{"id":115571,"date":"2013-11-23T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T10:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=115571"},"modified":"2013-12-03T16:57:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T11:27:55","slug":"sri-lanka-towards-a-militant-sangha-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-towards-a-militant-sangha-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: Towards A Militant Sa\u1e45gha State?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Suren R\u0101ghavan<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Suren R\u0101ghavan<\/p><\/div>\n

Venerable Galago\u1e0daatt\u0113 G\u00f1anas\u0101ra of Bodu Bala Sen\u0101<\/span><\/a> (BBS) has become the single most recalcitrant Sa\u1e45gha demanding attention to a different kind Buddhism in Lanka. His out of control anger, fistfights, ruthless and full of filth public speeches are internationalized through the social media. He perhaps is a symbol of a new brand of Sa\u1e45gha militancy that is tolerated if not sponsored\/manipulated by the powerful and confrontational sections of the ruling regime. BBS has systematically targeted all sections of the society that could give an alternative interpretation to modern Lanka and her democratic struggles. During the war, leading members of present BBS stood against any negotiated settlement. They launched a violent anti \u2013NGO campaign. After the end of the conflict under a triumphalist regime, BBS openly targeted, disrupted and aimed to destroy the fragile multi-ethnic societal fabric. Their anti-conversion, anti UN, and anti-halal agitations<\/span><\/a> proved that the state ideology in some form wishes such ethnocentrism. Ven. G\u00f1anas\u0101ra has gone on public record asking every Buddhist to be a member of the \u2018unofficial Buddhist police force\u2019 and that all Buddhist affairs to be brought under the army and Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n

It is an intriguing yet fearful development that renouncer Sa\u1e45gha are becoming soldiers of socio- political militancy as never seen before. Like in days leading to the tragic pogrom against the Tamils in 1983, and in the context that gave birth to 88-89 violent up-rise, the Sinhala intellectuals and the influential Maha N\u0101yakas have decide to become observer than to intervene. History records that both those points of our recent political despondency, the involved Sa\u1e45gha damaged and disgraced the s\u0101sana irreparably. Is BBS a forerunner for an army in the yellow robes as we have unfortunately witnessed in other Therav\u0101da states such as Burma and Thailand? We sincerely hope not because a very fragile democracy that is belligerent by a three decades of war and now under an authoritarian regime, is the ideal condition for a religious fundamentalist ground swell.<\/p>\n

Sa\u1e45gha and the State<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sa\u1e45gha rebellion against the state and its apparatus is not a new issue in Lanka. The Sa\u1e45gha\/State nexus\u00a0has worked as a cross legitimization process and such tradition is well historicized. Mah\u0101va\u1e43sa narrates how worrier king Du\u1e6d\u1e6dhagama\u1e47\u012b did what all Sinhala kings should, within the historiographical presupposition. He listened, acted and used (and of course disposed) the Sa\u1e45gha to mobilize against anything that is a threat to the Sinhala people – perceived or actual. For this reason even modern learned Sa\u1e45gha like Venerable Walpola R\u0101hula, some 20 centuries later named Du\u1e6d\u1e6dhag\u0101mi\u1e47i as \u2018 undoubtedly the greatest national hero of Buddhist Ceylon\u2019 (R\u0101hula 1956:79). To some scholars Mah\u0101va\u1e43sa may not<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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be the actual history for its subjective ethnoreligious agenda. Irrespective of such position, in Lankan realpolitik, there is no other text that influences and command unchallenged respect and following as this does. Thus, the Mah\u0101va\u1e43sa\u012bk\u0101 model lays the conceptual framework for all Sa\u1e45gha and their socio- political engagements. During the late 19th century leading to the independence and certainly during the post independent elitist struggle for political power, the Sinhalas have used the Sa\u1e45gha and their rhetoric to mobilize such Buddhatv\u0101, promising the recovery of an organic Sinhala Buddhism as done by SWRD<\/span><\/a> through his Sinhala Maha Sabah in the 50s (Manor 1989). Later JRJ<\/span><\/a> reproduced such consciousness through his \u2018Dharmishta R\u0101jjya\u2019 mythology and even spoke of removing the Dalad\u0101 to the new capital named after him (Perera 1992).Unfortunately the result of such ethnoreligious power centric mobilization of Sa\u1e45gha with narrower politics ended in disasters. SWRD became the victim of the first Sa\u1e45gha assassination and JRJ retired as president leaving behind a conflict during which more than 1000 Sa\u1e45gha were killed, wounded, arrested, and disrobed.<\/p>\n

