Focusing on notions of diaspora, identity and agency, this book examines ethnicity in war-torn Sri Lanka. It focuses on the historical development and negotiation of a new identification of ...Up-country Tamil amidst Sri Lanka’s violent ethnic politics.
Over the past thirty years, Up-country (Indian) Tamils have generally tried to secure their vision of living within a multiethnic Sri Lanka, not within Tamil Eelam, the separatist dream that ended with the civil war in 2009. Exploring Sri Lanka within the deep history of colonial-era South Asian plantation diasporas, this book argues that Up-country Tamils form a “diaspora next door” to their ancestral homeland. It moves beyond simplistic Sinhala–Tamil binaries and shows how Sri Lanka’s ethnic troubles actually have more in common with similar battles faced by diasporic Indians in Fiji and Trinidad than with Hindu–Muslim communalism in neighboring India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Focusing on issues of agency, citizenship, displacement and re-placement within the formation of diasporic communities and identities, this book examines the ways that culture workers, including politicians, trade union leaders, academics and NGO workers, have facilitated the development of a new identity as Up-country Tamil. It is of interest to academics working in the fields of modern South Asia, diaspora, violence, post-conflict nations, religion and ethnicity.
Over the last thirty years or so, there has been a broad consensus about what constitutes modern forms of Theravāda Buddhism. “Buddhist modernism,” as it has been called, has been marked by an ...understanding of the Buddha's thought as in accord with scientific rationalism; increased lay participation, particularly in meditation practice and leadership of the Buddhist community; and increased participation by women in the leadership of the Sangha. In this paper, I call into question the universality of these forms by examining a contemporary Theravāda Buddhist community in southwest China, where Buddhism is best understood within the context of the modern governance practices of the Chinese state. Buddhists of the region describe their knowledge and practices not in terms of scientific rationality, for example, but within the ethnic categories of the Chinese state. I suggest that instead of understanding modern forms of Buddhism as a natural response to modernity, scholars should pay attention to how Buddhist institutions shift within the context of modern forms of state power.
Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque Jonathan Spencer, Jonathan Goodhand, Shahul Hasbullah, Bart Klem, Benedikt Korf, Kalinga Tudor Silva
11/2015
eBook
Is religion best seen as only a cause of war, or is it a source of comfort for those caught up in conflict? Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque is based on fieldwork in Sri Lanka’s most religiously ...diverse and politically troubled region in the closing years of the civil war. It provides a series of new and provocative arguments about the promise of a religiously based civil society, and the strengths and weaknesses of religious organisations and religious leaders in conflict mediation. It argues that for people trapped in long and violent conflicts, religion plays a contradictory role, often acting as a comforting and stabilising force but also, in certain situations, acting as a source of new conflict. Additionally, war itself can lead to profound changes in religious institutions: Catholic priests engage with Buddhist monks and new Muslim leaders, while Hindu temples and Pentecostal churches offer the promise of healing. This book will provoke new debate about the role of religious organisations and leaders in situations of extreme conflict and will be of great interest to students of anthropology, development studies, religious studies and peace/conflict studies.
Spatialising Politics: Culture and Geography in Postcolonial Sri Lanka brings together essays on the theme of spatial politics of Sri Lanka. Space is an important factor in the ongoing ethnic ...conflict fuelling Sri Lanka's continuing civil war. Claims and contestations over the integrity of island space and the control of northern and eastern territories are central to the violently contested dispute. The editors view space from a different perspective. They argue that space is important through a number of registers less frequently invoked in dominant approaches to understanding postcolonial Sri Lankan nationhood, identity and difference. The book examines and historicizes the role of spatialities often occluded within the debates on Sri Lankan politics such as, cities and built-space, diasporic productions and imaginations, commodity cultures and their concordant networks, knowledge spaces and ‘foreign’ intervention, landscape and sacred space, as well as geographical knowledge.Situated at the intersection of human geography and postcolonial studies, the book signals the ways that postcolonialism and geography are intimately linked and how their intersections evoke the social, spatial and political effects of enduring colonial discourse and representation. In developing its argument, Spatialising Politics also gestures towards alternative spatial imaginations, possibilities and representations, at a time when spaces for alternative discourses on Sri Lankan politics are fast shrinking.
