In my mother's house : civil war in Sri Lanka / Sharika Thiranagama.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thiranagama, Sharika.

Contributor:

Obeyesekere, Gananath.

Series:

Ethnography of political violence.

The Ethnography of Political Violence

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnic conflict--Sri Lanka.

Ethnic conflict.

War and society--Sri Lanka.

War and society.

Tamil (Indic people)--Sri Lanka--Politics and government.

Tamil (Indic people).

Sri Lanka--History--Civil War, 1983-2009--Personal narratives.

Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka--Politics and government--1978-.

Sri Lanka--Ethnic relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In May 2009, the Sri Lankan army overwhelmed the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-better known as the Tamil Tigers-officially bringing an end to nearly three decades of civil war. Although the war has ended, the place of minorities in Sri Lanka remains uncertain, not least because the lengthy conflict drove entire populations from their homes. The figures are jarring: for example, all of the roughly 80,000 Muslims in northern Sri Lanka were expelled from the Tamil Tiger-controlled north, and nearly half of all Sri Lankan Tamils were displaced during the course of the civil war. Sharika Thiranagama's In My Mother's House provides ethnographic insight into two important groups of internally displaced people: northern Sri Lankan Tamils and Sri Lankan Muslims. Through detailed engagement with ordinary people struggling to find a home in the world, Thiranagama explores the dynamics within and between these two minority communities, describing how these relations were reshaped by violence, displacement, and authoritarianism. In doing so, she illuminates an often overlooked intraminority relationship and new social forms created through protracted war. In My Mother's House revolves around three major themes: ideas of home in the midst of profound displacement; transformations of familial experience; and the impact of the political violence-carried out by both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan state-on ordinary lives and public speech. Her rare focus on the effects and responses to LTTE political regulation and violence demonstrates that envisioning a peaceful future for post-conflict Sri Lanka requires taking stock of the new Tamil and Muslim identities forged by the civil war. These identities cannot simply be cast away with the end of the war but must be negotiated anew.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Note on transliteration

Foreword / Obeyesekere, Gananath

Introduction: In My Mother's House

Chapter one. Growing Up at War: Self-Formation, Individuality, and the LTTE

Chapter two. The House of Secrets: Mothers, Daughters, and Inheritance

Chapter three. From Muslims to Northern Muslims: Ethnicity, Eviction, and Displacement

Chapter four. Becoming of This Place? Northern Muslim Futures After Eviction

Chapter five. The Generation of Militancy: Gender Militancy, and Self-Transformation

Chapter six. Conclusions from Tamil Colombo

Notes

References

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-287) and index.

ISBN:

9781283897181

1283897180

9780812205114

0812205111

OCLC:

794700599