Mythri Jegathesan
Graduate Student
Department of Anthropology
Columbia University
E/
mj2114@columbia.edu
Struggle for Recognition:
Constitutional and Legal Definition of Difference and Encountering
Fasting Unto Death as a Life-giving Force
Friday, June 1st |
12:30 - 2:30 PM
The articulation of grief and grievance within the
discursive construct of memorialization prompts a number of questions
for understanding rituals of grievance and remembrance in Sri Lanka. As
individuals often face incapacitating and multiple forms of loss,
rituals of grievance and remembrance provide unique insight into the way
in which Sri Lankan Tamils qualify or make sense of their social
experiences. In Sri Lanka, fasting onto death and rituals that
commemorate this practice are simultaneously expressions of grievance
and modes of recognition through which individuals affirm, resist, and
negotiate the spaces created for resistance and accessing power.
Constitutional and legal definition of difference and perceptions of
“being Tamil” in postcolonial Sri Lanka remain critical to understanding
these continuing struggles for recognition.
The layering of differences found in constitutional and legal shifts of
defining “being Tamil” for Tamils living in Sri Lanka present
opportunities to proposition the death of oneself as both a life-giving
action and stipulating force in refusing the terms of the law. In
acknowledging fasting onto death as a life-giving force, how do
grievances and commemorative rituals come to pass in rhetoric and
practice? How are they legitimized, critiqued, and placed within
political discourse, at historical junctures, and alongside the current
civil conflict? This paper explores the constitutional and legal terms
of defining Tamils in postcolonial Sri Lanka and the way in which
refusals of these claims engage alternate channels through which Tamils
access power and modes of operation. In examining rituals of grievance
and remembrance, I contend that these instances of memorialization and
resistance hold significant consequences for understanding the
complexities of managing and articulating grievance and encountering
loss in Sri Lanka.
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Ms. Jegathesan's current research interests include understanding
rituals of grievance and commemorations of loss within Tamil communities
in Northeast Sri Lanka and plans to conduct her dissertational field
research on grievance, rituals, and representations of Tamils of Hill
Country Origin in Central Sri Lanka.