Abstract:
All three western colonial powers namely the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British that
governed Sri Lanka in varying degrees during the period 1505 – 1948, had as the
cornerstone of their imperial policy the conversion of the Sinhala Buddhists and the
Tamil Hindus into Christianity. This enterprise had the blessings of the highest strata of
populace of the imperial countries including the Crown, the State and the Church. The
avowed political objective in converting the colonized was to transfer their allegiance
from the local sovereign to the foreign sovereign, and alienate the converted from
identification with their traditional religion, culture, language and sense of selfdetermination.
This plan invariably required the use of manipulative methods of
conversion and the repression of indigenous religions i.e. Buddhism and Hinduism, by
both overt and covert means.
This paper will examine as illustrative of Western colonial policy on religion, some
aspects of the measures adopted during the first phase of Western Colonialism in Sri
Lanka i.e. the Portuguese period (1505 – 1658), to forbid the practice of Buddhism,
Hinduism and Islam in territories under Portuguese control. This paper will refer to
repressive proclamations, decrees and laws enacted by the Portuguese authorities in
both Goa and Sri Lanka, and cite as examples various instances of acts of persecution,
discrimination, and destruction of places of worship of the Buddhists, Hindus and
Muslims.
An underlying theme of this paper is cognizance of the irony that some of the Western
countries that champion human rights in the modern era and lecture on religious liberty
to descendants of the persecuted victims in the Third World, are the very same countries
that had in the past systematically violated the human rights of the colonised in non –
Christian societies. In particular the latter’s inalienable rights to freedom of religious
worship.
This paper is based on research and examination of the writings of historians and
commentators, including both Portuguese and Sri Lankan, and Sinhalese historical
chronicles such as the Culavamsa and Rajavaliya.
