Rise of Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism: Special Reference to Post War Period in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Nationalism is described as one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. Sinhalese are an Indo- Aryan ethnic group native to the island of Sri Lanka, who make up around 73% of the island’s population, whose majority adheres to the teaching of Buddha, in other words Buddhists. They try to maintain superiority over the other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. This particular study will discuss the rise of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism with special reference to post war period in Sri Lanka after 2009. To achieve aforesaid objectives, qualitative approach has been used and secondary data is the main type of data obtained from various sources such as books, journal articles, newspapers and other relevant documents available in both printed and electronic versions. This study can be identify as a desk study. Through the study it has been identified that the vacuum left by the 30 years of ethnic conflict, has seemingly been filled by Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. The victory mind set of Sinhala Buddhist majority and the sense of defeat in the minds of Tamils in the North and Northeast provinces made a gap of unity and triggered mutual suspicions between the two groups. Tamils also feel that they are marginalized and discriminated in the South. By making discussions between people, identify the key issues and address them as the government, by formulating a common mechanism to fight against all sorts of ethnics and religions and introduce new amendments to the constitution to make it more secular as a country. However there are positive and negative impacts in rise of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka.