Politics of Primordial Loyalties and Its Transnational Dimensions: Tamilness as Pan‐ethnic and Supranational

By Athithan Jayapalan

Volume 17, Issue 2, pages 245-264

Abstract

The article pertains to the pan‐ethnic and transnational dimensions of contemporary political and cultural interaction and orientations between diverse ethnically/culturally and linguistically kindred ethnic groups such as Tamils. It explores the transnational dimensions and dynamics of habitats of meaning, identity formations, political cosmology/world view among kindred ethnic groups and their relation to historical processes, events of violence and trauma, and transnational communication, information, and travel technologies. The dynamics between kindred ethnic groups, facilitated by the technological advances and accessibility in the period of accelerated globalization, enhance engagement and attachment centred on primordial loyalties, cultural and ethnic/linguistic sentiments, and identity. The subsequent social interaction constitutes pan‐ethnic or trans/supra‐national political cosmologies/imagery and moral community. Beside the central role of cultural similarity and meaning, historical connectivity, or transnational technology and processes, it is historical events/moments of state violence and injustice which prove a central condition in enabling transnational political solidarity and engagement between people who would otherwise have imagined their linkages differently.

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