Abstract:
Political violence is a repetitive phenomenon in Sri Lankan universities. The Students *Councils are not independent bodies, but tend to share the political ideologies o f the mainstream political parties of the Left or Right. The majority o f the students do not actively participate in party politics but, they are being dominated by a powerful smaller group of students who mobilize majority and silencing dissent groups in effective ways fo r achieving their political goals. It remains problematic how this capacity originates and continues in spite o f majority involvement. One o f the major lacunae o f the literature is that it has not researched the role o f agents in political violence and their interaction
with structures. This marks the point o f departure o f the present study. The Objective o f the present study is to elaborate the missing link o f political violence i.e. the role o f agent and its interaction with the structural factor. This study revealed that the small group who control the majority was highly organized and they pretended to be the majority in discussions and debates in students gatherings, by dispersing themselves in different places. Ultimately they resorted to violence and underground tactics i f they observe an emergence o f dissenting leadership. Further, there was a relationship o f micro and macro-level radical politics. Social background o f minority group revealed that they come from different social strata o f the society. However, most o f them bear similar characteristics o f a petty bourgeoisie. Further, this study revealed that lack o f democratic provisions in rules and regulations in representative system o f students ’ union reinforces this dominance of minority over majority. To study the issue a sample o f students from the Faculty o f Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty o f Management and Finance were interviewed. These data and information have been analysed qualitatively.
