No right thinking person will dispute that a revival of the extremely rich Sinhala-Buddhist culture will rekindle in Sri Lankans a sense of pride in their country at a time when this is wearing thin. But what Sri Lanka is witnessing today is not the revival of pristine Buddhism. It is an aggressive and violent communalism of the Hindutva variety. Such a movement will be self-defeating if its main objective is to unify and strengthen Sri Lanka, a country already in tatters for a variety of reasons.

The aggressive Sinhala-Buddhist "nationalism" is being viewed with alarm by the minority communities, especially the Christians. The Sinhala-Christians are dismayed to find that, suddenly, they have been dubbed "less Sinhalese" or "less Sri Lankan" than their Buddhist compatriots. And the Tamils, both Hindu and Christian, feel that there is even more reason now to support the separatist LTTE, because it seems that to be a genuine Sri Lankan, one must be Sinhala-Buddhist.

Aggressive Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism has secular targets too. Historically, it is associated with anti-systemic politics in Sri Lanka and this worries those wedded to constitutionalism. Its traditional association with ultra-leftism rings alarm bells among the ruling class. It is a red rag to foreign investors and the new globalised economic regime. Economic commentators wonder how a country like Sri Lanka, which is heavily dependent on international trade, foreign aid and foreign investment, will cope with the displeasure of the new, globalised world regime.

In other words a new threat seems to have arisen to disturb Sri Lankans at a time when they are just about getting used to a 'no-war' situation vis a vis the Tamil Tiger rebels and hoping to resume normal economic activities and get ahead in life.

Attacks on churches

According to Godfrey Yogarajah, General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, 136 Christian places of worship were attacked between January 1, 2003, and January 31, 2004, by unidentified goons. Between December 24, 2003, and now, 56 churches had been attacked, the spurt being explained by the anti-Christian propaganda triggered by the sudden death of the popular Buddhist preacher, Ven. Soma Thero, who was running a campaign against "unethical" conversions by Christian evangelists.

"The police have made no arrests, even though in some cases, as in Homagama and Paadukka, we gave the names of the suspects. The police seem to under the control of the priests of Buddhist temples nearby. In the case of the Homagama church, the police had brought about a settlement, but that very night, the gang came back and attacked," Yogarajah told Hindustan Times.

The country’s leaders like President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are opposed to such religious intolerance and violent communal extremism. The President had ordered the police to take firm action, but this order seems to be dead letter. The Prime Minister is observing silence probably because he feels that the President, who had grabbed the Interior (Police) and Defense ministries from him, on November 4, should do the needful, and not he.

It is difficult to pin the responsibility for these attacks on any particular group or political party, but some political parties have been legitimizing the anti-Christian activities to increase their political/electoral prospects. In the latest round of attacks, the direct or indirect involvement of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is suspected by the victims. "The JVP’s organ Lanka has been carrying a lot of anti-Christian material.The JVP is giving up its Marxism and is portraying itself as a Buddhist party. In this connection, its spokesman, Wimal Weerawansa, had pointed that the party was formed in 1965 on a Buddha Jayanti Poya day (a day holy for the Buddhists)," noted an evangelist.

Yogarajah charges that a popular private TV channel is being used to spread canards about Christian evangelists. He recalls that in one TV discussion, it was said that the evangelists were distributing biscuits shaped like the Buddha!

Asked if it was not true that many dollar-rich, foreign-funded evangelical groups were converting poor Sinhala-Buddhists with money and other allurements, Yogarajah, said that it was possible that there were bad eggs in the basket but no specific complaints had been received by the National Churches and Evangelical Alliance about unethical conversions.

He said true evangelists were against conversion for money or allurements. "Such converts will go back to their original religions after getting the benefits. These are like voters in an election who accept money when offered to them, but who will actually vote only for the party of their choice.It is illogical and ridiculous to say that this is the main way of conversion," he argued.

According to him, there is no basis for the propaganda that the Christian population in Sri Lanka is increasing through conversion. "As per the official census, the Christian population is diminishing. In 1722, it was 21 per cent. But by 1981, it had come down to 8 per cent.And in the 2001 census, it was only 6.8 per cent. This itself will nail the theory that Christian conversion is taking place at an alarming rate," he pointed out.

Yogarajah suspects that the real reason for the attacks is the frustration among certain sections about the onset of the peace process. These forces, which wanted the war to continue, were taking out their frustrations on the vulnerable Christian community, he said. "They know that they cannot attack the Tamils any more, because of the LTTE factor. So they are taking on the weak Christian community which they know will not retaliate."

An article in The Sunday Island on February 1, by veteran commentator, Dayan Jayatilleka, reveals that there had been an upsurge in Sinhala-Buddhist communalism whenever there was popular discontent. Communal passions have been whipped up for the purpose of coming to power.

In 1953, when the effete secular left parties called off the mass protests over the withdrawal of the rice subsidy because eight people died in police firing, discontentment took on a majoritarian Sinhala Buddhist manifestation, Jayatilleka recalled. And in 1956, SWRD Bandaranaikes' Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) rode to power on a Sinhala-Buddhist wave. Bandaranaike introduced the "Sinhala-Only" Act, which directly led to the alienation of the Tamils, the country’s largest minority.

