Citizens’ Mail

Loving kindness into practice

This is a reply to the article titled ‘Wither Sri Lanka, our dear Motherland?’ which appeared on the Daily News of January 12.

While praising Rev. Fr. Leopold Ratnasekera for the interesting article with the above title, I wish to add some interesting points.

Our nation, known by various names such as Lanka and Heladiva since the earliest times, has had a tolerant atmosphere for all religions and races (at least since King Pandukabhaya). This was well before Buddhism was made the official religion. In fact King Pandukabhaya grew up as a young boy under the Brahmin called Pandula. Brahmins belong to Hinduism. The Vedic scripts are not a part of the Buddhist teachings.

Only in extremely rare situations during our pre-colonial period was there any persecution of minorities. There were only a few instances when the minorities had been betrayed. That too was by the foreign invaders. One such incident is when the Jain priest Giri betrayed King Valagambahu to an invading army from India.

The best example of tolerance of Sinhala Buddhist kings is the existence of the Veddha culture and the fisherman culture, both of which were allowed to exist despite their connection to the killing of animals.

It is only the Dutch East India Company and the British Empire which created the foundations for the long-lasting divide and rule scenario among the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burger communities.

Sinhala Buddhists in general are not the enemies of anyone. If Buddhists were the enemy, Mohideen Beg would have never sung Buddhist songs, and Rev Fr Marcelin Jayakody would probably have been quite different.

Since many people try to follow the example of Britain, why should we not take an example from the British Constitution, having Buddhism instead of Anglican Christianity, and having the Sri Lankan President or Prime Minister as the guardian of Buddhism, while having religious, racial and cultural toleration for all other citizens in Sri Lanka? Why cannot Sri Lanka have an umbrella of Buddhism (with its concepts of loving kindness, equanimity etc.) to shield all its citizens: Jain, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Atheist etc.?

R S Madanayake

Colombo 7