Buddhist nationalist supremacy on Muslims in post war Sri Lanka

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.