When the Green Revolution, introduced by Dudley Senanayake’s right wing United National Party (UNP) government, created poverty even as it boosted productivity, the resultant discontent took the form of Sinhala-Buddhist "xenophobia"; as well Marxist Leninist "symbolism" as represented by the JVP, Jayatilleka observes.

Sirima Bandaranaike, wife of the slain SWRD Bandaranaike, cashed in on this upsurge, and a Sinhala-Buddhist/Marxist government was formed. But this government’s austere policies and inability to solve the problems of the people triggered the abortive JVP putsch in 1971. Again, the problem had taken, or thought to have taken, the form of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism. To quote Jayatilleka again, as a post-insurrection "sop" to Sinhala nationalism, the new constitution proclaimed by Sirima in 1972, denied the minorities the protection hitherto enjoyed by them. Buddhism had been enshrined in the constitution as the foremost religion of Sri Lanka. The state was enjoined to protect it and foster it.

As expected, this had an adverse impact on majority-minority relations."That year, Sinhala-Buddhist Sri Lanka gave birth to Tamil New Tigers (TNT), the precursor of the Liberation Tigers (1976)," Jayatilleka recalls.

In the seventies and eighties, Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism was directed against the Tamil minority, and not the Christians or any other religious minority. But come 2003-04, the Tamils cease to be the objects of attack and Christians become one. In the 1983 anti-Tamil riots, Sinhala Roman Catholics joined Sinhala-Buddhists in attacking Tamil Catholics and Tamil Hindus. But in the past two years, the Tamils have disappeared from the radar screen and the Sinhala-Christians are the targets.

Sinhala-Buddhist communal feelings are whipped up by politicians for the sake of political or electoral mobilization, says Dr Jayadeva Uyangoda, Head of the Department of Political Science in Colombo Unitversity.

"Christians and Christianity are presented as the immediate enemy of the Sinhalese nation and Buddhism. For about two years, they have been building up a campaign of hysteria against conversion to Christianity. The uncertainty and tension that prevailed after the death of Rev. Gangodawila Soma Thera has provided these groups a new context and justification for violent action," Uyangoda writes in Daily Mirror.

Multiple adverse affects

Sri Lankan secularists fear that there could be three adverse consequences of the Shiva Sena/Bajrang Dal type of violent and xenophobic communalism:

1. It will destroy Sinhala unity and destroy the Sinhala Christians' commitment to the Sinhala community and to Sri Lanka as a country, because they are being looked upon as "second class" citizens. As Dayan Jayatilleka has said, it hurts to be told that Christians cannot be real Sri Lankans. "Sadly, people forget that many Christians have fought hard for the country on battle fields.Top Generals who had commanded troops in Jaffna Gerry de Silva, Anton Wijendra, Janaka Perera and Srilal Wijesuriya were Christians," he pointed out.

As Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole, of Peradeniya University, points out in a piece in Daily Mirror, SL Gunasekara's being a Christian stood in the way of his being nominated to the Sri Lankan parliament even though he was an outstanding spokesman of the Sinhala cause as the leader of the Sihala Urumaya party.

It will be useful here to contrast this with the attitude of the Tamils to the religious divide among themselves. Though Tamil Hindus are also complaining about Christian evangelisation in the Eastern districts and the tea plantations, they do not want to raise the issue now in order not to destroy Tamil solidarity vis-à-vis the Sinhalas in their fight for a separate Tamil Eelam. "The church supports our movement and we need its support," said a Hindu journalist even as he complained about conversion in his native Batticaloa. Jayatilleka feels that Sinhala disunity will be a boon to the LTTE.

Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism will also alienate the world's only Super Power, the United States, he warns. "By going against the evangelists, the Sinhala-Buddhists are going to alientate 45 million rich evangelists in the United States who are a powerful lobby there."

Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism will help the LTTE show the Sri Lanka state as a Sinhala Buddhist communal state. This could make the US, the West and even India, hostile to the Sri Lankan state, as indeed it had done in the past, Jayatilleka says.

2. It will destroy family unity in Sri Lanka. Many Sinhala families are part Buddhist, part Christian. This phenomenon, which helps cultivate tolerance at the familial level, will disappear over time. Sinhala Christians have been marrying Buddhists quite freely. This may stop if the lines are drawn rigidly and taboos are laid. The communal harmony which characterizes the Sri Lankan village and the urban slum, will disappear if the communal poison is injected into them.

3. There is a danger that the culture of intolerance will eventually catch up with the other minority, the Muslims.

Internationalisation suggested

Jayatilleka suggests the formation of a counter-coalition of religious and ethnic minorities, a "Minorities Bloc", and going international. Justifying this he says: "The Sri Lankan State is schizoid. One persona modern, liberal-democratic, representative and legitimate in the eyes of the world system, the other, an Asiatic despotism, or ancien regime of Sinhala-Buddhist Unitarianism with a religious hierarchy that has not been de-established, and which is totally at variance with the zeitgeist (the spirit of the times)."

PK Balachanddran is the Sri Lanka correspondent of Hindustan Times.

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