We are all human beings, and our nationality and religion are simply accidents of birth –Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – British American structural biologist and former president of the Royal Society
In this day and age, when volumes of Buddha Dharma texts are needed to explain the doctrine and the pathway to attain the ultimate objective of liberation from Samsara or cycle of birth, perhaps, genuine belief and adherence to the Buddhist Brahmavihara practices Metta, Muditha, Karuna and Upekkha, could prepare the mind of a person to achieve the ultimate purpose of the doctrine. In a converse context, one could well question whether not believing and adhering genuinely to these practices would prepare a person’s mind and condition it to reach for the higher goal. A more than subtle difference exists between practicing the teachings of all religions, and the acquisition of theoretical knowledge about them, as conditioning ones mind becomes key to practicing the theory.
This article is not about the Buddha Dhamma or the philosophy of any other religion, as the writer is not competent to do so. it. It’s about a suggestion as to how barriers that exist in understanding and respecting each other’s religions may be overcome at an early age by exposing all school going children to the fundamentals that are common across all religions. The ideal of Metta, Karuna, Muditha and Upekkha could be viewed as such a fundamental.
As the head of the Walpola Rahula Institute Venerable Galkande Dhammananda often says in his Dhamma talks, a newborn child does not carry any labels. Only a human being emerges from a mother’s womb, Labels are attached to them over time by their parents, families, society, schools, and the child is thereafter identified as a Sinhalese, or a Tamil, or a Muslim, religions are attached to them, and they come to be known as Buddhists, Christians, Islamists, Hindus or belonging to other religions. The entire exercise leads to divisions amongst human beings, where no such divisions existed at the time of the child’s birth. These divisions become corner stones for cultural identities, often without much consideration and respect for different cultures. In some cases, these division become extreme, leading to violence and even war.
No doubt different cultures bring a degree of richness to human society. However, the ownership of such cultures and competition amongst them precipitates divisions amongst them to demonstrate dominance of one over others. This richness will not be there without the diversity, however, rather than appreciating the cultural diversity and its richness, as one would appreciate the beauty of different fauna and flora in a forest, human beings tend to overlook the whole for segments of it. If diversity leads to discrimination, division and even violence, then the teachings of the respective religious leaders would have been negated and been in vain.
The question then arises whether a common theme maybe identified amongst religions that could serve as a truth that is universal as far as possible, to all religions
In this context, one could consider the Brahmavihara ideals, Metta, Karuna, Muditha and Upekkha as these universal truths as without doubt, all religions subscribe to them, with perhaps some emphasis differences amongst some religions which does not take away the principle of the ideals. The table shown below will shows that the four religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam have so much commonality when it comes to these ideals while some interpretation and emphasis differences exist. Similarly, there no doubt such commonality would be there amongst all other religions of the world. The purpose of these ideals is to heal the minds of human beings so that they can follow the teachings of their respective teachers, with an understanding and sympathetic mind towards others who chose different religious faiths and religions. The essence of the Buddhist Brahmavihara ideals maybe stated as follows
Metta (Loving-Kindness/Friendliness): The desire for the well-being, happiness, and safety of all beings, including oneself. It is unselfish love and the antidote to anger or aversion.
Karuna (Compassion): The desire to relieve the suffering of others. It is characterized by an open heart that cares for others’ pain, acting as the antidote to cruelty.
Mudita (Sympathetic or Appreciative Joy): The ability to feel genuine joy and happiness in the success, good fortune, and achievements of others. It is the antidote to envy and jealousy.
Upekkha (Equanimity): A calm, balanced, and unshakable mind, not easily disturbed by emotions, change, or misfortune. It is a detached understanding of the nature of things (including karma/impermanence) and is the antidote to clinging, partiality, and indifference.
The strong, fundamental parallels in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism to the Buddhist Brahmavohara ideals, loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity as essential virtues, though they may be framed differently through their respective theological lenses of divine love, and submission to God, does not take away the fact that the principles enunciated in the ideals are unchanged, and that these ideals do not really belong to any particular religion. The fundamental message inherent in them is universal if one cares to consider them dispassionately and objectively as truths in whatever form they are presented. The following brief summary, incomplete no doubt, is an interesting account of the commonalities.
Parallels in Christianity
Metta (Loving-kindness) & Karuna (Compassion): Comparable to Agape (unconditional love) and the mandate to love neighbours. The concept of “turning the other cheek” reflects the patience in Metta.
Muditha (Sympathetic Joy): Relates to “rejoicing with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15) and, for some, praising God for the goodness in others.
Upekkha (Equanimity): Corresponds to inner peace, trust in divine providence, and detachment from worldly anxieties.
Parallels in Islam
Karuna (Compassion): Closely aligns with Rahmah (divine mercy/compassion).
Metta (Loving-kindness): Reflected in Ukhuwah (brotherhood) and Ihsan (perfection of faith/kindness).
Upekkha (Equanimity): Paralleled by Sabr (patience/steadfastness) and Tawakkul (trust in Allah) during adversity.
Muditha (Sympathetic Joy): Relates to Ukhuwah and being pleased with the blessings God grants others.
Parallels in Hinduism
Metta & Karuna: Reflected in Maitri (friendliness) and Karuna (compassion) in yogic philosophy. These are often linked to seeing the divine within all beings (Atman), as seen in the Bhagavad Gita.
Muditha: Expressed through Mudita, often practiced as part of Bhakti (devotion) to feel joy in the happiness of others.
Upekkha (Equanimity): Closely tied to the concept of Samatvam or Samatā (evenness of mind) in the Bhagavad Gita, maintaining balance in success or failure.
As stated, while some differences may exist in the interpretation of the Brahmavihara ideals, rather than focussing on differences, a question should be asked why something that is common to all religious faiths should not be the focus rather than the differences. From a day-to-day perspective, what matters is an understanding and an appreciation of the goodness of all religions that would make societies more content and integrated. Each person could then pursue higher learning and practices of their respective religious philosophies and beliefs in more peaceful and uncompetitive environments.
Introducing these four compassionate attitudes to all students in schools during their formative period, and explaining them in a language they could understand what these mean, and the benefits to them and others if they begin to practice these as a matter of course and rather than being forced to do so, is a worthwhile proposition that should be considered. This would be an ideal time for a discussion on this suggestion, and hopefully, the consequent inclusion in a school curriculum for students at an appropriate period of schooling. Teaching should be based on acquisition of knowledge and improving one’s mind rather than just teaching of a subject. An introduction to the topic of compassionate living should not be part of a subject that is to be taught, and children tested on what has been taught. It should be based on widening and deepening a child’s knowledge
If a young adult emerges from a grounding in compassion, which perhaps could be a single word that describes the essence of the Brahmavihara ideals, that person could very well be able to pursue their individual religious beliefs with compassion towards others, and be better positioned to pursue and practice the fundamental teachings of their respective religions as they were taught by their teachers, rather than be practitioners of what institutionalised religions offer in the name of the founding teachers.
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On 4 February 1948, Ceylon was declared independent.” Flags were raised, an anthem was sung, and a new political chapter was ceremonially opened. Yet beneath that symbolism, few recognised that the foundations of colonial control remained largely intact. What Sri Lanka received was nominal administrative independence — not civilisational or psychological sovereignty — and certainly no restoration of the Buddhist ethical order that had governed this land for centuries. That moral framework, rooted in the Buddha Dhamma, had once provided unity, peace of mind, social restraint, and harmony across communities, embracing all beings without distinction. Its deliberate dismantling under colonial rule was never reversed.
Over 400 years of colonial rule left a tragic legacy.
What Sri Lanka continues to search for today — peace of mind, social cohesion, moral leadership, and a sense of belonging — already existed within its own Buddhist civilisational code. Yet colonial education, employment structures, and social re-engineering conditioned generations to look down upon the Sinhala civilisation that built this nation and the Buddha Dhamma that sustained it. This conditioning did not merely marginalise Buddhism as a religion; it discredited it as a governing moral philosophy. As a result, many now resist acknowledging the very framework that once held the nation together systematically discredited by colonial conditioning and post-colonial cowardice.
The period from 1948 to 1972 represents a phase of nominal independence”—a transfer of power in form, but not in substance. While governance shifted from foreign administrators to local elites, the systems, structures, values, and mindsets imposed by colonial rule were largely preserved by those elites. The result was a nation technically free, yet still governed by colonial frameworks — frameworks no one seriously sought to dismantle, but instead used as political tools and slogans to manipulate the masses.
A People already Conditioned for Subservience
This colonial mindset continuity was not accidental.
For over four centuries, Sri Lankans had been psychologically groomed to look down upon their own heroic past, civilisational achievements, and ethical systems of governance. Colonial rule did not merely suppress resistance; it trained people to feel comfortable within a subservient order.
Carrots were dangled — titles, positions, English education, commercial opportunities, and cosmetic privileges — rewarded those willing to abandon moral restraint for material gain. Gradually, a commercial value system replaced a moral one. Success became defined not by virtue, service, or duty, but by proximity to power, profit, and foreign approval. Those who looked down on Sinhalese & Buddha’s principles were rewarded the most.
By 1948, this conditioning had taken deep root. A population long distanced from its own civilisational confidence was ill-prepared to reclaim sovereignty in any meaningful sense. Political independence was handed to a people trained to function within externally imposed limits and not challenge them beyond a limit.
What Sri Lanka Gained in 1948
Though nominal, Sri Lanka gained:
Self-rule through an elected local government
International recognition as a sovereign state
The ability to manage internal administration without direct foreign governors
Entry into global institutions as an independent nation
For the first time in centuries, Sri Lankans were allowed to formally govern Sri Lanka. However, what was gained was surface-level control, while the deeper levers of power — legal, judicial, economic, educational, cultural, and psychological — remained externally defined.
What Sri Lanka Did Not Gain
Despite independence, Sri Lanka did not regain:
Full constitutional sovereignty
Control over its civilisational direction — the freedom or even will to return to an ethos deliberately denied
Freedom from colonial legal, educational and administrative frameworks
Psychological independence from Western validation
Continuing Rule Under the Crown (1948–1972)
The British monarch remained Head of State
The Governor-General represented the Crown
Colonial legal structures remained intact
English continued as the dominant language of power
Colonial education systems continued largely unchallenged
This was independence without decolonisation.
Sri Lanka did not reclaim its legal philosophy, its educational purpose, or its civilisational orientation.
Instead, it inherited colonial machinery and simply replaced foreign operators with local ones.
The colonised system continued to function — now operated by Sri Lankans trained to think like colonisers.
The Colonial Planting of Ethnic Fault Lines
Nominal independence came with hidden nuances deliberately planted by colonial rule. Ethnic separatism in Sri Lanka did not arise organically; it was seeded well before independence through colonial policies that encouraged communal consciousness, competition, and grievance politics.
Settler colonization: Under British rule, large numbers of South Indian Tamils were brought into the island as plantation labour and gradually absorbed into the colonial administrative and economic system rather than repatriated after their contracted ended. Simultaneously, colonial censuses, education, and employment structures elevated communal identity over shared civilisational belonging. This process fundamentally altered demographic, political, and psychological balances.
Even before independence, colonial authorities encouraged minority elites to articulate claims of separateness and self-governance. In 1949, immediately after independence, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) was formed, alleging discrimination in a country that had only just emerged from 443 years of foreign rule. This raises an unavoidable question: where was this alleged discrimination when Portuguese, Dutch, and British rulers governed the island, controlled land, law, language, and livelihoods? The grievance was redirected not toward colonial injustice, but toward the Sinhala majority — despite the fact that the structural distortions were entirely colonial in origin.
Colonial missionary education further deepened this imbalance.
Minority communities disproportionately benefited from English-medium missionary schools, access to colonial administration, and overseas higher education.
Only a small section of Sinhalese gained similar access — often at the cost of religious conversion, cultural alienation, and internalised contempt for their own civilisation and the Buddhist Dhamma that had sustained the nation.
At post-independence, every time calls to reverse colonial privileges in favor of those unfairly denied arose, these colonial privileges were quickly reframed as discrimination,” while the real architects of that inequality escaped accountability.
What independence inherited, therefore, was not communal harmony, but a society primed for division — a classic colonial divide-and-rule legacy that would later be weaponised into separatist politics and prolonged national instability.
The Rise of the Colonial Elite after Independence
Independence empowered a Western-educated elite, many shaped by missionary schools and colonial values. They spoke English fluently, understood British administrative culture, and were comfortable operating within inherited colonial frameworks.
But this elite was not rooted in the civilisational ethos of the land.
