urban localities in the south west as well as the north central districts where colonization projects were centred. Tamils were assaulted and killed, with the burning to death of the Hindu priest at the kovil <\/em>in Panadura being registered as one of the most horrifying episodes in this sorry tale.[21]<\/strong><\/a> One can suggest that the specific detail relating to the mutilation of a teacher in one of the fabricated rumours (see above) generated extra-passion in the retributions effected in the Panadura locality.<\/p>\n

I was then in Galle town. As far as I recall, the violence there was limited and amounted to damage inflicted on Tamil businesses in the market area and the kovil <\/em>at Kaluwella in the heart of the town. These acts are believed to have developed after the funeral at Ahangama of the Sinhala policeman who had died when a train was derailed in the Eastern Province.[22]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A funeral. These are emotion-laden moments. On this tenuous prima facie<\/em> evidence, one can contend that grief and anguish spawned hate and retaliation through rumour and violent action. Such paths, needless to say, also created opportunities for looting and for business rivals to target Moor establishments competing with them.<\/p>\n

In these types of violence an accurate figure of the death toll is unlikely. CR de Silva has indicated that in 1958 \u201cat least 471 died \u2013 the vast majority \u2026 Tamil\u201d (1987: 244). Perhaps the most revealing fact is the image unearthed by Victor Ivan (Pic 04) which shows of ordinary citizens enthusiastically beating up a passing Tamil citizen along a major thoroughfare i, Colombo. This was their Sinhala \u2018nationalist\u2019 administration of guti<\/em> medicine upon a terrible other.<\/p>\n

The Pogrom against the Moors in 1915<\/strong><\/p>\n

The widespread assaults on the persons, properties and mosques of the yoni <\/em>(Moors, Mohammedans) in the south-western quadrant of the island in May-June 1915 were directed in the main by a desire on the part of Sinhala Buddhist activists to teach the Mohammedan Moors a lesson for \u201cinsulting our nationality and our religion\u201d — sentiments that drew the support of some Sinhala Christians because church bells were rung in a few places (e.g. Mutwal, Kotahena, Kochchikade) to assemble crowds for purported defense,[23]<\/a> though the majority of assailants and looters seem to have been Sinhala Buddhist. The violence occurred in a demographic context wherein the \u201cMohammedans (Moors) numbered 266,626 persons at the decennial census of 1911, making up 6.5 per cent of the total population.[24]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This event was not a sudden development and cannot be comprehended without heed to the history of religious tensions and small-scale disturbances between Buddhist and Moors in several towns in the same arena. As Ameer Ali has stressed, the religious factor was of fundamental significance in precipitating the tensions and, ultimately, the assaults.[25]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The root cause lay in what I have depicted as \u201cthe Imperialism of Silence\u201d because the British principle of respecting other religions by silence near places of worship was alien to the religious world of Asia where specific forms of drum-beat and music are central elements in worship. This principle was embodied in the Sinhala language in the concept sabda puj<\/em>\u0101<\/em>, <\/em>which is a local embodiment of the Sanskritic concept of panchaturyan\u0101daya.<\/em>[26]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The British cultural conviction that \u201cnoise\u201d was\/is disturbing was embodied in the Police Ordinance No. 16 of 1865. These rules enabled specific congregations of Muslims and Catholics in a few urban localities to insist on the application of these rules in front of their place of worship. Inevitably, this flexing of muscle generated local conflicts: struggles to indicate who was kavuda raja<\/em>, or \u201cwho is king,\u201d in this or that place. In 1883 Catholics and Buddhists at Kotahena clashed on this issue during the Easter celebrations in March.[27]<\/strong><\/a> Contests between Muslims and Sinhala Buddhists took place at Galle from 1899-1903, Gampola from 1907-13, Balangoda in 1914 and Kurun\u00e4gala in 1912.[28]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The dispute at Gampola arose from the building of a new mosque (by Coast Moors it seems) at Ambagamuwa Street in town along the traditional route of the annual perah\u00e4ra <\/em>devoted to the regeneration of Walah\u0101goda Temple and Dev\u0101le (whose processions passed the mosque at Kahatapitiya in Gampola without any fuss being made[29]<\/strong><\/a>). When an unlicensed Buddhist pinkama<\/em> (a merit-making ceremony) passed this mosque on the 27th<\/sup> May 1907, it was attacked by the local Moors.[30]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This small-scale disturbance in 1907 led to a court case where the Muslims had the benefit of high-powered lawyers (FA Hayley from Colombo). The issue arose again and the Trustees of the Walah\u0101goda Dev\u0101le filed a case against the crown on 3rd<\/sup> July 1913. This was (is) the famous Gampola Perah\u00e4ra Case. The District Court Magistrate who presided over this issue happened to be Paul E. Peiris, a Sinhala Christian Civil Servant versed in history and sensibility. His decision in June 2014 was in favour of the Walah\u0101goda Dev\u0101le. The issue then moved upwards in appeal to the Supreme Court. That court\u2019s verdict in March 2015 was in favour of the crown (and thus the Moors) on the 2nd February 1815.[31]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

