The burden of history: Obstacles to power sharing in Sri Lanka

Abstract

For around seventeen centuries the Sinhalese have sustained a historical consciousness through oral and written modes of transmission. These vamsa traditions emphasise the moment of civilisational state formation through the founding father, Vijaya, a tale that enters modem history texts and thus receives the status of 'fact'. This tale enters contem porary verbal battles of legitimation between Sinhalese and Tamil protagonists. A recent article by Wickramasinghe indicates how the Vijaya story can be a central pillar in the refusal to countenance devolution of power to the Tamils in the north-east. His unelabor ated reference to Vijaya indicates how the belief in the Sinhalese claims to original pos session operates in semi-subterranean ways among those extremists who deny the need for autonomy on various constitutional grounds in the vocabulary of democracy. One such is the Sinhala Urumaya (Heritage) Party that emerged in mid-2000 and around which many lines of opposition to the government's 'Devolution Package' coalesced. Despite its poor electoral performance in October 2000, the SU represents a powerful strand of thinking that bears the values associated with the 'revolution of 1956', values which are now ingrained in all the Sinhala-dominated parties.