Comments on: Robert Kaplan’s Savage Orientalism: A detailed critique

By: ranjan

ranjan — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:29:33 +0000

(point of information)
“THE VERY FIRST RIOT IN MODERN SRI LANKAN HISTORY WAS NOT BETWEEN SINHALESE AND TAMILS BUT BETWEEN BUDDHISTS AND CATHOLICS. THE SO-CALLED KOTAHENA RIOT OF 1883 WAS QUICKLY PUT DOWN BY THE BRITISH AUTHORITIES,
[THE NEXT RIOT WAS IN 1915 BY SINHALESE BUDDHISTS AGAINST THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY – my words] This burgeoning Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, however, was subsumed by Sinhala linguistic nationalism, which enabled all Sinhalese, irrespective of their religious beliefs, to mobilize to make their language the island’s sole national language. It has also enabled Sinhalese Christians to oppose the LTTE as passionately as do Sinhalese Buddhists. Indeed, some of the most prominent generals in the Sri Lankan military have been Christians. The Sinhala language has succeeded so well in unifying Sinhalese Buddhists and Christians that THE PREDOMINANTLY SINHALESE CATHOLICS CLERGY IN THE SOUTH OFTEN REFUSE TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE MILITARY ATROCITIES PERPETRATED ON TAMIL CATHOLICS IN THE NORTHEAST; AND THE SINHALESE CATHOLIC LEADERSHIP IN COLOMBO IS KNOWN TO TREAT COMPLAINTS AND GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE STATE BY THEIR NORTHEAST TAMIL COUNTERPARTS WITH INDIFFERENCE.

Neil de Votta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka [East-West Centre, Washington, Policy Studies 40, 2007], p. 40

Sinhalese Buddhists and Christians todayâ€¦
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/buddhist_extremists_brutally_attack_catholic_church_in_sri_lanka/

By: Dhiraj

Dhiraj — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:35:07 +0000

I don’t think orientalism is limited to folks like Kaplan. Even some international news agencies try to portray the conflict as Sinhala Buddhist vs Tamil Hindu, giving the highlight to some supposed religious dimension. As Roberts mentioned, the Catholic Church has played a very political role during the conflict but many western writers are very reluctant to write about that. Some Christian priests (like those from the Four Square Church) were even convicted of transporting suicide bomb jackets to the south. For American conservatives like Kaplan this is “dirty laundry” that shouldn’t be aired because most of his readership is composed of conservative right wing Christians who don’t want to hear anything bad about followers of their faith. It is much easier to portray it as a conflict between two heathen groups, with Christians as the angelic doves who are caught between two hard rocks. Reality doesn’t mean much, because when one has an agenda, truth won’t stand in the way.

By: aadhavan

aadhavan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:30:58 +0000

Well, apparently the “experts” reports that the video was a concoction, was itself a concoction. Could we have fn 9 deleted out please? This guy is an amusing fraud.