Memories of ethnic violence in Sri Lanka among immigrant Tamils in the UK

This article contributes to recent studies on the relationship between ethnicity and memory in the formation of transnational communities. The focus of the article is migrant Tamils' memories of violence in Sri Lanka in 1958, in the aftermath of an act declaring Sinhala to be the sole language of administration in the country. The ways in which past violence is remembered by this overlooked older generation helps in understanding the particular impetus of the contemporary Tamil diaspora, which continues to play a key role in shaping the image of Sri Lanka abroad. Research on the formation of the diaspora must therefore be situated within a more concrete history of relations between Sinhalese and Tamils in post-independence Sri Lanka.