Democratic Opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Observers agree that Lanka has fallen into a \u2018One Party\u2019 (or rather one family) system under the present regime. Dominant alternative political forces in the south such as the United National Party (UNP) and the Janat\u0101 Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) are in political wilderness, deep inner-fights and above all have failed to offer an alternative and viable discourse under which the polity could be reorganized. The Tamil National Alliance, which proves a formidable force in the north, has never been a national party and at least they do not show such ability\/interest (yet). It is in this context of vacuum that BBS aims to catapult itself as the symbolic power of the Sinhala Buddhist ethnoreligious consciousness. Those Sinhalas such as Champika Ranawaka<\/span><\/a> of J\u0101tika Hela Urumaya and the aggressive defense secretary Gh\u014dtabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>, who time and again have displayed their desires to become the next national level leader seems to either benefit or enjoy the path that BBS is paving, on which they bank their political future. Because, after ideology, after ethnic nationalism, religion seems to be the most available avenue for those politicians who seek power without accountability by passing democracy.<\/p>\n

In the post-Berlin wall world, religious discourse in public and political sphere sprang around the globe. Initially they were interpreted as a natural reaction to the Western type nation state- nationalism challenged by the harshness of the globalization process. Mark Juergensmeyer (1990) argued that the incompatible assimilative nature of the civic nationalist project in ethnically diverse societies started blazing as religious polity under the weight of globalization that is altering their centuries old social foundations. But in parallel Martin Marty and Scott Appleby in their six volume editions on Fundamentalism (1993-2004) pointed that irrespective of origins, nature and the historical context all religions \u2013 including Therav\u0101da Buddhism, has shown organic fundamentalist facets. The tendency to\u00a0assume that certain religions especially Islam and Judaism are more violent, took center stage after 9\/11. Contrarily we believe that there is enough historical\/textual evidence to argue that all institutionalized religions, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism (all schools) and the new age cult type religions- have used violence as a means of engagement with the \u2018other\u2019. The story differs only because the amount of research and analysis done on certain religions such as Sinhala Buddhism or the shorter histories some faiths share.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It is a sociological and psychological fact that Sinhalas especially the Sa\u1e45gha are looking for a point of pride after three decades of humiliation under a homegrown \u2013 Tamil armed rebellion led by a school dropout. LTTE not only came close to dividing the state, it was at near success in permanently dismantling the majoritarian hegemonic mind-set of the Sinhala polity. Sinhalas as a regional and global minority, take pride in their steadfast resilient to hold Lanka as a Sinhala majority Buddhist state even after some 450 years of harsh European colonization. What the LTTE – with its terror politics-tried to change was not merely the unitary nature of Lanka but also the historicized Sinhala Buddhist ethnoreligious national pride. Sa\u1e45gha as direct recipients and beneficiaries in overcoming such ontological insecurities have become the natural champions of a new order that will not only wipe such shame but also reestablish an overarching control.<\/p>\n

We do not think that Sa\u1e45gha politics is in essence a negative factor. In fact, elsewhere we have strongly argued that the failure of the peace process in Lanka was due to the shortsighted \u2018Norwegian\u2019 model of approach in disregarding and expelling the Sa\u1e45gha from the center politics of peacebuilding. For a sustainable democratic recovery, the active inclusion of Sa\u1e45gha into the mainstream political discourse is fundamental and is a necessary precondition. However, the manner in which the BBS led Sa\u1e45gha forcing to win such place in national politics is more than worrying. The news of Venerable G\u00f1anas\u0101ra forcible attempt to disrupt a Human Rights exhibition during the CHOGM summit that involved some relatives of war victims from Jaffna and his subsequent protest opposite the Sirikotha \u2013 the national headquarters of the UNP is unsurprisingly typical of BBS tactics. What dismays us is the news of the key UNP leaders coming out and begging forgiveness from the Venerable for allowing and arranging such a HR exhibition and vow to support BBS in their efforts to build a true Buddhist society.<\/p>\n

