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Rearticulations of Enmity and Belonging in Postwar Sri Lanka

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Rearticulations of Enmity and Belonging in Postwar Sri Lanka BUDDHIST NATIONALISM AND CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM: REARTICULATIONS OF ENMITY AND BELONGING IN POSTWAR SRI LANKA by Neena Mahadev A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October, 2013 © 2013 Neena Mahadev All Rights Reserved Abstract: Based on two years of fieldwork in Sri Lanka, this dissertation systematically examines the mutual skepticism that Buddhist nationalists and Christian evangelists express towards one another in the context of disputes over religious conversion. Focusing on the period from the mid-1990s until present, this ethnography elucidates the shifting politics of nationalist perception in Sri Lanka, and illustrates how Sinhala Buddhist populists have increasingly come to view conversion to Christianity as generating anti-national and anti-Buddhist subjects within the Sri Lankan citizenry. The author shows how the shift in the politics of identitarian perception has been contingent upon several critical events over the last decade: First, the death of a Buddhist monk, which Sinhala Buddhist populists have widely attributed to a broader Christian conspiracy to destroy Buddhism. Second, following the 2004 tsunami, massive influxes of humanitarian aid—most of which was secular, but some of which was connected to opportunistic efforts to evangelize—unsettled the lines between the interested religious charity and the disinterested secular giving. Third, the closure of 25 years of a brutal war between the Sri Lankan government forces and the ethnic minority insurgent group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has opened up a slew of humanitarian criticism from the international community, which Sinhala Buddhist populist activists surmise to be a product of Western, Christian, neo-colonial influences. Illuminating this renewed Sinhala Buddhist criticism that Christianity is a quintessential anti-national force, the study then moves on to analyze the nodes of Buddhist-Christian conflict, rivalry and conciliation. By building upon concepts of economic theology and political theology, the author demonstrates how religious subjectivities and religious politics are shaped by the material and ideological clash of Buddhist and Christian soteriology. Under the revised demands of ethno-religious nationalism in the post-war context, the ethnographic work also delineates the politically expedient and the theologically orthodox lines along which alliances between Buddhists and certain denominational segments of Christianities have been forged. Thus, the study highlights the internal diversity within the religious traditions and religious politics within Sri Lanka—with focus especially on Pentecostalism, Catholicism, Theravada Buddhism. Finally, the work explores the newness and innovation that is engendered within the field of mutual religious influences. Specifically, it offers an examination of how liturgy and soteriological (salvational) aspirations have shifted under the circumstances of religious rivalry, as well as under the constraints of a state that privileges particular religious forms. ii Acknowledgements This research was generously funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the PEO Foundation. Support from the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University was crucial in the formative stages of the project. I am extremely grateful for this support. In carrying out this research in Sri Lanka, the hospitality of friends, acquaintences, and interlocutors, has been abundant. I can not name all who have contributed to this study, so as to maintain anonymity that is so important given the sensitivity of the matters discussed here. I am grateful for their patience in answering my many questions over visits and long interviews while we sipped heavily sugared milk-tea in cities and villages surrounding Colombo, Galle, and Matara. Several friends and teachers, have shown me great kindness, and understanding. All shortcomings of this work are of course entirely of my own doing. Special thanks to the DeSilvas—my second family. To Rosemary a dear friend, and the strongest woman I know. To Thangy, who endures the rainy days of Hatton. Herath Bandara who patiently taught me Sinhala, and also Sandamali Karunaratna. Noel Arokiam for being the younger brother I never had. I thank Reverend R. Assagi for being an exemplar, a mentor, and like a friend from a life past. Father Charles for his kindness. Shantha Premawardhena, and Father Aloy Pieris for sharing their insights and knowledge matters of inter-religious significance. Their pluralistic orientation to other forms of religiosity is inspiring. The Franciscos and especially