As a result:
Western norms continued to define progress”
Indigenous knowledge remained marginalized / given cosmetic value
Buddhist ethical governance was not restored
Education continued to reward alienation from heritage
The elite did not dismantle colonial systems; they managed them.
This created a paradox:
Sri Lanka was politically independent but mentally governed by colonial logic.
Attempts to challenge colonial continuity were not without consequence. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1959, and his widow, upon assuming office, faced a Catholic-linked coup attempt in 1962.
Language, Culture, and the Continuation of Alien Standards
Language remained a key instrument of neo-colonial control. English continued to dominate law, higher education, administration, and social mobility. Those fluent in English accessed power; those grounded in indigenous languages were sidelined.
This preserved colonial class divisions and reinforced the idea that belonging to one’s own culture was a disadvantage.
Culture too remained framed through Western lenses. Indigenous traditions were tolerated as folklore, not respected as systems of knowledge. Buddhism was permitted as religion, but its role as a governing moral framework was not returned to its former glory.
The final years of nominal independence (1966–1972) marked the formal break from the British Crown but also exposed the fragility of the post-colonial state.
In 1970, Sirimavo Bandaranaike returned to power with a United Front mandate, accelerating state control, nationalisation, and socialist reform. In 1971, a violent Marxist youth insurrection erupted—an explosion rooted in unemployment, ideological confusion, and colonial-era distortions—brutally suppressed by the state. Later that year, the colonial-era Senate was abolished.
On 22 May 1972, Ceylon became a Republic. While Buddhism was restored to its foremost place, the new constitution also inherited unresolved ethnic, economic, and structural fault lines planted under colonial rule—fault lines that would soon be exploited.
Neo-Colonial Control Without Direct Rule
After 1948, colonialism did not disappear — it evolved.
Control continued through:
Education systems that continue to shape thinking
Legal systems preserving colonial jurisprudence
Economic dependency on foreign markets and aid
Foreign advisors, institutions, and benchmarks
Psychological dependence on Western approval
Sri Lanka was no longer ruled by force, but by frameworks.
Decisions increasingly sought legitimacy not from the people or civilisational values, but from:
International institutions
Donor agencies
Foreign governments
External international experts” or their local lackeys
This marked the transition from colonial rule to neo-colonial influence.
What was Lost in the Process
The most devastating loss was not material — it was peace of mind and civilisational confidence.
Sri Lanka lost:
Trust in its own historical wisdom
Confidence in indigenous governance models
Ethical coherence in leadership
Civilisational continuity in education
A shared moral compass
The nation began to drift — politically independent, yet internally fractured; globally connected, yet locally unanchored.
Instead of restoring the ethical foundations dismantled by colonialism, post-independence governance deepened reliance on the very systems that caused the rupture.
Why 1972 Became Necessary
The 1972 Republican Constitution was not merely a legal milestone — it was an admission.
An admission that:
Independence in 1948 was incomplete
The Crown’s presence was incompatible with sovereignty
True self-definition had been delayed
Yet even in 1972, while formal ties to the Crown were severed, the colonial mindset remained.
Removing the Crown did not automatically remove colonial conditioning.
The Core Failure of the Post-Independence Period
The fundamental failure between 1948 and 1972 was this:
Sri Lanka sought to modernise before it decolonised the mind.
Instead of restoring civilisational grounding and then engaging the modern world on its own terms, the nation attempted to advance by copying external models — repeating the colonial pattern in post-colonial form.
As a result, independence remained procedural, not transformational.
A Bridge to the Next Phase
Nominal independence exposed a hard truth: Political freedom alone does not guarantee sovereignty.
Without:
Ethical grounding
Civilisational confidence
Educational realignment
Psychological independence
…a nation remains vulnerable — especially when it governs itself.
Shenali D Waduge
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Buddhist wisdom has a profound and long-standing history in Germany, significantly influencing prominent
philosophers, authors, and the development of a strong local practice. This reception, often mediated by extensive literary translations, moved from an initial academic interest to a cultural phenomenon.
Influence on German Thought
German philosophers were among the first in the West to seriously engage with Buddhist thought, primarily through secondhand translations and interpretations.
Schopenhauer found his own philosophy of the “will” and the central role of suffering in life mirrored in Buddhist thought, particularly the First Noble Truth. He saw the Buddhist idea of non-attachment and renunciation as a path to escape the misery of existence, which influenced subsequent German thinkers who followed his line of thinking. Considered the first prominent Western philosopher to take a deep interest,
Schopenhauer’s was heavily influenced by interpretation of Buddhism. He praised Buddhism for its realism in acknowledging suffering without resorting to the concept of sin, considering it “a hundred times more realistic than Christianity”. However, he also critiqued its goal of nirvana as a form of “nihilism” (a “will to non-existence”), ultimately using the comparison to formulate his own philosophy of the Übermensch and the affirmation of life.
: Some scholars suggest philosophy, particularly his concepts of “Being” (Sein) and “nothingness” (das Nichts), may have been influenced by Zen and Taoist texts, finding parallels with Buddhist concepts like emptiness.
Buddhist Influence on German Literature
Buddhism transformed from an obscure topic to a cultural phenomenon in German literary circles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with many leading authors engaging with its ideas.
: The Nobel laureate was deeply interested in Eastern spirituality, and the influence of both Hindu and Buddhist thought is evident throughout his work. His seminal 1922 novel, Siddhartha, is a masterpiece derived from these influences, exploring an individual’s personal quest for spiritual fulfillment and self-knowledge, and remains one of the most widely read books on the topic in the West.
These figures were key writers and practitioners who helped ground Buddhism in a German context, establishing the “Old Buddhist Community” and making significant contributions to the literature with their own essays and books.
: Founded in Berlin in 1924 by Dr. Paul Dahlke, a German physician and prominent Buddhist writer, this Theravada temple is the oldest Buddhist institution in Europe and a designated National Heritage site. It is now owned and maintained by the German Dharmaduta Society ( founded by Asoka Weeraratna in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1952)
Anton Gueth The first born German monk (later known as Ven. Nyanatiloka), established a solid foundation for practice, with his translations, summaries, and Pāli dictionary becoming international standards.
Deutsche Buddhistische Union (DBU): The German Buddhist Union serves as an umbrella organization that unites various Buddhist traditions and schools in Germany, reflecting the diverse and thriving contemporary Buddhist community, which has grown significantly since the 1970s.
Linguistic Exchange and Academic Ties: German scholars have historically contributed to the study of Sinhala. For example, Wilhelm Geiger’s work on the lexicography and origin of Sinhala remains a foundational pillar for both German and Sri Lankan linguists.
Vegetarianism and Orientalism: Some historical studies link German-speaking vegetarian movements to an interest in South Asian purity concepts, which occasionally intersected with the study of Sinhala Buddhist traditions.
See also
“The Prospects for the Growth of Buddhism in Germany and other Western Countries”, by Agganyani (Christa Bentenrieder)
Colombo, Feb. 2 (Daily Mirror) – The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court today ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to arrest and produce before court Shamindra Rajapaksa, the youngest son of former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, in connection with a magisterial inquiry into alleged financial fraud relating to the purchase of 14 Airbus aircraft for Sri Lankan Airlines.
Meanwhile, the CID has named Shamindra Rajapaksa as the third suspect in the case.
Former Sri Lankan Airlines Chief Executive Officer Kapila Chandrasena and his wife, Priyanka Wijeynayake, have been named as the first and second suspects respectively. They are accused of accepting a bribe of USD 2 million from a French Airbus company and laundering the funds in connection with the purchase of 14 Airbus aircraft in 2013.
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Former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Maithripala Sirisena, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, along with Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, received invitations to a special event scheduled for tomorrow (03).
The “OneText” initiative organised this gathering to launch a dialogue process focused on drafting a new constitution for Sri Lanka, starting at 4:00 PM at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMIC) in Colombo.
The event aims to transition long-standing socio-political discussions regarding constitutional reform into a practical framework through expert consultation.
Professor Deepika Udagama, former Head of the Department of Law at the University of Peradeniya, will deliver the keynote address.
Other speakers include Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Dr. Kumaravadivel Guruparan, Dr. Ramesh Ramasamy, former Minister Udaya Gammanpila, and Member of Parliament Nizam Kariyappar.
OneText, an organization operating in Sri Lanka since 2003, plans to conduct this program in several stages across various sectors.
The institution focuses on conducting research for policy-making and fostering consensus among political parties on matters of national importance.
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The proposed Protection of Occupants Bill 2025 could cause severe harm to the domestic housing rental market and the broader economy if passed in its current form.
Former Justice Minister and President’s Counsel Ali Sabry stated in a recent release that while preventing the unfair eviction of tenants is a positive goal, the new legislation places homeowners at a severe disadvantage.
He noted that even if a tenant defaults on monthly rent, water, electricity bills, or condominium maintenance fees, the law would force the homeowner to continue providing essential services until legal proceedings conclude.
He characterised this as a form of “forced maintenance” of the tenant by the owner.
The former minister warned that such regulations would make property owners fearful of renting, leading to a decrease in housing supply and a subsequent hike in rental prices.
He argued that this shift would reverse the progress made under the 2023 Possession of Premises (Recovery) Act No. 1. Instead of introducing an entirely new bill, he suggested amending the 2023 Act to ensure legal protection is only afforded to tenants who fulfill their financial obligations.
He emphasised that the law should operate on the principle of “no payment, no protection” to avoid returning to outdated and restrictive rental regulations.
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50 doctors at the National Eye Hospital are set to depart simultaneously this week following transfer orders issued by the Public Service Commission.
Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Executive Member Prasad Colombage stated that certain malicious remarks allegedly made by the hospital director and the Health Minister contributed to this decision.
Meanwhile, services across 164 specialist medical units nationwide faced significant disruptions today after all specialist doctors under the GMOA withdrew from cover duties starting at 8:00 AM.
GMOA President Specialist Dr. Sanjeewa Tennakoon noted that this professional action has hindered operations in operating theaters, intensive care units, and departments including radiology, anesthesiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry.
Patients seeking treatment at government hospitals continued to face severe difficulties as a result of the ongoing trade union action.
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Suspended Deputy Secretary General of Parliament, Chaminda Kularatne, arrived at the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption to lodge a formal complaint against the Speaker.
Speaking on behalf of Kularatne, Attorney Mithun Dias told the media that the complaint is not a general move against the government.
Instead, he claimed the action stems from a personal dispute involving his client, who remains under suspension.
The lawyer further stated that the complaint submitted to the Bribery Commission includes specific allegations regarding the Speaker’s anti-corruption activitie
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The topic of colonization and its implications on Sri Lanka cannot be viewed in isolation. Every facet of colonial rule must be compared in all of the nations that were invaded and governed. Colonialism did not merely replace rulers; it re-engineered the mind of the nation. The most enduring damage inflicted on Sri Lanka was not economic extraction or territorial domination, but the systematic dismantling of an ethical, civilizational order and its replacement with an alien framework that prioritized control, division, profit over harmony and duty but most of all dismantling of the Sinhalese Buddhist backbone and setting the minorities against the majority.
When European powers arrived — first the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British — they did not encounter a chaotic or lawless society. They encountered a functioning civilization grounded in Buddhist ethics, Buddhist jurisprudence, and social balance. This self-regulating system produced stability, legitimacy, and peace of mind among the population. Precisely because such a society could govern itself through conscience and ethical obligation, it posed an obstacle to colonial domination. A people guided by moral clarity could not be easily controlled, or exploited. As a result, colonial governance did not seek to coexist with this civilisational order — it sought to dismantle it.
From Moral Authority to Administrative Control
Pre-colonial governance centered around ethical conduct.
Colonial governance was based on force, bureaucracy, and legal absolutism.
Law became demoted from morality to being used as an instrument of domination. Justice ceased to be restorative and became punitive.
The objective shifted from social harmony to obedience.
Buddhist jurisprudence, village councils, and monastic influence were systematically sidelined to a plan of stripping them of authority. The Buddhist Sangha, once central to education, dispute resolution, and moral guidance, was deliberately marginalised. Governance was removed from the moral realm and transferred into distant administrative structures answerable not to the people, but to foreign crowns.
This marked a profound psychological rupture: authority was no longer trusted because it was righteous — it was feared because it was imposed.
This was the first phase of colonial conditioning – implanting slave-rule into the minds of people one infamously referred to as the white-man’s burden.
Identifying the Pillars to Be Dismantled
Colonial powers did not dismantle Sri Lanka’s civilisational order randomly.
They identified, with precision, the core pillars that sustained the island’s ethical sovereignty and social cohesion — and planned to dismantle them methodically.
The first target was the Buddhist Sangha, which functioned as the moral conscience of society, shaping education, jurisprudence, and ethical conduct.
