Lion’s blood: social media, everyday nationalism and anti-Muslim mobilisation among Sinhala-Buddhist youth

Abstract

Sri Lanka has recently seen an upsurge in aggression towards ethnic minorities, and Muslims in particular, by newly formed extremist Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist groups. The politicisation of Buddhism is not new but the development and use of social media for political purposes and for advancing ethno-nationalist agendas is a recent feature of Sri Lankan public and political life. This study explores the parallel emergence of new media technologies and the most recent forms of ethno-nationalism among Sri Lankan youth. A campaign known as SinhaLe is used as an entry point to explore broader issues of identity, religion and politics. The article uses an anthropological approach that combines digital ethnography with in-depth interviews and pays close attention to individual narratives. The article concludes that social media is offering a new forum for the expression of identity that not only mirrors ‘what is out there’ but also provides opportunities to (re)produce viral politics as a form of ‘everyday nationalism’ created from below.