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Vital step to nation-building

At a time when cultural and ethnic harmony have emerged as top priority items on the Government's domestic agenda, it is heartening to note the successful inauguration of a World Hindu Conference on our soil.

The fact that the conference was declared open in Colombo by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe proves the degree to which the conference receives staunch State backing.

From time immemorial Sri Lanka has been a home to the world's greatest religions, besides being multi-ethnic and pluralistic in cultural composition. It has time and again won accolades for religious harmony and cultural accommodation although this laudable record has suffered some blemish in the post-independence years an account of the outbreak of ethnic and secessionist strife centred mainly around political and power elites.

However, at the level of the ordinary people or the masses, inter-communal peace and understanding has been more the norm rather than the exception.

We could say with some certainty that if not for the power games of some politicians Sri Lanka would have remained largely unblemished by ethnic strife. However, no stone should be left unturned in our effort to re-launch the botched nation-building process of the immediate post-independence years and we congratulate the Ministry of Hindu Religious Affairs on its initiative of organising and conducting a World Hindu Conference in our country, which has helped in bringing together Hindu dignitaries, scholars and artistes from around the world.

We are, of course, still a long way from establishing the formal structures of a multi-ethnic polity which would give full and eloquent expression to the 'unity in diversity' principle, but the conducting of fora, such as the World Hindu Conference, would go a long way towards preparing an ethos within the country which would facilitate the task of building an accommodationist polity.

The holding of such fora is fresh testimony that inter-religious understanding is holding fast in Sri Lanka. This precedent should be built on. Mutual acceptance of religions and ethnic groups is the foundation for the flourishing of the 'unity in diversity' principle.

It needs to be writ large that Sri Lanka is home to a multiplicity of peoples, religions and cultures.

It is the loosening of fraternal ties among communities which brought on internal strife in the post-independence years. These bonds need to be re-established and strengthened if a durable peace is to be brought to Sri Lanka.

Meetings of minds from diverse backgrounds and a co-mingling of cultures could set the stage for nation-building in the truest sense.

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