This article examines Buddhist nationalism as an effort to resist the intrusion of globalizing forces into local religious and cultural heritage. By analyzing the discourse, persona, and life of ...Venerable Gangodawila Soma (1948–2003), a renowned and controversial Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, the author demonstrates that Buddhist nationalism is largely a discursive formation that affirms an essential relationship between Buddhism and nation over against external forces that threaten their existence. A charismatic and skillful preacher, Venerable Soma employed a variety of media to reverse the perceived decline of Buddhism and the nation in the face of what he saw as immoral and hostile interests—including corrupt politicians, Tamil separatists, Evangelical Christians, and nongovernmental organizations. Venerable Soma's discourse, which privileges local forms of knowledge and morality, shows how globalization stimulates both new possibilities and new contradictions in contemporary forms of Buddhist nationalism.
This book provides both an erudite and intimate look at how Buddhism is lived in Sri Lanka. While India is known as the birthplace of Buddhism, Sri Lanka is its other home; Buddhism extends back over ...twenty-five hundred years on the island and remains at the center of its spiritual traditions and culture. Throughout the book, author Swarna Wickremeratne incorporates a personal view, sharing stories of herself, her family, friends, and acquaintances as they "lived Buddhism" both during her Sri Lankan girlhood and during more recent times. This personal view makes the traditions come alive as Wickremeratne details Buddhist beliefs, customs, rituals and ceremonies, and folklore. She also provides a fascinating discussion of the Sangha, the institutional monkhood in Sri Lanka, including its history, codes of conduct, and evolution and resilience over time. Wickremeratne explores the recent attempts by many monks to reinvent themselves in a society characterized by secularization, globalization, and a tide of aggressive Christian evangelization.
Tanks are small reservoirs, which are widely distributed in South India and Sri Lanka, where they represent an important water resource for people, crops, livestock and fish. Considerable efforts ...have been made to rehabilitate tank irrigation systems in recent decades, but there have been few studies carried out to improve understanding of their hydrology. This paper presents a daily water balance approach, which aims to simulate the dynamic behaviour of tank storage. The model was validated over four seasons for two representative tanks within Mahaweli System H, a major irrigation system in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Use of the model to evaluate current performance and scope for improvement is demonstrated.
This book focuses on feminist research methodology, exploring and analysing its constituting methods, theory, ontology, epistemology, ethics and politics, and research issues relating to women, ...gender and feminism in Sri Lanka. The book examines ways of meaning-making for the political, ideological and ethical purposes of promoting individual and social change, and constructs an example of feminist research praxis.
Using this South Asian country as a case study, the author looks at the means by which researchers in this field inhabit, engage with and represent the multiple realities of women and society in Sri Lanka. In analysing what constitutes feminist research methodology in a transitional country, the book links local research practices with Western feminist approaches, taking into account the commonalities, distinctions and specificities of working in a South Asian context.
Engaging with and re-conceptualising three traditionally different types of research - women’s studies, gender studies and feminist studies - from a methodological perspective, Feminist Research Methodology provides a framework for researching feminist issues. Applicable at both a local and global level, this original methodological framework will be of value to researchers working in any context.
Introduction: Making Meanings Part 1: Methodology Matters 1. The Local Context: Archaeology of Women's Research Activism 2. A Paradigm: Women - A Paradigm in Global Knowledge Production Part 2: Aspects of Feminist Research Methodology 3. Subjectivity: Reflecting on the Self as / in Making Meaning 4. An Ontology: Research Realities in Meaning-Making 5. An Epistemology: Making Meanings of Being / Doing Gender 6. A Method: Literature Reviewing as Making Meaning 7. Theory: Making and Unmaking Meaning in Theory 8. Ethics / Politics: Feminist Ethics / Politics in Meaning-Making 9. Conclusions: Towards a Feminist Research Methodological Framework - Making Meanings of Meaning-Making
Maithree Wickramasinghe received her PhD from the Institute of Education, University of London. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Her research has explored feminist critical theory and methodology, gender in organizations and workplaces, as well as women and gender in development.
'Development and feminist scholars who are already familiar with debates around feminist methodologies will get the most out of this book. Within the feminist methodologies genre, however, this book is without doubt a welcome addition, addressing as it does several gaps in the literature to date, particularly the lack of voices from a Southern perspective.' - Gwendolyn Beetham, Gender Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK; Gender & Development Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2011
