{"id":80690,"date":"2018-09-03T13:43:23","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T20:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=80690"},"modified":"2018-09-03T13:43:23","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T20:43:23","slug":"the-new-fracture-line-in-political-thinking-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/09\/03\/the-new-fracture-line-in-political-thinking-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Fracture-Line in Political Thinking in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Fractures mark discontinuities that are fundamental and almost impossible to bridge. As in the physical world, in politics and its ideological underpinnings, there are irremediable divisions that are best described as ideological ‘fractures’.\u00a0 In the early days of Sri Lankan politics, the Marxists and their supporters spoke confidently of the ‘Revolution’ that would move our land into a new phase of social and political well-being.<\/p>\n

The basic idea was that there existed a harmful social barrier that was more than a mere political division within a society of free citizens – the Capitalist class hell-beat on making money and the enslaved working class of poor citizens. This ‘fracture’ was supposed to be radically exorcised only through a healing revolution in the structuring of society\u00a0 – the dictatorship of the so-called Prolitariat.<\/p>\n

It is arguable that a similar ‘fracture’ is now emerging in an evolving political scenario in this country. On the one hand we have a group broadly described as Sinhala Nationalists who are pridefully loyal to the notion of indigenous authenticity and regard the wholesale assimilation of Western Norms and Values as a disastrous threat to our authenticity as a Nation-State of historical standing. They see the heightened involvement of foreigners in the life of this country as a long-term threat to our uniqueness as a cultural species.<\/p>\n

They are largely Buddhist\u00a0 and see the the protection of Buddhism as the touchstone of good governance.<\/p>\n

Ranged against these patriotic nationalists are those who call themselves ‘modernists’ and who are vociferous in their denunciation of ‘Sinhala Nationalism’ which they see as\u00a0 a divisive – even destructive – force that not only thwarts all attempts to establish interracial harmony but also pushes our country back to the days of mediaeval despotism. That this opposition has almost won the day is evidenced by the high-profile arrest and imprisonment of a leading Bhikkhu renowned for his perfervid nationalism. We have reached a time when the Prime Minister of this land – and the Party he leads – are, seemingly, in the forefront of the New Anti-National Agenda of Action that sees the humbling of the Sinhala Buddhists as the prime target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma Fractures mark discontinuities that are fundamental and almost impossible to bridge. As in the physical world, in politics and its ideological underpinnings, there are irremediable divisions that are best described as ideological ‘fractures’.\u00a0 In the early days of Sri Lankan politics, the Marxists and their supporters spoke confidently of the ‘Revolution’ that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80690","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=80690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}