Buddhist fundamentalism and minority identities in Sri Lanka
By: Tessa J. Bartholomeusz and Chandra R. de Silva, editors.
Contributors: Bartholomeusz, Tessa J.; De Silva, Chandra Richard, 1940-
Publisher: State University of New York Press; SUNY Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Albany, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 212
Subjects: Buddhist fundamentalism -- Sri Lanka.; Ethnicity -- Religious aspects.; Buddhism -- Relations.; Buddhism -- Social aspects -- Sri Lanka.; Ethnicity -- Sri Lanka.; Sri Lanka -- Religion.
Description: Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka explores Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalist ideology and its power to shape the identities of Sri Lanka's ethnic and religious minorities. Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalists in contemporary Sri Lanka share and ideology that asserts a vital link between the island of Sri Lanka and this Sinhala people, especially in their role as curators of Buddhism, and often at the exclusion of the minorities.

Minority responses to Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalism are manifold, ranging from assimilation to the formation of rival fundamentalisms. The authors provide views of history markedly different from most scholarly reflections on Sri Lanka; thus, the history of shifting perceptions of Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalism offered here constitutes an important contribution to the subaltern history of Sri Lanka.

By treating both the development of Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalism in the late nineteenth century and its hegemony in the late twentieth, this study links the present to the past.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-206) and index.