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Reconciliation: From Invoking to Understanding The International Centre for Ethnic Studies is pleased to announce the launch of research paper No: 2 on the theme of Post War Reconciliation titled,Reconciliation: From Invoking to Understanding The International Centre for Ethnic Studies is pleased to announce the launch of research paper No: 2 on the theme of Post War Reconciliation titled, Producing the Present: History as Heritage in Post-War Patriotic Sri Lanka by Nira Wickramasinghe.This paper explores the consolidation by a patriotic post-conflict state of a notion of history reinvented as national heritage. The distinction between history as an analysis of the past and heritage was rarely made explicit in the public discourse of Sri Lanka. After the war ended the distinction disappeared entirely except in some rare university history departments. Heritage as we understand it, is present centered and is created, shaped and managed by and in response to, the demands of the present. It is to follow David Lowenthal, not history at all.  While it borrows from and enlivens historical study, heritage is not an enquiry into the past but a celebration of it. The distinction between heritage and history is one of motive. Heritage is best understood as a claim, a special pleading. History in post war Sri Lanka has abandoned specialized journals to inhabit and flourish in theater, film, videos and pamphlets encouraged by the patriotic state. Professional historians too have either left the public sphere or acquiesced in the production of a history/heritage.This study will draw from an array of sources and practices to develop an understanding of the ideological underpinnings of the new popular history/heritage.The ICES research papers on post-war reconciliation examine the contested nature of building peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, taking into account the history of the conflict and the current socio- political and economic configurations. As a number of scholars point out, reconciliation is a complex and multi layered process. There can be no set formulas. Each reconciliation process needs to be context and country specific. At the same time it can be an extremely contested concept. While the term is easily invoked by politicians, civil society organisations, international community, the clergy etc, it clearly has a multiplicity of meanings.  In this series we will de-construct these differing understandings, both dominant and alternative or subaltern in all its differing strands– whether as truth, justice and accountability, political reform, or economic reconstruction; the significance of substantive initiatives versus the purely symbolic, myth versus reality or psychological versus material; and the impact of factors such as political will, financial resources, time and moral imagination in reconciliation processes.You can download this paper as a PDF document by following this link:  PDFOther papers in this series: Krishnan, Sonny Inbaraj (2012),  Transition to Civilian Life of Teenage Girls and Young Women Ex-Combatants: A Case Study from Batticaloa, ICES Research Paper 1, June. 2012  PDFThe International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) is an independent, not-for-profit research centre based in Sri Lanka. ICES was established in 1982 with a mission to deepen the understanding of ethnicity, equality, identity politics and conflict, and to foster the  conditions for an inclusive, just and peaceful society through  research, publication, dialogue, creative expression and knowledge transfer.Colombo2, Kynsey Terrace,Colombo 8, Sri LankaT:+94-11-2679745/ 2674884F:+94-11-2688929Kandy554/6A, Peradeniya Road,Mulgampola (Kandy), Sri LankaT:+ 94-81-2234892/ 2232381F:+94-81-2234892E-mail: ices@ices.lkwww.ices.lk/www.llrcarchive.orgThis paper explores the consolidation by a patriotic post-conflict state of a notion of history reinvented as national heritage. The distinction between history as an analysis of the past and heritage was rarely made explicit in the public discourse of Sri Lanka. After the war ended the distinction disappeared entirely except in some rare university history departments. Heritage as we understand it, is present centered and is created, shaped and managed by and in response to, the demands of the present. It is to follow David Lowenthal, not history at all.  While it borrows from and enlivens historical study, heritage is not an enquiry into the past but a celebration of it. The distinction between heritage and history is one of motive. Heritage is best understood as a claim, a special pleading. History in post war Sri Lanka has abandoned specialized journals to inhabit and flourish in theater, film, videos and pamphlets encouraged by the patriotic state. Professional historians too have either left the public sphere or acquiesced in the production of a history/heritage.This study will draw from an array of sources and practices to develop an understanding of the ideological underpinnings of the new popular history/heritage.The ICES research papers on post-war reconciliation examine the contested nature of building peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, taking into account the history of the conflict and the current socio- political and economic configurations. As a number of scholars point out, reconciliation is a complex and multi layered process. There can be no set formulas. Each reconciliation process needs to be context and country specific. At the same time it can be an extremely contested concept. While the term is easily invoked by politicians, civil society organisations, international community, the clergy etc, it clearly has a multiplicity of meanings.  In this series we will de-construct these differing understandings, both dominant and alternative or subaltern in all its differing strands– whether as truth, justice and accountability, political reform, or economic reconstruction; the significance of substantive initiatives versus the purely symbolic, myth versus reality or psychological versus material; and the impact of factors such as political will, financial resources, time and moral imagination in reconciliation processes.You can download this paper as a PDF document by following this link:  PDFOther papers in this series: Krishnan, Sonny Inbaraj (2012),  Transition to Civilian Life of Teenage Girls and Young Women Ex-Combatants: A Case Study from Batticaloa, ICES Research Paper 1, June. 2012  PDFThe International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) is an independent, not-for-profit research centre based in Sri Lanka. ICES was established in 1982 with a mission to deepen the understanding of ethnicity, equality, identity politics and conflict, and to foster the  conditions for an inclusive, just and peaceful society through  research, publication, dialogue, creative expression and knowledge transfer.Colombo2, Kynsey Terrace,Colombo 8, Sri LankaT:+94-11-2679745/ 2674884F:+94-11-2688929Kandy554/6A, Peradeniya Road,Mulgampola (Kandy), Sri LankaT:+ 94-81-2234892/ 2232381F:+94-81-2234892E-mail: ices@ices.lkwww.ices.lk/www.llrcarchive.org