“Us” v “them” in South Asia

“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.

The signs of rejection can be stark, such as when rioters have torched Muslim property. But mostly they appear by whisper and insinuation. Lists ripple across Facebook, detailing shops and businesses to avoid because they are Muslim-owned; rumours circulate that the free meals served by a Muslim-run charity at public hospitals are doctored to make non-Muslims infertile. On June 24th officials in the small town of Wennappuwa barred Muslims from trading at its weekly market because citizens objected to their presence. Lending sanction to the mood, a Buddhist monk noted on YouTube how some devotees had suggested that a Muslim obstetrician accused of secretly sterilising patients should be stoned to death. “Now I am not saying that that is what we should do,” the Most Venerable Sri Gnanarathana Thero Mahanayake cautioned, “but I say that is the punishment they deserve.”