In short, this cause celebre<\/em> ended in favour of the Muslim Moors. The Walah\u0101goda authorities were as disconsolate as unequivocal: the decision was an am\u0101ruvak<\/em> (hardship) and an ayuttak<\/em> (injustice).[32]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

As the period of Vesak celebrations approached in May 1915, therefore, trouble was expected as religio-cultural animosities were fever-pitch in the Kandy-Gampola regions. A newly-renovated mosque[33]<\/strong><\/a> associated with domiciled Coast Moors at Castle Street in the heart of Kandy town was at the centre of anticipated trouble. Some Buddhist Sinhalese clearly prepared for physical confrontation: pinkamas <\/em>were organized in the immediate surrounds of Gampola, while thugs from Wanaw\u0101hala off Colombo had been imported into the town of Kandy.[34]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This information about toughs from beyond the locality being imported to beef up power displays and\/or retributory action connects with other evidence indicating that the sam\u0101gamas<\/em> (associations) in the south-western regions of the island that had been engaged in village upliftment projects over several decades and in the anti-colonial temperance agitation mounted from 1912 had been kindled to prepare for action directed towards teaching the Moors a lesson if they continued their overbearing ways in the Wesak season. Whether the Colombo Total Abstinence Society, which had been the engine-room for the nationalist agitation against Western practices from the year 1912, served as a command centre is not known. Such central direction should not, however, be considered a prerequisite for the type of ethnic violence that occurred. The undercurrents of anger and tension as the cause celebre<\/em> was aired during the Wesak season could have promoted local well-springs for punitary action.<\/p>\n

On the night of 28th<\/sup>May 1915 a clash broke out in the vicinity of the Castle Street mosque at Kandy after a police officer asked a Buddhist carol party to divert its progress away from the spot and the assembled Moormen hooted and jeered. From that night onwards and over the next nine days violent assaults were launched on the yoni <\/em>(Moors) in the Central Province around Kandy and in many spots in the south west. On 2nd<\/sup> June 1915 disturbances occurred in as many as 116 \u201ccentres.\u201d Though the Muslims had sufficient numbers and courage to indulge in resistance at a few spots,[35]<\/strong><\/a> for the most part they were at the receiving end of violence. The official data on casualties and damage is probably approximate and states that 25 persons were murdered, 189 wounded, 4 raped; while 350 houses and boutiques were fired; 4075 buildings were looted and 17 mosques burnt (with at least two being desecrated with pork offal, blood and feaces).[36]<\/a> The scale and spread of violence supports the classification \u201cpogrom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bald statistics are inadequate for a comprehension of the reverberating impact of the violence heaped on the local Moorish population. One incident at Trincomalee Street in Kandy on the 30th<\/sup> May arising from a Moorman stabbing several Sinhalese (perhaps in defence?) indicates the histrionic repercussions: the Moors in the area were subject to a rounded assault and Vaughan (the GA, Central Province) describes the scene he came across thus: \u201cI have never seen a crowd so excited\u2014men were crying from excitement, and appeared to be demented.\u201d[37]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The assailant mobs were quite substantial in some places: crowds of over a thousand were reported at Matale, Wattegama, Kadugannawa, Gampola, Panadura, Rambukkana, Godapitiya, and Akuressa; while the crowd at Gewilipitiya-Aranayake was variously estimated at 800 to 4,000. At Gampola and Panadura the authorities (both police and British civil servants) were forced to retreat. On at least five occasions the crowds, by sheer weight of intimidation or by storming (at Pasyala) a police station, effected a release of individuals who had been arrested; while a \u201cvillage sergeant\u201d was killed at Kottawa when attempting to quell a riot.[38]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The short-term improvisation of attacking formations in some localities was impressive, with the political associations linked to village upliftment and temperance serving as the foundational hand in several places. Thus, for instance, at Attanagalla in the Western Province the temple bell was rung on June 1st<\/sup> and the crowds from the surrounding locality who assembled were informed: \u201cThe Tambies are insulting our nationality and our religion. We must harass the Tambies, and they must be driven out of Ceylon.\u201d[39]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Other summaries indicate that a primacy was attached to the grievance that Sinhala Buddhists were being subject to insult and hardship \u2013 the emphasis being on the insult to their religion. On several occasions, in fact, the assailants chanted \u201csadhu! sadhu!<\/em>\u201d as they burnt goods and fired houses.[40]<\/strong><\/a> However, in a few localities, such as Mutwal and Kotahena, church bells were rung and Catholics assembled to defend their churches from anticipated Moor assailants; while at Kochchikade Catholics were a prominent part of the attacks on the local mosque.[41]<\/strong><\/a> No study can therefore afford to downplay the influence of the nationalist currents that had been voiced over the previous three decades \u2013 declamations focusing on the downtrodden situation of the Sinhalese in the face of Westernization and the island\u2019s economic decline.[42]<\/strong><\/a> Critical drivers of these lines of dissent were those I have defined as \u201cintercalary classes,\u201d namely, the overlapping categories \u201cpetit-bourgeois\u201d and \u201clower middle class.\u201d[43]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

