Sri Lanka: Recent Political Violence and Its Consequences

Violence appears to continue. There was a recent incident of people or groups attacking and burning a house of an owner of a fuel station.

by Dr Laksiri FernandoIt is for the first time, in Sri Lanka's political history, that a government was directly involved in instigating political violence against peaceful protestors on 9 May, consequences of which had to be reaped within hours even those who are not directly involved in such action from the government side. Given the economic crisis and foreign exchange difficulties, the country is facing at present the consequences of these violent events that would badly affect the image of the country and the people.

Sri Lanka has emerged as a violent country among foreign observers and critiques. There were instances in the past that some ministers involved particularly in attacks on ethnic minorities (1983).

There was election violence where almost all parties involved. The country is also notorious for a longstanding separatist movement with political violence as the main mode of operation.

In 1971, there was a youth insurrection which reemerged in late 1980s in a more sectarian manner. In April 2019, Sri Lanka became a target of Islamic State, with both local and international roots.

Reasons for Increasing ViolenceDuring the initial years of independence, Sri Lanka was a peaceful country. Even the independence movement was characteristically peaceful without going into extremes.

Except some incidents related to worker's strikes, the country was by and large peaceful appreciated by many observers and commentors overseas. The situation dramatically changed in late 1960s giving rise to a strong leftwing organization, the JVP.

Even if the old-left parties were advocating 'class struggle,' no organization had any military wing or anything like that.Then what went wrong since 1970s? 'Frustration-aggression theory could be one explanation.

This is also the case in recent events beginning with farmers' protests opposing the fertilizer ban. There were more broader reasons than 'frustration' or 'relative deprivation.

' When it came to long ques and shortages in cooking gas, petrol, kerosene, diesel, medicine, and other basic amnesties, the 'relative deprivation' turned into a 'absolute deprivation.' Most devastating was power cuts.

All these happened within a context of high inflation where the value of people's salaries and income became absolutely depreciated.There were broader social reasons.

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