The second was Buddhist moral jurisprudence, which prioritised restoration, duty, and harmony over punishment and domination.
The third was the broader Buddhist moral order, which anchored governance, community life, and individual restraint in conscience rather than coercion.
Only after weakening these foundations did colonial rule turn decisively toward the people themselves.
The Sinhalese Buddhists, as custodians of this civilisational framework, were the first to be psychologically disarmed.
This was followed by the deliberate re-engineering of identity — reducing a civilisational people into a mere ethnic category, the Sinhalese.” – this project has presently been elevated to Sri Lankan” dropping the Sinhalese”.
Minorities were not spared. Colonial administrators began manipulating minority communities, not as partners in a shared civilisation, but as strategic instruments against the majority — minorities were elevated when necessary, marginalised, or weaponised selectively whenever it served colonial interests. Communities were no longer encouraged to coexist within an ethical order; they were repositioned as competing groups within a manufactured hierarchy controlled by foreign powers – then and even now.
This sequence was not accidental.
It was a calculated strategy: dismantle moral authority, erode civilisational identity, fragment the people, pit them against each other based on themes they manufactured and controlled — and then rule the fragments offering solutions beneficial to them.
Divide, Classify, Control
One of the most destructive colonial strategies was the deliberate reclassification of society. A civilisation that had lived in harmony was forcibly reorganised into rigid categories — classified as majority & minority, creating tensions against each other, caste turned into administrative tools, and communities ranked, labelled, and pitted against one another. This new lifestyle was not one the people ever fathomed and broke their peace of mind incrementally.
Colonial censuses, legal codes, and missionary records did not merely document society — they reprogrammed it. People were measured, ranked, and politicised. Communities that had coexisted within an ethical framework were reclassified into rigid categories of race, religion, caste, and utility. Where duty had once defined social roles, competition for colonial favour, employment, and privilege took its place.
This was deliberate psychological re-engineering.
A people shaped by restraint, conscience, and moral accountability were gradually conditioned to abandon self-regulation in favour of survival within an imposed hierarchy.
Trust gave way to suspicion.
Cooperation was replaced by rivalry.
Ethical conduct was no longer rewarded; compliance and opportunism were.
The mind that had once asked, What is right?” was trained to ask instead, What benefits me?”
This was not a natural evolution — it was engineered.
By dismantling moral authority and replacing it with external incentives and punishments – the carrot-stick colonial rule cultivated a society driven by fear, envy, and self-preservation rather than virtue.
A civilisation anchored in piety and ethical restraint was turned inward against itself, not because the people became inherently corrupt, but because the systems governing them were designed to reward moral collapse.
In this way, colonialism did not merely conquer land; it colonised the mind, transforming a duty-bound society into one increasingly governed by selfishness, competition, and moral disorientation.
The divisions had multiple objectives. It prevented unified resistance and dependency on colonial arbitration and it divided society making it easier to rule.
The Weaponisation of Education
It was not enough for the colonials to re-engineer the minds of the living; they turned next to shaping the minds of the unborn.
Education became the primary instrument of mental capture.
Indigenous systems — temple-based learning, moral instruction, and civilisational knowledge transmission — were systematically devalued. In their place, a Western education model was imposed, designed not to nurture rooted citizens, but to produce compliant administrators and culturally dislocated elites, loyal to foreign ideals rather than local values.
These were the clones of the white man,” trained to measure success by what colonials would approve mastery of English, and adherence to imported norms while openly devaluing the local culture.
Ethics, belonging, and historical consciousness were displaced. Admiration for the coloniser’s worldview was instilled, while pride in one’s own heritage was subtly discouraged. Over generations, this created a class of English-speaking elites whose loyalty increasingly aligned with external standards rather than the continuity and values of the civilisation they came from.
The consequences of this transformation were profound:
· Cultural dislocation: The educated elite began to view local traditions, knowledge systems, and governance structures as outdated or inferior.
· Social fracture: The gap between the Western-educated elite and the majority widened, with the new elite expecting support from across shores to prop their presence and position over the majority.
· Developmental obstacle: Sri Lanka’s ability to chart its own path was weakened; the nation struggled to develop on its own civilisational terms, often imitating foreign models without grounding.
This mentality persists today.
Modern policy, elite culture, and educational reforms often continue to prioritise foreign benchmarks over indigenous wisdom. The colonial legacy of education has conditioned the mind to value external recognition more than internal heritage, which remains one of the key obstacles preventing Sri Lanka from genuinely self-directed development.
In short, the weaponisation of education has left a lasting imprint: generations can be skilled, technically competent, and worldly, yet rootless, morally adrift, and psychologically dependent. Until this mindset is addressed — until education restores grounding in history, ethics, and civilisational pride — Sri Lanka will struggle to realise true independence in thought, governance, and development.
Economy Without Ethics
Colonial economic restructuring prioritised extraction, not sustainability.
Land was commodified. Traditional agriculture and irrigation systems were neglected or repurposed for plantation economies designed to serve foreign markets. The ethical relationship between ruler, land, and people was capitalized.
Taxation shifted from fairness to enforcement.
Economic activity was no longer evaluated through right livelihood, but through productivity and profit. This eroded communal responsibility and introduced survival-based competition where cooperation once prevailed (cooperative vs corporates)
Alongside this economic shift came the introduction and normalisation of social vices. Taverns, alcohol consumption, and exploitative leisure economies expanded under colonial rule, weakening social discipline and moral restraint. These were not accidental by-products; they were tools that softened resistance and disrupted self-regulation.
The Collapse of Self-Regulation
Colonial rule replaced moral discipline with external enforcement.
Where the self once governed the self, now the state governed behaviour through surveillance, punishment, and regulation. Over time, this eroded the internal ethical compass of society.
People were trained to obey rules rather than cultivate restraint; to fear punishment rather than uphold conscience. This shift has had irreversible consequences. Even today, governance relies heavily on regulation and enforcement, while ethical formation is largely absent from public policy and education.
A society once guided by conscience became dependent on control systems — a dependency that technology has only intensified.
Psychological Colonisation and the Loss of Confidence
The deepest wound of colonialism was psychological.
Sri Lankans were gradually conditioned to doubt their own civilisational competence. Indigenous knowledge systems were dismissed. Moral governance was portrayed as primitive. Western frameworks were presented as the sole solution.
Generations were conditioned to look outward for approval, standards, and guidance, rather than trust in what had already worked successfully in Sri Lanka’s own history. This dependency persists today, in development policy, economic planning, and even social norms.
Even today, at every level the validation or nod of approval from external sources are sought before any seal of approval.
This is why independence, though achieved politically, remains incomplete psychologically.
Breaking the Cycle of Dependency
To reclaim genuine independence, the nation must study and learn from its own successes — the irrigation networks, ethical governance, community cohesion, and sustainable livelihoods that pre-colonial rulers perfected.
Innovation is essential, but it must be rooted in heritage, not borrowed wholesale from foreign models.
This means – returning to:
· Education reforms that emphasize heritage, ethics, and civilisational pride alongside technical skills. Many of the so-called modern inventions— from irrigation systems to community governance, sustainable agriculture to ethical administration — were already perfected in Sri Lanka centuries ago, long before foreign powers arrived.
· Policy-making that references historical successes in governance, social cohesion, and sustainability.
· Economic development strategies that build on local strengths and resilience, rather than imported templates.
Until this dependency is addressed, Sri Lanka will continue to imitate without mastering, to import solutions without understanding, and to remain psychologically and strategically vulnerable & uninnovative. Falsely believing in entrepreneurial” slogans.
True independence is not granted externally — it must be rebuilt from the knowledge, discipline, and wisdom that already exist within us.
Independence Without De-Colonisation
By the time independence arrived, the civilisational infrastructure had already been dismantled. Institutions, laws, education systems, and economic structures remained fundamentally colonial in design.
Power changed hands, but paradigms did not.
The result was a nation free in name, but not fully sovereign in thought/psyche.
Post-independence struggles — ethnic tension, political instability, social divisions — cannot be understood without recognising this colonial rupture. A society stripped of its ethical anchor and forced to operate within alien frameworks will struggle to find balance.
The Unfinished Journey
Colonial rule did not simply interrupt Sri Lanka’s civilisational future — it redirected it away from its ethical centre. The damage was not only material, but mental, cultural, and moral.
Understanding this phase is essential, not to assign blame, but to diagnose why modern reforms repeatedly fail to deliver peace, cohesion, and confidence.
Without addressing the colonial dismantling of ethical governance and self-regulation, no amount of technological advancement, education or legal reform will restore stability or even prosperity.
Independence is not a date. It is a condition of the mind.
Shenali D Waduge
Comments Off on Road to an “Independent” Sri Lanka: Colonial Rule — The Dismantling of a Civilisational Order
The importance of learning history is to connect with one’s roots, to feel grounded in the land referred to as one’s motherland,”. These factors inspire the feeling and urge to defend and protect one’s Nation. Once people are disconnected from their history, their sense of belonging weakens, and their passion to serve the nation diminishes — leaving the Nation vulnerable. This is why when efforts to remove or distort history are peddled red flags are raised. An ungrounded people are easier to manipulate, and the Nation becomes up for grabs.” Ignorance of the nation’s history removes the will to defend it.
Sri Lanka, long before the first European ships appeared on its shores, was a land of deep civilisational roots, defined not only by its natural beauty but by a society structured around ethical governance, social cohesion, and spiritual clarity. The Sinhala-Buddhist kings and queens, whose reigns stretched across centuries, governed according to the principles of the Dasa Raja Dhamma, the tenfold law of righteous kingship. This was not a mere set of moral ideals for private contemplation; it was the foundation for statecraft, social harmony, and the mental wellbeing of the population. It did not leave out even sentient beings. In essence, governance was inseparable from ethics, and the measure of sovereignty was not only territorial control but the peace of mind of the people.
Dasa Raja Dhamma: Ethics as Governance
The Dasa Raja Dhamma, historically practiced by all Sinhala kings — and even by invader rulers from South India who briefly ruled the land — outlined ten fundamental principles for rulers:
Generosity (Dana)– sharing resources equitably, especially with the weak.
Morality (Sila)– ethical conduct in personal and public life.
Self-Sacrifice (Pariccaga)– prioritizing the welfare of the nation above personal gain.
Honesty (Ajjava)– integrity in administration and diplomacy.
Kindness (Maddava)– compassion toward all, including defeated adversaries.
Restraint (Khanti)– patience and tolerance, even under provocation.
Uprightness (Avirodhana)– fairness and equity in all dealings.
Patience (Tapa)– enduring difficulties with equanimity.
Wisdom (Akkodha)– applying prudence and discernment in governance and strategy.
These principles shaped administration, justice, taxation, trade, public works, and warfare. Kings did not exploit subjects; laws protected the weak, and taxes were fair. Disputes were resolved through consultation with Buddhist monks and wise elders, reflecting both legal fairness and moral reasoning.
The motive was not to punish. No one was defeated. What Buddhist jurisprudence did was to enable equitable outcomes, a philosophy preserved in the Poya Geya concept, which emphasizes moral accountability, and societal harmony.
Duties Before Rights
Pre-colonial governance prioritized duties over rights.
Every individual — ruler, administrator, or citizen — had responsibilities toward society. Rights were the natural and automatic outcome of fulfilling duties:
When rulers acted ethically and protected their people, citizens’ rights to safety, property, and livelihood were automatically secured.
When citizens performed their societal duties, they contributed to maintaining peace and justice for all.
This created a society of mutual accountability, where ethical conduct, not legalistic enforcement, ensured stability.
Psychological freedom, trust in authority, and moral clarity flourished under this system.
Legitimacy Through Ethics and Peace of Mind
Governance was based on moral authority, not coercion or fear. Citizens obeyed laws because they recognized them as fair, ethical, and rational. This system produced profound psychological security: people knew their leaders would act justly, laws were equitable, and disputes would be resolved ethically. This peace of mind was inseparable from civilisational sovereignty.
Notably, pre-colonial chronicles record no ethnic conflicts between Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, or other communities. Differences existed but were integrated into broader ethical and social frameworks. This raises a critical question: if such divisions never existed historically, why are they central to post-colonial politics? The answer lies in the divide-and-rule policies introduced by colonial powers, which intentionally fragmented society along artificial lines of ethnicity, religion, and caste.
Social Cohesion and Coexistence
Pre-colonial Sri Lanka was marked by diverse communities living in harmony. Temples, monasteries, and learning centers were cross-community spaces fostering knowledge, dialogue, and ethical understanding.
Social order emphasized mutual respect, civic duty, and shared responsibility rather than hierarchy based on race or religion.