However, this was thinking that drew personnel from virtually all classes of the Sinhala population. Even though upper middle class participation in the hostility to the Moors in 1915 may \u2013 I stress \u201cmay\u201d \u2013 have been limited, there is no doubt that some middle-class personnel were sympathetic towards the grievances that were peddled.[44]<\/strong><\/a> Both the middle class and the intercalary strata were important forces behind (a) the short-lived span of temperance agitation in 1904 which at one time had 600 associations and an estimated 200,000 members; and the more sustained temperance agitation dating from 1912 with the Colombo Total Abstinence Central Union serving as its font.[45]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nor can any study of the anti-Moor pogrom of 1915 neglect the data collected by AP Kannangara, PVJ Jayasekera, Ameer Ali and myself on the force of \u201crumour\u201d in instigating the violence at different points or arousing sympathy from middle class personnel who did not actually indulge in assaults. One mark of this power was the temporal sequence of the assaults on Moors. Beginning from the outbreak in Kandy on the 28\/29\/30th<\/sup> May, the attacks branched out in a temporal line over the next few days to Matale in the north, to Gampola southwards nearby and to Rambukkana, Kelaniya, Colombo, Panadura and thence further south to Weligama — with the railway tracks and main roads marking the trajectory of the violence, while the side-roads and the Kelani Valley railway spawned further spindly side-trajectories.[46]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Rumour! Ah, rumour! Here, then, moving beyond the documentation provided by Kannagara et al<\/em>, my emphasis is on both the content and the fervour within rumour. It is the grief-stricken anguished voice that attracts support and persuades some people to join the mob and seek retribution. \u201cRumour\u201d must be bolstered by the concepts of \u201canguish,\u201d \u201chistrionic voice,\u201d \u201chate\u201d and \u201cretribution\u201d in our examination of such events as the 1915 pogrom in British Ceylon, the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, the Bhagalpur pogrom of 1989, the several communal \u201criots\u2019 in India and the assaults directed at the Tamils in Sri Lanka in 1958, 1977 and 1983.<\/p>\n

We must recall here the manner in which in a different context and with different inspirations the grande peur<\/a> (grand fear) was a striking dimension of the French Revolution, while also attending to Tilly\u2019s elaboration of the power of rumour in fomenting the counter-revolutionary agitation in the Vendee area in the 1790s.[47]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Histrionic Voice: Its Power<\/strong><\/p>\n

As these accounts indicate, local disputes over prominence and specific acts of violence on the one hand and, on the other hand, spurious tales and magnified half-truths have generated ethnic and religious violence in Sri Lanka and India during the last 150 years or so. However, the anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi<\/a> and northern India in 1984 was generated by an actual incident of All-India significance: the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi by her \u2018trusted\u2019 Sikh bodyguards on 31st<\/sup> October 1984 \u2013 presumably as a payback for the Indian government\u2019s forcible entry into the sacred Golden Sikh temple at Amritsar in early June 1984 as one aspect of its \u201cOperation Blue Star\u201d against Sikh separatists.<\/p>\n

The immediate response in Delhi was histrionic. A crowd had quickly assembled outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the hope that Mrs Gandhi could be resuscitated. I have a vivid memory of press images showing grief-stricken men trying to scale the spiked gates. When the Prime Minister\u2019s death was announced, Wikipedia<\/a> reports that the crowd \u201cbegan shouting \u2026. “Blood for blood!” and turned into an unruly mob.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, some Hindu people in Delhi, Haryana Province and elsewhere in the north were spurred to engage in retributory action conceived as \u201cjust punishment.\u201d They turned on their Sikh neighbours or went on manhunts in the by-ways searching for Sikhs to maim or kill. Estimates of the death toll vary from 2800 in official reports (with 2100 in Delhi) to 8,000 in unofficial estimates (with 3000 in Delhi).[48]<\/strong><\/a> One of the principal weapons was kerosene, a tool that was sometimes supplied by Congress Party businessmen who owned petrol stations.[49]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

