Abstract:
Sri Lanka is a country with a multicultural society. In the modern world, nationalism is a critical factor of
today’s conflict. In Sri Lanka, there are 70% of Buddhists. Tamils and Muslims are minority people. They are
13.7% of the total population. In ancient time there was a good relationship between Buddhists and Muslims.
However, following the end of Sri Lankan civil war in 2009, the relationship between them began to collapse.
The victory of the war was seen as a victory of Buddhists. And also the rise of religious fundamentalist groups
in the post-war period caused tension among ethnic groups. These nationalist groups have influenced the
Muslim community beyond the limits of tolerance. The research problem of this study is to explain the impacts
of Buddhist nationalism on the Muslim community. The study refers to the development of Buddhist
nationalism in pre-war Sri Lanka and its influence in politics. The objective of this study is to find out the origin
and the activities of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism and its impact on the Muslim community in the post-war
period. This study takes the form of qualitative and descriptive analysis and the data was collected from
secondary sources. The formation of Buddhist nationalism in post-war Sri Lanka is aimed at protecting the
Buddhist ideology and their activities which are supported by the government against the Muslim community. It
is found out from the data analysis that though the Buddhist nationalism is formed to protect Buddhism, it has
been influencing over other communities.
