Doctoral candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada
Posted: March 4, 2011 09:02 PM
Read More: Buddhism ,
Hinduism ,
Karma ,
Karma And Buddhism ,
Karma And War ,
Killing And Karma ,
Mahinda Rajapaksa ,
Religion And Politics ,
Sri Lanka ,
Sri Lankan Civil War ,
Tamil Tigers ,
Religion News Over the past month, there has been some speculation among members of the global Tamil community on whether Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Texas to obtain cancer treatment in secret. The story in itself is not particularly interesting, but it does have relevance for the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka. Many reacted to the news not with sadness, but with a sense that cosmic justice was being meted out. Some argued that Rajapaksa, responsible for mass human rights violations during the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, was now getting his just desserts. Although many nationalist Tamils profess to be atheist or secular, the reaction to the news was always framed in Hindu and Buddhist notions of karma, popularly defined in the West as "what goes around comes around."
Amarnath Amarasingam