There is strong evidence that personnel in the Congress Party, including government officials, were at the core of the short-term organisational operations that initiated and sustained the agitation. This included the use of voter lists to identify Sikh houses and establishments for assaults[50]<\/strong><\/a> (as in the pogrom targeting Tamils in Sri Lanka in July 1983).<\/p>\n

In many instances the assaults, the maiming and the killing were instigated, preceded and accompanied by histrionic, grief-stricken, emotion-laden voices. Anguish, whether well-founded or concocted, can assemble people for protest, whether legitimate or ill-founded. Anguish can also promote unjust marauding action. In sum, anguish can be enabling, penetrating, persuasive and quite incendiary in its impact.<\/p>\n

Ergo, embitterment and anguish also has the potential to undermine processes of reconciliation in the aftermath of violent ethnic conflict. Where embitterment encourages retribution through political charges that wield word-pictures and exaggerated figures on the Tamil death toll over four decades, as proclaimed to the world recently in Delhi by the TNA leader Sambanthan,<\/a>[51]<\/strong><\/a> there, in the arena of high-profile declamation and the reactive responses to such charges, one sees the process whereby extremists on all sides of the existing divisions will continue to feed off each other.<\/p>\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ameer Ali, A. C. L.<\/strong>1981 \u201cThe 1915 racial riots in Ceylon (Sri Lanka): a reappraisal of their causes,\u201d\u00a0South Asia<\/em>, n. s. 4: 1-20.<\/p>\n

Amunugama, Sarath <\/strong>1979 ‘Ideology and class interest in one of Piyadasa Siris\u00adena’s novels: the new image of the “Sinhala Buddhist” nationalist’ in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka<\/em>, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp 314-36.<\/p>\n

Amunugama, Sarath <\/strong>1985 \u2018Anagarika Dharmapala and the transformation of Sinhala Buddhist social organization,\u201d Social Science Information<\/em>, 24: 697-750.<\/p>\n

Bastian, Sunil 2008 \u201cPolitical economy of ethnic violence.in Sri Lanka: the July 1983 riots,\u201d in <\/strong>J. Uyangoda, Matters of violence<\/em>, Colombo: Karunaratne & Sons, pp. 151-64.<\/p>\n

Blackton, Charles S.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>1970\u00a0\u201cThe action phase of the 1915 riots,\u201d\u00a0Soboul, <\/em><\/p>\n

Brass, Paul<\/strong>\u00a01974\u00a0Language,\u00a0religion and politics in North India<\/em>, Cambridge University Press.<\/h5>\n

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Chakravarti, Uma & Haksar, Nandita<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>1987\u00a0The Delhi riots<\/em>, Delhi: Lancer International.<\/p>\n

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Das, Veena<\/strong>\u00a01994 \u201cPrivileging the local: the 1984 riots,\u201d\u00a0Seminar<\/em>, January 1995, 425: 97-103.<\/p>\n

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Fernanado, PTM [Tissa] 1969 \u201cThe British Raj and the 1915 communal riots in Ceylon,\u201d Modern Ceylon Studies<\/em>, 1: 245-55.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ginzburg, Ralph\u00a0<\/strong>1969\u00a0100 years of lynchings<\/em>, New Yorks: Lancer Boo<\/p>\n

Jayasekera, P.V.J.<\/strong>\u00a01970\u00a0Social and political change in Ceylon, 1900-1919,<\/em>\u00a0University of London: Ph.D. dissertation in History.<\/p>\n

Jayawardena, Kumar<\/strong>i 1969\u00a0\u201cEconomic and political factors in the 1915 riots,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Journal of Asian <\/em><\/p>\n

Studies,<\/em>\u00a029: 223-33.<\/p>\n

Jeganathan, Pradeep\u00a0<\/strong>1998\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAll the lord\u2019s men? Ethnicity and equality in the space of a riot,\u201d in M. Roberts (ed)\u00a0Sri Lanka. Collective identities revisited<\/em>, vol II, Colombo: Marga, pp. 221-47.<\/p>\n

Kanapathipillai, Valli\u00a0<\/strong>1990\u00a0\u201cJuly 1983: the survivor\u2019s experience,\u201d in V. Das (ed)\u00a0<\/em>Mirrors of violence. Communities, riots and survivors in South Asia,<\/em>\u00a0Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 321-44.<\/p>\n

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Kapferer, Bruce\u00a0<\/strong>1983\u00a0A celebration of demons,<\/em>\u00a0Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.<\/p>\n

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Kapferer, Bruce<\/strong>1989 \u201cNationalist ideology and a comparative anthropology,\u201d\u00a0Ethnos<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>54: 161-99.<\/p>\n

