How Tamils in Canada responded to armed conflict back home in Sri Lanka

Pain, Pride, and Politics is an examination of diasporic politics based on a case study of Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada, with particular focus on activism between December 2008 and May 2009. Amarnath Amarasingam analyzes the reactions of diasporic Tamils in Canada at a time when the separatist Tamil movement was being crushed by the Sri Lankan armed forces and revises currently accepted analytical frameworks relating to diasporic communities. This book adds to our understanding of a particular diasporic group, while contributing to the theoretical literature in the area.

Throughout, Amarasingam argues that transnational diasporic mobilization is at times determined and driven as much by internal organizational and communal developments as by events in their countries of origin, a phenomenon that has received relatively little attention in the scholarly literature. His work provides an in-depth examination of the ways in which a separatist sociopolitical movement beginning in Sri Lanka is carried forward, altered, and adapted by the diaspora and the struggles that are involved in this process.

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Amarasingam's impressive, clearly written study provides, at once, a fascinating account of the complex politics of the Sri Lankan Tamil community in Canada and a significant reappraisal of diaspora theory.

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This book will interest not only those interested in Tamil diasporic politics in Canada but also would interest any reader wanting to know broader trends in diasporic social movements.