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Original Articles

Ethnic politics and Third World development: Some lessons from Sri Lanka’s experience

Pages 283-311 | Published online: 25 Aug 2010

References

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  • lbid, p. 122.
  • Isenman . “ 'Basic needs' ” . 252 Isenman recognised it and mentioned that 'Sri Lanka is in many ways a special case in large part dependent on its own historical circumstances', emphasis added. Nevertheless, studies which bring out these historical circumstances are still rare. One of the earliest works on Sri Lanka's post-independence economy by Snodgrass confined itself to the export sector, whereas a much later study by Moore attempted to answer why the peasants, despite their large numbers, could not influence Sri Lankan politics to their benefit. Both, in a way, stated the obvious without much analysis of the historical links between politics and economics. See
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  • Lakshman , W D . 1997 . “ 'Introduction' ” . In Dilemmas of Development: Fifty Years of Economic Change in Sri Lanka , Edited by: Lakhshman . 13 Colombo : Sri Lanka Association of Economists .
  • Ibid, pp 14-15.
  • Ibid, p. 16, emphasis added.
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  • Shanmugaratnam , N . “ 'Some aspects of the evolution and implementation of the policy of peasant resettlement' ” . In Capital and Peasant Production , Edited by: Abeysekera , Charles . 65 Colombo : Social Scientists' Association .
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  • 1951 . The Report of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission , Colombo : Government Press . The 'pauperisation' of peasants in the plantation districts has been probed by a state-appointed commission of inquiry. Sessional Paper XVIII of 1951
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  • Department of Commerce . 1955-57 . Thirty Years of Trade Statistics of Ceylon, 1925-1954, Part II , 199 – 203 . Colombo : Government Press . It was subsistence in nature and could not entirely satisfy domestic food needs. The increasing trend towards rice imports clearly depicts the subordinate state of the peasant sector. Between 1944 and 1948, for example, there was a more than three-fold increase in imports: from 2.2 million cwt in 1944 to 8.1 million cwt in 1948. Throughout the 1940s rice headed the list of imports. See
  • de Silva , K M . 1986 . Managing Ethnic Tensions in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Sri Lanka 1880-1985 , 155 Lanham : University Press of America .
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  • Ibid, p. 194.
  • Moldrich , Donovan . 1989 . Bitter Berry Bondage: The Nineteenth Century Coffee Workers of Sri Lanka , Kandy : Co-ordinating Secretariat for Plantation Areas . An early indication of this is provided by Moldrich's analysis of the treatment of plantation labour during the coffee era (1845-1865). See
  • de Silva . The Political Economy of Underdevelopment 326 – 354 . A vivid account of labour relations in Sri Lankan plantations can also be found in
  • Manor , James . 1979 . 'The failure of political integration in Sri Lanka' . Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics , 17 (1) : 21 – 46 . For particulars of the Sinhala Maha Sabha and its role in contemporary Sri Lankan politics, see
  • Weerawardana , I D S . 1960 . Ceylon General Elections 1956 , Colombo : M D Gunasena . The 1956 general elections in many respects acted as a watershed and marked the beginning of the discriminatory policies against the minority communities. The elections were thus significant in the sociopolitical history of Sri Lanka. For two worthwhile studies on the 1956 elections, see
  • Wriggins , Howard W . 1960 . Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation , 326 – 369 . Princeton , NJ : Princeton University Press .
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  • International Conference on Tamil Nationhood and the Search for Peace in Sri Lanka . Ottawa . pp. 151 – 159 . The Academic Society of Tamil Students, Carleton University and The University of Ottawa . Manogovan Sinhalese settlements and forced evictions of Tamils in the northern and eastern provinces', in
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  • Nithiyanandam , V . 1987 . “ 'An analysis of economic factors behind the origin and development of Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka' ” . In Facets of Ethnicity in Sri Lanka , Edited by: Abeysekera , Charles and Newton , Gunasinghe . 100 – 170 . Colombo : Social Scientists' Association .
  • Ibid, cols 942-1917.
