Rally Of The Un-Enlightened
Dr. Ameer Ali
Sri Lanka is getting deeper and deeper into an intractable political, economic, social and geopolitical morass, from which there is less hope for an early relief without avoiding at great cost economic suffering, communal bloodletting, depreciated sovereignty and maligned international reputation. In spite of all theoretical and erudite explanations for this multi-dimensional malaise, by political scientists, economists, sociologists and foreign policy experts, there is no running away from one crucial fact that lies at the core of all this mess, and that is, the failure by successive governments and political leadership to build a united democratic Sri Lanka, instead of, as they did, a majoritarian state founded on political Buddhism. Warnings by leftist parliamentarians in the nineteen fifties and sixties against numerous measures and legislations, such as the Sinhala Only Bill and medium of instruction in schools, which in their view, were bricks laid to construct a Sinhala Buddhist majoritarian state, were scorned by political and religious vested interests, and rejected by a brainwashed Sinhala Buddhist voting public.
Starting with Christians in the fifties, followed soon by Tamils and lately Muslims, the Sinhala Buddhist majoritarian state, through subtle and open measures, systematically encroached into whatever regions or domains in which these communities demonstrated some strength, with a determined purpose to aggrandize its own share at the expense of other communities. This majoritarianism, which has nothing to do with Buddhism as a compassionate and universal philosophy that came to free humanity from its miseries, led to the early migration of Burghers, a civil war with Tamils and now an economic and religious battle with Muslims. The last of these started in earnest only after 2009, when the majoritarian state vanquished the Tamil separatists militarily.
Unlike the Burghers, Muslims did not run away from the country to seek asylum elsewhere whenever they were subjected to physical violence and material losses; and, unlike the Tamils, Muslims never aspired for any division of the country. Just as it is foolish for Muslim leaders to expect their foreign brethren to come to the aid of locals, so also it is madness for Islamophobes to think that they could dispatch all Muslims to Arabia. Muslims of Sri Lanka like the Sinhalese were born here, will live here and die here. They have no other country to go to.
Historically, the Muslim community is noted for two unique characteristics: an obsession with commercial pursuits, which earned them the sobriquet ‘business community’, and a passion for religiosity. For over one thousand years, these two characteristics blended harmoniously and cross fertilised within the economic and cultural ethos of Sri Lanka. How and why did they now become problematic? It is in answering this question that one could understand the nature of the prevailing anti-Muslim remonstrance, the emerging threat of another round of violence, and the significance of the July 7 call for 10,000 Bhikkus to assemble in Kandy under the auspices of Bodu Bala Sena.
Ever since Muslims settled in this country and became indigenised they had been the backbone of the nation’s retail trading sector. They were the predominant Vaisya community in a Buddhist and Hindu caste environment, which downgraded the social status of merchants and traders. At a time when roads were not constructed and modern means of transport were not introduced, it was the Muslim tavalam men, who travelled for days and nights across the country, transacting goods of varied sorts and satisfying the consumption needs of many a home and family in the interior that were otherwise remained disconnected to the maritime centres of trade and commerce. In the 19th century, it was the same routes traversed by these men, that were paved, tarred and macadamised to become modern roads, and it was the resting places or caravanserais of these traders, which through conjugality with local women emerged as Muslim villages. As the country developed economically and was modernised with markets, towns and cities, the travelling merchants of yore settled in these centres and opened boutiques and shops that became an iconic marker of the nation’s modernity and urbanity. Thus, the distributive role of today’s Muslim retail businessmen, who are threatened with extinction by far-right Buddhist nationalists, is inextricably intertwined with the economic history and development of Sri Lanka.
In the post-1977competitive open market economy introduced by JR Jeyewardene, success is not guaranteed to any competitor, and that is particularly true in retail business. There are three important variables that determine the success or failure of a retail trader: quality, price and service. If a buyer could find a quality product at the cheapest price from a vendor who serves with smile and treat the buyer with kindness and respect that seller would surely win the attachment of his customers. When the number and visits of such customers increase the seller’s business would expand and prosper. Those retailers who fail to compete on these terms would have to leave the market.
Because of the historical and perhaps even religious attachment to business (the Quran and the Hadith have a special place for this profession) today’s Muslim community has inherited a stock of knowledge that adds to its business capital. Even then, not all Muslim businessmen have succeeded, countless have crashed, quite a number are just surviving and a few have grown big of whom one or two may have become megalithic. It is the last two categories that have earned the envy of rivals from other communities particularly from the Buddhist petty bourgeoisie. There is evidence that behind several attacks that were targeted so far against successful Muslim business premises were hirelings in the payroll of jealous rivals.
However, in the political agenda of the Buddhist far-right the only way to crush the economy of Muslims is to destroy their businesses. The appeal to the Sinhalese to boycott Muslim shops translates this agenda into practice. A number of canards were unleashed to drive away Sinhalese customers from patronising Muslim shops. That Muslim businessmen were distributing sweets mixed with contraceptive powder, as compliments to Sinhalese women customers; that Muslim restaurants were doing the same when selling food and drinks; and, that Muslim salesmen were sexually luring young Sinhalese girls, were some of them. None of these allegations were actually proved either scientifically or in the courts of law. What is even more shocking is the fact that this campaign is supported by some sections from the Buddhist Sangha. The absurdity of this scare campaign reached its height recently when poor patients in certain public hospitals were forced to reject free food distributed by wealthy Muslims in the name of charity. Muslim peddlers and retail traders are also being prevented from entering certain weekly markets. Local councils are denying permission for them to open businesses even though these traders have paid the licence fee. Amidst all this happenings the government is pathetically showing no sign of taking any action.
