Sinhalese Buddhist hostility to minorities was a reactive response to colonial marginalization.

Evidence

Dharmapala was certainly insensitive and hostile toward all things un-Sinhalese and non-Buddhist, but his attitude must be viewed within the context of Buddhism’s marginalized and diminished status in pre-independence Sri Lanka. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 111

Categorization

• QUESTION: This frames Dharmapala’s ethnoreligious hostility as situational rather than primordial; worth weighing against DeVotta’s later argument about whether such enmity was manufactured or itself a response to genuine marginalization.
• XREF: connects to: Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism is reactive, not primordial — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 105; Sinhalese Buddhist identity was antiquarian but its modern nationalist ideology is reinterpreted and manipulated — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 85; The very forces that built Ceylonese secularism also cultivated Buddhist communalism. (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism is reactive, not primordial #corroborates (0.95) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 105
• Sinhalese Buddhist identity was antiquarian but its modern nationalist ideology is reinterpreted and manipulated #expands (0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 85