The Postcolonial State as Container: Lessons on Nation-Building and the Nation-State from Sri Lanka Free

Sri Lanka provides a geopolitical lens to analyze theviolence (both overt and discursive) necessary for the formation of the postcolonial nation-state. Following Himadeep Muppidi’s concept of the zoological metaphor as one of the colonial signs in international relations, I first consider the nation-state as a container-box interms of a “treasure box” within international tourism and as represented on tourist maps, containing cultural artifacts and experiences that are both exotic and available. I then interrogate the nation-state as a container-box noting a ‘caged’ problem in both the civil war and the 2004 Tsunami. I argue that both the nationas a treasure-box and caged-problem arise simultaneously in the process and project of nation building, and therefore both the cultural and political representations of the state are necessary for assessing the limitations and possibilities of the state itself.