Betraying Buddhism And Undermining Sri Lanka
By Tisaranee Gunasekara -January 26, 2014
“If they come with sword, we answer with sword. If they come with kindness, we answer with kindness. Otherwise you cannot live in this world. Even Lord Buddha approved of this and said that you should not remain silent in the face of provocation…..” - Ven. Ellawala Medhananda, founder-leader, JHU ()[i]
In January 2014, Stanley J Tambiah – whose ‘Buddhism Betrayed?: Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka’ became a hate-symbol for people who rarely ventured beyond the first two words of its title – died.
That same month, the Pew Research ranked Sri Lanka among the 20 countries with the highest levels of religious hostilities in 2012[ii]. Sri Lanka’s Government Restrictions Index (which ‘measures government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices’) increased from 5.4 in December 2011 to 5.9 in December 2012. Her Social Hostilities Index (which ‘measures acts of religious hostility by private individuals, organisations or groups in society’) jumped from 7.1 in December 2011 to 7.7 in December 2012.
That sudden spurt in anti-Muslim/Christian/Hindu violence happened with the behemothic advent of the BBS into the national scene. Today attacks on religious minorities have become a Lankan norm as extremist entities (JHU/BBS/Sinhala Ravaya/Ravana Balaya) try to outrank each other in inanity, irrationality and violent-intolerance, in a climate of official permissiveness and impunity.
In the teaching of Gautama Buddha there is no concept of holy war, no justification for promoting/protecting the Dhamma through force, violence or compulsion. Classical Buddhism accepts that violence is a part of statecraft; a Buddhist ruler may employ violence[iii] but that violence is of the secular and not religious variety. The one who used political power to entrench himself was not the Buddha but Devadatta, who utilised King Ajasattha’s might to promote his ‘teaching’ and attack his opponents.
Given this crystal clear and unequivocal stance, Buddhism was (and continues to be) betrayed not by Prof. Tambiah but by those who use a teaching premised on ahimsa to justify war and violence.
According to the Buddha’s teaching the killing of any living being is a sin and those who commit such deeds have to suffer the consequences in this and subsequent births. The dilemma caused by this belief system to the Lankan kings is easy to imagine. They needed armies to protect their thrones and/or to extend their politico-geographical holdings. But if true Buddhism took root in the island, finding soldiers to fight their wars may have become next-to-impossible. Read More
