{"id":118291,"date":"2021-09-18T16:20:25","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T23:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118291"},"modified":"2021-09-18T16:20:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T23:20:25","slug":"anagarika-dharmapalas-interactions-with-mahatma-gandhi-during-his-struggle-to-restore-indias-buddhist-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/18\/anagarika-dharmapalas-interactions-with-mahatma-gandhi-during-his-struggle-to-restore-indias-buddhist-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Anagarika Dharmapala\u2019s interactions with Mahatma Gandhi during his struggle to restore India\u2019s Buddhist heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><em>It seems I was born to restore the Sasana in India. When I started\nBuddhist work in India, a lot of lay Buddhists as well as Bhikkhus in Ceylon\nstarted working against me. They did not accept my advice\u2026\u2026\u2026 I left Ceylon and\nwent to India to do the work for the Sasana because there was no one to do that\nwork\u2026.. In February 1906, my father passed away. Mrs Mary Foster came to my\nrescue. Mrs Foster is the modern Vishaka. She is helping the Sasana through\nme\u2026\u2026..The well-to-do Sinhalese have no patriotic love for the land. They run\nafter the British. Our leaders are disunited in faith and nationality. I am\nleaving a country with a slave mentality due to the Missionary education which\nis unpatriotic, which is not eager to find modern technologies. Uncultured\nmanners are regarded highly in the society\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. To improve the life of the\nfoolish Sinhalese is a difficult task. Economically they cannot be uplifted.\nThey are lazy. They do not have a vision for progress. They do not have an urge\nto safeguard the Buddha Sasana\u2026.. Even now, Buddhists who did not contribute a\ncent towards my work in India, questioned me about the details of the accounts.\nThey know only to criticize me and question me about accounts.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Anagarika\n     Dharmapala (\u2018My Life Story\u2019, ed. Lakshman Jayawardane, Sarasavi\n     Publishers, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, 2013)<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The\n157th Anagarika Dharmapala birth anniversary fell on September 17, 2021. To\nmark this occasion, I thought it appropriate to write about the contribution he\nmade to the revival of Buddhism in the land of its birth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My\nopinion is that it is important to interpret the Anagarika, his language and\nideas, as reflected in the above extract, in relation to the historical context\nin which he lived and worked. We today realise how accurate he was in his\nobservations about the moral and economic degeneration of a great nation that\nsuffered under foreign rule for centuries and its lost genius that needed to be\nrestored through its own efforts under a good leadership. Aren\u2019t we still\nstruggling to live down that national humiliation amidst predatory\ninterferences from the descendents of those former colonisers? Contrary to the\nnegative view that most modern Sri Lankans seem to have been brainwashed to\nentertain about him due to decades of anti-national propaganda, shouldn\u2019t we\nappreciate how far ahead of his time Anagarika Dharmapala actually was? He is\ncriticised for having been \u2018hostile\u2019 towards the \u2018minorities\u2019. But were the\n\u2018minorities\u2019 then comparable to the minorities that the majority Sinhala\nBuddhists coexist peacefully with today? Which minority then thought about the\nhistorical homeland of the Sinhalese with the same degree of self-denying love\nand devotion as they did?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anagarika\nDharmapala contrived to closely interact with Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders\nof the Indian independence movement such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad,\nMuslim leader Shaukat Ali, Madan Mohan Malaviya and poet, philosopher and\nwriter Rabindranath Tagore in the early decades of the last (20th) century, and\nachieved what he could for his own cause in India. Dharmapala was active as a\nBuddhist missionary who was determined to revive Buddhism in the country where\nit originated, initiating his campaign by trying to reclaim Buddha Gaya to\nworld Buddhists, among whom he considered the Sinhalese to be foremost as the\nCustodians of Theravada Buddhism, generally regarded as the pristine form of\nthe Dharma preached by Gautama Buddha. He wanted to take the word of the Buddha\nto the Western world as well as to strengthen ties with the Buddhist countries\nof the East. Apart from being in the same boat in terms of their respective\nlife missions, chronologically too they were close to each other: Dharmapala\nwas the senior having been born on September 17, 1864. Gandhi was junior to him\nby five years, for he was born on October 2, 1869. Close contemporaneity and\nshared cultural affinity made interaction between the two easier and more\nnatural. This was significant because, by then, Mahatma Gandhi was already a\nman on a pedestal for many in India.