Cuando la violencia genera identidad. La guerra en Sri Lanka y la diáspora tamil en Sicilia

Abstract

In the last two decades, Sri Lanka was the stage of a long civil war between Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the Tamil Hindu minority, that fought independence. The first part of the article shows that the war was not caused by ethnic-cultural differences, but rather by political and economic reasons. The war has led to a radicalization and crystallization of ethnic differences, through the manipulation of the past and the political role of Buddhism, the conflict has created Tamil diaspora in whole world, and in Sicily too. In the second part of the article I present some items of the fieldwork done inside the Tamil community located in Palermo, Sicily.