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Mobocracy!

The once placid civil society has been torn down by angry mobs as the people have been ‘have-nots’ for too long.

By Salis Malik | June 2022

The social calm and peace for which Sri Lanka was admired has been torn down by an angry public that has been deprived of the very basics of life. Through many years, Sri Lanka has faced a perplexing uphill battle, trying to integrate the Muslim and Tamil minority within the social fabric of the nation. However, this fabric, in its entirety, has occasionally found its seams being disturbed by the ruling elite, riding on the wave of communalism and religious fundamentalism sweeping across the island country. Whether it’s surging Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism that is harbouring anti-Muslim and anti-Tamil sentiments or poor government policies that are unable to stop the discrimination; Sri Lanka finds itself scratching at the cusp of “mobocracy” fuelled by communal violence. With so much unrest and discrimination against minorities, one begs to wonder if the government of the Rajapaksa era really pursued policies hostile to both the Muslims and the Tamil communities.

While an anti-Muslim and anti Tamil narrative in Sri Lanka has been a perennial subject; in recent times, it has exacerbated manifold. Muslims alone have faced a plethora of hostilities in the country and surprisingly these policies seem to be backed by the Sri Lankan government. Discriminatory government policies against the Muslim community, such as the forced cremation of Muslim Covid-19 victims sheds light on how the government views its minorities. Although, the policy was later reversed, owing to international pressure, the fact that the government remained adamant on cremating Muslims while knowing that cremation is forbidden in Islam, was appalling. Moreover, there is also no substantial evidence that would back the cremation of victims in helping to curb the onslaught of Covid-19.

There have also been other examples of discriminatory legislation passed by the government, which further solidifies the government’s rhetoric of carrying hostile policies against minorities. One such policy is the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which allowed the government to detain any individual without any warrant or charge and taking the right of being produced in the court away from the detained individual. Among other legislations that the government wanted to implement, was the draconian law of banning of the veil and the law that banned madrassas. If these laws were placed in effect completely, there would had been again an international outcry against the Sri Lankan government. These laws and legislative policies speak volumes of immense influence the Sinhala-Buddhist nationalists have had on Gotabaya’s regime.

Since assuming office, the current administration has continued to single out and demonize Muslims and Tamils in order to divert attention away from the real issues. Mosques around the country were attacked, and social media was flooded with ‘hate speech’ and an anti Muslim rhetoric. Following these attacks and incidents, the officials hurried through emergency measures and used them to arbitrarily detain hundreds of Muslims. After more than 250 people were killed in coordinated suicide assaults carried out by a local Islamist cell and claimed by the Islamic State on Easter Sunday 2019, anti-Muslim sentiment further increased. Following these attacks, Muslims in numerous towns in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province were attacked during Ramadan.


The attacks and racism could also be seen against the Tamil community. The subjugation of the Tamil minority has exponentially spiked due to the majoritarian government, which has been increasingly emboldened since Gotabaya’s ascension to power. Let us not forget how the Rajapaksas had been involved in Tamil genocide in the past and now after once again, standing at the helm of the country, Gotabaya seems to carry on the chauvinistic and zealot ideology that has been harboured by the Sinhalese contingent. Even today, Tamil-dominated cities see an influx of soldiers within the city accounting for a ratio of one soldier for every three Tamil citizens.

Even at a glance, one can clearly compare this despotic situation with any war-torn nation or a disputed territory in the world. This, however, is not any disputed territory but actual cities of Sri Lanka which have Tamil majority. Moreover, incidents of iconoclasm have also been committed by Sinhalese nationalists where Tamil statues were defaced by Buddhist mobs. Ironically, these mobs enjoy impunity even after such level of vandalism. Had it been any other country, the culprits would have severely charged for violating world heritage sites. The nasty jaws of iconoclasm also reveal visible in the forced construction of Buddhist Viharas in the place of Tamil temples and tombs. The majority of these shrines are constructed without the authorization of district officials and are justified by narratives of Sinhala elitism and Tamil inferiority, both of which are commonplace in Sri Lankan culture.

From the Sri Lankan flag, which overtly depicts Tamils as subservient to the island’s Sinhala majority, to state-sponsored settlements in Tamil-majority provinces and the normalization of Sinhala supremacy in the country’s constitution, it is clear that the island’s civil war ended only with tank fire and ammunition, not with the deep anti-Tamil prejudice that sparked the conflict in the first place.

With such repressive policies, coupled with a severe economic crunch, a reprisal by the mass population always seemed inevitable. The Rajapaksa era had always believed in the statement that ‘the end justifies the means’ but now Gotabaya’s regime finds itself at the brink of an end itself. This is an irony and a lesson for future leaders for not carrying out policies which might adversely affect the minorities in the country. For the Sri Lankan Buddhist nationalists, backed by the government, the small island was seen as a hunting ground where they could initiate and enforce their acts of oppression against the Muslim and Tamil minority of the country. By now, the very social fabric of the Sri Lankan community has been torn to shreds and the only sole entity responsible for this outright pandemonium is the incumbent government of Sri Lanka. This country is slowly moving towards being coined as a failed state and the only thing that could save it is the rise of a sentiment of fraternity and a consortium between all of the communities.

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