Outlining a Dialogic Framework of Difference: How do Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India Constitute and Negotiate Difference?

Abstract

This essay answers the call for intersectional examinations of difference constitution/negotiation. I outline a dialogic framework of difference, actively accomplished via communication in conjunction with material conditions of object, site and body. The essay draws from an ethnography with Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India. It finds that the refugees use dialogic domains of segregation–assimilation, safety–risk, and agency–passivity to make sense of their tenuous social position as outsiders within. The project adds to our understanding of difference as multi-layered, simultaneously straddling agency/structure, and discourse/materiality.

Keywords:

• Difference
• Dialog
• Hybridization
• Heteroglossia
• Sri Lankan Refugees

Acknowledgements

Thanks to editor Shiv Ganesh, Radhika Gajjala, John Fred Cassidy, Jr. and the anonymous reviewers for their critique on previous versions of this essay. Parts of this work were presented earlier at the Citizenship in the Twenty-First Century conference (2008) at the University of Pittsburgh and the Boundaries of Citizenship (2008) conference at Wayne State University.

Notes

1. The 1981 census also covered Tamil-majority areas of the island. The most recent official census data, conducted over 18 districts in 2001, lists the ethnic break-up as 82 percent Sinhalese, 4.3 percent Sri Lankan Tamil, 5.1 percent Indian Tamil, 7.9 percent Muslim, 0.2 percent Burgher, 0.3 percent Malay, and 0.2 percent other (http://www.statistics.gov.lk/PopHouSat/Pop_Chra.asp)).

2. During my research, each family received a monthly allowance of US$15 (Rs. 600, at Rs. 40=US$1, the prevalent exchange rate): US$6.25 (Rs. 250) went to the head of the family, US$5 (Rs. 200) to the head's spouse or next-in-line family member, US$1.875 (Rs. 75) for each child younger than 12 years, and US$1.25 (Rs. 50) for each elderly person. Rice, sugar, lentils, and kerosene are sold at subsidized rates.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rahul Mitra

Rahul Mitra (MA, Bowling Green State University) is a doctoral student and Ross Fellow at Purdue University, USA