Kapferer, Bruce<\/strong>1997 Feast of the sorceror<\/em><\/p>\n

Kaur, Jaskaran<\/strong> 2006\u00a0Twenty years of impunity: the November 1984 pogroms of Sikhs in India<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>2nd edn. Portland \u2026 also at Ensaaf \u2026 http:\/\/www.ensaaf.org\/publications\/reports\/20years\/20years-2nd.pdf<\/p>\n

Kearney, Robert N.<\/strong>1967\u00a0Communalism and language in the politics of Ceylon,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press.<\/p>\n

Kearney, Robert N.<\/strong>1970 \u201cThe 1915 riots in Ceylon: 9-a symposium,\u201d Journal of Asian studies, 29: 219-22.<\/p>\n

Law & Society Trust<\/strong> 2014 Where have all the neighbours gone? Aluthgama riots and its aftermath, Colombo,. LST.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Obeyesekere, Gananath<\/strong> 1979 ‘The vicissitudes of the Sinhala-Buddhist identity through time and change’, in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka<\/em>, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 279-313.<\/p>\n

Police Inquiry Commission<\/strong> 1916 \u2018Report of a Commission appointed by H.E. the Governor to inquire into the organization of the police\u2026\u2019 being Sessional Paper XVI of 1916, <\/em>Colombo: Government Printers.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1977 ‘Elites, nationalisms and the nationalist movement in British Ceylon’, in M. Roberts (ed.), Documents of the Ceylon National Congress and nationalist politics in Ceylon, 1929-1950, <\/em>vol. 1, Colombo: Department of National Archives, pp. xxv-ccxxii.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1978 \u201cEthnic conflict in Sri Lanka and Sinhalese perspectives: barriers to accommodation,\u201d Modern Asian Studies <\/em>12: 353-76.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1979a \u201cMeanderings in the pathways of collective identity and nationalism,\u201d in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in Modern Sri Lanka<\/em>, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 1-96.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1979b \u201cStimulants and ingredients in the awakening of latter-day nationalisms,\u201d<\/p>\n

in M. Roberts (ed.) Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka<\/em><\/p>\n

(Colombo: Marga Publications, 1979), pp. 214\u201342.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1981 \u201cHobgoblins, Low-Country Sinhalese plotters or local elite chauvinists?\u00a0Directions and patterns in the 1915 communal riots,\u201d\u00a0Sri Lanka Journal of the Social Sciences<\/em>, 4:\u00a0 83-126.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1988\u00a0\u201cSri Lanka: ethnic conflict and political crisis. A review article,\u201d\u00a0Ethnic Studies\u00a0Report<\/em>, 6: 40-62.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael 1989 \u201c<\/strong>The political antecedents of the revivalist elite within the MEP coalition of\u00a01956,\u201d in C.R. de Silva and Sirima Kiribamune (eds), K.W. Goonewardena Felicitation\u00a0<\/em>Volume, <\/em>Peradeniya University.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1990\u00a0\u201cNoise as cultural struggle: tom-tom beating, the British and communal disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s-1930s,\u201d in Veena Das (ed.)\u00a0<\/em>Mirrors of violence,<\/em>\u00a0Delhi: Oxford University Press, 240-85.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1994a\u00a0Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history<\/em>, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1994a \u201cThe imperialism of silence under the British raj: arresting the drum,\u201d in Roberts, Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history<\/em>, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp.149-81.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1994b \u201cMentalities, ideologues, assailants, historians and the pogrom against the Moors in 1915,\u201d in Roberts, Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history<\/em>, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp.149-81\u2026 reprinted as \u201cMarakkala kolahalaya<\/em>\u2026, in Roberts, Confrontations<\/em>,<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1994c \u201cThe agony and ecstasy of a pogrom: southern Lanka, July 1983,\u201d in Roberts, Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history<\/em>, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 317-25. \u2026. Reprinted in Nethra<\/em>, 2003 vol. 6: 199-213.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 1994d \u201cA biographical epilogue,\u201d in Roberts, Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history<\/em>, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers.\u00a01994: 331-3<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1996 \u201cTeaching lessons, removing evil: strands of moral puritanism in Sinhala nationalist practice,\u201d South Asia<\/em>, Special Issue, XIX: 205-20.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2017 \u201c<\/strong>Professional mourners in Ceylon and Southern\u00a0India<\/a>,\u201d <\/strong>3 March 2017, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/03\/professional-mourners-in-ceylon-and-southern-india\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Rogers, John R<\/strong>. 1987a\u00a0Crime, justice and society in colonial Sri Lanka,<\/em>\u00a0London: Curzon Press.<\/p>\n

