{"id":59316,"date":"2016-10-02T14:48:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T21:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=59316"},"modified":"2016-10-02T14:48:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T21:48:27","slug":"what-has-buddhism-to-do-with-this-tamil-ethnic-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/10\/02\/what-has-buddhism-to-do-with-this-tamil-ethnic-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT HAS BUDDHISM TO DO WITH THIS TAMIL ETHNIC PROBLEM?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cecil Atukorale ( L.L.B- University of Colombo)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

After the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka King Devanampiyatissa in emulation of Ashoka who made Buddhism the state religion of India, made it the state religion of Sri Lanka also and it existed as such for over 2000 years until 1815 when the country went under a Christian power.<\/p>\n

Thus, with Buddhism firmly established as the official religion the people soon came to accept and adopt the Buddhist way of life. It required them to believe the sanctity of the lives of insects, animals, birds , no less than human beings and acknowledgment of the conditional right of the meanest animal to retain the breath of life until the last moment permitted by nature –this was the spirit inculcated in the votaries of Buddha, the recognition that all living creatures alike men, animals, deities form a chain of existence of becoming .<\/p>\n

Today our political leaders \u2013 perhaps with a few exceptions have completely deviated from Sri Lanka\u2019s original heritage and path. Present political system has opted for a Western type of Democracy which has no relation whatsoever to the Sri Lankan spirit and culture and is wholly dependent on systematic imitation of the West, aping its political & economic system from A to Z. We have given a complete go by ; to the gains\u00a0 of our country.<\/p>\n

This is nowhere more marked than when we look at the rash manner in which the Buddhist religion has been demeaned by the Public Representation Committee on Constitutional reforms in the formulation of its recommendations for making a draft for a New Constitution.<\/p>\n

In page 18 of the Report this is what it states about Buddhism. As a compromise the Committee agreed to recommend the different formulations of the members as alternative recommendations for the consideration of the constituent assembly:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Retain Article 9 (Chapter II) of the current Constitution with no change.<\/li>\n
  2. Heading of Chapter II of the current Constitution should state \u2018Religions\u2019 and not Buddhism and retain Article 9 as it is with no change.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    iii. Reformulate Article 9 of the current Constitution as follow The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give all religions equal status. The State shall protect and foster Buddhism and the Buddha S\u0101sana while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1) e of the current Constitution<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Sri Lanka shall be a secular State<\/li>\n
    2. Sri Lanka shall be a secular State while recognizing the role of religion in the spiritual development of people10.<\/li>\n
    3. Heading of Chapter II of the current Constitution should State \u2018Religions\u2019. The clause should be revised as follows:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The Republic of Sri Lanka will give all religions equal status\u201d<\/p>\n

      Why are we in such a situation?<\/p>\n

      Where are the failures and who is responsible?<\/p>\n

      Are we not, as people of Sri Lanka led by few selfish leaders, responsible for this state of affairs?<\/p>\n

      What has Buddhism to do with this Tamil Ethnic problem<\/strong>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Cecil Atukorale ( L.L.B- University of Colombo) After the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka King Devanampiyatissa in emulation of Ashoka who made Buddhism the state religion of India, made it the state religion of Sri Lanka also and it existed as such for over 2000 years until 1815 when the country went under a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59316","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=59316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}