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having\nsaid that, it is essential to make an important distinction between Dharmapala\nand Gandhi as visionary men committed to great missions. Gandhi was more a\npolitical pragmatist than a spiritual visionary. Dharmapala kept to his chosen\nBuddhist missionary role and adopted an unwaveringly apolitical approach to his\nmission. But this was ignored by the British colonial government, which, during\nthe 1915 Riot, for fear that Dharmapala\u2019s potential presence in Sri Lanka in\nthe years following would be problematic, quite arbitrarily subjected him to a\nfive year long term of house arrest (1915-1920) in Calcutta where he was then\nengaged in his normal missionary activities. It was virtually, a punishing term\nof internment for a constantly active, mobile individual like Dharmapala.\nGandhi, on the other hand,&nbsp; in his failure to&nbsp; work with Muslim\nleaders without compromising&nbsp; legitimate Hindu interests, earned the\nmurderous wrath of a group of Hindu\nnationalists.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Passage\nof time and emerging new research studies about them enable us to put them into\nperspective, and make fresh assessments of their personalities, individual\nperceptions and achievements. To name just two examples&nbsp; among many books\nconcerning Gandhi, we have The Gift of Anger: And Other Lessons from My\nGrandfather Mahatma Gandhi\u201d by Arun Gandhi (2018) that provides evidence of a\nless admirable aspect of his personality which, if not suppressed by himself,\nwould have been a stain on his nonviolent image (but Gandhi himself viewed\nanger as an empowering emotion that should not be abused), and Gandhi in South\nAfrica: A Racist or Liberator?\u201d by Dr Siby K. Joseph (2019) which reveals that\nhe was not initially free from a streak of racist prejudice against black\nAfricans though, as a lawyer, he stood up for their independence and human\nrights. Regarding Anagarika Dharmapala, there is Dr Sarath Amunugama\u2019s Lion\u2019s\nRoar\u201d (2016), which, taking the facts of his life and times into consideration,\nseems to follow a more cautious, if unconvincing, middle course between\npassionate admirers of the iconic figure and his traditionally biased\ndetractors, though the book repeats the unfounded eurocentric \u2018protestant\nBuddhism\u2019 thesis to describe the indigenous Buddhist revival movement which\nDharmapala saw the beginning of, and which he enriched with his own epochal\ncontribution.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such\ndeconstructive literature about Dharmapala and Gandhi has by now exposed their\nfeet of clay as well as their focal strengths, and made them credibly and\nacceptably more human in the public perception. Both were great men and played\ntruly heroic roles in the national and international causes that they\nchampioned; Gandhi was the leading anti-colonial Indian nationalist of his\ntime, and the model political ethicist; the non-violent resistance movement\nthat he led ultimately won India its independence from Britain, but failed to\nprevent the partition of India on August 15, 1947 into two independent states\nthat resulted in 2 million deaths and 14 million displaced, and in his own\nassassination&nbsp; a few months later, on January 30, 1948. Dharmapala had to\nbe satisfied with only partial success in his endeavour to acquire Buddha Gaya\nfor Buddhists. But their monumental legacies have left indelible marks on the\nhistory of their nations and on that of the world at large, though these are\nhardly recognized, particularly in respect of Anagarika Dharmapala.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nthe 1940s Gandhi opposed the partition and worked with some Muslim leaders such\nas&nbsp; the famous Ali brothers, the Maulanas Shaukat and Mohamed Ali, and his\nfriend&nbsp; Badhshah Khan&nbsp; who shared his vision of an independent India\nbased on religious multiculturalism. The Ali brothers were the leaders of the\nanti-British Khilafat Movement of Indian Muslims who demanded justice for the\nSunni Islamic Turkey (Ottoman Empire). Gandhi\u2019s actively supportive association\nwith that organization made him temporarily popular among the Muslims. But with\nthe dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after WWI and the establishment of the\nRepublic of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923, the Khilafat Movement\nalso ended in 1924. Gandhi and Badhshah Khan had wanted Hindus and Muslims each\nto open their places of worship to the other for prayer. The Hindus offered\ntheir temples to Muslims for prayer, but the Muslims were not ready to\nreciprocate the conciliatory gesture. The Hindus\u2019 tolerant and accommodating\nattitude, and the Muslims\u2019 less liberal response are not surprising to anyone\nwho has a basic comparative knowledge of Hinduism and Islam&nbsp; in this\nrespect. It was obvious that Gandhi did not know enough about the second to\navoid such embarrassment among his own people, although he had claimed he had a\ngood knowledge of Islam\u2019s holy book.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dharmapala\nmet and made friends with Shaukat Ali and tried to enlist Muslim support on his\nstruggle to legally take possession of the Buddha Gaya holy place for\nBuddhists. When Ali visited Colombo in 1921, he spoke in support of Gandhi\u2019s\nwork in India for promoting Hindu-Muslim unity. Dharmapala wrote articles in\nSinhala expressing solidarity with Indian Muslims engaged in the Khilafat\nagitation, but he was shrewd enough not to expect the impossible from Muslims\nunlike Gandhi. His love of&nbsp; peaceful Hindu-Muslim co-existence was\nutilitarian: he wanted the assistance of both Hindu and Muslim leaders on his\nstruggle at the Buddha\u2019s birthplace. Though Dharmapala was able to gain only\npartial control of the place for Buddhists, he had better luck at Sarnath. He\nhad founded his Mahabodhi Society with the idea of reclaiming Buddhist sites in\nIndia. He bought a plot of land at Sarnath and built the impressive\nMulagandhakuti Vihara, which he was able to complete in 1930.&nbsp; It became\nthe main centre of Buddhist worship in India, which it remains even today, as\nAmunugama says.&nbsp; It drew the admiration not only of Buddhists, but of the\ncolonial government and that of Indian national leaders Nehru, Tagore, and\nMalaviya. Dharmapala\u2019s remarkable success in causing India\u2019s lost Buddhist\ncultural heritage to be brought to the forefront of Indian national consciousness\nwas not confined to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gandhi\nknew little about this heritage. When he confessed to Dharmapala that what\nlittle he knew about Buddhism, he learnt from Sir Edwin Arnold\u2019s Light of\nAsia\u201d, he expressed his displeasure, implying that an Indian leader of Gandhi\u2019s\nstature had been remiss in acquiring the best part of India\u2019s spiritual\nknowledge. Dharmapala himself said that it was through the medium of English\nthat he himself learnt the Dhamma, for at that time no decent education was\navailable in the vernacular. People with the ability to do so sent their\nchildren to English medium schools as Dharmapala\u2019s did. But Dharmapala did\nlearn Sinhala and Pali as well from erudite Buddhist monks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless,\nthere is no doubt that Gandhi\u2019s work was a source of inspiration for\nDharmapala. The latter quoted in his Diary of 1929 the following verse from the\nMahatma\u2019s Letter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does\nthe road wind uphill all the way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes\nto the very end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Will\nthe day\u2019s journey take the whole long day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From\nmorn to night, my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Reproduced\n     here from Sarath Amunugama\u2019s <em>The Lion\u2019s Roar<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>According\nto the 2011 census, there were 8.4 million Buddhists in India, mostly\nconcentrated in Maharashtra. But they belong to different sects, not only to\nthe Theravada tradition that Dharmapala represented. The Mahayana sect is the\nmost prevalent form of Buddhism&nbsp; in India today, as it is in the rest of\nthe world. But the inspiration that Dharmapala left in India as a Buddhist\nrevivalist is not small. He was largely responsible for getting the small\nvillage of Buddha Gaya in Bihar, where the Buddha attained Buddhahood, with its\nhistoric Mahabodhi Temple complex recognized as the most important Buddhist\npilgrimage site in the Buddhist world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rohana R. Wasala It seems I was born to restore the Sasana in India. When I started Buddhist work in India, a lot of lay Buddhists as well as Bhikkhus in Ceylon started working against me. They did not accept my advice\u2026\u2026\u2026 I left Ceylon and went to India to do the work for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}