ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origin and escalation of the ethnic conflict. I first focus on actions taken by Sinhalas and Tamils to realize their vision for the governance of Sri Lanka in the first seven decades of the twentieth century, particularly with reference to inclusion or exclusion of the ethnic or linguistic Other. I then turn to the suffering within all communities, Muslim, Sinhala and Tamil, during the periods of armed conflict after 1977, when two nationalisms fought over space. I draw particular attention to the targeting of religious space and the exploitation of religious symbolism to assert political dominance. Lastly, I examine political process and two peace initiatives that broke down for reasons connected with the spatial imaginaries of the agents in the conflict, on the Sinhala side the refusal to countenance any fragmentation of the unitary and essentially Buddhist character of the country and on the LTTE side, an insistence on a separate state of Tamil Eelam.
