Where does hybridity originate? Interfacing between local and international actors in Sri Lankan postconflict peacebuilding

ABSTRACT

The peace and conflict literature has paid much attention to the hybridity produced by international peacebuilders and local actors. Although the modalities of hybridity have been discussed, few studies related to hybridity have observed the presence of locally led hybrid peacebuilding. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper addresses an emerging form of hybridization that is distinct from the internationally led type by examining the case of Sri Lanka. The paper takes a new direction by investigating the peace practices of local agents, referred to as grama niladharis (GNs), which has caused changes in the behavior of international actors in liberal peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. An anthropological method is applied with in-depth interviews and participatory observation. The paper identifies a critical direction for the discourse by documenting a form of locally led hybridization in which the GN system, with ownership by the local government, incorporates certain liberal peacebuilding concepts. Through this hybridization, local systems appear to reinterpret the liberal peace practices introduced by international peacebuilders in a modified form of peacebuilding and maintain autonomous local operations.

KEYWORDS:

• Peacebuilding
• hybridization
• local peace agent
• decentralization
• Sri Lanka

Acknowledgements

I would like to convey my deepest gratitude toward the professors/doctors at the University of Colombo and the government officers in Sri Lanka who helped me conduct fieldwork and the villagers who shared their own experiences with me.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In April 2009, a group of NGOs, Global Action to Prevent War, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, International Crisis Group, MEDACT, Minority Rights Group, Operation USA, Tearfund, and World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy, submitted a letter to the UN to address a crucial humanitarian crisis.

2 See ‘Sri Lanka execution video: evidence of war crimes?’ in Channel 4 News (https://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-execution-video-evidence-of-war-crimes accessed 8 January 2020).

3 The contemporary GN system consists of a bureaucratic hierarchy and has promotion-based hierarchical positions through a biennial national examination for promotion: GN III, GN II, GN I, and administrative GN. Administrative GNs are responsible for all GNs’ everyday work and act as advisers for junior or newly appointed GNs.

4 In the Citizen's Charter, the UNDP clearly indicated a role of the GN as a sama niladhari rajakari (i.e., peace officer) and described the duty of resolving minor conflicts (see ‘grama niladhari purawasi sewalabhi pragnaptiya (i.e., Grama Niladhari Citizen Charter)’ on the homepage of the MoPAHA).

5 GNs are required to attend the DS meeting to discuss governmental projects and disputes/conflicts within villages and to exchange ideas with the officers connected with those matters. In the meeting, the divisional secretary and all administrative officers, development officers and GNs in Vavuniya South gathered and discussed these matters.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Ryo Uchida

Ryo Uchida is a doctoral student at the Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation at Hiroshima University, Japan. He received a bachelor's degree in education from Toyama University and a master's degree in arts from Hiroshima University. He is interested in international-local interaction, hybridity in peacebuilding and, more recently, the postwar transition and ethno-religious nationalism in Sri Lanka. He is also interested in peacebuilding activities in Sri Lanka, where he established a non-profit organization, ‘Mother Land Lanka’ (https://motherlandlanka.org/), serving as a director of the organization.