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

By Neil Devotta, Devotta, Neil De Votta

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 to explain Sri Lanka's civil war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804749248
• ISBN13: 9780804749244
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 9.0"