ABSTRACT
Sri Lanka was long considered a model colony, and when Britain granted the island independence in February 1948 many believed it was the post-colonial state with “the best chance of making a successful transition to modern statehood.”1 The optimism was well founded: universal franchise preceded independence in 1931, just three years after being instituted in Britain; the country ranked relatively high on various socioeconomic indices, especially when compared to other Asian and African states undergoing decolonization; and, most important, ethnic tension between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils notwithstanding, the country’s polyethnic and multi-religious elites had agreed to the transfer of power and the constitutional structure the British left behind.2 Yet within eight years of independence the island adopted a trajectory that led to ethnocentrism, illiberal governance, and a gruesome civil war.3