Rogers, John R<\/strong>. 1987b \u201cSocial mobility, popular ideology, and collective violence in modern Sri Lanka,\u201d Journal of Asian Studies<\/em>, 46: 583-602.<\/p>\n

Rogers, John R<\/strong>. 1989 \u201cCultural Nationalism and Social Reform: The 1904 Temperance Movement in Sri Lanka,\u201d\u00a0Indian Economic and Social History Review<\/em>, 26 (3), 1989, pp. 319-351.<\/p>\n

Scott, Jr., George M<\/strong>. 1989 \u201cThe economic basis of Sinhalese-Muslim ethno-religious conflicts in twentieth century Sri Lanka,\u201d\u00a0Ethnic Studies Report,<\/em>\u00a07: 20-35.<\/p>\n

Soboul, Albert<\/strong> 1974 The French Revolution<\/em>, New York, Random House.<\/p>\n

Somaratna, G.P.V<\/strong>. 1991 Kotahena Riot, 1983. Religious riot in Sri Lanka<\/em>, Nugegoda, Deepaneee.<\/p>\n

Spencer, Jonathan (ed.) 1990 Sri Lanka. History and the roots of conflict, <\/em>London: Routledge, 1990<\/em><\/p>\n

Spencer, Jonathan<\/strong>\u00a01992 \u201cProblems in the analysis of communal violence,\u201d\u00a0Contributions to Indian Sociology\u00a0<\/em>n.s. 26: 261-279.<\/p>\n

Srinivasan, Amrit\u00a0<\/strong>1990 \u201cThe survivor in the study of violence,\u201d in V. Das (ed)\u00a0<\/em>Mirrors of violence. \u00a0Communities, riots and survivors in South Asia,<\/em>\u00a0Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 305\u00a020.<\/p>\n

Tambiah, S. J. <\/strong>1992 Buddhism betrayed? Religion, politics and violence in Sri Lanka<\/em>, Chicago: University of Chicago Press,<\/p>\n

Tambiah, S. J. <\/strong>1996 Leveling Crowds,<\/em> New Delhi:<\/p>\n

Tambiah, S. J. <\/strong>2017a \u201cTambiah\u2019s contemporary account of the Gal Oya riots of 1956: for Vice-Cahncellor Attygalle,\u201d 2 February 2017, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2017\/02\/02\/tambiahs-contemporary-account-of-the-gal-oya-riots-of-1956-to-vi \u201cthe anti-Tamil Gal Oyce-chancellor-attygalle\/<\/a> (from his book Leveling Crowds<\/em>, 1998)<\/p>\n

Tambiah, S. J. <\/strong>2017b \u201cThe anti-Tamil Gal Oya riots of 1956,\u201d 2 February 2017, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2017\/02\/02\/the-anti-tamil-gal-oya-riots-of-1956\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Tambiah. S. J.<\/strong> 2008 \u201cBridges across the ethnic divide,\u201d in J. Uyangoda, <\/strong>Matters of violence<\/em>, Colombo: Karunaratne & Sons, pp. 165-83.<\/p>\n

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Tranchell, C. L. 1916 Evidence presented by Tranchell, SP, Kandy, Police Inquiry Commission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Uyangoda, J.<\/strong> (ed.) 2008 Matters of violence<\/em>, Colombo: Karunaratne & Sons,.<\/p>\n

Walia, Amarjit Singh 2014 \u201cI lived through the Sikh riots \u2026,\u201d 21 October 2014, https:\/\/qz.com\/289671\/i-lived-through-the-sikh-riots-and-30-years-later-im-not-ready-to-forgive-or-forget\/<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wickremaratne. L. A. 1969 \u201cReligion, nationalism and social change in Ceylon, 1865-1885,\u201d Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society<\/em> 56: 123-50.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wikipedia n. d. <\/strong>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1984_anti-Sikh_riots<\/a><\/p>\n

Van Dyke, Virginia\u00a0<\/strong>1996 \u201cThe anti-Sikh riots in Delhi: politicians, criminals, and the discourse of communalism,\u201d in Paul Brass (ed)\u00a0Riots and pogroms<\/em>, New York University Press, pp. 201-20.<\/p>\n

Vittachi, Tarzie\u00a0<\/strong>1958 Emergency \u201858,<\/em>\u00a0London: Andre Deutsch.<\/p>\n

