Abstract:
This research focuses on the issue of state-minority contestations involving transforming and
reconstituting each other in post-independent Sri Lanka. This study uses a qualitative research method
that involves critical categories of analysis. Migdal’s theory of state-in-society was applied because it
provides an effective conceptual framework to analyse and explain the data. The results indicate that the
unitary state structure and discriminatory policies contributed to the formation of a minority militant social
force (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – The LTTE) which fought with the state to form a separate
state. The several factors that backed to the defeat of the LTTE in 2009 by the military of the state. This
defeat has appreciably weakened the Tamil minority. This study also reveals that contestations between
different social forces within society, within the state, and between the state and society in Sri Lanka still
prevail, hampering the promulgation of inclusive policies. This study concludes that inclusive policies are
imperative to end state minority contestations in Sri Lanka.
