The Struggle for a Multilingual Future: Youth and Education in Sri Lanka (Oxf Studies in Anthropology of Language)

210 Pages·2020·29.903 MB·

by  Christina P. Davis

THE STRUGGLE FOR A MULTILINGUAL FUTURE
OXFORD STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF LANGUAGE
Series editor: Alessandro Duranti, University of California at Los Angeles
This series is devoted to works from a wide array of scholarly traditions that
treat linguistic practices as forms of social action.
Editorial Board
Patricia Baquedano-Lopez, University of California, Berkeley
Donald Brenneis, University of California at Santa Cruz
Paul B. Garrett, Temple University
Janet McIntosh, Brandeis University
Justin Richland, The University of Chicago
Producing Age: Childhood, Deception, and Avoiding Giving in the M arshall
Islands
Elise Berman
Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the
Learning o f Latinidad
Jonathan Rosa
The M onologic Imagination
Edited by Matt Tomlinson and Julian Millie
Linguistic Rivalries: Tamil M igrants and Anglo-Franco Conflicts
Sonia N. Das
Singular and Plural: Ideologies o f Linguistic Authority in 2P^ Century Catalo?iia
Kathryn A. Woolard
Thank You for D ying for Our Country: Commemorative Texts and Performances
in Jerusalem
Chaim Noy
T H E S T R U G G L E F O R
A M U L T I L I N G U A L
F U T U R E
Youth and Education in Sri Lanka
Christina P. Davis
O X P O R D
UNIVERSITY PRESS
O X P O R D
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019951121
ISBN 978-0-19-094747-7 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-19-094748-4 (hbk.)
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To the Kandy students and teachers
To my parents

C O N T E N T S
List o f Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliteration xv
1. Introduction 1
2. School Segregation and Language-Based Ethnic Divisions 24
3. Teachers and “Legitimate” Tamil in a Multilingual School 49
4. English and the Imagining of a Cosmopolitan City 71
5. Peer Groups and Tamil Identity inside and outside Schools 99
6. Tamil Speech and Ethnic Conflict in Public Spaces 124
7. Conclusion 146
Notes 153
Bibliography 165
Index 183
t
L L U S T R A T I O N S
Figures
1.1 Map of Sri Lanka 2
1.2 Dalida Maligawa and Kandy Lake 4
1.3 Sinhaia, Tamil, and English signs in Kandy 5
1.4 Dambakola Patuna Sri Sangamitta Viharaya Temple
in Jaffna 10
1.5 King Street Jumma Mosque in Kandy 15
1.6 Lord Kataragama Temple in Kandy 16
5.1 Downtown Kandy 109
5.2 Kandy Goodshed Bus Station 112
6.1 Soldier in Kandy 131
7.1 President Maithripala Sirisena 149
Tables
1.1 Sri Lankan Ethnic Groups 3
2.1 Ethnicity, Mother Tongue, Language of Instruction,
and Religion in Sri Lankan Government Schools 27
2.2 Distribution of Sri Lankan Government Schools by
Language of Instruction 27
2.3 Distribution of National and Provincial Schools in
the Kandy Zone by Language of Instruction 32
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