UNP with all its flows and blood soaked past is the alternative ruling party in this country. Unlike the SLFP, this party has had a history of greater room for minority accommodation in its ideology and political executions. Even while its first leader D. S. Senanayake disfranchised nearly a million Tamils and UNP strong man JRJ led an ethnic cleansing project in 1983, to-date a great portion of its voter bank constitutes the Tamils, Muslims and Catholics. UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a> is said to be a dictator without internal democracy and unable to lead the party even to a regional victory losing all\u00a0last 19 elections. Yet even his archrivals and critics will not be able to establish that is he a racist or does not regard the minorities. On the contrary the damaging profile of Wickremesinghe amongst the Sinhala nationalists is that he is pro \u2013 minority. Then it is disturbing to learn the dismantling stand for democracy within the UNP ranks in the face of a rather (un)Buddhist Sa\u1e45gha militancy.<\/p>\n

Fearless Sa\u1e45gha\u00a0in a pure Buddhist land\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

BBS in many ways borrows global and regional religious militancy facets. Like many anti\u00a0West Islamic\u00a0groups, it is modern in its operations. It uses all available modern communication and organization strategies. BBS is said to organize their sudden public confrontation agitations\/attacks on selected targets with short notice using sms and facebook chat rooms to avoid any opposition from the police or public. It has a daily updating website in which it offers at least 12 aims of the organization<\/a><\/span> that including establishment of a Bhikkhuni\/Meheni S\u0101sana and modernizing the Sa\u1e45gha education system. These are truly progressive on the face it. BBS when it became public first, even demanded a transparent wealth sharing process from the very rich Ata Maha \u015atana to support rural young Sa\u1e45gha. Such S\u0101sana Shodhana process is essential and long due. However, such aims seem mere textual than actual. Its claim of contributing to a casteless, beyond region, educated , full of Vinaya and S\u012bla Sa\u1e45gha society has become a mere PR fa\u00e7ade. BBS seems to take a different interpretation to every known fact of such discipline and the 227 P\u0101timokkha code of conduct of the Therav\u0101da Sa\u1e45gha. BBS strategies are based on two premises. First is historically reasonable \u2013 this is that Sa\u1e45gha s\u0101sana represents a fundamental, important role in reshaping the socio-politics of the Sinhalas and by that contribution, they have access to a sensitive public opinion. However, the second is a more construct and fanciful projection: namely that Political Sa\u1e45gha particularly militantly active Sa\u1e45gha have for centuries played a patriotic role in defending Buddhism in Lanka from internal and well external enemies. Such construction is not only un- Buddhist but ahistorical. In La\u1e45kan there were no solider monks like in Japan or China or soldier Sadhus of Indian (Vaishnava) Hinduism. The Sinhala Sa\u1e45gha who advised \/ supported struggled against foreign invasions in noncombatant way were very limited compared to the large number of Sa\u1e45gha who in numerous ways contributed to the preserving of the Therav\u0101din tradition. It is the work of V\u00e4livi\u1e6da Sara\u1e47a\u1e43kara under K\u012brti Sri R\u0101jasi\u1e43ha that revived a fallen Buddhism in Lanka, not the militant tactics of his contemporary Vib\u00e4v\u00e9 who led the Wella\u015bsa rebellion under a forged identity as prince Dorais\u0101mi (De Silva 2005). It is Venerable Hikka\u1e0duv\u0113 Sri Su\u1e43a\u1e45gala who painstakingly constructed an intellectual position for the Sa\u1e45gha reform and education under the British rule that revitalized the Pirivena education which had disappeared over a hundred years. It is the learned and eloquent debates of Mige\u1e6d\u1e6duvatt\u0113\u00a0Gu\u1e47\u0101nanda, at P\u0101nadura that answered Christian public challenges on Therav\u0101din abhidharma. History hardly talks of militant Sa\u1e45gha if one can find them, how they contributed to the preserving and developing the S\u0101sana. Instead, it is the tradition of Sa\u1e45gha who generation after generation complied, interpreted, popularized and publicly defended the faith by extremely academic, intellectual and dialectical process that protected Buddhism in Lanka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In post \u2013independent politics major parties are guilty of using ethnicity, religion and religious symbols to harness their vote blocks. MEP, JVP, SLFP, UNP even the traditional leftist parties have used the Sa\u1e45gha as voter attraction. My preliminary research shows that there are at least five waves of Sa\u1e45gha activism under direct political party affiliation in the recent history of Lanka. 