ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the infamous mass killings that reveal how the power of death was used by the Sri Lankan state as part of its biopolitics of defending the Sinhala Buddhist race/species and securing the ethnocratic state order. In Sri Lanka’s biopolitics of defending the race/species it fostered and securing the ethnocratic state order, law became the symbol of terror, and the manifestation of the power to kill the ‘enemy’ race/species. Sri Lanka’s actions, however, also caused a boomerang effect. Angered by Sri Lanka’s racist policies, the Tamil youth who either shunned foreign education, or did not have the means to go abroad, embarked on a militant path. The militant path adopted by the Tamil youth also contributed to moderate Tamil politicians abandoning their demands for regional autonomy within a united Sri Lanka, and instead advocating for political independence.