Randini nangi, the Wijesinghes, the Oodugamas, for telling me the most scintillating stories, for making me laugh, and for always inviting me to tag along. Piyumi nangi for her friendship and curiosity. Heyshan malli. Dharshini nangi. Achala and Thushari, thank you for helping me find the elusive kadapul flower, and for helping to set things right. Most especially, I thank Thushari Dinusha for her dedication to helping me understand the things that without her I could not have. Friends and fellow fieldworkers who I met up with in Colombo and elsewhere were also a great source of emotional strength, and intellectual energy that sustained me in Sri Lanka. Ben Schonthal, Nalika Gajaweera, and Mythri Jegathesan, you are especially wonderful companions, who always blow my mind with your warmth as well as with your insights. Vivian Choi, Luke Heslop, Andrew Lucas, Rudy Edirasinghe, Niran Anketell, Sidharthan Maunaguru, Monica Smith, Clare Breedlove, Eva Ambos, Lea Krivchenia, Constance Theissen, Ozgul Ozcan, Quirien VanStraalen, Beatrice Bloomfield, Tom Rosenberg, Vince Porturica, Dave Stentiford, and Nethra Samawickreme. I hope that I run into you always and everywhere. Scholarly iii conversations with Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere, Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, Prof. Hasbullah, Prof. Tudor Silva, Prof. GPV Somaratna, Prof. Sinnathamby, Mr. Thambiarajah Ponnadurai, have opened my eyes to things I may not have seen while I was in Sri Lanka. I am very grateful to each of them for taking time to meet with me. At Johns Hopkins, Veena Das has been abundantly patient in seeing this project through, nudgingly me gently even when I stubbornly closed my eyes. Her insights have influenced me more than she knows. She has especially awakened me to how to think about the complexities and contradictions entailed even within a field marked by sharp identitarian based conflicts, and my focus on maintaining a fidelity to empirical realities that go against the grain of identitarianism stems from her influence on me. I will continue to look to her exemplary ways of thinking and writing to further develop the nuances within my ethnographic work. There have been many times when Naveeda Khan has been able to see more clearly than I, just what it was that I meant to convey in my writing. Her mentorship, patience, creativity, and clear-sightedness has been remarkable. I wouldn’t have survived the writing of this work without her. Jane Guyer has been an incredibly insightful and generous presence in my world at Hopkins. My work pertaining to economy, gift, charity has been greatly enhanced by her probing questions, which have helped me to go further in my inquiry. Thanks also to Aaron Goodfellow, Bill Connolly, Jane Bennett, Juan Obarrio, Anand Pandian, Niloofar Haeri, Deborah Poole, and Clara Han for their intellectual energy. I am grateful to John D. Kelly and also to Martha Kaplan for their intellectual engagement and mentorship. Thoughtful comment from Jonathan Spencer, Charlie Hallisey, Filippo Ossella, Jock Stirrat, Benedikt Korf, Bart Klem, Dan Kent, Tom Widger, Jude Fernando, Sharika Thiranagama, Juliana Finucane, Michael Feener, Joy Pachuau, and Tanika Sarkar, has enhanced my thinking in various ways. I appreciate having had the chance to meet them in Zurich, Utrecht, Colombo, Singapore, Delhi, and Madison. The friendships of Tim Hanafin, Gulru Cakmak, Mariam Mufti, Amrita Ibrahim, Amanda Lucia, Sandra Eder, Aaron Goodfellow, Citlalli Reyes-Kipp, Valeria Procupez, Maya Ratnam, Hester Betlem, Andrew Bush, Derek Denman, Kellan Anfinson, Diana Gross, Jennifer, Frank, and Nathaniel Patinella, and Jesse, Brandon and Benecio Cmaylo- Leyro, sustained me as I wrote. Finally, I am eternally grateful to my parents, Shashikala and Vennaralagappan Mahadev, for all of their love, and unstinting support. Also to Kishore, Kelly, Blake and Jax, and to Lila and Igor—all of my love. I dedicate this work to my Thatha and Ayya who are no more in this life, and to my dear Achi who lives on. iv Buddhist Nationalism and Christian Evangelism: Rearticulations of Enmity and Belonging in Postwar Sri Lanka Table of Contents List of Figures & Plates vi Introduction Inter-Religion in Sri Lanka 1 Chapter One “Fraudulent” Christians amidst Sinhala Buddhist Skeptics: A Recent Formation within the Politics of Nationalist Perception 32 Chapter Two Religious and Secular Humanitarianism in the Post-Tsunami and Post-war Context: Giving as a Node of Buddhist Anxiety and Activism 94 Chapter Three Modulating Miacles, Defending Sovereignty: Theologico-Political Rivalry and Reconciliation 162 Chapter Four The Maverick Dialogics of Religious Rivalry: Inspiration and Contestation in a New Theravāda Buddhist Millennialist Ritual Movement 252 Bibliography 298 Author CV 328 v List of Figures and
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