Drawing the Sri Lankan Ethnic Conflict: An Analysis of Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock’s Ethnographic Novel Vanni

Abstract

This paper seeks to expand the concept of counter-narratives to research component in and surrounding Sri Lanka civil war narratives. Historically, every act of militant reprisal demands the exigency of military warfare to annihilate them thereby, restoring peace in the land. Whereas, amidst the status quo of terrorism-counterterrorism and human rights compliance, the significance of human lives caught in the crossfire remains a disputed notion. As Stanley points out, “dominant culture have justified systems and rules … in such a way that makes these models ‘the standard’” (Stanley 15).  In this sense, the war on terror/fighting terrorism is the international standard master-narrative in which plight of the civilians caught in the crossfire are legalised in the name of combating terrorism. Yet, the testimonies of innocent civilians who witnessed and experienced the horrors of modern warfare act as a counter-narrative discourse exemplifying the injustice perpetrated on them, thereby demanding justice. The focus of the paper is what we may call ‘graphic dissent’ a mode of counter discursive strategy to bring in an alternative history or narrative. The study examines Benjamin Dix’s ethnographic novel, Vanni a family’s struggle through Srilankan conflict (2019) as a counter-narrative discourse that undermines the dominant military dogma of Sri Lanka in fighting terrorism through the lens of a civilian.