A pacifist religion has been harnessed to an ethnocentric state ideology.

Evidence

Buddhism preaches tolerance and pacifism. However, many of its adherents among the majority Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka have resorted to ethnocentrism and militarism. Various arguments have been advanced to explain this paradox, although most objective observers agree that political Buddhism, which emphasizes politics over Buddhist values, and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism stoked ethnocentrism and militarism. This study argues that they have also contributed to a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology that is now fully embedded and institutionalized as state policy. A fundamental tenet of that nationalist ideology is the belief that Sri Lanka is the island of the Sinhalese, who in turn are ennobled to preserve and propagate Buddhism. The ideology privileges Sinhalese Buddhist superordination, justifies subjugation of minorities, and suggests that those belonging to other ethnoreligious communities live in Sri Lanka only due to Sinhalese Buddhist sufferance. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 35

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s core question — whether group solidarity is manufactured rather than primordial, since Buddhism itself (the ‘primordial’ marker) is in tension with the militarist ideology built on it.

Related

• A tolerant religion’s peaceful values do not prevent nationalist militarism by its adherents (similarity 0.89)
• A majoritarian Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ethos is now broadly accepted across Sri Lankan society (similarity 0.88)
• Sinhalese Buddhist supremacy is a constructed ideology built on deployed mytho-history, not primordial reality. (similarity 0.87)
• The nationalist ideology is broadly accepted even by non-nationalist Buddhists (similarity 0.87)
• The nationalist ideology refuses to critique the state it helped design. (similarity 0.87)
• Entrenched Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism forecloses federal solutions and portends broader attacks on minorities (similarity 0.86)
• Sinhalese Buddhist identity is constructed through mythic history rather than primordial descent. (similarity 0.85)
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology commands broad popular support in Sri Lanka (similarity 0.85)
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism is reactive, not primordial (similarity 0.85)
• Sinhalese nationalist claims rest on chronicle authority and a myth of paternalistic tolerance. (similarity 0.85)
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology rests on mythic history yet betrays Buddhism’s core values (similarity 0.85)
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology casts minorities as tolerated guests in a Sinhalese island (similarity 0.85)
• The monastic interpretation emphasizing Buddhist supremacy triumphed over the pragmatic one (similarity 0.84)
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism rests on a foundational belief in Buddhist sufferance toward minorities (similarity 0.84)
• Monks frame Buddhism’s special status as necessary protection against a hostile world (similarity 0.84)