Read the full essay here.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election as president of Sri Lanka in November 2019 and the covid-19 pandemic have led to increased militarization, while the August 2020 landslide parliamentary victory of the new president’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and subsequent passage of the Twentieth Amendment have set the stage for authoritarian rule. With the Rajapaksa family dominating politics once more, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists also seek to expand majoritarianism. Sri Lankans, however, take their right to vote seriously, and this combined with the economic challenges related to covid-19 may stem a return toward militarized ethnocracy.