This article is a naturalistic and ecological ethnography of the period between 1980 and 2009 in northern Lanka, using participant observation, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, key informants, literature survey and critical inquiry techniques. The Lankan and Indian states and various Tamil militant groups vied for the control, loyalty, obedience and subservience of the civilian Tamil population through terror, counter-terror; the media, arts, history writing, in cyber space and other propaganda; democratic and extra-democratic means such as elections, relief, rehabilitation; and other methods. Community leaders were eliminated and dissent suppressed. Whole villages and communities have been displaced multiple times.
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