Community Relations and

Histories:

Discourse Ideas and Approaches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First edition

 

 

JEYASEELAN GNANASEELAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harikanan Publications, Jaffna

February 2021

First Edition Published by Harkanan Publications, Jaffna. February 2021

 

 

Dr. Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan

 

BA (Hons), PGD in Ed (TESL), MA (Linguistics), Msc (Human Security), MA & MPhil & Ph.D. (English)

 

SEDA (UK) Accredited Teacher in Higher Education

Senior Lecturer in English Gr. I

 

Head/Department of English Language Teaching

 

Faculty of Business Studies

 

Vavuniya Campus, University of Jaffna,

 

Pambaimadhu, Mannar Road, Vavuniya- 43000, Sri Lanka TP: 0094-24-2228235 (office), 0094-24-2223856 (Home) Fax: 0094-24-2222265 (Office)

Mobile  0094-717477503 (Personal)

Email: jeya86@vau.jfn.ac.lk;   jeya86@hotmail.com

 

 

© JEYASEELAN GNANASEELAN 2021

 

The right of Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan as the Author of this work has been asserted by him under the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act.

 

ISBN:978-955-0442-09-6

 

 

 

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored.

In a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the Publisher.

 

 

Harikanan Publications, Jaffna

February 2021

 

 

Cover & Picture Design:Sazi Balasingam, sazibalasingam@gmail.com

Book Design: Douglas Soosaipillai, sdouglash@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dedication

 

 

 

 

 

I dedicate this work  to more  than TWO MILLION

people who  have  died  due  to COVID19

Pandemic  the world over

and

The people in the conflict-affected areas  of Sri Lanka losing  life,  lives,  and limbs  in the wartimes

and

My late  parents,

 

 

Gnanaseelan and Constantinamma,

 

who  lived  their  whole life  in the war  zone  and died  due to the consequences of the war.

 

 

 

 

“Long Live humanism  buttressed by human  rights, justice,  equality, and peace.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contents

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

COMMUNITY  RELATIONS

AND HISTORICIZED ETHNIC HOSTILITY,  1

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

CONFLICT HISTORY AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS, 31

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

POLITICS, POWER AND LANGUAGE,57

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

MEDIA DISCOURSE, COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND CONFLICT, 105

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

POST-WAR CONFLICT DISCOURSE OF THE SRI LANKA MEDIA, 149

Contents

 

Title page, i

List of Tables and Figures, viii

Author’s Preface, ix

Words from India: Prof. Rajamanickam Azhagarasan, xi

Words from Canada: The Late Prof. Chelva Kanaganayakam, xiii

Acknowledgments, xv

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

 

1. Community Relations and historicized ethnic hostility, 1

 

1.1. The Ethnic Origin, Identity, and Conflict, 1

1.2. History, Relations, and Conflict, 15

1.3. The Positions, 24

 

 

Chapter Two

 

 

2. Conflict History and Community Relations, 31

 

 

2.1 The Colonial History of the Conflict, 32

2.2 The Post-colonial History of the Conflict, 37

2.3 The Modern History of the Conflict, 41

2.4 The Ceasefire Agreement and International

Intervention, 48

 

 

Chapter Three

 

 

3. Politics, power and Language, 57

 

 

3.1 Discourse, Discourse Analysis, and Prevailing Principles, 57

Authority, Grand narratives, Order, and Prescriptive Implications Denomination, Identity, Subject, Truth,

and the Instability  of Language Deconstructing Editorial Discourse Social Processes, Notions of Truth,

Subjectivity, and Constant Reconstitution

 

 

3.2 Media Discourse Construction, and Consumption, 68

3.3 The Media Political Discourse, 69

3.4. The Culture of the Media Political Discourse, 71

3.5. The Implication of Social Constructionism on Media Discourse, 73

3.6. Knowledge and Media Discourse, 75

3.7. Critical Discourse Analysis of Editorials, 76

3.8. Metaphorical Construction, 86

 

 

Metaphors and Editorial Political Discourse

The Cognitive Role of Metaphor

The Role of Metaphor in Political Discourse

 

 

3.9. A Review of the Discourse Analysis Researches, 91

 

