The 1915 anti-Moor pogrom and ethno-religious violence in Ceylon, 1853-1915

Thesis

The 1915 anti-Moor pogrom was the first major episode of popular ethno-religious violence in Ceylon. Between 29 May and 6 June 1915, Sinhalese-led violence targeted Moors (the largest Muslim ethnic group in Ceylon), and included murders, rapes, assaults, attacks on mosques and homes, and the destruction of over 4,000 shops. The spectre of ‘1915’ has in the last decade received renewed attention in the context of escalating anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka (Ceylon was renamed in 1972). Why did this violence take place between Sinhalese and Moors?

In my thesis, I re-open this neglected chapter in Ceylon’s history, critically re-examine the deeper roots of ethno-religious violence between Sinhalese and Moors, and present a historical narrative of cycles of intolerance and victimisation. I explore the role of colonial policies and discourse in bringing ethno-religious groups into conflict with each other, and reassess certain positions taken in the existing historiography on the pogrom, as well as popular narratives on the outbreak, spread and aftermath of the pogrom. I then examine the colonial state’s failure to pre-empt this violence in 1915 and its harsh belated suppression of the violence.

My research uncovers a longer-term history of ethno-religious violence and investigates the ethnic and religious sensibilities and identities that crystalised from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. To do so, I repeatedly shift lenses from the microscopic, to the local, to the global, in analysing Sinhalese-Moor contestation in the religious, economic, and social spheres, and the clash between indigenous practices and colonial legislation. In my treatment of the 1915 pogrom, I locate the violence within the global context (the Islamic revival, and later, the First World War for example), and shed light on broader historiographical questions pertaining to the history of British colonialism in Ceylon.

Authors: Wettimuny, S

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-koaz2ob15
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: identity formation; First World War; Moors; religious revival; Sinhalese; Ceylon; Sri Lanka; ethno-religious violence
• Subjects: World War, 1914-1918; Religion; South Asia--History; Identity politics; History; South Asia