ENDNOTES<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> In Sinhala the Muslim Moor is yoni <\/em>and thus distinct from ja<\/em> or Malay. The yoni <\/em>had internal distinctions between Coast Moors (hamba<\/em>) and those long resident; but the differentiation was not clear-cut to outsiders. The pogrom of 1915 targeted both categories of Muslims. It is erroneous to assert that the attacks were directed at the hamba<\/em> only. In fact, in moments of heat the term hamba<\/em>, and especially the rendering hambaya<\/em>, is an epithet that was (and is) extended to all marakkala<\/em>. For a clarification of some aspects of local terminology, see Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 183-84.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> My friend Neelan Tiruchelvam had been the spark for this journey on my part. Though I had written a seminar paper on the 1915 anti-Muslim riots in my empiricist phase at Peradeniya University, that line of interest had been buried. But in late 1986 when I was on a long spell of research in Colombo, Neelan persuaded me to re-visit the topic for a presentation at agathering of scholars from India, Pakistan and Lanka. That experience led me to take up the themes of Sinhala nationalism and the 1915 violence once again. In my reasoning, communal clashes in India were meant to provide comparative insights.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> I therefore disregard Sunil Bastian\u2019s conceptualization (2008) where state involvement is rendered into a cardinal factor for the definition \u201cpogrom.\u201d<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> This information is from Wikipedia<\/a>. Though one must be extremely cautious about this source, in this instance I incline towards accepting the fact of concocted stories being circulated by designing individuals.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> See Warisha Farasat 2013 and Wikipedia, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1989_Bhagalpur_violence.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> In the official language of that time \u201cMohammedans\u201d was the term in use. It was not till a decade or so later that the term \u201cMuslims\u201d replaced that label.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> One wonders whether a female official would have been less susceptible to these wiles?<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> I have been directed by Michael Morley to these practices and to Stanislavski. One of the most striking examples of this method was in Marlon Brando\u2019s performance in the film A Streetcar named Desire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> See Roberts, \u201cProfessional Mourners in Ceylon and Southern India,\u201d 3 March 2017, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/03\/professional-mourners-in-ceylon-and-southern-india\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Another example is \u201cNiromi De Soysa\u201d (real name = Anandarajah) of Sydney who swelled into tears whenever she was on public platforms presenting her book Tamil Tigress<\/em>, Whatever beneficial impact that outcome generated in the audiences at book fairs and festivals, it had the contrary effect on Jeremy Liyanage who was on the same platform as Anandarajah in Melbourne. Having had convivial conversations with her before the event this turn of events, her tearful presentation of self, alienated Liyanage. I surmise that he was\/is culturally attuned and deciphered its inauthenticity.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> In the past, Govigama and Vell\u0101la https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1984_anti-Sikh_riotslar families were best situated to venture on retributory actions against \u2018offending\u2019 others because they constituted the majority in most districts in the south and north respectively. However, there were some localities in the south-west where Kar\u0101va, Sal\u0101gama and Dur\u0101va families had localized clout and reach.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Th classic study here is Gananath Obeyesekere 1975. Also see the writings of Bruce Kapferer 1983, 1988 and 1997.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> This argument is developed more fully in my \u201cTeaching lessons, removing evil: strands of moral puritanism in Sinhala nationalist practice,\u201d South Asia<\/em>, Special Issue, XIX: 205-20.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> In the lexicon in use in British Ceylon those whom we commonly refer to as \u201dMuslims\u201d were identified as \u201cMohammedans.\u201d The change in nomenclature came in the 1930s or so. In using the term \u201cMoors\u2019 rather than \u201cMuslims,\u201d I am marking the distinction between the yoni<\/em> (Moors) and the ja<\/em> (Malays) \u2013 for the latter are also \u201cMuslim\u201d in the religious sense. Note that in 1915 the Jja<\/em> were not attacked.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> CR De Silva (1987: 242) indicates that 98 Tamils and 30 Sinhalese died during the clashes in 1977. I have not been able to access to the Sansoni Commission Report, but CR thinks that that these precise details are derived from that report.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Vittachi 1958: 32-54; Manor 1989: 284-99 <\/strong>and Roberts, \u201cEpilogue,\u201d 1994: 331-32.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> See Tambiah 1996: 82-84, now available in two posts within Thuppahi (see Tambiah 2017a and 2017b).<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Some of the bhikkhus and activists spoke of \u201cthe total annihilation of the Sinhalese race\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and \u201cthe destruction of the chief race\u201d (Manor 1989: 286, 287).<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Manor 1989: 287-99 and Vittachi 1959: 32-54.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> The similarity should not obscure an important distinction: namely the emphasis today on the Buddhist identity in opposition to the \u2018new\u2019 enemy within the island, namely, the marakkala<\/em> in the sense yoni<\/em> (Muslim Moors).<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> The only incidents where I was present in the island when such violence occurred was those in 1958 when I was in Galle. While some looting and beatings occurred in the bazaar area and a few localities, I had no first-hand information on the troubles in that town and my recollections are vague.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> See Roberts, \u201cBiographical Epilogue,\u201d 1994: 331. The policeman was probably Police Sergeant Appuhamy who died in the rail derailment and is named by Tarzie Vittachi (1958: 36) \u2013 a link which I did not discern in 1994.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b:<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> Note, however, that the Moors had urban concentrations so that in 1911 they made up 18.1% in Colombo, 27% in Gampola, 17% in Kandy, 23.6% in Matale, 13.8% in Kurunegala and 21.2% in Galle. See Roberts, \u201cImperialism of Silence,\u201d 1994a: 161-63 for tables.<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> Ameer Ali 1981: 5.<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cNoise\u201d 1990; and \u201cImperialism of Silence\u201d 1994b: 153-76.<\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> See Somaratna 1981.<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> See Ameer Ali 1981: 10-11; Roberts, \u201cNoise\u201d 1990; \u201cImperialism of Silence,\u201d 1994: 140-78.<\/p>\n

