Sinhalese nationalist identity rests on a manufactured sacred history.
Evidence
The Mahavamsa clearly was written to legitimize, cement, and propagate the Buddhist association with Sri Lanka. Yet in the hands of opportunistic elites, it has taken the place of indisputable history. Renan has noted that all ethnic identities are constructed and that “getting its history wrong is part of being a nation” (Hobsbawm 1990: 12). Forgetting and inventing are prerequisites to creating an “imagined community.” The Sinhalese Buddhists are no exception. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 71
Categorization
- XREF: Directly serves the reader’s core research question: an ethnic enmity-based solidarity built on an ideologically constructed rather than primordial history. — connects to: Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology rests on mythic history yet betrays Buddhism’s core values — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 294; Sinhalese Buddhist identity was antiquarian but its modern nationalist ideology is reinterpreted and manipulated — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 85; Sinhalese nationalist claims rest on chronicle authority and a myth of paternalistic tolerance. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 187 (+2 more)
- SEED: Angles toward an essay on how sacred-history texts get promoted to indisputable fact by elites for political mobilization across ethnic-conflict cases.
Broader Connections
- Sinhalese Buddhist identity is constructed through mythic history rather than primordial descent.
#corroborates(0.88) - Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology rests on mythic history yet betrays Buddhism’s core values
#expands(0.85) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 294 - Sinhalese nationalist claims rest on chronicle authority and a myth of paternalistic tolerance.
#corroborates(0.82) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 187 - Sinhalese Buddhist identity was antiquarian but its modern nationalist ideology is reinterpreted and manipulated
#qualifies(0.80) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 85