Sinhalese Buddhist supremacy is a constructed ideology built on deployed mytho-history, not primordial reality.

Evidence

This study argues that political Buddhism and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism have contributed to a nationalist ideology that has been used to expand and perpetuate Sinhalese Buddhist supremacy within a unitary Sri Lankan state; create laws, rules, and structures that institutionalize such supremacy; and attack those who disagree with this agenda as enemies of the state. The nationalist ideology is influenced by Sinhalese Buddhist mytho-history that was deployed by monks and politicians in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries to assert that Sri Lanka is the designated sanctuary for Theravada Buddhism, belongs to Sinhalese Buddhists, and Tamils and others live there only due to Sinhalese Buddhist sufferance. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 718

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the reader’s core research question on manufactured vs. primordial enmity — parallels Anderson’s imagined communities and Brass’s elite-instrumentalist accounts of ethnicity. — connects to: Sinhalese Buddhist identity is constructed through mythic history rather than primordial descent.; Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology rests on mythic history yet betrays Buddhism’s core values — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 294; Sinhalese Buddhist mytho-history is marshalled to justify ethnic violence, not peace. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 46 (+5 more)
• SEED: The ‘sufferance’ framing sharpens an article angle on how dominant groups legitimize exclusion by recasting coexistence as charity-granted privilege.

Broader Connections

• Sri Lankan ethnic claims rest on manufactured mytho-history, not primordial identity. #expands (0.92) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 718
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology rests on mythic history yet betrays Buddhism’s core values #corroborates (0.90) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 294
• Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact #corroborates (0.88) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 78
• Sinhalese Buddhist mytho-history is marshalled to justify ethnic violence, not peace. #expands (0.85) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 46
• Sinhalese nationalist identity is constructed as inseparable from Buddhism #corroborates (0.82) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 193
• Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism is reactive, not primordial #qualifies (0.78) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 105
• National identity is built on manufactured ancestral myth, not primordial history. #expands (0.75) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 74