Buddhist Nationalism, Authoritarian Populism, and The Muslim Other in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In this paper Gamage argues that the encounter of early Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka with colonial rule and capitalist modernity uniquely influenced the emergence of an exclusivist, majoritarian politics against ethnic and religious minorities. In its contemporary expression, the Bodu Bala Sena frames the Muslim "Other" as undermining the cultural and economic sovereignty of the "Sinhala-Buddhist nation." This in turn reinforces the majoritarian and modernization imperatives of the modern Nation-State, manifested most recently in the authoritarian populist politics of the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. This paper starts off with a brief review on Islamophobia, generally and in the context of Asian societies more specifically. This paper borrows from a conceptualization of "Islamophobia" that interprets it as more than just individual attitudes or beliefs toward Muslims. Rather it is a process of racial abstraction that misleadingly classifies otherwise diverse groups into a generic Muslim "race".