Trade, marriages, and interactions across communities were guided by ethical norms rooted in Buddhism, which valued compassion, honesty, and non-harm.
Vices were minimal. There were no large-scale alcohol, drugs, smoking consumption or livelihoods that profited from its sale. Toddy was restricted to villages. The modern alcohol-drug related vices are a colonial import introduced to intentionally destroy them.
By promoting cohesion the kings protected the internal system from external threats and internal disputes, if any, did not escalate into destructive conflicts.
Education, Culture, and Moral Formation
Education was closely linked with heritage, ethics, and practical skills. Much emphasis was placed on the mind & its development. Monasteries taught literacy, numeracy, history, religious philosophy, and ethics to children across communities. Cultural practices reinforced these values: art, literature, dance, music, festivals, and religious observances were not mere aesthetics but vehicles for moral instruction and communal cohesion. The magnificent buildings and artefacts that continue to draw tourists today were done by those who had no degrees, did not attend ivy league colleges or rode benz cars. Peace of mind was nurtured from childhood, teaching citizens that ethical living and civic responsibility were practical tools for personal and societal wellbeing. That wellbeing was far more valuable than the rights” freedom” placards and slogans used today.
Economy and Governance: Ethical Order
The economy was intertwined with ethical governance. Land, taxation, and trade were regulated to prevent exploitation and maintain social harmony. Right livelihood was essentially a key framework of ethical living. Public resources like the irrigation tanks and canals of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa were maintained for sustainable agriculture and equitable prosperity. Kings personally oversaw public works and were accountable for their subjects’ welfare. Civic duty was internalized at all levels of governance, creating a society where citizens felt secure in their livelihoods and loyal to the state.
True, people did not travel in planes, jets, or cruise ships. Material excess was limited. Yet contentment, social belonging, and peace of mind were widespread. This invites a necessary question for the modern age: those who possess unprecedented wealth, and comfort today—are they truly happier, or merely more distracted?
Peace of Mind as Sovereignty
True independence is not measured by flags or treaties, but by the mental, moral, and social freedom of a people. Kings ensured citizens were free from fear, deception, and social manipulation. Peace of mind allowed citizens to:
Trust ethical leadership
Pursue livelihoods without fear
Resolve conflicts through justice and moral reasoning
Experience a sense of belonging rooted in civilisational continuity
Live peacefully in coexistence with nature
Sovereignty and peace of mind were inseparable; a nation’s strength lay in the confidence, moral clarity, and cohesion of its people.
In the pre-colonial civilisational order, security was not merely physical but psychological and ethical. People lived without the constant anxiety of arbitrary violence, social decay, or moral disorientation.
Today, people are repeatedly told they possess rights, freedoms, and justice. Yet in practice, these assurances are meaningless when daily life is surrounded by vices rather than virtue. The modern era has normalised conditions that would have been unthinkable in a civilisation rooted in ethical governance: organised crime, contract killings, assassinations, suicide terrorism, underworld violence and now gender transition have become recurring features of public life. These are not signs of progress; they are symptoms of moral collapse.
Pre-colonial society functioned without advanced technology, surveillance systems, or expansive legal codes, yet it maintained order through ethical restraint and shared responsibility.
The individual governed the self; discipline arose from conscience, not coercion. Social order did not depend on cameras, algorithms, or constant monitoring, because moral accountability was internalised.
People were guided by values, not controlled by machines.
Today, this self-regulation has collapsed. Self-ethics prevail only amongst a few.
Technology monitors behaviour where ethics once guided it.
Surveillance replaces trust, regulation replaces restraint, and external control is attempting to compensate for internal moral collapse.
This is where we have gone wrong. No amount of machinery, legislation, or paperwork can correct a society that has lost mastery over its own impulses. Systems can restrain behaviour, but they cannot cultivate virtue. Without inner discipline, regulation multiplies endlessly—yet disorder persists.
A society that once relied on self-discipline now depends on artificial systems to restrain impulses that were once governed by conscience. Until the individual learns again to govern the self, neither technological sophistication nor legal expansion will restore peace of mind or true social order.
Technology today is presented as a liberating force, but its impact must be questioned honestly. Instead of strengthening families and communities, it often fragments them. Children are increasingly detached from parents, exposed prematurely to harmful content, and shaped more by algorithms than by values. The internet, with its vast potential for learning and connection, is frequently reduced to a vehicle for pornography, addiction, and moral erosion.
This contrast raises a fundamental civilisational question: has technological advancement enhanced human wellbeing, or has it merely accelerated disconnection, anxiety, and ethical decline?
Peace of mind—once central to governance and daily life—has been replaced by constant stimulation, insecurity, and psychological unrest. Without restoring moral grounding and ethical discipline, neither rights nor freedoms can deliver genuine human flourishing.
Lessons for Today
Colonial disruption deliberately weakened the ethical and civilisational foundations that produced sustainable peace of mind and societal cohesion.
To reclaim true independence, Sri Lanka must restore moral and civilisational consciousness, not merely political institutions. Heritage-based education, ethical governance, and social frameworks are practical, strategic tools for national survival and psychological restoration.
By reconnecting with the pre-colonial model, we understand what was lost, what was betrayed, and why restoring civilisational consciousness is essential for reclaiming true independence today.
Education Without Roots Is Displacement, Not Progress
People are being told that today’s education reforms are designed to match the world.” But matching the world without first knowing who we are does not produce progress—it produces displacement.
An education system that disconnects a child from their land, history, civilisational values, and moral inheritance does not prepare them for the world; it prepares them to belong nowhere.
True education should anchor before it expands. A person who does not know where they come from cannot meaningfully decide where they are going. When education is stripped of national memory, cultural continuity, and ethical grounding, individuals grow up seeing themselves as strangers in their own country—imitators of external models rather than custodians of an ancient civilisation.
If one chooses to live in Sri Lanka, build a future here, and shape its destiny, grounding is not optional – it is mandatory. That grounding begins with valuing oneself as part of a rich, continuous heritage—not as an accident of geography or a relic of the past, but as a living civilisational identity. Only when people appreciate who they are can they selectively and intelligently engage with the outside world.
If those who seek citizenship in foreign countries are required to study, memorise, and respect the history, values, and institutions of that land in order to be accepted, why is there such reluctance to learn—and take pride in—the history of the country one is born into?
No nation grants belonging without knowledge. Identity is not assumed; it is earned through understanding and respect. Yet in our own land, knowing our history is increasingly portrayed as optional, outdated, or even regressive. This contradiction reveals a deeper problem: we have been conditioned to value external validation more than self-recognition.
A people who willingly learn another nation’s story in order to belong, but hesitate to embrace their own, are not rejecting history—they are suffering from a loss of confidence in themselves.
True global engagement begins with self-respect. One cannot meaningfully integrate into the world while remaining alienated from one’s own civilisational inheritance.
Pride in one’s heritage is not hostility to others; it is the foundation of self-worth. No nation remains sovereign when its people are taught to forget who they are, even as they are expected to remember who others are.
What we are witnessing today is the reverse process: foreign frameworks are imported first, declared global” or modern,” and then imposed as standards to be followed—while local history, ethics, and wisdom are treated as outdated or irrelevant. This does not create global citizens; it creates rootless individuals who consume ideas without discernment and adopt values without ownership.
A nation does not become modern by abandoning itself. It becomes modern by standing firmly on its civilisational foundations and engaging the world from a position of self-knowledge and confidence. The task of education, therefore, is not to erase identity in the name of global compatibility, but to strengthen identity so that engagement with the world is conscious, selective, and sovereign.
Without this grounding, reforms—however well-branded—will continue to weaken social cohesion, dilute responsibility, and erode peace of mind.
Education must first teach people to belong, before teaching them to compete.
Only a grounded people can modernise without losing themselves.
Current educational reforms fail to address these foundational needs. Instead of cultivating rooted individuals, they risk producing a dislodged generation—technically skilled yet internally unsettled, globally exposed yet locally disconnected, uncertain not only of their place in the world but of where they truly belong.
We return, inevitably, to the concept of peace of mind. Without this inner anchoring, individuals remain in a constant search for fulfilment, mistaking consumption, achievement, or validation for contentment.
Yet peace of mind cannot be assembled from external achievements alone; it emerges from clarity of identity, moral grounding, and a sense of belonging within a living civilisational.
Unless education consciously nurtures this foundation, individuals will continue to chase peace without understanding what truly provides it—leaving society restless, fragmented, and vulnerable despite every outward sign of modernity.
For today’s generation & tomorrows generation to have that peace of mind – the pieces of history, heritage and civilizational pride that ground them must be connected.
Shenali D Waduge
Comments Off on Road to “Independent” Sri Lanka: Pre-Colonial Life — A Civilisational Model
On the 4th of February 1948, Ceylon was granted Dominion status by the British Crown. The Queen remained the head, and Ceylon had a Governor-General. The island’s residents were encouraged to celebrate the event as Independence Day. This Ceylon did for many years.
Sri Lanka has had two main republican constitutions—1972 and 1978—designed to sever colonial ties with Britain, establish a sovereign republic, and centre state power.
The First Republican Constitution, promulgated on 22 May 1972, replaced the Soulbury Constitution, thereby eliminating the last remnants of British dominion and establishing Sri Lanka as a free, sovereign, and independent republic. It established a National State Assembly, the supreme instrument of state power, and Ceylon became Sri Lanka.
The 1978 Second Republican Constitution (Current), promulgated on the 7th September 1978, replaced the 1972 system with a strong executive presidency, comprising a head of state and head of government, elected directly for a six-year term.
Even at this late stage, should Sri Lanka instead celebrate 22nd May 1972 as the true independence day, rather than unnecessarily wasting taxpayers’ resources to celebrate the 4th February 1948? A meaningless exercise, but then, who decides?
Love of one’s country is a part of faith” Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) said: –
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai and Madan Homoeo Clinic, Adamapakkam, Chennai jointly celebrated 77th Indian Republic Day on 26th January 2026 at Masjid Haadi premises, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai.
The event began at 10 A.M., with flag hoisting of Indian National Flag by the Chief Guest Dr. N.A Jayakumar, President, Homoeopathy Council Tamil Nadu and the owner of Madan Homoeo Clinic, Adamapakkam, Chennai. He led the medical camp.
In his Guest speech, Dr. N.A Jayakumar, remarked that a number of Ahmadi Muslims from various parts of Chennai as well as Tamil Nadu, had been treated in his clinic.
In this five hours long Medical Camp, team of doctors led by Dr. N.A. Jayakumar and staff including physiotherapist attended.
A memento was presented to Chief Guest by Mr. M.S. Waseem Ahmad, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai.
75 patients were treated and more than hundred participated at the event.
Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, stated, Love of one’s country is a part of faith”
Fifth Khalifa and Head of the World wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Jamaát) in Islam (www.alislam.org) Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) had noted that, in fact, sincere patriotism is a tenet of Islam.
Ahmadi Muslims world over usually celebrate the National Day of their respective countries as they love their countries, they obey the law of the land.
Comments Off on Free Homoeopathy Clinic to mark a National Event.
When I questioned AI, “According to the Buddhist philosophy, what is the reason for rebirth after death?“
AI Replied;
In Buddhist philosophy, rebirth after death happens because the causes that drive existence have not ended yet. It’s not a soul that moves on, but a process continuing.
Here’s the core idea, step by step 👇
1. Craving (Taṇhā) is the main reason
The Buddha taught that craving—for pleasure, existence, identity, or becoming—is the key cause.
As long as there is:
desire
attachment
clinging to I” and mine”
…the cycle continues.
Craving leads to renewed existence.” — Samudaya Sacca (The Truth of the Origin of Suffering)
2. Kamma (intentional action) fuels rebirth
Our intentional actions (body, speech, and mind) leave kammic potential.
At death:
the body ends
but accumulated kamma + craving conditions a new birth
Think of it like:
one candle lighting another 🔥 The flame continues, but it’s not the same flame.
3. No permanent soul is reborn
Buddhism rejects an eternal soul (attā).
Instead:
rebirth is a causal continuity
a stream of conditions (nāma–rūpa, consciousness, formations)
So:
not the same person
not a completely different person
This is called dependent origination (Paṭicca Samuppāda).
4. Ignorance (Avijjā) keeps the cycle going
Not seeing reality clearly—especially:
impermanence (anicca)
unsatisfactoriness (dukkha)
non-self (anattā)
—leads to craving → kamma → rebirth → suffering again.
5. When does rebirth stop?
Rebirth ends when:
ignorance is destroyed
craving is extinguished
This is Nibbāna.
When there is no fuel, the fire goes out 🔥
In one sentence:
According to Buddhism, rebirth happens because craving and ignorance, supported by kamma, continue the process of existence—even after death.
If you want, I can also explain this:
using a simple everyday analogy
or from a Sinhala / Theravāda perspective
or with exact sutta references
Just tell me 🙂
Q: Can you explain this further?
Of course 🙂 Let’s go deeper but keep it clear, step by step, exactly how Buddhism explains rebirth.
1. What actually dies?
In Buddhism, what we call a person” is only a combination of five aggregates (pañca-khandha):
Rūpa – physical body
Vedanā – feelings
Saññā – perception
Saṅkhāra – mental formations (intentions, habits)
Viññāṇa – consciousness
At death:
the body breaks down
consciousness does NOT continue as the same entity
but the conditions that support consciousness are still present
Nothing permanent leaves the body.
2. Then what causes a new birth?
This is where Paṭicca Samuppāda (Dependent Origination) comes in.
The Buddha explained rebirth as a chain of causes, not a soul-transfer.
Like an echo —caused by a sound, but not the sound itself
Or:
Like milk turning into curd, curd into butter —continuous, but never the same substance
4. Why craving is the decisive factor
At death, the mind naturally moves toward what it is attached to.
If there is:
craving for existence
fear of non-existence
attachment to identity, people, possessions
Then the mind grasps → that grasping becomes fuel → rebirth occurs.
The Buddha compared this to:
A fire jumping from one house to another It moves because of wind and fuel, not because the fire wants” to travel.
Craving = fuel Kamma = direction Ignorance = blindness
5. Why good people are still reborn
Even wholesome kamma:
still supports existence
still produces rebirth (even in heavenly realms)
So rebirth ends not by good deeds alone, but by:
wisdom
non-clinging
seeing reality as it is
6. How rebirth stops completely
When a person realizes:
there is no permanent self
all conditioned things are impermanent
craving causes suffering
Then:
craving ceases
kamma loses its fuel”
consciousness no longer seeks a new base
This is Nibbāna.
Like a lamp going out when oil is finished.
7. One powerful summary (Buddha’s own logic)
When this exists, that comes to be. When this ceases, that ceases.”
Rebirth exists because:
craving exists
ignorance exists
Rebirth ends when:
craving ends
ignorance ends
If you like, I can:
explain this with a modern science analogy
map it moment-to-moment (not just after death)
explain what happens at the exact moment of death
or explain it in Sinhala, very simply
Just tell me how deep you want to go 🌱
Can you please explain this with a modern science analogy map it moment-to-moment (not just after death) explain what happens at the exact moment of death or explain it in Sinhala,
Love this question — you’re basically asking for the full-stack explanation 😄 I’ll do all four, clearly separated, and tie them together so they click.
1️⃣ Modern science analogy (no religion needed)
🔌 Think of rebirth like energy + information, not a soul
In modern science:
Energy is never destroyed, only transformed
Information patterns can continue even when hardware changes
Example: A flame 🔥
One candle lights another
The first candle goes out
Is it the same flame? ❌
Is it unrelated? ❌
What continues is:
heat
conditions
process
➡️ Buddhism says rebirth works exactly like this.
There is:
no permanent thing”
only a causal process continuing
🧠 Brain analogy
Your brain today:
is not made of the same atoms as 10 years ago
yet your habits, fears, desires continue
Why? ➡️ Patterns, not substances.
Buddhism says rebirth is the continuation of mental patterns (kamma + craving) after the body stops.
2️⃣ Moment-to-moment rebirth (THIS is the key insight)
Rebirth is not just after death. It is happening every moment.
Example (right now):
Thought arises → I like this”
You cling → identity forms
That moment dies
A new moment is born
➡️ This is micro-rebirth.
The Buddha taught that:
Birth and death happen billions of times in one lifetime
So:
death of the body = just a big version of what already happens every second
If craving exists: ➡️ the process continues If craving stops: ➡️ the process stops
3️⃣ What happens at the exact moment of death (Theravāda explanation)
Very precise here 👇
Step-by-step:
Body fails (organs stop)
Sense consciousness shuts down
Mind enters a final mental event called cuti-citta (death consciousness)
If craving + kamma still exist:
a new paṭisandhi-citta (rebirth-linking consciousness) arises
instantly, without a gap
⏱️ No waiting room ⏱️ No soul traveling ⏱️ Just cause → effect
Like:
one wave ending 🌊
another wave beginning 🌊
What decides the next birth?
dominant kamma
habitual tendencies
strong attachments at death
overall mental direction of life
Not judgment. Not punishment. Just physics of mind.
‘Before you study the economics, study the economists!’
e-Con e-News 25-31 January 2026
*
‘The visitor to Devundara (Dondra) inevitably visits
the Vishnu Devale, the Buddhist vihara built
by Parakramabahu VI… Much less known is
the granite structure called Gal-ge or Galgane…
First discovered in 1914 by ER Ayrton, the
building was declared an archaeological reserve
in 1927… In Feb of 1587, the Portuguese
destroyed this grand shrine completely,
plundering the jewels & the valuables,
building a church where the shrine was.’
– ee Sovereignty, Gal-ge:
Forgotten shrine to Lanka’s guardian god
*
The shrine (to honor the Sinhala guardian deity Upulvan – not Vishnu, by the way) was destroyed in 1587 and a church built upon it. How then was it ’discovered’ by a roving Englishman in 1914 (when he was in the midst of fighting another of their wars on the world)? Uncovered, may be? This verbiage of ‘discovery’, trite as it may seem to be blatantly reiterated in 2026, is flashed before our eyes by this week’s Sunday Times (see ee Sovereignty, Gal-ge: Forgotten Shrine). The Times has not just cold blood but hot ink in their varicosed veins, and not only English whitewash. So how or why are they making such an egregious mistake about our own history in this moment of much babble about ‘Education Reform’. Or is it a mistake? Access to ink does not ensure an open sluice to common sense.
*
The merchant media in Sri Lanka absolutely love a good diversion, and the inclusion of a US homo mating site in a proposed education curriculum has given them enough powder to use up all the ink, electronic & chemical, to blanket paper & screen. Lost in the controversy is need for a modern industrial curriculum, which alone can prepare us to face the rest of the 21st century. Lost also is identification of the main obstacles to realizing that goal. Lost then is the kidnapping of the education system by the USA’s World Bank & the ADB (see ee Random Notes), aided by their bribing of Education Ministry officials & employees via junkets & jaunts to England, the USA & Japan, etc. Lost as well is the failure to understand the role education, and the prevention of it, plays in reproducing an unequal class system.
*
Here is another enlightening scoop from the same Times this week:
‘For many in the international community, it was a moment
of profound surprise – a realization that the US electorate
was willing to break entirely from established political norms.
However, when the US voter returned [US President Trump] to power
for a 2nd term in 2024, that surprise transformed into a deeper,
more resonant disbelief.’ – Javid Yusuf (ee Politics, Trump phenomenon,
the Sri Lankan parallel & the responsibility of the American people)
Why ‘disbelief’? Liberals, like this disbelieving columnist (from a so-called ‘minority’ community) usually love to blubber about the USA & Europe being models of freedom to quickly emulate. Yet for those with eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a brain to smell a dead rat, it has always been very easy for the USA & Europe to ‘break entirely from established political norms?’ If and when they need to.
The USA’s bottom-line ‘norms’ derive from their unapologetic genocide of the original owners of that so-called NewWorld. It then profited intensely from the enslaved chattel slavery for their plantations (from whence its ‘human resources’ policies were imposed on us!). They did not share with us the intricate mechanisms of modern machine-making industry & capitalist wage slavery. But their more ‘established’ norms have always included the ‘divine right’ of these colonial settlers (regardless of their rulers being of Republican or Democratic Party vintage) to invade our & other countries at will.
The clamour for so-called ‘minority’ rights, actually originates in the demand by the ‘minority’ English invading Sri Lanka & India: to have ‘equal’ rights over the majority they chose to oppress & exploit. (Once they wipe out the original majority peoples, of course, there is little dribble about minority rights). In the US, the constitutional 14th amendment that reluctantly declared ‘negroes’ as ‘humans’ – actually as ‘persons’ – was passed only to also declare corporations as ‘legal persons’ too.
In Sri Lanka, the rights of ‘minorities’ were provided to enable the continuation post-1948 of colonial rule by merchants, ‘to represent important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House’ especially over the economy.
As for that disbelieving columnist Yusuf, this disbeliever as usual only uses his ‘disbelief’ to divert to his (& other liberals’) favorite theme of abolishing the executive presidency in Sri Lanka (though they never call for abolishing corporate Chief Executive Officers – CEOs):
‘Perhaps the most alarming aspect of these developments
is the apparent inability of the US governance system to
restrain the executive. The US Constitution was designed
with a system of ‘checks & balances,’ yet the 2nd Trump
term has demonstrated that these checks are only
as strong as the individuals who uphold them.’
Phew! It is not about ‘individuals’ but the collective forces, the classes, behind political actors. This dear liberal should really check his history books at the door. The US Constitution, from its very beginnings, was primarily concerned with preserving chattel slavery! Instead, mythologies are freely disseminated by our so-called ‘minority’ liberals. These are also promoted by other petty merchants, including lawyers. Look at these claims, again in the Sunday Times, about ‘English justice’ & ‘free speech’, especially in their colonies, where justice is still politically & economically prioritized for white settlers:
‘In South Africa, prosecutorial decisions are regularly reviewed
for their rationality & legality… I say this as a liberal proponent
of contempt of court laws & abiding fully by the standard set in
modern jurisdictions that, as well put by courts in England, there
must not be ‘gagging of bona fide public discussion of controversial
matters of general public interest’.’ – see ee Security, An Office
of a Director of Public Prosecutions independent of AG…
These columnists appear to be clearly ignorant of recent legal rulings in England, Europe & the USA (which are ‘legally’ suppressing speech & repressing demonstrations against the slaughter in Palestine, or the kidnapping of migrants). Their jurisprudence is always contingent on the political & economic priorities of their rulers.
*
‘US President Trump – despite deep differences with
most western allies – framed western power & prosperity as
the product of a shared & ‘very special’ culture, which he
argued must be defended & strengthened. The emphasis on
cultural inheritance, rather than shared rules or institutions,
underscored how far the language of the old order has shifted.’
M Moragoda (seeee Sovereignty,
India, middle powers & the emerging global order)
Moragoda Mahattaya, founder of the Pathfinder Foundation, a recipient of the beneficence of the Rockefeller dynasty’s oil-sucking Exxon Corp, cannot bring himself to address what this ‘very special’ ‘culture’ the US President is dog-whistling or helpfully trying to pry open our eyes to: white supremacism. Moragoda calls it a ‘shift’. As for the so-called ‘deep differences’ that Moragoda divines, he may be in for another surprise aka discovery. Now, what does this tell us about our so-called ‘thought leaders’? They are yet to ‘discover’ ourselves or our enemies:
*
‘If you know the enemy & know yourself,
you need not fear the result of 100 battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every
victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you
know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle.’
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
*
Just as the US amasses another ‘big, beautiful’ armada to attack Iran, again using stolen Diego Garcia as an attack base, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka last week claims it ‘welcomed’ once again the Montana National Guard to assess damage following Cyclone Ditwah. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in November 2025 with Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence formalized ‘cooperation under the US Department of War’s State Partnership Program’. We are thus moved to examine the extents of this enemy we are confronted with today in Sri Lanka and the seas we claim to own around us:
‘The Trump Administration & its NATO allies are clear:
They will escalate their war against Russia at sea, deploying
their navies to enforce trade blockades, ship sabotage &
seizures, & the closure of sea lanes, & to launch
‘pre-emptive’ attacks before their targets can defend
themselves. This is sea war to achieve regime change on
land. Trump’s current targets are Iran, Venezuela, Cuba,
Russia, North Korea, China, & India. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio told a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday
that if these targets attempt to deter the US escalation by
raising their guard, the US Navy will shoot first.’
– John Helmer (ee Sovereignty, Trump’s Global Sea War
is the New Strategy for Regime Change)
*
This of course is not new. The US President’s blabber last week about England being ‘stupid’ for handing back nominal ownership of the Chagos Atoll (Diego Garcia), made sure that the media made no reference to England ‘leasing’ the base to the USA for the next 00 years. When England and their effusive choirs & tenured professors claimed ‘post-coloniality’ they forgot to note:
*
‘British Overseas Territories (BOTs) are 14 territories
that maintain a constitutional or historically recognized
[imperialist– ee] link to England & constitute part of its
sovereign territory, yet lie outside the English Islands –
these include Anguilla, Bermuda, The British Antarctic
Territory, The British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin
The Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie & Oeno Islands, Saint Helena,
Ascension & Tristan Da Cunha, South Georgia & the South
Sandwich Islands, Cyprus (Akrotiri & Dhekelia) & the Turks
& Caicos Islands. These territories are remnants of the former
English Empire, which remain under English sovereignty.’
