Religious Nationalism, Strategic Detachment and the Politics of Vernacular Humanitarianism in Post-War Sri Lanka

Abstract

In this article, I am concerned with the ways different ethnic and religious groups in contemporary Sri Lanka use rhetorics of humanitarianism. Exploring a range of examples drawn from an inner city community, humanitarian foundations and national government, I show how different actors deploy cosmopolitan and nationalist humanitarian rhetorics to obfuscate claims of war crimes and communal favouritism on the one side, and to encourage allegiance to a national Sri Lankan identity on the other side. I introduce a concept of strategic detachment to help illuminate the ways minority groups in particular seek to cultivate distance from their contested ethnic and religious identities and in so doing re-signify their humanitarian practices as self-consciously non-partisan. Dans cet article, nous analysons la rhétorique de l'humanitarisme utilisée par les différents groupes ethniques et religieux en Sri Lanka à l’époque contemporaine. En étudiant plusieurs exemples tirés d'une communauté située au centre-ville, des fondations humanitaires, et du gouvernement national, nous montrons les stratégies menées par les différents acteurs pour adapter la rhétorique cosmopolite, nationaliste et humanitaire. Leur but est, à la fois, d'obfusquer les prétentions concernant les crimes de guerre et du favoritisme communal, et d'encourager l'allégeance à l'identité nationale de Sri Lanka. Nous proposons un concept dit ‘strategic detachment’ (le détachement stratégique) pour illuminer les façons dont les minorités cherchent à cultiver la distance par rapport à leurs identités ethniques et religieuses, et en même temps de redéfinir clairement leurs pratiques humanitaires en termes non-partisans.

Kin, friends, philanthronationalists: “Relations” as a modality of colonial and post-colonial charity in Sri Lanka

“…For Tamils, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus, Sinhala Buddhist philanthronationalism represented an existential threat. They countered this by minimising or avoiding reference to their own ethnic or religious identity and centring their commitment to Sri Lankan nationhood, through a process I have referred to as “strategic detachment” from the communal obligations of charity and a commitment to liberal humanitarianism (Widger, n.d.). As the Society also found, however, strategic detachment might have helped to protect minority-led organisations from interference and attack from Sinhala nationalist groups, but it also significantly reduced the range of local donors prepared to support them.…”