  • Sivanayagam , S . 1999 . 'Know your Sri Lankan history' . Tamil Guardian International (London) , 27 February The most notable non-violent protest was the picketing carried out at the Provincial Secretariat (Kachcheri), Jaffna in February 1961 against the implementation of Sinhalese as the official language. When the campaign spread to the other Tamil districts, it paralysed the entire government administration in the north and east of Sri Lanka. It was only broken by the deployment of the armed forces by the then government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. In fact, it was the first time ever that the army had been used in Jaffna, and it was, of course, to be followed by many more such occasions in the future. For particulars of the campaign, see, 13 March 1999, 27 March 1999
  • Samaraweera , Vijaya . 1977 . 'sri Lanka's 1977 general election: the resurgence of the UNP' . Asian Survey , XVII (12) : 1195 – 1206 . On the general election of 1977, see
  • Russel , Jane . 1978 . 'sri Lanka's election turning point' . The Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics , XVI (1) : 79 – 97 . See also
  • Wilson , A Jeyaratnam . 1980 . The Gaullist System in Asia: The Constitution of Sri Lanka (1978) , London : Macmillan . For particulars of the executive presidential system of government in Sri Lanka, see
  • Kelegama , Saman . “ 'Privatisation: an overview of the process and issues' ” . In Dilemmas of Development Edited by: Lakshman . 460
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  • Abeyratne , Sirimal . “ 'Trade strategy and industrialisation' ” . In Dilemmas of Development Edited by: Lakshman . 368
  • Atapattu , Danny . “ 'Capital formation and its financing' ” . In Dilemmas of Development Edited by: Lakshman . 82
  • Ibid.
  • Rajan , A Theva . 1995 . Tamil as Official Language: Retrospect and Prospect , Colombo : International Centre for Ethnic Studies . For an analysis of the status of the Tamil language in Sri Lanka from 1956 to 1987, see
  • Coomaraswamy , Radhika . 1984 . Sri Lanka: The Crisis of the Anglo-American Constitutional Traditions in a Developing Society , New Delhi : Vikas Publishing House . In addition to Wilson's study on the 1978 constitution, the constitution is also reviewed in
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  • Tambiah , S J . 1986 . Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy , 19 – 21 . London : I B Tauris . The 1981 riots are described as a prologue to the major incidents of 1983. For a short account of the 1981 riots, see
  • 1984 . Race and Class , XXVI (1) There has never been a satisfactory assessment of the property damaged or destroyed or of those killed or injured during the disturbances. Conservative estimates, however, put the total economic loss at about $300 million and the number of Tamils killed at around 2000. The estimates of refugees in some 15 refugee camps in Colombo alone range from 80 000 to 100 000. Figures obtained from ibid, pp 22-23. A comprehensive account of the riots can be found in a special issue of
  • Balasuriya , Tissa . 1992 . 'Ethnic conflict resolution: a historical perspective' . Logos , 31 (1&2) : 5
  • Anonymous . 1984 . 'sri Lanka's week of shame: an eyewitness account' . Race and Class , XXVI (1) : 44
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  • Naughton , Barry . 1994 . 'What is distinctive about China's economic transition? State enterprise reform and overall system transformation' . Journal of Comparative Economics , 18 (3) : 470 – 490 .
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  • Ibid.
  • Cox , Robert W . 1994 . “ 'Global restructuring: making sense of the changing international political economy' ” . In Political Economy and the Changing Global Order , Edited by: Stubbs , Richard and Underhill , Geoffrey . 52 London : Macmillan .
  • Ibid.
  • 1998 . 'Multinational enterprise and economic analysis' . Journal of International Business Studies , 29 (1) : 5 – 136 . A comprehensive account of the contribution of MNES towards international business, including their impact on it, can be found in the various papers submitted to a symposium entitled
  • Myres , N . 1994 . 'Gross reality of global statistics' . Guardian (London) , 2 May
  • Held , David . 1995 . Democracy and the Global Order , viii Stanford , CA : Stanford University Press .
  • Ibid, pp ix-x, emphasis added.
  • Riggs , Fred W . 1994 . 'Ethnonationalism, industrialism, and the modern state' . Third World Quarterly , 15 (4) : 583 – 611 .
  • Ibid, p. 601.
  • Nietschmann , Bernard . 1987 . 'The third world war' . Cultural Survival Quarterly , 11 (3) : 7 In 1987 Nietschmann estimated that a vast majority of these movements were state-nation conflicts, that is, internal wars between states and oppressed peoples within their boundaries

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