Buddhist monks rationalize warfare against separatists as dhamma-justified

Evidence

Some extremist monks, like their lay colleagues, also argue that federalism (or devolution of power) would eventually dismember the island and that a unitary state that ensures Buddhism’s dominant status is sine qua nons for propagating Theravada Buddhism. Fears concerning a fractious and disunited sangha may be associated with many monks’ aversion to devolution (de Silva 2006), although the separatist conflict has certainly encouraged a militarist and uncompromising attitude among Sri Lanka’s Buddhist clergy (Premasiri 2006: 79). Thus, for instance, when asked in an interview if “fighting” (i.e., waging war) was justifiable from the standpoint of the dhamma, Walpola Rahula replied: “Why not? Take King Kosala a disciple of the Buddha. He did fearlessly fight terrorism in his Empire. The solution has to be the solution of the majority of the people” (Peiris 1996). — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 152

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core question about threat-hardened convictions and whether professed religious belief predicts action — here the sangha’s professed Buddhist pacifism is explicitly inverted to endorse war. — connects to: A tolerant faction of monks lost to a supremacist faction within Sri Lankan Buddhism. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 118; Sinhalese monks frame Buddhism’s status through territorial threat perception — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 153; Monks built anachronistic historical claims to legitimize politicized Buddhism — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 51 (+7 more)
• ADDENDUM: Extends the sacrifice article’s theme of religion legitimizing violence toward out-groups.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what was Walpola Rahula’s role in popularizing Sinhalese Buddhist identity — he authored a key 1956 tract, so his normalization of violence is significant.

Broader Connections

• Sinhalese monks frame Buddhism’s status through territorial threat perception #expands (0.90) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 153
• Extremist Sinhalese parties weaponized Buddhism against Tamil devolution #expands (0.85) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 157
• Monks built anachronistic historical claims to legitimize politicized Buddhism #qualifies (0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 51
• Buddhist tradition has a consistent anti-coercive pedagogical ethic #contradicts (0.80) — , The Rod and the Child, 4006
• Ethnoreligious violence stems from human social psychology, not Buddhism’s tenets #qualifies (0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 86