Avurudu at my maternal family village, Kitulgoda.
To some people, the term Sinhala-Buddhist means racist warmonger. Without much evidence, they ascribe all sorts of terrible things to the ‘Sinhala-Buddhist mind’. It’s not true, and it’s not fair. It’s just racist and dumb.
I won’t deny that they are douchey Sinhala-Buddhists, but there are douchey Tamils as well, as well as Chinese, Japanese, Lithuanians. It’s really equal opportunity douche. To write off any race as something or the other does a great disservice to millions of people, and reality.
For example, I am a Sinhala-Buddhist. It’s not really my core identity, but technically, yeah. My family is from the south, I speak terrible Sinhala (but better than Tamil) and I’m a Buddhist (albeit without much of the cultural forms). Hence I was surprised to see the following views ascribed to me:
Although the comprehensive military victory over the LTTE was celebrated on a massive scale and the entire Sinhala-Buddhist populace responded to it as if they achieved the ultimate victory over the Tamil North. There is also wider acceptance, at the same time, that the mission is not fully accomplished. There are a number of fronts to fight in: taming and de-nationalizing Tamil politics, discrediting the Tamil Diaspora, changing the demography in the North, etc. In addition, the reconstitution of the “historic” Sinhala-Buddhist North (and East) is also recognized as a prominent task. (Groundviews, obvs)
I’m a member of the Sinhala-Buddhist populace, I guess, and that wasn’t my reaction at all. Nor do I want to subjugate the Tamils. I’m a Sri Lankan and I want to live. For someone to dismiss me and millions of diverse people like me for our race is just not cool, and it’s not right.
I’m always suspicious when people ascribe anything to populations greater than 10. When you’re talking about millions of people, any statement is simply bound to be not true. When you’re saying something mean, it’s bound to be both offensive and wrong.
You simply cannot say anything much about the entire Sinhala-Buddhist population because we’re really a diverse lot. To ascribe such negativity to us, just based on race, is deeply unfair. I understand that I’m an outlier, but the idea that there’s some collective unconscious that all Sinhala-Buddhists tap into is just mad. Seriously, talk to 11 different people and you’ll get some pretty diverse opinions.
Say the same things about another race and see how it sounds. All Jews want to eliminate Palestinians. All Americans support war on Iran. Really? Any intelligent person can think of multiple counter-examples immediately, if they’ve ever met or heard from the people in question. It’s just a lazy argument, pathetic if it weren’t also so dangerous.
There is nothing wrong with being Sinhala or being Buddhist, no more than there is anything wrong with being Tamil, Muslim or whatever you are. While they are bad apples in all of these bushels, race and religion are just but one way to slice up humanity, and it’s not like asshole is correlated with these traits alone. So please, show a little respect to different races and religions. Including the Sinhala Buddhists. We’re really not so big and bad at all.
Sinhala-Buddhism is not a religion or a culmination of religion and an ethnicity necessarily, that’s only a part of it. Sinhala-Buddhist is a mind-set, it’s the mind-set that proclaims that this country belongs to the Sinhalese and it’s religion is buddhism and deserves the foremost place. The history according o the S-B is written in the Mahavamsa, the rest of the fellows can exists but really they are the pariahs, without real ownership to the country. The politics of S-B tries to establish. That is the root cause of the conflict we had and that is very much the predominant ideology in the country. If you deny that, you are going to the wrong clubs ESE.
No it’s not. It’s a conjunction joining a race and a religion. Is being an Israeli-Jew a set mindset? Is being an African-American? No, that’s just racist.
We’re diverse people, all of us. Judge us on who we are, not our demographics, or even the history of those demographics.
I’m Sinhala Buddhist and proud. Yeah, I’m ESE, but that’s where I’m from and I can still have a meal back in the village with love. Nothing wrong with it, and the JHU and assorted extremists don’t define me, or my grandmother, or dudes in Hikkaduwa, or Tanamalwila (odd sample, I know). We’re all different and we’re all people. Respect the humanity and individuality of all people, that’s all I’m saying.
Vast majority of the Sinhala Buddhist don’t give a damn about the Sinhala Buddhist hegemony or any of the JHU hogwash. The sinhala buddhist monster is a creation of the people who can make money out of claiming to fight this imaginary beast.
I agree just because you identify yourself as a S-B doesn’t mean you are a chauvinist.
Interestingly the other groups are not called or referred to as Hindu Tamils or Muslim Tamils or Sinhala catholics rather just Tamils, Muslims or burghers. The S-B identify is the one that gets called out.
In my interpretation of Sinhala Buddhist in the context of the grouping that has the minority complex in the majority community, are a number, not the majority of those who are Sinhala and also Buddhist. They espouse extreme views that are harmful to the unity and sanctity of the sovereign state. Muslim Militants is another minority grouping within the Muslim community that espouses violence as a means to achieving their objectives.
If one were to try to be more precise, one could call this group Sinhala Buddhist extremists who are only a subset of the Sinhala people who are also Buddhist. So the name attaches itself to people who believe this country is the sole preserve of Sinhala Buddhists and those that aren’t have no place in the Island. Unfortunately there is a huge minority of those who take this view and this Govt. and the Buddhist clergy have done little to distance themselves from this view in part because they perceive a threat to their very existence, the Minority complex I referred to.
It is the duty of all sane people like you to try and remove this outmoded idea of SB and try and get them to be inclusive of all communities that inhabit this island, and that they all have an equal right to live and work and enjoy the benefits of citizenship in this paradise isle.
I agree with ‘Patta Pal’ that the word Extremists must be used in this context. For example, just because a Buddhist monk is accused of being drunk or a Catholic priest is accused of homosexuality; no one should caste those as bad religions.