The Formation, Institutionalization and Consolidation of the LTTE: Religious Practices, Intra-Tamil Divisions and a Violent Nationalist Ideology
Politics, Religion & Ideology, Forthcoming
22 Pages Posted: 28 Nov 2012
Date Written: November 27, 2012
Abstract
This article uses the historical case of the LTTE in Sri Lanka, for understanding the critical role that religious organization, ideological fitness, and state capacity can play in the formation, institutionalization and consolidation of the non state armed groups. It uses a historical lens to explore the processes of ethnic mobilization of the Tamils through a Tamil religious re-awakening during the British colonial period. Religious practices were invoked to consolidate the social dominance of the Vellalar caste and blocked the upward economic, social and political mobility of the other Tamil castes, thus enabling the emergence of lower-caste groups such as the LTTE in the 1970s. Later the LTTE’s ideology privileged its nationalist goals over Marxist doctrinal purity because of the group’s commitment to improved intra-Tamil caste equality; an ideological approach which only increased the LTTE’s legitimacy within the Tamil community and solidified its institutionalization as a viable Tamil group.
Keywords: Tamil, Sri Lanka, ethnic conflict, religion, caste, ideology, fractionalization, intra-ethnic, inter-ethnic
JEL Classification: D71, D73, D74
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation