After the fall: Sri Lanka in victory and war

Abstract

'After the Fall' shows how Sri Lankas post-independence exercise in nation formation was beset with using language domination as an instrument of partisan power and racial memories as the way to define nationhood. That resulted in an escalating conflict through half a century of ethnic violence - giving rise to one of the worlds most fearsome militant movements and the cult of the suicide bomber. It analyzes how Eelam war four (20069), which came like a tornado crashing through all the red-lines of a war (even a guerrilla war), succeeded - and at what cost and consequences.