Democracy, Nationalism and the Nation State, with Reference to Sri Lanka

Featured image courtesy British High Commission

L. C. ARULPRAGASAM- 05/05/2018

The ex-colonies at their independence were presented with a state conforming exactly to their former colonial boundaries. They were expected to build one nation into it – even if there were two or more nations within them. We thus started with a ‘state nation’ and not a nation state; because the state was established first, with the hope that one nation could be fitted into it. Democracy was to be the means by which this was to be achieved. This article seeks, from a historical, constitutional and political perspective, to analyse some of the problems that have arisen in doing so.

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