Book Review: Madurika Rasaratnam, Tamils and the Nation: India and Sri Lanka Compared
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917714956 |
| Author | Patrick Hein |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsAsia and the Pacific |
Book Reviews 677
Robinson utilises his journalistic skills to
highlight the intricacies of Maldivian politics.
His well-written book emerges as an authorita-
tive and engaging case study of political life in
an island state.
Politics permeates every aspect of daily
life; ordering an espresso can be ‘a minefield if
one did not grasp the politics of bean importa-
tion’ (p. 34). The way the state is perceived
internationally is of paramount importance; a
multinational public relations (PR) firm is
given considerable leeway to suggest constitu-
tional amendments to improve the Maldives’
international image.
Robinson skilfully shows how small island
states can evolve into regional security threats.
Nationalism and Islam emerge as powerful
political tools which provide fertile ground for
Islamic extremism. The Maldives are now ‘the
largest supplier of fighters per capita to the
Syrian conflict of any country not directly
involved in the fighting’ (p. 294).
This book gives the reader a glimpse of
the insidious nature of corruption, extremism
and political patronage. It successfully chal-
lenges the clichéd image of the Maldives and
presents a realistic and candid account of
politics in a small polity. Such books are vital
for scholars and students who examine the
challenges of democratic transitions, the pol-
itics of small island states and their wider
regional implications.
André P Debattista
(University of Malta)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917716888
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Tamils and the Nation: India and Sri Lanka
Compared by Madurika Rasaratnam. London:
C. Hurst & Co, 2016. 288pp., £22.00 (p/b), ISBN
9781849044783
Madurika Rasaratnam offers a comparative
analysis of the distinct developments of Tamil
national identity in the southern Indian state of
Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, where the Tamils
form a minority. The main argument is that a
national Tamil identity is able to coexist with
Hindu nationalism in India, whereas in Sri
Lanka, a Sinhala Buddhist ideology driven by
a strong domestically sustained political pro-
cess and by international Western intervention
has made such coexistence impossible.
The major focus of the book is on the
developments in Sri Lanka prior to the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
Tamil rebel military defeat in 2009. In con-
trast to the Sri Lankan case, Rasaratnam
shows how Hindu nationalism had been con-
tained by the Indian National Congress’s pan-
ethnic conception of national identity in terms
of language education and self-determination.
She calls this approach the Indian ‘unity in
diversity’ approach, which had been largely
shaped by Jawaharlal Nehru’s wisdom.
Rasaratnam’s main thesis for explaining the
current political exclusion of Tamils in Sri
Lanka holds that the ethnic Sinhala-Tamil
dichotomy alone cannot account for this. She
asserts that the state of relative Tamil-Sinhala
colonial equality was transformed in the post-
colonial period into a form of antagonist disa-
greement over the meaning of national identity.
While Sri Lankan Tamils came to associate
national identity with territory and self-
determination, Sinhalese politicians moved in
the opposite direction and associated national
identity with a unitary, centralised state model.
For the author, Sinhala Buddhism was ‘a
political category rather than an expression of
ethnic sentiment’ (p. 142). In line with this
approach, the ‘Buddhist Sinhalese framework’
(p. 157) tried to accommodate and co-opt Tamil
minority groups such as the Muslim Tamils who
did not support the vision of an independent
Tamil state. The outcome was rather mixed for
Muslim Tamils as they still (as of today) suffer
from ‘anti-Muslim violence’ (p. 241) instigated
by Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists.
The author offers a rather grim outlook
for the future of Sri Lanka and concludes
that the ethnic conflict is the ‘result of an
absence of a shared understanding of national
identity’ (p. 242). She also concludes that
international involvement has the potential
to improve the possibilities and conditions
for long-lasting, positive change in Sri
Lanka. The book offers a compelling analy-
sis of the processes and developments that
led to the exclusion of Tamils from political
participation in Sri Lanka. A question that
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