It does not really matter to what religion you belong to. Whether you can live up to what the “Enlightened One” or “The Light of Asia” taught us to believe and do in our lives is what matters. With so much of violence and blood (by all parties) calling Sri Lanka a Buddhist nation or even talking about the supremacy of Buddhism is just a farce.

You should read Amartya Sen “The argumentative Indian”. The book is on Indian culture, history and identity.

In page 83 of the book Sen says ” one of the sad features of a narrowly Hinduized view of India’s past is that the justifiable pride Indians can take in the achiements of non-Hindu as well as Hindu accomplishments in India is drowned in the sectarianism of seeing India as mainly a vehicle for Hindu thought and practise. That, combined with an astonishingly narrow and intolerant view of the Hindu tradition itself, amounts to denying a good deal of Indian history that Indians have reason to remember and to celebrate.”

Do you see a similarity in what Sen has written in his book on India and what is happening in the island across the Palk Strait called Sri Lanka?

Sen has also argued that India belongs to all its people which includes Hindus, Muslims, and others including athiests and agnostics.
In a similar manner Sri Lanka also belongs to all its people and not just the Sinhalese. No religion is “supreme” in Sri Lanka. The Constitution says that Buddhism should be given the “foremost” place.
It does not say “supreme.”

The Sinhala people are a majority in Sri Lanka. That does not mean that they alone own the country. The minorities own it as well.

You do not talk of Buddhist fundametalism?

And Susantha, you are right Buddhism did stand against the external threat but the issue is can it stand against an internal one? Look at what is happening to Catholicism in Ireland. Many are leaving the church because of internal problems.

So, my fear is that when people see the dichotomy in what the leaders say and do vis a vis their religious dogmas (since the war was also fought to protect and establish Sinhala-Buddhism). The Buddha taught non-violence, pacifism, love for one’s enemies (after all can a Sinhalese be reincarnated as a Tamil and vice versa?) etc…but when they see the very self-proclaimed protectors doing something quite the opposite, it could very well implode.

Of course I do admit that this is uncharted waters and so I may be wrong too.

Let’s wait and see!

2.”Soon many Sinhala-Budhists will be disillusioned and will even turn away from their religion.”

I think Vishnu meant the sort of ‘moving away’ of Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, … from the label of religions when some followers of those religions misinterpret their religions and behave inhumanely.

3.Some Hindus regard Buddhism as a section of Hinduism and some centuries ago some South Indian Hindus (some of whom migrated to Sri Lanka) outwardly showed it intensely. Many Hindus(as Christians or Muslims) have immense reverence for Buddha.

4.With evolution of human thinking we arrived at UN Charter 60 yrs ago. As our thinking is still evolving many feel that there must be UN Reform. One step in the direction is R2P. Dynamism between this evolution, effect of advances in science and technology and inevitable changes in the physical planet lends itself to the evolution of humanism which is, in effect, the fusion of the spirit of all religions.

Since you refer to Sri Lankans abroad please remember that they are the ones who fight Tamil terror abroad especially students some failed even exams while spending time to inform people in those countries about the injustice done to he sinhala nation

Lincoln said: ‘The dogmas of the past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As is our case anew so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves. And then we shall save our country.’

Disenthrall. Sri Lanka has been enthralled with violence, blood, ethnicity and the superficial divisions that separated us for decades. We might not have leaders that venture beyond simplistic notions of us and them and we might never have a Lincoln or a Lee Kwan Yew. But we have their words so lets heed them.

Soon many Sinhala-Budhists will be disillusioned and will even turn away from their religion.

Others will migrate or send their children if they can’t go themselves.

And it is quite unlikely that we will ever become like Singapore… look at their policy on race, it’s totally different. Lee Kwam Yew said, “It is the responsibility of the majority Chinese to look after the interests of the minorities and make sure they have more than equal opportunities to develop. We must do everything possible to make sure they don’t feel discriminated against and feel they have any grievances whatsoever” (I am quoting from memory so I may be wrong LKY at 25th Anniversary Celebrations in 1984)