Abstract
This chapter gives voice to the sample of Sri Lankan victims. It addresses how the sample was obtained and studied before giving a historical account of Sri Lanka’s conflict and the ambivalence of its ‘victor’s peace’. The impact of the victor’s peace on the double victimhood of Tamils is the central motif for understanding the victimhood experience of Tamils. The victimhood experiences of Sinhalese victims are not ignored but they are contrasted with the double victimhood of Tamils. The chapter addresses the standard themes for capturing the voice of victims, including topics like competitive victimhood, attitudes towards the erstwhile enemy, their emotional landscape, such as feelings of anger, hope forgiveness and compromise, and grief and loss. The structural inequalities faced in particular by Tamils are addressed for their impact on the victimhood experience.
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Brewer, J.D., Hayes, B.C., Teeney, F., Dudgeon, K., Mueller-Hirth, N., Wijesinghe, S.L. (2018). Sri Lankan Voices. In: The Sociology of Everyday Life Peacebuilding. Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78975-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78975-0_5
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