[29]<\/a> Ameer Ali 1981: 2.<\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> Roberts, \u2018Imperialism,\u201d 1994: 167.<\/p>\n

[31]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u2019\u201d 1994b: 202-03. For the full text of the Supreme Court judgment, see Thalgodapitiya 1963.<\/p>\n

[32]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cImperialism of Silence,\u201d 1994a and \u201cMentalities\u201d 1994b: 202-03.<\/p>\n

[33]<\/a> The inauguration ceremony was held in March 1915 (Kannangara 1984: 134).<\/p>\n

[34]<\/a> Kannangara 1984: 148. Wanawahala has a Wahumpura caste concentration and this caste has long prided itself for its rejection of conversion to Christianity. Wanawahala\u2019s proximity to Colombo and strategic location athwart river and road routes may conceivably have had a bearing on its production of toughs.<\/p>\n

[35]<\/a> Follow the detailed references in Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b, fn 8.<\/p>\n

[36]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 187-89.<\/p>\n

[37]<\/a> Diary entry by Vaughan (G.A., Central Province), 30 May 1915, DNA 18\/46. Also see Tranchell 1916: 85.<\/p>\n

[38]<\/a> See Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 187 for more details supplemented by Kannangara 1984: 134ff.<\/p>\n

[39]<\/a> From Admin Reports <\/em>1915, Police, by H. Dowbiggin, 20 May 1916, Part III, B6. See Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 204 for full quotation.<\/p>\n

[40]<\/a> Jayasekera 1970: 288 and Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 200-01.<\/p>\n

[41]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 184 and fn. 2 & 3. In these localities, the Catholic congregations would have been a mix of Sinhalese, Tamil, Bharatha and Burgher.<\/p>\n

[42]<\/a> The literature on the various currents of nationalism in British Ceylon is substantial: see KM de Silva 1981; Roberts 1979a and 1979b; 1989 and 1994b; Wickremaratne 1969; Kannangara 1984: 136ff; and Rogers 1989 &\u00a0Crime, justice and society in colonial Sri Lanka, 1987. <\/em>I do not accept Kannangara\u2019s assertion that \u201call elite groups demonstrated \u201cunqualified loyalism\u201d towards British rule and that the temperance leaders were \u201cinnocent of political radicalism\u201d (1984: 137, 143). Indeed, I speculate that the pogrom could be deemed an \u201celliptical attack\u201d on the British Raj (\u201cMentalities\u201d 1992b: 205-08).<\/p>\n

[43]<\/a> Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 196-97.<\/p>\n

[44]<\/a> See Rogers 1987: 191 and Roberts, \u201cMentalities,\u201d 1994b: 197.<\/p>\n

[45]<\/a> Rogers 1989: 327 and Roberts, \u2018Mentalities,\u201d 1994b: 196-97.<\/p>\n

[46]<\/a> See map and data in Roberts, \u201cMentalities\u201d 1994b: 186ff and Kannangara 1984: 155.<\/p>\n

[47]<\/a> Soboul 1974: 144-47 and Tilly 1975: passim,<\/em> but espec.318-19. Note Wikipedia account of the grande peur<\/em>: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Great_Fear.<\/p>\n

[48]<\/a> From Wikipedia (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1984_anti-Sikh_riots<\/a>). For ethnographic studies and overviews, see Walia 2014; Chakravarti & Haksar 1987; Veena Das 1989 & 1995; and Van Dyke 1996.<\/p>\n

[49]<\/a> On this point see Kaur 2006.<\/p>\n

[50]<\/a> Indian media personnel as well as human rights organisations were (are) convinced that a considerable measure of organization promoted the arson, assaults, looting and killings\u2013 see https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1984_anti-Sikh_riots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[51]<\/a> News Item in Island<\/em>, \u201cNow, Sampanthan alleges over 150,000 Tamils killed, 50 % population fled the country,\u201d 19 March 2017:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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