Destabilizing the identity–territory nexus: Rights-based discourse in Sri Lanka’s new political geography |
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| Authors: | Margo Kleinfeld |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geography and Geology, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA |
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| Abstract: | This paper describes the changing discourses of territory in Sri Lanka and their utility in conflict relations. The primordial
homeland has been at the center of Sri Lanka’s armed struggle, in which both Sinhalese and Tamil nationalisms have used claims
of ancient and ethnically determined territories to justify their right to self-determination, territorial sovereignty, and
armed struggle. This identity–territory nexus based on historical argument has been destabilized in Sri Lanka, however. Scholarly
findings suggest that historical linkages between ethnicity and territory in Sri Lanka are highly problematic and are no longer
effectual means for adjudicating territorial desires in Sri Lanka and producing stable homelands. I argue that rights-based
territorial discourses have emerged to enhance the old historical justifications for territorial authority. New narratives
based upon fulfilling or denying human rights have been put to work linking authority to territory based upon moral fitness
and unfitness, political legitimacy and illegitimacy, and ultimately, upon which political actor deserves to rule the territorially
bound population under its control. The first part of the paper examines historical narratives linking national homelands
to identity as well as scholarly work that deconstructs this linkage. In part two, external sovereignty and political legitimacy
are discussed as the starting point for understanding how rights-based discourses justify territorial claims. In part three,
accusations related to human rights violations are described as an important vehicle for shaming political adversaries, undermining
their legitimacy, and making and unmaking territorial claims in Sri Lanka. |
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| Keywords: | armed conflict child soldiers human rights sovereignty Sri Lanka terrorism |
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