Sarendib’s Sorrow: Sri Lanka’s Continued Conflict

In this article, the author studies the conflict in Sri Lanka, and identifies and describes two sources of its intractability: fractured fronts and maximalist goals. The article seeks to reveal that while the Sri Lankan government’s recent military onslaught against the LTTE has been surprisingly successful, history is clear that a meaningful solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka will be found not on the battlefield but in the hearts and minds of the Sri Lankan people. The causes of the conflict are several – an analysis of these sources of intractability involves both a backward looking appreciation of the events, perspectives and trends that fractured a nation as well as a forward looking transformative outlook towards a shared deliberative reality. The author believes that while the current military success against the LTTE coincides with a wave of collective Sri Lankan anguish at the country’s grim predicament. For several reasons, the present represents a potential moment of critical realignment in Sri Lanka. An analysis of the institutional, historical and ideological bases of the conflict indicates different channels that the public sphere will have to simultaneously destroy and create if such a critical realignment is to be serendipitously realised.