When Words Will Not Do

Prof. Pradeep Jeganathan gave a lecture on the state of the Buddhist community in Sri Lanka recently. The topic at the helm was ‘When Words Will Not Do: Sinhala Buddhist monks and the possibility of Violence’. He talked about how the situation in Sri Lanka has changed over the years and how it has made life difficult for a certain section of people. He talked about Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and its ways in Sri Lanka. Bodu Bala Sena is a Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist organisation based in Colombo. It was once called “Sri Lanka’s most powerful Buddhist organisation” by the TIME magazine.

The chair and the speaker commenting on the presentation

He talked about the emergence of Bodu Bala Sena that used violence, which, by the way, is against the ideology of the non-violence Buddhism preaches. BBS used various types of violence to prove its point about the injustice doe to the Buddhists in Sri Lanka. BBS has been vocal for the Buddhist community ever since the end of the Civil War in Sri Lanka. There have been many occasions when BBS intervened on alleged conversions of Buddhists into different religions.

He said, “I am simply looking at the logic of this business of authority, violence and it is BBS that is in front of us.”It is really about understanding the monks. He then talked about Munidas Kumar tunga; he said, ‘It is my understanding really that his concern was primarily language. So he was very interested in purifying Sinhala by the Hela Havula movement. Given that, he was very much a maverick, he had not that much to do with Buddhist monks. I see the Tibetan monk, the person who is referred to as S Mahinda, who wrote these racist couplets. He is the more important figure here.”

Pradeep Jeganathan, presenting his views

He said that the rise of BBS after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka is not as an anti-Tamil organisation and is in fact pro Hindu. It is a puzzle for him on why BBS has turned anti Muslim. He said he hasn’t been able to figure out this side of BBS.

He said that he is interested in understanding something within the Theravada Vinaya in relation to what one calls the Samghika Vinaya. Theravada Vinaya is a branch of Buddhism that uses the collection of the oldest Buddhist texts.

Partha Ghosh, chair for the event

When asked if practices of violence could be non violent? He said that he never intended to apply or say that violence could be non violent. What he said was, politics or politicisation doesn’t need to lead to violence. He then gave the example of Mahatma Gandhi and said that there could have been violence associated with the Satyagrah movement. Also the point to be noted was that the whole movement lead to the violent death of Mahatma Gandhi. So there could be political ideologies or practices that could have violent outcomes.

Jairam Ramesh, former Cabinet Minister, listening to the speaker

Prof. Pradeep Jeganathan is Professor of Sociology at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR. Previously, he held faculty appointments at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, the New School for Social Research in New York, the International Centre for Ethnic Studies and the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeological Research, at the University of Kelaniya, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His research interests range from subaltern nationalism to the emergence of violence and the presence of loss, and the relationship between romantic love and bonds of kinship in the world. Books, authored or edited include Living with Death (2007), At the Water’s Edge (2004), Unmaking the Nation (1995|2009) and Subaltern Studies X1 (2001).