Language is Power: An Analysis of the Politicization of the Sinhalese Language and Religion in Postcolonial Sri Lanka in Order to Create and Solidify a National Identity

This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the historical and legal frameworks through which language and religion were used for identity formation in postcolonial Sri Lanka. Several topics pertaining to Sinhalese absolutism will be covered. While Sri Lanka faces many issues which are similar to other postcolonial states, it is particularly unique in that the country contains two ethnic groups which have maintained distinct cultures, religions, and languages that had never properly lived together or integrated due to separation before colonization. The Tamil people wanted an integrated society and political system with the Sinahlese post-independence from Britain. In contrast, the Sinahlese wanted to maintain a legislative majority on their own. Suffering from the aftermath of British colonialism, the Sinhalese population in postcolonial independent Sri Lanka became a unique form of ethnic nationalists, taking inspiration from their Christian European colonizers. They did this by politicizing languages in national policies and utilizing their religion and historical connection to the island to marginalize the Tamil population, who would later retaliate, in order to create and solidify their own sense of national identity which would eventually lead to the formation of Tamil separatism and ethnic conflict in the form of civil war.