“Us” v “them” in South Asia
Many politicians find it convenient to divide voters by religion or caste
“THEY,” LIKE its cousin “them,” sounds an innocent word. Given the wrong context, though, even a simple pronoun can turn insidious. Since a pack of suicide-bombers, claiming to act in the name of Islam, killed 261 people on Easter morning, Sri Lanka’s 2m Muslims have collectively felt that turn. After a thousand peaceful years as a minority in the island country “they” have quite suddenly become aliens, perhaps to be tolerated, but not to be trusted.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Them v everyone”
From the June 29th 2019 edition
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