– see ee Sovereignty, British Overseas Territories
Indeed, the English, even while their choirs & professors sang loudly about ‘free trade’, have continued to bawl out:
*
When Britain first at Heav’n’s command
Arose, arose from out the azure main
This was the charter, the charter of the land
& guardian angels sang this strain
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves
Britons never, never, never will be slaves
– Rule Britannia! 1740
This bellicose anthem, played & sung by colonial forces (including the US) when Japan surrendered in Singapore in 1945, is struck aloud, annually at least, by the BBC. Note: ee does not use the words ‘Britain’, great or not, nor ‘United Kingdom’ – we always use ‘England’, and ‘English’, for that is the source & language of their power – not Celtic or Gaelic or Welsh which their immediate fiefs claim to also pronounce. Their principal institutions refer to a Bank of England, & Church of England. And then there is the USA’s Marines’ Hymn. ee always refers to this settler colony as the ‘USA’, not ‘America’ or even the ‘US’ as a noun (not us). In their hymn, Montezuma, the name of the Aztec leader killed by the Spanish, refers to the US War that stole parts of Mexico in 1847. And ‘Tripoli’ refers to the US wars on North Africa (1801-15) to avoid paying tariffs on the US opium trade from Turkey to China, an opium which created the USA’s first ‘millionaires’:
*
‘From the Halls of Montezuma
to the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
in the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right & freedom
& to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.’
– The Marines’ Hymn, 1867
‘To fight for right & freedom’ to enslave others & sell opium? Which brings us to the USA’s National Defense Strategy 2026 unveiled last week:
‘Among these expansions will be for the US to ‘erect’
new military installations in close proximity to China.
Per the jargon of NatSec Speak, this means establishing
‘strong denial defense’ in the ‘1st Island Chain’ –
which may sound like a modestly-sized region to the
unschooled reader, but actually encompasses Japan,
the Philippines, Taiwan, & perhaps a smattering of
other places like Vietnam & Malaysia, depending on
what the cockamamie Grand Strategists decide to theorize
& war-game next… On top of ‘deepening’ US military
involvement in West Asia, so as to ‘enable integration
between Israel & our Arabian Gulf partners’.’
– Michael Tracey(ee Sovereignty, A note on the
ridiculous 2026 ‘National Defense Strategy’)
Well, the English are now the slaves of the USA! And the USA seeks to rule the waves along with them! And their guardian angels – the polluted MSM (mainstream media), & flunkies – strain to sing along:
$500mn in military spending in the region. The number of
Canadian frigates assigned to the waters off the Chinese coast
will increase from 2 to 3. China considers sailings through the
Taiwan Strait to be provocations & in violation of its territorial
sovereignty but Canada routinely sails there alongside US warships.
Canadian foreign policy is in lockstep with the US in its hegemonic
design to threaten & contain China.’ – William Dere & Wawa Li,
– ee Sovereignty, Chinese Canadians Organize for Democratic Rights
& Against Modern Exclusion
*
Perhaps the Canadians & their de jure English overlords have changed their minds? Like a World Wrestling Federation tag team, taking over from their thumper Don Trump, the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney & the English PM Keir Starmer have both coming knocking on China’s door. The media has also been lighting fireworks about Carney’s supposedly ‘historic’ thunderbolt at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Charith Gunawardena & Kanishka Goonewardena (G&G) however urge Sri Lankans to be cautious (strategic & tactical) about decoding any ‘roadmap for reform’ in Carney’s words. G&G see an urgent need to ‘manage the destructive consequences of policies dictated by our creditors’ (which includes Canada), asserting ‘it would be naïve to trust global political-economic business as usual’ (see ee Focus).
The speech by Carney (Canada’s ‘Governor’ as the US President refers to him) ignores the structural injustices of the imperialist system. G&G notes his speech is directed at the supposed ‘middle powers’: Europe, etc. These ‘powers’ have certainly not been in the ‘middle’ when it comes to us; they remain (pick one: ‘flunky’, ‘running dog’, ‘lackey’, ‘poodle’) accessories to major international crimes. This includes the stealing of Venezuela’s gold reserves – when Carney was Bank of England governor – and Canada’s role in the kidnapping of both Venezuelan President Maduro, as well as Haiti’s President Bernard Aristide in 2004.
Europe (to be precise, Germany, England & France) have actively pushed the IMF programs that ‘limit policy autonomy in our economies while preserving advantages for multinational corporations (MNCs) & advanced industrial states’. G&G instead highlight the need for policies that would ‘prioritise value addition, food & energy security, import substitution &, above all… industrial development’ (see ee Focus).
*
• Our media remain insistently blind to how the white settler states (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) have become leading political economies in the world. Unravelling the roots of underdevelopment, SBD de Silva in 1982 classified the world into 3 parts: the states of new settlement (the genocidaire states led by the US, etc), settler-colonial states (largely led by the old European thugs) & non-settler colonial states (like ours), come into sharper focus with each passing day. Of course there are powerful exceptions to this division of the world, but much of the world is still colonized, and the USA’s & Europe’s tactics to besiege those who refuse to submit to their dictat, grow deadlier…
This ee Focus concludesChapter 6 of our reproduction of SBD de Silva’s classic The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Here de Silva examines the differences (USA, Canada etc vs Sri Lanka, India) in the treatment of workers. In the non-settler colonies like Sri Lanka, unable to decimate the local population, colonial government officials had to project a semblance of justice.
In settler states, however, government officials openly colluded with local investors against the indigenous people. Officials acquired property and political interests and even opposed the metropolitan government. White officials even insisted they be treated as indigenous, opposing attempts to regulate the conditions of labor, and attempts to improve African farming.
De Silva also detailed how ‘the problem of a labour supply in different socio-historical situations’ was ‘solved in different ways’. In the settler colonies, the settlers’ need for labor was linked to the officials’ needs for revenues; labour had to be ‘extracted by dismantling traditional economic structures – through taxation, land expropriation and by outright coercion’. In French West Africa, people were forced to ‘grow cotton (for export to France) under the threat of imprisonment if the quality was indifferent or the quantity insufficient’.
De Silva also pointed to the different roles the export sector was made to play. In Sri Lanka, Malaysia & India, the export sector was based on plantations. In Sri Lanka & Malaysia, they chose to import Indian & Chinese workers. In Myanmar (Burma), Thailand & West Africa, the export sector was peasant-based and expanded beyond the home market. In Sri Lanka, the English impoverished the peasant economy, & prevented rural industrialization:
‘Unable to effectively utilize the available number of labourers
nor could it in the absence of organizational or technological
changes release labour to other sectors of production (This
‘irrationality’ was largely due to the nature of labour demand
& supply. The timing of labour requirements in grain
cultivation based on monsoonal rains was both uneven &
erratic, & the resulting variations in the demand for labour
were aggravated by a maldistribution in the supply,
intra-seasonally, inter-regionally, & even between
holdings in the same district).
De Silva added: ‘Settler agriculture was less labour intensive than either plantations or peasant-based cereal crops.’ Foreign absentee investors in non-settler states focused on the plantations, and the colonials formed an enclave. He also recorded the destruction of the ancient village administration (the self-governing gamsabhava), as well as the environment:
‘In Sri Lanka, there was a loss of village pasture land,
& a denudation of forests which caused soil erosion
& the silting up of water courses & paddy fields.’
*
• The media & plantation mafia have been working overtime to hide theculpability of the plantation system in the recent disaster. We cannot expect them to admit to the role that the plantations & the import-export fraud have played in the overall underdevelopment of the economy,as SBD de Silva has analyzed. The tea plantation mafia own the media. Instead, this mafia have poured out good unreported rupees to publish fine & glossy ‘coffee-table’ volumes on the wonders that the over-150 years of plantations have bestowed upon us! As for the recent flooding, at first the plantation owners denied they had been affected at all (see ee 26 Dec 2025). Then news ‘leaked’ out that workers had been very much affected, particularly due to the peculiar architecture of estates that values capital equipment over labor ‘resources’.
Our attention was recently drawn (by Former Secretary to PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sudath Gunasekara, see ee 24 Jan 2026) to how, midst the general lament about ‘Malaiyaha’ Tamil workers, the landlessness & reduction to beggary of the evicted Kandyans has been studiously ignored, since 1948. Gunasekara referred to an 1894 Kelani Valley Railway Commission Report by the English, to estimate the cost of a railway and the profits that could be obtained, which had then noted the ‘recurrence of high floods’ & ‘allegations’:
‘Navigation of this river is yearly becoming more difficult
1) on account of the floods being more sudden & of higher
volume, owing to the denudation of the slopes of its upper reaches
through the opening of new tea estates; 2) on account of the detritus
swept down from these newly-opened lands, which has filled up
many of the deep reaches, & has formed sandbanks in the
navigable channels; & 3) on account of the rapid drainage into
the basin of the Kelani, which, while causing high floods during
the heavy rains, has reduced the ordinary low water level.’
– see ee Random Notes
Of course, these allegations were partially refuted by an English tea planter (of that infamous colonial Byrde family) who ‘owned’ 800 acres, even as he did not discount the possibility that it would get worse…
This week, 131 years later, saw the government call to ‘vacate housing above 5,000 feet’. Rather than recall our own history, written in blood & tears, the President, rather ironically had to refer to a recent survey report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which he said, provided ‘a stark picture of the past, present & future of the Central Highlands: erosion is so severe that only exposed rock remains. Many reservoirs in the hill country risk being filled with silt & mud. The soil layers have become extremely thin.’ Soil is the most effective natural medium for storing water. ‘Healthy land absorbs rainfall, retains it, & then releases it gradually, forming streams, springs, waterfalls, and eventually rivers that sustain both people & agriculture across the island. This natural process is now under threat. All 103 major rivers & tributaries in Sri Lanka originatefrom the highlands. From the hilltops, water flows outward, supporting life in distant regions far removed from the mountains themselves. For this reason, protecting the Central Highlands is absolutely critical.’ Well, let’s see what England’s Unilever Corporation – direct descendant of Lever Brothers & Lipton’s, etc – its innumerable MSME fronts, and the rest of the plantation mafia, have to say about all this… Unilever will of course claim it has spun off its plantations – but they still control them remotely though other means. Will they pay reparations? Will the ADB cover it all up? (see ee Random Notes)
Sri Lanka’s governments display a disturbing tendency to repeat the mistakes of other countries, even after those countries have openly admitted failure and reversed course. What is more troubling is that these reversals are not hidden or disputed — they are documented, and publicly acknowledged. Yet, despite full awareness that overseas online voting experiments failed in advanced democracies due to risks to election integrity, public trust, and national security, Sri Lanka appears willing to proceed down the same path — knowing that reversal is inevitable. Sri Lanka does not need to learn the hard way” what others have already learned at great cost. A government that knowingly walks into a mistake — fully aware it will have to reverse —It is abdicating its constitutional duty. What is being proposed is not merely a new voting method, but a reallocation of political power from citizens living under Sri Lanka’s laws to individuals who have chosen to live outside its jurisdiction under foreign laws — without first asking the People whether they consent to such a transfer.
Sri Lanka’s Constitution (Article 3) vests sovereignty directly in the People, not to the Government of the day.
Any fundamental alteration in the exercise of political power — including how votes are cast or counted — requires the explicit consent of the People themselves (Referendum).
Lobbying, technology, or donor pressure cannot override this constitutional mandate.
If nations with stronger institutions, advanced cybersecurity capacity, and stable political environments have concluded that online voting undermines democracy, on what rational basis does a post-conflict country like Sri Lanka believe it will succeed especially when ministry websites get regularly hacked.
I. What Other Democracies Learned — and Why They Reversed Course
Countries including Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, France, and the United Kingdom halted or rejected online voting after concluding that:
1. Election integrity cannot be guaranteed in online environments
2. The secret ballot cannot be protected outside controlled polling stations
3. Foreign interference is undetectable and deniable
4. Public confidence collapses faster than technology improves
Elections must be verifiable by the average citizen, not dependent on technical expertise.”
This principle is universal — and even more critical for Sri Lanka.
II. Sri Lanka’s Constitution: Clear Safeguards, Clear Intent
Article 3 – Sovereignty of the People
Sovereignty includes:
· legislative power
· executive power
· judicial power
· the franchise
This sovereignty must be exercised in a manner that protects the State and the People.
