This chapter examined Tamil film music as a vehicle for nationalist message production and intersectional ethnic discrimination. The authors sampled the history of Tamil nationalism in India and Sri Lanka separately and found evidence that converges such territorial nationalistic content on the grounds of a common identity marker—the Tamil language. Taking notes from Tamil film music, the authors critiqued the messages promoted through this medium and applied them to the socio-political state of the ethnic conflict brewing both in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Further, the authors also identified prevalent themes of Tamil nationalism, refugee plight of Eelam Tamils, irredentism, and othering in Tamil film music that contribute towards a broader scholarship of music as an effective medium for political messages.
This is an autoethnographic invitation to make space for different standpoints of women caught in war. This multi-genre project reflects on the standpoint of the author’s family as a female-led, female-only household in the capital of Sri Lanka amid the civil war. Grounded on the concept of ethnicity without groups and feminist standpoint theory, this piece adds to the often-homogenized voices of Tamil women. Using integrated crystallization to challenge the dichotomy of art and science, this layered piece weaves together storytelling and theory-based critique to open conversations about wholesome representation. The stories reveal the multichrome nature of ethnicities that often get painted as monochromes. The analyses highlight the intersectionality of women’s position and sound the alarm for possible marginalization within the marginalized through a unidimensional expression. The author invites more voices to diversify the standpoints of women caught in the Sri Lankan civil war and contribute to a more comprehensive reality of their experiences.
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