Yoshio Sugimoto, "The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism: Anagarika Dharmapala and Nationalism" Summary and Comments - Why did the Sri Lankan Civil War happen? Buddhist Nationalism and the Connection between Religion and Violence
I would like to introduce "The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism: Anagarika Dharmapala and Nationalism" by Yoshio Sugimoto, published by Kaze Kyosha in 2021.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Questioning the inherent violence of religion
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The civil war over Tamil secession, the conflict with the Muslims, and the terrorist attacks of 2019 have shaken the Buddhist holy land of Sri Lanka to its very foundations. This book is a laborious work that interrogates the thought of the Dharmapala, who founded their own reformed Buddhism under colonial rule, from its roots, and reveals the violence latent in it from an anthropological and genealogical perspective.
by Toshio Shibuya, introduced in the previous article.Sri Lanka Today Magazine.Now we will look at the Sri Lankan civil war that lasted from 1983 to 2009.
And in this book, "The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism: Anagarika Dharmapala and Nationalism," you will learn more about the background to this civil war.
The major catalyst for this civil war was the conflict between the Sinhala Buddhists, who make up the majority of Sri Lanka's population, and the Hindu Tamils, who constitute a minority. However, this conflict did not begin in the beginning. It was the unique religious and ethnic outlook of Sri Lanka, where Buddhism and nationalism are linked, that intensified the conflict.
A huge influence on this Sinhala Buddhist nationalism was a man named Dharmapala, who is also the subtitle of this book.
Sri Lankan scholar Ovesekara called the Sri Lankan Buddhism created by Dharmapala "Protestant Buddhism (Reform Buddhism). Sri Lankan Buddhism may give the impression that it is the inheritance of the oldest Buddhism, but in fact it was not, but rather a movement that became active in the 19th century. This book takes a detailed look at the history of how Buddhism and Sinhalese nationalism became linked and led to civil war. In particular, we will take a close look at the life of Dharmapala, as if he were a biography. The book is a unique history of Sri Lankan Buddhism.
At the beginning of this book, the author describes the book as follows. It is a bit long, but I will read it carefully because it is an important part of the general framework of Buddhism and nationalism in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon, Lanka) has been described as the "Pearl of the Orient" in the Indian Ocean, or as an island of tea and jewels, or as a world-class Buddhist country that preserves the tradition of primitive Buddhism, all with very beautiful images. Those involved in Buddhism, including scholars, have reverently dedicated themselves to the "pure Buddhism" and "primitive Buddhism" of the island, which is close to its origins, regarding the Golden Mouth teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni Buddha as the fundamental teachings. Sri Lankan Buddhism is "Theravada Buddhism" in the tradition of Vibhajjavada, which is based on strict ordination, and in this sense has been considered the center of world Buddhism.
However, since the change of the country's name from "Ceylon" to "Sri Lanka" (meaning "shining island") in 1972, the country has ironically been consistently associated with terrorism and bloodshed and seems to have gained more notoriety than notoriety. As Pradeep Jeganathan grimly observes, Sri Lankan scholars do not choose the issue of violence as their subject matter, and to talk about Sri Lanka today is to talk about violence [Jeganathan 1998b: 90].
The ethno-religious conflict that has shaken Sri Lanka to its very core for a quarter of a century since the "Black July" of July 1983 was declared defeated on May 17, 2007 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Tamil rebel group. On May 17, 2009, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) declared defeat, and on May 19, the body of its long-time leader, V. Prabhakaran (1954-2009), was identified, bringing the Tamil separatist movement to a conclusion. According to a November 2012 UN report, more than 100,000 people have died in the past 26 years, with more than 40,000 killed in the five months before the end of the war. The Sri Lankan government was highly displeased with this report, but the impact on the people of Sri Lanka during this period was immeasurable.
Fudokyosha, Yoshio Sugimoto, "The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism: Anagarika Dharmapala and Nationalism," p. 1-2.