Sovereignty belongs to the People — not to the Government of the day.
Article 3 of the Constitution vests sovereignty in the People as a collective, not in Parliament, the Executive, or the Elections Commission acting independently of the People.
Therefore, any fundamental alteration in how the franchise is exercised — especially one that shifts political power outside the territory of the Republic — requires the explicit consent of the People themselves, not merely administrative or legislative initiative.
No Government has the constitutional authority to redesign the exercise of sovereignty without consulting the sovereign — the People of Sri Lanka.
Article 4(e) – Exercise of the Franchise
The Constitution requires that the franchise be exercised at elections conducted in accordance with the law.
This has historically meant:
1. controlled polling environments
2. physical verification
3. secrecy and transparency
4. public confidence in the process
Online overseas voting transfers effective political power away from resident citizens — without their consent.
The Constitution does not authorise the Government to redefinewho effectively determines electoral outcomeswithout the consent of the People.
Any proposal to allow large-scale overseas online voting — particularly by those who have voluntarily left Sri Lanka to live, work, or enjoy life elsewhere — must first be put to the People of Sri Lanka, whose sovereignty is directly affected.
Article 104B – Elections Commission
The Elections Commission is mandated to:
1. ensure free and fair elections
2. protect the integrity of the electoral process
3. maintain public trust
Election Commission is not empowered to introduce mechanisms that:
Any such change must be explicitly authorised by Parliament and consistent with constitutional intent.
III. Sri Lanka’s Election Law: Physical, Verifiable, Secure
Under the Parliamentary Elections Act No. 1 of 1981 and related election laws:
· Voting occurs at designated polling stations
· Voters are registered by electoral district
· Ballots are secret
· Counting is observable and auditable
These laws were designed to:
· prevent coercion
· prevent impersonation
· ensure equality of voting power
Online overseas votingcannot meet these standardswithout rewriting the law — and weakening its safeguards.
IV. Why Sri Lanka Faces Risks Other Countries Do Not
1. An Organised, Hostile Separatist Diaspora
Sri Lanka has faced:
· three decades of terrorism
· a well-documented, internationally active separatist network
· digital lobbying, fundraising, and influence campaigns abroad continue
Online overseas voting would:
· enable bloc mobilisation from abroad
· allow foreign-funded campaigning without domestic accountability
· directly influence Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity
No post-conflict state/Govt aware ofan unresolved separatist threat permits unrestricted overseas online voting.
2. Transnational Extremist Influence
The Easter Sunday attacks demonstrated:
· ideological radicalisation from external networks
· foreign funding and influence
Online voting environments are:
· susceptible to coercion
· vulnerable to ideological pressure
· impossible to regulate across global jurisdictions
3. Persistent Foreign State Interference in internal affairs
Sri Lanka has repeatedly experienced:
· diplomatic pressure
· political interference
· policy influence from external powers
Online overseas voting would:
· magnify funding and digital capability
· allow algorithm-driven influence campaigns
· disadvantage domestic candidates and voters
The result will not reflect the will ofresident citizens who bear the consequences of governance.
V. International Experience: Overseas Voting Practices
While the Sri Lankan Government proposes overseas online voting, global experience shows such practices are extremely rare and highly restricted.
Most countries that allow citizens abroad to vote do so via postal ballots, embassies, or proxy voting, not the internet.
Examples include:
· France: Postal or embassy voting; temporary internet voting for parliamentary elections was suspended due to security concerns.
· India: Postal ballots for government employees and armed forces abroad; no online voting.
· United States: Mail-in absentee ballots; limited internet use only for military voters.
· United Kingdom & Canada: Postal or proxy voting; no online voting for federal elections.
· Italy: Postal voting for citizens abroad.
These examples highlight that even technologically advanced and politically stable countries limit online voting for overseas citizens because of risks to ballot secrecy, voter verification, cybersecurity, and foreign influence.
Sri Lanka, with a post-conflict environment, active hostile diaspora networks, and limited digital safeguards, cannot safely implement a similar system.
The precedent is clear: overseas online voting is an exception, not the norm — and Sri Lanka’s plan would be a risky experiment with constitutional, operational, and security consequences.
VI. Questions That Must Be Answered — Publicly
By what constitutional authority does the Government propose to alter the exercise of the People’s sovereignty without first seeking the People’s consent?
To the Government
1. Under which constitutional provision does the Government justify overseas online voting?
2. Has Parliament approved amendments to election law permitting it?
3. How will the State prevent foreign funding, coercion, and cyber interference?
4. Who bears responsibility if election legitimacy is challenged?
To the Elections Commission
1. How will the Commission guarantee ballot secrecy in uncontrolled environments?
2. How will coercion, vote-buying, and bloc voting be detected?
3. How can ordinary citizens verify results, as required by democratic principle?
4. Has a national security risk assessment been conducted?
To the Opposition
1. Would you accept election outcomes shaped by foreign digital campaigns?
2. Would you challenge results if overseas online voting determines government formation?
3. Are you prepared to defend this mechanism before the Supreme Court?
To Citizens of Sri Lanka
1. Should political power be exercised by those outside the legal, tax, and social consequences of governance?
2. Should convenience override constitutional safeguards?
3. Why should online voting be granted when any citizen may return to Sri Lanka to vote?
Citizens who retain strong civic ties to Sri Lanka, including dual citizens, are not disenfranchised.
Any citizen who wishes to exercise the franchise may do so by returning to Sri Lanka and voting within the constitutional and legal framework that applies equally to all resident voters.
The issue is not citizenship — it is method, accountability, and consent of the sovereign People.
Practical, Legal, and Public-Interest Objections to Online Overseas Voting
Beyond constitutional and national security risks, online overseas voting presents serious operational, financial, and civic failures that governments elsewhere have already identified — and rejected.
1. Inherent Risks of Online Systems
Online voting suffers from the same vulnerabilities as other online platforms, including:
· hacking and cyber intrusion
· manipulation of personal data
· connectivity failures and system outages
· lack of end-to-end verifiability
Even advanced systems such as online banking and government databases experience breaches and errors.
Elections, unlike financial transactions,cannot be reversed once compromised.
2. Unreliable Voter Registries and Data Integrity
Accurate voter rolls are the backbone of any credible election.
Online systems make this harder, not easier.
International experience shows:
· ghost voters” and duplicate registrations
· voting linked to deceased persons
· non-existent individuals receiving benefits through digital systems
· widespread disputes over mailed and digitally managed voter lists
Sri Lanka lacks the capacity to:
· verify overseas voter status in real time
· cross-check deaths, migration, asylum status, or nationality changes
· audit data received from multiple foreign jurisdictions
This alone creates systemic unreliability.
3. Voter Registration Will Be Costly, Complex, and Slow
Overseas online voting would require:
· new registration frameworks
· foreign-based verification processes
· constant updates across countries with different legal systems
This will be:
· expensive
· time-consuming
· administratively burdensome
Far from improving efficiency, it diverts limited state resources from domestic elections to catering to Sri Lankans living overseas who have no role in day to day governance.
4. Foreign Funding and Influence Must Be Prohibited
Any attempt to implement overseas online voting will inevitably attract:
· foreign government funding & foreign intel presence
· NGO involvement
· private tech vendors
· entities with vested political or ideological interests
Allowing such funding:
· compromises sovereignty
· distorts domestic political competition
· undermines public trust
Foreign funding of electoral infrastructure should be explicitly prohibited.
5. The United Nations has no Legitimate Role
Given the UN’s deeply contested and divisive role in Sri Lanka, its involvement in electoral processes would:
· undermine public confidence
· raise sovereignty concerns
· deepen political polarisation
Election management must remain exclusively national.
6. Foreign Campaigning will create chaos both in Sri Lanka & in nations where Sri Lankans live
Overseas online voting opens the door to:
· foreign-based political rallies
· fundraising events
· TV, print, and digital advertising campaigns in host countries
· These & more may stir red flags by police/intel in these countries & may even lead to revoking of citizenship (US is already mooting idea of enactments to revoke citizenship of naturalized migrants)
https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship
Key questions arise:
· Are Western governments prepared to police foreign election campaigns on their soil?
· Will host countries tolerate political agitation involving foreign conflicts?
· Who benefits from these campaigns — ordinary overseas citizens, or political actors and funders?
· This is also an opportunity for enemies of host countries to influence Sri Lankans which may lead to a national security threat in these host countries.
Such activity risks:
· social disruption
· communal tension
· potential violence
None of this benefits ordinary citizens abroad.
7. Unsustainable Cost to the Sri Lankan Taxpayer
Sri Lanka is:
· servicing IMF obligations
· cutting social services
· managing economic recovery
Against this backdrop, online overseas voting would impose:
· technology costs
· cybersecurity expenses
· legal and monitoring costs
· foreign verification infrastructure
· massive logistics costs for even personnel to travel to different countries (opportunities for a handful of people to misuse taxpayer money)
All borne by resident taxpayers, for outcomes they may not control.
8. Dual Loyalty Is Now Being Questioned Globally
Several countries, including the United States, are:
· reassessing dual citizenship
· emphasising loyalty to one country
· questioning voting in multiple jurisdictions
This global shift reinforces a basic principle:
Political power must align with civic allegiance and accountability.
Sri Lanka should not move in the opposite direction.
9. Monitoring and Enforcement Is Practically Impossible
Monitoring overseas online voting would require:
· cross-border cooperation and travel by Sri Lankan officials
· enforcement in foreign jurisdictions
· oversight of coercion, funding, and interference
This is administratively unmanageable and legally unenforceable.
10. Asylum Status Raises Legitimate Questions
A serious question must be asked:
Why should individuals who sought asylum abroad, often on claims against the Sri Lankan State, be permitted to influence the political future of that same State from outside its jurisdiction?
This is not about denying citizenship.
It is about protecting electoral integrity and fairness.
11. The Fundamental Question Remains
Ultimately, the most important question is this:
For whose benefit is all this being done?
· Not resident citizens
· Not taxpayers
· Not electoral integrity
· Not national security
If a policy benefits external actors more than the People living within Sri Lanka, itcannot be justified as democratic reform.
Sri Lanka does not lack examples.
Countries with stronger systems tried online voting — and reversed it for valid reasons.
Sri Lanka, with greater risks, should not pretend it will succeed where others failed.
A Government that reallocates sovereign power without the consent of the People does not modernise democracy — it bypasses it.
Online overseas voting, without a mandate from the People living in Sri Lanka, is not inclusion. It isconstitutional overreach.
VII. The Global Consensus Sri Lanka Is Being Asked to Ignore
Countries that rejected online voting did not do so because they were:
· anti-technology
· anti-diaspora
· anti-democracy
They rejected it because they were:
· pro-democracy
· pro-integrity
· pro-sovereignty
· pro-constitutionalism
Sri Lanka, with far greater risks, cannot afford to be less cautious.
It is a structural change that affects:
· sovereignty
· national security
· electoral legitimacy
· constitutional order
Democracy is not measured by how easy voting becomes, but by howtrustworthy the result remains.
Given that overseas online voting is constitutionally, operationally, and financially risky, why proceed with the plan?
Let us once again ask this question.
Is the decision being influenced by potential profits from technology contracts, logistics, or outcomes that benefit a handful of actors?
The decision to proceed despite clear negatives would enable a handful of actors to profit, while the People of Sri Lanka bear the costs and the risk. Any policy affecting the exercise of sovereignty must be free from conflicts of interestand guided solely by public interest, not potential personal or private gain. The Election Commission is to be held accountable for mooting idea even without legislative approvals.
Shenali D Waduge
Comments Off on Online Overseas Voting: A Constitutional and National Security Risk and a Violation of Citizens Living in Sri Lanka
Across every civilisation, from the temples of India to the monasteries of Tibet, from the synagogues of Jerusalem to the churches of Rome, humanity has carried a remarkable and unifying hope: when the world is engulfed in darkness, a divinely guided reformer will arise to restore light.
This expectation is not a minor footnote in religious history. It is one of the most striking common threads woven through the world’s major faiths.
Despite vast differences in culture, language and geography, every major religion anticipates a future figure who will revive spirituality, establish justice and guide humanity back to truth.
Before exploring how these expectations appear across different faiths, it is worth asking: what exactly do the world’s religions say about this awaited figure?
The Walk for Peace in the United States includes a specific objective to petition for the recognition of Vesak as a federal holiday.
The Mission: As part of their 2,300-mile pilgrimage from Texas to Washington, D.C., the group of Buddhist monks plans to ask Congress to declare Vesak—the day commemorating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing—a national holiday.
