Religion, Conflict and Boundary Politics in Sri Lanka

On sacred ground: the political performance of religious responsibility

“…But more importantly perhaps, the quarrel illustrates how the messy reality of life, notably the ways in which the residents of Pādeniya are inextricably entwined in Dambulla's social fabric, undermines such projects of separation and purification along ethnic and religious lines. The task of purifying space, as pointed out by Goodhand et al (2009) and elsewhere by Hasbullah and Korf (2009), requires enforcing improbable boundaries and creating anevidently -impossible order. Rhetoric of 'national purity' appeared in Sri Lankan public life in the early 1930s with the emergence of mass electoral politics and the 'impossible work of purification' (Spencer 2003) -organising the modern nation state into an ethnically, religiously and culturally homogenous entity -has been undertaken by elite politicians throughout the twentieth century.…”

“…According to Johnson, Catholic Priests drew on 'aesthetic' and 'moral' capital to facilitate their passage across political borders (ibid 2012:84). Consistent within the detailed examples presented by Goodhand et al (2009) and Johnson (2012) is the necessity to avoid 'the political' in what they do, couching their work instead in terms of 'neutrality' and 'non-partisanship', and drawing on the moral aesthetics of their position within religious institutions. Implicit within this modus operandi is the notion of a boundary -although improbable, porous, imagined, or 'relational' -between 'politics' and 'religion'.…”

“…The Muslim and Catholic organisations that navigate their activities through political arenas in the north and east do not possess the same powerful vocabulary of 'religious responsibility' that resonates within the SinhaleseBuddhist political imaginary. Whilst Christian and Muslim institutions lack the capacity to transgress the boundaries of 'the political' in Sri Lanka (Goodhand et al 2009, Johnson 2012, Spencer 2012, an influential monk such as Sumangala can harness the moral authority of the Sangha to engage the world of mass politics in Sri Lanka: transposing religious responsibilities on to political projects.…”

“…Instead, the paper sits between and builds upon two different canons in the anthropology of Sri Lanka: that of political-Buddhism (Gombrich & Obeysekere 1988, Kemper 1991, Tambiah 1992, Scott 1994Seneviratne 1999, and Abeysekera 2002 and the anthropology of politics and nationalism (Tennekoon 1988(Tennekoon , 1990Spencer 1990Spencer , 2007Brow 1996;Gunawardana 1990;Woost 1990Woost , 1993De Alwis 1996, 1998Jaganethan & Ismail 2009;Amarasuriya 2010). 2 Recent contributions to understanding further the relationship between politics and religion in Sri Lanka have been made from the field of Political Geography (Goodhand, Klem, Korf 2009, Klem 2011, Johnson 2012. These explore the capacity of religious institutions and figures to operate in political arenas and will also be discussed within.…”

Taking liberties and making liberty: religious bounding and political violence in Sri Lanka

“…However, proximity to rebel violence necessitated radical discursive and physical boundary maneuvers, as priests traversed and sought to influence conflict landscapes. Religious purity is central to notions of legitimacy underscoring religious public authority, and has been considered by various Sri Lankan scholars (Abeysekara 2002(Abeysekara , 2004Goodhand et al 2009;Hasbullah and Korf 2009;Hasbullah and Korf 2013;Maunaguru and Spencer 2012;Spencer 1990, Spencer et al 2015. Others have considered how caste, culture and religion have been engaged to 'purify space' (Brun and Jazeel 2009, Hasbullah and Korf 2009, Korf 2006, Spencer 2003.…”