 

Chapter Four

 

 

4. Media Discourse, Community Relations and Conflict, 105

 

 

4.1 The Sri Lankan Media Discourse, 106

4.2 Newspaper, Readers, and Politics , 112

4.3 Applying Chomsky and Herman’s Propaganda Model, 125

 

 

Chomsky and Herman’s Propaganda Model

Contextualizing Editorials

Applying the Propaganda Model to Sri Lankan Newspaper

Editorials

The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited

Wijeya Newspapers Ltd The Island Group Leader Publications Ltd Identifying Ideologies

Synthesis

 

 

Chapter Five

 

 

5. Post-war Conflict Discourse of the Sri Lankan Media, 149

 

 

5.1 Conflict Resolution and Sri Lankan Constitution, 152

5.2 Ethnic Conflict and Harmony, 156

5.3 The Casualty of the Conflict, 162

5.4 The Conflict and International Intervention, 165

5.5 The Conflict and Indian Intervention, 172

5.6 The revival of Fear of Terrorism and Militarization, 181

5.7 Human Rights and Sovereignty, 186

5.8 Pro-constitutional Reforms for Power Sharing, 192

Conclusion

 

 

6. Reference, 199

 

 

List of Tables

 

 

Table 3.1    Relationship between the philosophical principles of Social Constructionism and Discourse Analysis, 58 - 60

Table 3.2    The Linguistic Features Applied in the IDA, 81

Table 3.3.   The Questions Raised to Unfold the Ideological

Implications, 82

Table 4.1    Newspapers and the Main Publishing Groups, 108-109

 

 

List of Figures

 

 

Figure 3.1    The Circuit of Culture, 72

Figure 3.2    Theoretical Defense behind Discourse

Analysis Methodology, 77

Figure 3.3    A Framework for Critical Discourse Analysis of a

Communicative Event, 78

Author’s Preface

 

 

 

This book attempts at discussing the ideas and approaches to the community relations, histories and conflict discourse in the public, politics, the media in general and Sri Lankan media in particular. Using the discourse theories and approaches, it explores the political, historical, social, cultural, linguistic discourse trajectories of the ethnic conflict, intra-national relations, international intervention, and international relations focusing on the Sri Lankan conflict.

 

The present ethnic conflict is an intensive, political, and military conflict since 1983 that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly the Tamils. However, the intensive national conflict’s origin goes beyond 1983 backward till the country became independent in 1947. Still further ten centuries back when this island was divided and ruled by many Sinhala and Tamil kings and queens. Even it backdated before twenty centuries when Vijaya, a prince with his people, arrived on this island where Nagar and Iyakkar communities lived.

 

The conflict is predominantly between the Sinhala majority community and the Tamil minority community. It has caused extensive damage to the country

– psychological, sociological, cultural, historical, economic, environmental, and political. Of course, intra-national and international relations are apart. .

 

The book systematically describes the relationship between the above mentioned ideas and the approaches, the Social Constructionist Approach, Critical Discourse, and Metaphorical Discourse Analysis, to develop new interpretation methods. It discusses textual characteristics theoretically under the umbrella paradigm, social constructionism.

 

These three discourse analysis approaches allow an interpretation of existing presuppositions and propositional attitudes representing the State’s authorities, ethnic and party-based and -biased discourse, and socio-political ideologies naturalized and dominated by the majority community. Nationally and internationally, different views are possible for different ethnic communities at the situational, institutional, and societal levels.

The book investigates to affirm whether there is an implicit support for unilateral ethnonationalistic foreign policy interests, cultural nationalism cloaked by constitutional nationalism,  thus falling in line with those theorists who argue that globalization facilitates inter-state or international and national security, and not intra-state or intra-national security.

 

Words from India: Prof. Rajamanickam Azhagarasan

 

 

This book is a wonderful exploration of media discourse analysis. It is well-argued and written. The second chapter presents the historical conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese tracing the reasons from the pre-colonial times. The chapter offers a genuine analysis of the conflict in Postcolonial times.

 

 

 

The book also examines the contemporary situation with an unbiased   presentation of the Sri Lankan context. It unravels the role of Sri Lankan Media and the Power Politics   unleashed   by the major discourse.

