Journal
JOURNAL OF IMPERIAL AND COMMONWEALTH HISTORY
Volume 44, Issue 2, Pages 288-305Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/03086534.2016.1160689
Keywords
Commonwealth; Ceylon; Sri Lanka; Tamil; Sinhalese; Britain; Bandaranaike; Federal Party; South Africa
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This article examines the progress of the commonwealth as a forum for political action by Ceylonese in the first two decades after the nation's independence by focusing on the debate over Tamil political rights. Significantly, this domestic conflict intensified during a crucial phase in the commonwealth's transition, from being essentially a members' club consisting of Britain and the settler dominions to a multilateral organisation led by newly independent African and Asian states. In this ambivalent geopolitical landscape, an emerging small state such as Ceylon sought to use the commonwealth in such a way as to project itself on the world stage, while at the same time some of its citizens adopted the organisation as a focus for liberal causes against the state. In this way, it is argued, the new commonwealth' was being shaped by postcolonial British legacies of global influence and liberal politics.
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