AN ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL IMPACTS OF ESTABLISHING THE KALMUNAI ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT ON THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN SRI LANKA

This paper analyzes the political impacts of establishing the Kalmunai administrative district on the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. The demand for the Kalmunai administrative district has been at a societal level for the last 50 years but has only received political importance from 2000 onwards. However, the Muslims' efforts to achieve the proposed administrative district have been met with extreme oppositions and criticisms expressed by other ethnic groups and certain major political parties. This scenario justifies an analytical study of the nature and extent of the political impacts of the proposed district on the Muslim community. This study has found that the establishment of the proposed district would positively empower the Muslim community, their politics, and local administration in a number of ways such as i) an increase in concentration of Muslims in the district population, ii) administrative dominance and autonomy, iii) strengthening of representative politics and representative bureaucracy, iv) a territorial base for political autonomy, and v) empowerment of the major Muslim political party, the SLMC. However, this study has also found that these prospective political impacts strongly depend on the organizing and rational functioning of the district administrative machinery and bureaucracy, accommodation of linguistic grievances in public service delivery, strengthening of ethnic and social cohesion, and establishment of consensus among Muslim political leaders in the region.