{"id":153375,"date":"2025-12-01T17:35:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=153375"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:35:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:35:38","slug":"all-ceylon-buddhist-congress-was-the-first-institution-in-post-independence-sri-lanka-to-investigate-colonial-era-crimes-and-their-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/12\/01\/all-ceylon-buddhist-congress-was-the-first-institution-in-post-independence-sri-lanka-to-investigate-colonial-era-crimes-and-their-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"All Ceylon Buddhist Congress was the first institution in post &#8211; independence Sri Lanka to investigate colonial &#8211; era crimes and their impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Source: AI Overview<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) was the first institution in post-independence Sri Lanka to investigate colonial-era crimes and their impact<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>, culminating in the 1956 publication of the Buddhist Commission Report.&nbsp; This report, popularly known as the <strong>Buddhist Commission Report<\/strong> (or in its abridged English version, <em>The Betrayal of Buddhism<\/em>), detailed the historical injustices faced by the Buddhist community under centuries of colonial rule and in the post-independence era, including the neglect of Buddhism under colonial rule, and was a significant event in Sri Lankan political and cultural history.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Investigation and report<\/strong>: In 1954, the ACBC established a Buddhist Committee of Inquiry to examine the status of Buddhism on the island. The committee&#8217;s findings were published in February 1956 in a report that became popularly known as the Buddhist Commission Report.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Findings<\/strong>: The report argued that centuries of European colonialism under the Portuguese, Dutch and the British had privileged Christianity, leading to the decline of Buddhism. It also criticized post-independence governments for not rectifying the damage done and pointed to the disproportionate Christian control over educational institutions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Recommendations<\/strong>: Key recommendations included the establishment of a Buddhist Sasana Council with the power to support and foster Buddhism and the withdrawal of government grants to Christian schools.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The report&#8217;s findings had a significant impact on the country&#8217;s political landscape, particularly the 1956 general election, and led to major social and educational reforms in Sri Lanka. The government of the time had previously declined to appoint a state commission to investigate these grievances, citing constitutional constraints, prompting the ACBC to conduct its own independent investigation.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Impact<\/strong>: Furthermore the report had a significant impact on Sri Lanka&#8217;s political, cultural, and social history, and some of its recommendations influenced later government policies.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: AI Overview<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/ibrUujlfjZsXfgZKm\">https:\/\/share.google\/aimode\/ibrUujlfjZsXfgZKm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: AI Overview The All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) was the first institution in post-independence Sri Lanka to investigate colonial-era crimes and their impact , culminating in the 1956 publication of the Buddhist Commission Report.&nbsp; This report, popularly known as the Buddhist Commission Report (or in its abridged English version, The Betrayal of Buddhism), detailed the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153375","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=153375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153376,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153375\/revisions\/153376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}