 

 

 

 

 

The challenging and interesting part is the application of contemporary critical theory. At the backdrop of the power politics of Sri Lankan Media, Post Modern perspectives of Grand Narratives, Foucauldian aspects of Power and Knowledge, Derridean notions of Deconstruction are aptly analysed and subscribed.

 

This book on the Community Relations and Histories: Discourse Ideas and Approaches  is perfect in every aspect of research.

 

Overall, the book is a breakthrough in providing some considerable solutions with the subscription of  critical theory to present the Sri Lankan Tamil situation.

 

The relevance of the book is very high. It could be an eye-opener to many cultural analysts who try to comprehend the situation. I really appreciate the publication.

.

 

Prof. Rajamanickam Azhagarasan

Department of English University of Madras Chepauk 600 005

Tamilnadu, India

Words from Canada: The Late Prof. Chelva Kanaganayakam

 

 

It was a crucial period of three decades in Sri Lankan political history which marks both the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam engaged in a full-blown confrontation. The conflict between the two was part of a larger “Tamil” question that goes back in time for more than a century, if not longer. During these years, however, the conflict became much more than a struggle with ethnicity. It involved a number of nations and the Diaspora.

 

 

The conflict was seen as part of a global struggle against terrorism and attracted international attention. Further, the situation was far from stable or homogeneous. The different stances and perspectives, both nationally and internationally, involved multiple parties and different groups. To put

it simply, this period was marked by one crisis after another, and life in Sri Lanka became totally politicized. It is against this backdrop that one needs to recognize the importance of  the political discourse among the public and media.

 

Even when the media were controlled or policed by the state, these newspapers did not always say the same thing. They brought very different views to the ethnic conflict, although they all claimed to be saying nothing but the truth.

 

To focus on the public and media discourse, Jeyaseelan advances a detailed  study  of  discourse  analysis,  framing  his  work  within  the

general rubric of modernism and postmodernism. His use of Derrida, Foucault, Spivak, etc. is very sophisticated, and he sets up a solid foundation in discourse analysis before he proceeds to his task.

 

He also gives an informed reading of the current political situation, drawing from a range of sources. His account of the events that led up to the present is very erudite and totally persuasive. It is always evident, and Jeyaseelan has a very good grasp of `a range of disciplines, which enables him to locate his topic in a broad context.

 

Overall, the project is exceptionally good. Jeyaseelan demonstrates an excellent grasp of  the material, and the argument he offers is both timely and vital. The exploration significantly contributes to current scholarship and is likely to remain a reference source for scholars and students in many disciplines.

 

Late Prof. Chelva Kanaganayakam

Department of English

Former Director/Centre for South Asian Studies

University of Toronto

Canada

 

(This response was given before his passing away)

Acknowledgments

 

 

I humbly acknowledge my gratitude to all those who have assisted me in publishing this book on Communities and Histories: Discourse Ideas and Approaches.

 

I always remember Prof. R. Azhagarasan, my doctoral studies supervisor, University of Madras, who initially sowed confidence to venture into these interdisciplinary discourse studies.

 

I humbly and gratefully remember the Late Professor, Chelva Kanaganayakam for his commendation given before his passing away in 2014. I had already started working on the draft in

2014. However, due to the internal and external circumstances, I had to suspend my book projects for some years.

 

I am grateful to the University of Jaffna and Vavuniya Campus for supporting me in my contribution.

 

I owe very much to Mr Sazi Balasingam, the artist, Vavuniya, for his excellent pictorial design making my chapter discussions alive, creating meaningful visual representation for each chapter, and cover design.

 

I appreciate Mr Douglas Soosaipillai, at the Department of

ELT, Vavuniya Campus, for having designed the book professionally.

 

 

I thank my wife, Subajana, my father-in-law, Mr. Poobalasingam, mother-in-law, Ms. Nagaraththinam, my brothers, Dr. Gunaseelan, Dr. Thavaseelan, Eng. Santhaseelan, Mr. Vasanthaseelan, and Ms. Nancy and their spouses, my brothers-in- law, and sisters-in-law for their help and encouragement.