1) D.S. Senanayake \/Walpola R\u0101hula combination running to the independence, 2) S.W.R.D.\/ M\u0101pitigama Buddharakkhita, 3) JRJ\/Davamottaw\u00eb Amarawa\u0146sa, 4) Mahinda \/JHU ( especially \u00c4lle Gunawa\u0146sa and Aturaliy\u0113 Ratana) and the historical development of an all Sa\u1e45gha party as JHU, 5) BBS\/R\u0101va\u1e47a Balaya\/ Sinhala R\u0101vaya\/ with unknown but speculated affiliations with Gh\u014dtabaya Rajapakse. As in the ancient history, at each of this junctures, politicians who used the Sa\u1e45gha soon became intolerant of them for they either demanded or forced them to do too much. These short-lived marriages have always ended in bitter divorce and damage. One could say that using Sa\u1e45gha for political ends is like walking on fire, you may have faith but the probability of being burnt is higher.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding nothing in the forgoing should take away the monumental influence and the directional role the Sa\u1e45gha had played in Lanka. However, the significant fact in Sinhala Buddhism is not the Sa\u1e45gha\/polity cross legitimizations but how such developments are accepted or even encouraged by the faithful Buddhist lay communities knowing these affiliations are contrary to the Sa\u1e45gha vinaya. Walpola R\u0101hula\u2019s justification for a newer Bhikkshuwage Urumaya (1948) is kind of a modern Mah\u0101va\u1e43sa for many Sa\u1e45gha, who possibly even would not bother to read the intellectual and Vinaya challenge to R\u0101hula by Venerable Henpitagedara G\u00f1anav\u0101ra through his \u2018Bhiskuwage Urumaya Kumakda? Or P\u00e4vidi Waga saha Sasun Maga by Venerable Yakka\u1e0duv\u0113 Prag\u00f1\u0101r\u0101ma. (See SL. Seneviratne – The Works of the Kings ( Chapter four) for a full discussion here<\/a><\/span>)\u00a0Because in Sinhala Buddhism ethnicity precedes spirituality. Nevertheless, in a post CHOGM context where Lanka received international attention on her poor Human Rights record that may now be used as unquestionable evidence for an UN led inquiry, the actions of BBS and its leaders are just deconstructing all what the moderate Sinhala Buddhist had desired after the war- A peaceful democracy with economic progress. Then again, democracy and development are not ontogenetic processes. They need be planned, cultivated, preserved and developed. Not only every Sinhala Buddhist supporting the militant path of BBS, but who is silently enjoying or tolerating, will be responsible for the deep damages it promises to deliver. The\u00a0news of UNP leadership begging forgiveness from militant BBS\/G\u00f1anas\u0101ra does not only betrays the hope of democratic recovery but also encourages and energizes a destructive trajectory for Sinhala Buddhism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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*Dr. Suren R\u0101ghavan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies \u2013 Wolfson College University of Oxford. His new book Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka\u2019s Civil War is scheduled to be published by Equinox- UK in summer 2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juergensmeyer, Mark, \u2018What the bhikkhu said: Reflections on the rise of militant religious nationalism\u2019 Religion Volume 20, Issue 1, January 1990, Pages 53\u201375<\/p>\n

Manor, James. The Expedient Utopian: Bandaranaike and Ceylon. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1989.<\/p>\n

Marty Martin E and R. Scott Apple (eds) Fundamentalisms Observed, Chicago University Press, 1994 Yakka\u1e0duv\u0113 Prag\u00f1\u0101r\u0101ma , Pavidi Waga sha Sasun Maha,Deepani Publishers, Gangodawila Nugegoda, Sri<\/p>\n

Lanka, 1970<\/p>\n

Perera Jayantha, Political Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka , Journal of Refugee Studies 1992, Volume 5, Issue 2 ,Pp. 136-148.<\/p>\n

R\u0101hula, Walpola, History of Buddhism in Ceylon; the Anuradhapura period, 3d century BC– 10th century–AC. M.D. Gunasena & Co., ltd. Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1956<\/p>\n

R\u0101hula, Walpola, Venerable. \u0db7\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dca\u0dc2\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0d9c\u0dda \u0d8b\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0db8\u0dba .Colombo 1947, 32nd Edition,. Colombo: Godage Brothers, 2009.<\/p>\n

Seneviratne, H. L. The Work of Kings: The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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