As Sri Lankan scholars equally recognize, Anagarika Dharmapala is without doubt the greatest Buddhist reformer of the 19th to the 10th centuries [Brekke 2002: 63; Bond 1988: 53; Gombriti Opesekara 2002] and the founding father of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism [Venugopal 2018: 45]. He is also the founding father of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism [Venugopal 2018: 45]. The ultimate goal was to build a powerful politico-religious group to politically apply his new religious views. In addition to being a Buddhist nationalist in Sri Lanka, Dharmapala was also involved in the struggle to reclaim Bodh Gaya in India as a Buddhist holy place, and his later life after his expulsion from Sri Lanka in 1915 was rather focused on that activity. He also took pride in being the first ever Buddhist missionary, and carried out the important mission of preaching the virtues of Buddhism to the world, including the West [Brekke 2002: 86; Seneviratne 1999; Amunugama 1985: 720].
Fudokyosha, Yoshio Sugimoto, "The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism: Anagarika Dharmapala and Nationalism," p. 6-7.
Ceylon, as the headquarters of Buddhism in the world, and Sri Lanka, which is riddled with terrorism and violence, are deeply connected through the modern reformed Buddhism of Anagarika Dharmapala, as mentioned at the beginning of this book. This book seeks to trace the origins of Dharmapala's Buddhist modernism, Buddhist nationalism, and Buddhist mission, and then to trace their development in Ceylon and beyond, and even their influence on the violence-ridden Sri Lanka of today, in a genealogical manner. This is because I believe that examining the problems of Sri Lanka, even though it is a small island nation, is an important touchstone for examining the issue of religion and violence in the wider context.
Fudokyosha, Yoshio Sugimoto, "The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism: Anagarika Dharmapala and Nationalism," p. 9.
spoken at the end of these quotes."I believe that examining the problems of Sri Lanka, even as a small island nation, is, after all, an important touchstone for examining issues of religion and violence more broadly."is a very big issue for me as well.
I have studied religion and violence from a variety of perspectives. Previously.Toshio Shibuya, "Sri Lanka's Modern History: a highly recommended work that clearly summarizes the relationship between ethnic conflict and religion in Sri Lanka."But as I mentioned, I visited Bosnia in 2019 to learn about the ethnic conflict.
After returning to Japan, I have also considered the violence and danger of religion in relation to war, totalitarianism, and Marxism in my study of "Shinran and Dostoevsky".
Especially by Toby Green, who read it in the vein of "Don Quixote".The Inquisition: The Reign of Terror That Undermined Spain's Great Power.is precisely the work that has given me great insight into religion and nationalism. Although there is no clear-cut nationalism in this period, the way we distinguish between our religious group and others and use it for political purposes is exactly the same.
I have studied mainly the history of religion and violence in the West. I have felt that monotheistic religions are often used as ideologies for waging war. In contrast, I thought that Buddhism, which does not have an absolute God, or justice, as its doctrine and appeals for non-violence, would be less likely to be used as an ideology for war. Of course, there are facts in Japanese history, such as the fact that warlords were deeply devoted to Buddhism, that temples were burned down, and that Japan was involved in the war in World War II. However, I felt that Buddhism may not appear as the primary ideology of conflict.
But here in Sri Lanka, this was not the case. Buddhism became associated with Sinhalese identity and even the concept of jihad was born. In this book, we will take a closer look at the process of this connection between Buddhism and nationalism. This is very interesting. The "no way" things were happening here in Sri Lanka.
What exactly is Buddhism in the Buddhist country of Sri Lanka?
Here is a world very different from the Buddhist world we imagine.
This book is an excellent work, full of very interesting information on what religion is all about.
I highly recommend this book. Why not pick up a copy?
This is "Yoshio Sugimoto, The Legacy of Buddhist Modernism - Why did the Sri Lankan Civil War Occur? Buddhist Nationalism and the Connection between Religion and Violence".
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