Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

by Neil Devotta

This book analyzes the way ethnic outbidding, initiated by Sinhalese linguistic nationalists in the mid-1950s, led to the unfair treatment of Sri Lanka's minorities and to institutional decay, which in turn mobilized the Tamils to seek a separate state. The author's explanation, based on hitherto overlooked primary research, utilizes a historical institutionalist perspective and encompasses primordialist, constructivist, and instrumentalist explanations...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080474923X
• ISBN13: 9780804749237
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.3"