ABSTRACT
The emergence of distinct forms of ethno-nationalism takes place either by the ‘imagining’ or ‘invention’ of collective identities. This occurs through a process of selective reading of pre-existing narratives and the construction of new ones within a given set of geo-political dynamics, which in former colonial contexts are determined by networks of international relationships. Rather than ancient ethnic ties (as suggested by Anthony D. Smith) it is the ‘felt reality’ and the ‘immediacy’ of a collective consciousness (as shown by Craig Calhoum) formed by a reinterpretation of cultural symbolic meanings within a given socioeconomic and political context that generates the persuasive power of national consciousness (Smith 1991; Calhoun 1997: 34-35). In understanding ethno-nationalism what is important to note is neither the antiquity nor the invented novelty of ethnic and national identities, but the very process within which such collective identities emerged. What is needed is to scrutinize how and why competing national identities developed and how within the nationalist discourse one becomes dominant over and against another within a given historical political context. Two contemporary conflicts that revolve around distinct forms of ethno-
nationalism, and that have their roots in British colonialism, are the conflicts between Protestant and Irish ethno-nationalisms in Northern Ireland, and Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil ethno-nationalisms in Sri Lanka. In the present phase of globalization the former has entered into a negotiated settlement – and has to a large extent ended its armed phase by the establishment of a shared sovereignty – whereas the latter has ended without the attainment of a political resolution (at the loss, moreover, of thousands of lives). The Sri Lankan conflict has also been internationalized as never before, involving not only India but also other major powers in the world such as the United States, the European Union and China. What I wish to explore in this chapter is the geo-political dynamics of colonialism, and the role these played in the formation of ethno-nationalisms in Ireland and Sri Lanka, as well as how such dynamics have changed in the present phase of globalization – leading to the resolution of one conflict and the exacerbation of the other.
