Sinhale is a sticker and a word, which shouldn’t be that bad. However, given Sri Lanka’s recent history with racism and war, it quickly brings to mind pitchforks and war. In the video here I did a one-take on it for YAMU’s new Weekly Show:
I won’t repeat the script here, but suffice it to say that the Sinhale movement isn’t necessarily racist, but in practice it is. Especially online, it’s tied up with the usual racist bullshit (think BBS) – ie, Sinhalese great, Muslims bad, this is a Sinhala country, etc. There are a lot of wonderful things about Sinhala culture, but this parochial racism isn’t one of them. We’re an island people and we evolved by taking the best of other cultures (Buddhism, chili, cricket) and making them our own. We have also co-existed with different types of people for basically ever.
Thankfully, the Sinhale scene doesn’t seem that big (right now). It is more decentralized than the BBS and has far no government support. As I point out in the video, the positive messages on our streets are winning, for now.
“ …. The positive messages on our streets are winning, for now”
Unfortunately, these streets you refer to are the streets of (Greater) Colombo.
One has no idea as to how this concept is being received in streets outside Colombo. It should be borne in mind that on every working day, an estimated 500,000 workers flow into Colombo from these areas. Each of these persons will serve as an opinion leader in their respective locations. Take cognizance of the spontaneous support being extended by many Tuk Tuk drivers. Would this reflect the potential for some kind of support among a certain social classes ?
The messages delivered by the BBS-led agitation resonated with large numbers of Buddhists. Although they were strongly critical of the methods of delivery of such messages, many were of the view that there was some truth in what was being said. (“Kiyana Eke Athakuth Thiyanawa Ne ?”).
The BBS attempted to achieve their goals by projecting the Muslim Community as a Threat to the future of Buddhists and by extension to Sri Lanka.
If the Sinha Le organization has learned from the failure of the BBS, then we can expect them to try a different tack to achieve the same ultimate goal. Although it is too early to arrive at such a conclusion, it appears that the strategy of the Sinha Le organization is to project the Buddhist Community as being in dire need of having to be strengthened (in all socio-economic dimensions) as a Community in order to ensure it’s future well-being and by extension that of the country. Hence the unifying, highly-emotional slogan ‘Sinha Le’, which few Sinhalese can reject or resist.