Purpose of the Request: Organizers state that official recognition would acknowledge Vesak as a day of reflection, compassion, and unity for all Americans, regardless of their religious background.
Spiritual vs. Advocacy: While the holiday request is a tangible goal, the monks emphasize that their primary focus remains a spiritual offering to promote mindfulness and inner peace.
Current Recognition: Although not yet a federal holiday, recent progress includes the White House hosting its first official Vesak celebration in 2021 and the Texas state government reportedly declaring May 15 as the 2026 Texas State Vesak Festival.
The 120-day journey is scheduled to conclude at the Lincoln Memorial in mid-February 2026.
Senaka Weeraratna has presented his arguments in various articles and an address delivered at the 28th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) in Seoul, South Korea, in 2016.
Reciprocity: Weeraratna emphasizes that reciprocity should be a guiding norm in international relations and the granting of religious concessions. He contrasts the magnanimity of traditional Buddhist countries (e.g., Sri Lanka, which grants public holidays for other religions) with the lack of similar concessions for Buddhism in most European nations.
Current Status in Europe: He notes that, as of his writings, only Russia, Austria, and Belgium have granted some form of official recognition to Buddhism in their constitutions or legal frameworks. Most other EU countries do not offer this status, which he views as a form of “step-motherly treatment”. Human Rights Fora especially the UNHRC platform in Geneva has become the favourite Happy Hunting Grounds for former Colonial Empires UK, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy among others to brow beat Sri Lanka on alleged discriminatory treatment of racial and religious minorities in the host country, while evading at every turn accountability for gross violation of Human Rights of the indigenous people especially the Sinhalese and Buddhism (as the prime target) and payment of Reparations and Repatriation of Stolen Artifacts vividly seen displayed to this day in the Museums of the former Colonial Masters.
Consequences of Non-Recognition: The absence of official recognition can result in various impediments to the practice and development of Buddhism, including:
Categorization of Buddhists as members of “sects” or “cults”.
Lack of access to public media or financial support provided to recognized religions.
Denial of the right to teach Buddhism in public schools.
Absence of public holidays for Buddhist significant days like Vesak.
Difficulties in constructing new temples (instead, using existing buildings is often the only option in some countries like the UK).
When Temples are allowed to be built if at all they cannot be built in the main thoroughfares like in France.
Call for Action: Weeraratna has urged international Buddhist organizations, like the WFB, to lobby the international community and governments of non-Buddhist countries to grant official recognition to Buddhism and ensure equal rights for Buddhists. He advocates for the formation of a stronger, more united “League of Buddhist Nations” to function as an effective lobbying group, similar to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) or the European Union (EU) on behalf of their respective communities.
His work primarily involves raising awareness and advocating for a change in legal and diplomatic policy, rather than a specific set of actions that led to immediate official recognition across Europe. He has called for the use of Buddhist Diplomacy in the major countries that still claim a proud heritage of Buddhist Civilizations such as China, India, Japan, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Korea, Cambodia( Angkor Wat), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laos, Singapore among others.
The Walk for Peace has raised Buddhist Consciousness in people sympathetic to the cause of Buddhism showing a Global Role for Buddhism and Buddhist activists such as the new Superstar Monk Ven. Bhikkhu Pannakara ( Theravada Buddhist monk of Vietnamese origin).
See also
Official recognition of Buddhism in non-Buddhist countries
Love of one’s country is a part of faith” Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) said: –
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai and Madan Homoeo Clinic, Adamapakkam, Chennai jointly celebrated 77th Indian Republic Day on 26th January 2026 at Masjid Haadi premises, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai.
The event began at 10 A.M., with flag hoisting of Indian National Flag by the Chief Guest Dr. N.A Jayakumar, President, Homoeopathy Council Tamil Nadu and the owner of Madan Homoeo Clinic, Adamapakkam, Chennai. He led the medical camp.
In his Guest speech, Dr. N.A Jayakumar, remarked that a number Ahmadi Muslims from various parts of Chennai as well as Tamil Nadu, had been treated in his clinic.
In this five hours long Medical Camp, team of doctors led by Dr. N.A. Jayakumar and staff including physiotherapist attended.
75 patients were treated and more than hundred participated at the event.
Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, stated, Love of one’s country is a part of faith”
Head of the World wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Jamaát) in Islam (www.alislam.org) Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (may Allah be his Helper) had noted that, in fact, sincere patriotism is a tenet of Islam.
Ahmadi Muslims world over usually celebrate the National Day of their respective countries as they love their countries, they obey the law of the land.
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Early on Saturday, January 3rd, Venezuela was attacked on behalf of oil, mineral, tech, and weapons profiteers in a regime change operation. Since then, the Trump administration has threatened Iran, Greenland, Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico. What unites these threats? The U.S.’s quest for endless resource extraction to power its increasingly deadly global empire. And it’s not slowing down. These resource wars and operations” are emerging as the AI drive also ramps up. In July, Palantir and the Pentagon signed a 10-year, $10 billion agreement. In April 2025, Palantir won a $30 million contract with ICE — a significant development in their decade-plus-long partnership that we are now seeing play out in their increasingly militarized, unrestrained murders and abductions in Minneapolis and around the country. This increasingly inextricable partnership between AI and the war economy, including Elon Musk’s Starlink system used to crowd-source violence for protests and regime change in Iran, is throwing us into a fast track of climate and environmental chaos that threatens us all.
In August, I learned about an AI program created by the U.S.-armed Israeli military called Where’s Daddy.” The program is designed to track individuals Israel is targeting in order to kill them at home with their families. In October 2023, the AI war giant Palantir entered into a contract with the Israeli military. Since 2021, the Israeli Occupation Forces have been working with tech companies like Google on AI programs such as Project Nimbus, used to surveil and murder Palestinians. Where’s Daddy” and other overlapping systems represent the newest phase of this. The program characterizes the families of these alleged combatants as collateral damage” and is often far from accurate, killing entire families without the intended targets” even being there. The tech companies developing these programs do not have anyone’s safety” or security” in mind; they are solely motivated by profit. This cruelty is no surprise— these companies are the same ones building toxic data centers across the U.S., largely in working-class and Black and Brown communities, in the newest phase of environmental injustice.
We’ve been hearing about AI more and more as it enters the commercial market in increasingly pervasive ways. In particular, much has been reported about AI data centers entering communities and the opposition to them. Many of these fights have been taken up by environmental organizations; it’s estimated that data centers could consume approximately 21% of global energy by 2030. In order to sustain this energy use, data centers need cooling. Mid-sized data centers use as much water as a city of 50,000 people. Meta’s Hyperion data center in Louisiana is projected to use as much water as the entire city of New Orleans. Another Meta center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is projected to use more power than the state of Wyoming itself.
These centers not only increase electricity bills for communities that can’t afford them, but they also generate significant air, water, and noise pollution. Some centers regularly use diesel emergency” generators to meet increased demand. Each generator is the size of a railcar, and thousands are littered across data center hotspots like Northern Virginia. As a result, toxic chemicals are seeping into the lungs of residents, causing asthma and long-term illness. Data centers are known to create noise pollution, with constant hums that can lead to hearing loss, anxiety, cardiovascular stress, and a host of other long-term issues. Furthermore, equipment is certain to break down and lead to toxic waste and electronic pollution.
Critical” minerals are required for the operation of these data centers. The process of obtaining these minerals, supposedly also used for green technology, requires the militarization, destabilization, and total plunder of mineral-rich regions. These minerals are supposedly critical” for energy transitions, and some have advocated more sustainable” methods for maintaining data centers through green” technologies.
The use of these minerals is clear: The Pentagon recently became the largest shareholder in MP Minerals, one of the largest mining companies in the Western Hemisphere. Why? Aluminum for fighter jets. Titanium for missiles. And copper, lithium, cobalt, and many others for data center batteries and semiconductors. The more data centers are built, the more minerals are needed. This process of extraction has murdered millions in the Congo, destroying the soil, water, and forest: one of the largest lungs” of the planet. It has led to the newest phase of imperialist aggression on Venezuela, a mineral-rich country with the largest oil reserves in the world (oil, of course, is also essential for data centers). Additionally, it has led to the attempted subordination of the Philippines to semiconductor production. The U.S. also seeks to use the archipelago as an unsinkable aircraft carrier” for the U.S.’s looming war with China, its largest competitor in the AI and mineral race.
These are the impacts we already know to be devastating. But this is also new technology, which means there’s a lot we don’t know and a lot that’s being intentionally hidden. Lack of transparency is the norm in this industry. As data centers rapidly expand and buy up land around the country, the actual companies behind them hide behind non-disclosure agreements. This is not dissimilar to the intentional concealment of the military’s role in global emissions, enacted through U.S. pressure at the third U.N. Climate Change Conference in 1997. Decades later, the issue of militarism is still left out of climate conversations.
The parallel makes sense, considering how the AI industry has fused with the war machine. The U.S. military is one of the most environmentally destructive forces on the planet. In its oil consumption alone, the U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional polluter. The U.S.’s 800+ bases in 80 countries globally are known to regularly leak jet fuel and cancer-causing PFAS chemicals, along with a toxic cocktail of hundreds of other chemicals. While training exercises like RIMPAC in the Asia-Pacific region authorize the deaths of thousands of sea creatures, in environmental sacrifice zones like Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, toxic waste from military facilities has killed infants hours after birth. In bomb testing sites like Vieques, off the coast of mainland Puerto Rico, lung cancer and bronchitis rates have been shown to be 200% higher than on the mainland for men, and 280% for women. And the oil-motivated war on terror” emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2001-2017.
Now we are entering a new era of resource wars that will further destroy the planet as the AI race with China accelerates. The relationship between AI and the U.S. military goes beyond the Pentagon’s contracts with Palantir, Meta, and Microsoft: last June, executives Shyam Sankar (Palantir), Andrew Bosworth (Meta), Kevin Well (OpenAI), and Bob McGrew (Thinking Machines Lab, previously OpenAI) were sworn into the U.S. Army as lieutenant colonels. Michael Obadal, executive of the AI-war manufacturing company Anduril, is now the Under Secretary of the U.S. Army, still with hundreds of thousands in Anduril stock. Peter Thiel, co-founder of Palantir, is himself a major funder of Anduril. In June 2025, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Anthropic entered into $200 million contracts with the Department of War. The more you look at the partnerships between such companies and their executives, the Pentagon, governmental departments, and other entities, the more tangled this military-tech-industrial complex all becomes.
Many organizing groups are rightfully building power against the data centers that literally fuel it all, pushing for increased regulation and transparency. At the same time as Palantir makes new deals with the Pentagon, regulations in sacrifice zones are being thrown out the window. On December 18th, the House of Representatives passed a bill backed by Microsoft, Micron, and OpenAI to fast-track data centers. The bill significantly reduces the number of environmental and financial factors that can be considered in permitting processes. It’s simple. These communities are becoming the Camp Lejeunes of a new age: the new toxic waste dumps in the belly of the beast used to power the war machine. They must be fought against at all costs.
Regulation is crucial. It’s also far from a long-term solution. There is a lot that we don’t know, because a lot is hidden: just how much of these companies are tied up with weapons manufacturers, the Pentagon, and proxies like Israel; the environmental destruction caused by military usage of AI; the specific usage of all of these data centers. But it is obvious that AI is becoming inseparable from war-making, that increased AI means increased war-making, and that increased war-making is resulting in new and increased forms of unfathomable environmental destruction to communities around the world and here within the belly of the beast.
AI has been creeping up our necks. The horrific Where’s Daddy” program existed long before I heard of it. It seems like these products are popping up in every corner of the market before we can even start discussing them. Their emergence has been intentionally designed to not only conceal their role in environmental destruction, but also their role in the militarism destroying communities from Virginia to Gaza.
No part of this is sustainable — not the war economy, not unending extraction, regardless of how much green tech” it produces, and not an AI-driven speculative economy. We cannot afford to have splintered conversations either; these AI and tech companies are war profiteers. The new Cold War on China drives this. The genocide in Palestine drives this. The war on Venezuela, Latin America, and the Caribbean drives this. And so our organizing must be unified against the impacts, mechanisms, and causes. Against data centers and the wars that drive them. We need to stop the blood. But we can’t lose sight of why and how the bullets are fired.
Aaron Kirshenbaum is CODEPINK’s War is Not Green campaigner and East Coast regional organizer. Based in, and originally from, Brooklyn, New York, Aaron holds an M.A. in Community Development and Planning from Clark University. They also hold a B.A. in Human-Environmental and Urban-Economic Geography from Clark. During their time in school, Aaron worked on internationalist climate justice organizing and educational program development, as well as Palestine, tenant, and abolitionist organizing.
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