The formation of the modern Sri Lankan state and the relationship between this formation and patterns of civilian and ethnic violence constitute the central themes of this paper. Within this context, the paper explores orientations to nationalism and the nature of the post-colonial state, forces of identity and violence. It takes issue with some conventional arguments concerning ethnic identity, arguing that the force of ethnicity is grounded in social relations and only secondarily in particular constructions of identity. It is through the historical processes of colonial and post-colonial state formation that ethnicity and its subjectivities have come to have the force that they do. This does not ignore the importance of how the state is imagined, ethnicity being an aspect of the state imaginary. The paper discusses the role of ritual and religion, particularly Buddhist revitalization, as well as the ancient chronicles of religious history, in the production of the imaginary of the state. The argument then moves to a discussion of state and anti-state terror and violence and describes how they are shaped in different kinds of political process, the violence of the state being distinct from that of the terrorist groups that confront it. Overall, the article explores the various social and ideological threads that weave through the long history of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. This history is one that passes from the era of the post-colonial nation-state to a contemporary globalized era of weakened post-colonial state forms. The discussion concludes with a brief consideration of the social and political circumstances that may lead to the resolution of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict or further inflame it.