ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the return to autocratisation in Sri Lanka and its effect on minorities, with specific focus on the country’s second largest minority group, its 9 per cent Muslim population. It will argue that the recent shift towards autocratization is intrinsically linked with protecting and promoting Sinhala Buddhist extremism. The chapter will analyse how this extreme derivation of Sinhala Buddhist nationhood project has gained state legitimacy and succeeded in oppressing the country’s minorities. Utilising the case study of the government’s April 2020 policy to permit only the cremation of Covid-19 dead, this chapter explains the relationship between Muslims and autocratisation as one where the latter is maintained as a threat and attacked as an enemy. It argues that Muslims are necessary for this present form of autocratisation, hence they cannot be annihilated but subjugating them is critical for the survival of autocratisation.
