Political Monks in Sri Lanka after Regime Fall

The following article in Himal Southasian is Tissaranee Gunasekara ‘s analysis of the role of Buddhist monks in the political crisis in Sri Lanka, precipitated by the fall of the Rajapaksa regime. I do not agree with everything the journalist says about the role of monks in politics, but Gunasekara does offer a history of the Buddhist clergy in the politics of Sri Lanka. Contrary to western views of the ordained, who we believe are only spiritual leaders, Buddhist monks in many Asan countries are deeply involved in the politics and governance of those nations. In order to understand the “politics” of Buddhism, we have to go beyond “what the Buddha said” in the Pali scriptures. We have to look at what Buddhists actually do with regard to political issues. We have to study the history of Buddhist involvement in political affairs in many Asian countries:

The genesis of the political monk can be traced to a debate about the role of the Buddhist clergy in the 1940s and 1950s – a time of political and societal transition for Sri Lanka. At the heart of it was the question of whether monks should be politically active or limit themselves to spiritual and social activities. The loci of the debate were the Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara pirivenas, the foremost monastic educational institutions of the time. In one of those ironies history delights in, the country’s then-powerful Left was in alliance with the Vidyalankara monks, who claimed that a bhikku had the right and the responsibility to provide not only spiritual but also political leadership to the nation. The pro-imperialist and capitalist United National Party, together with the Vidyodaya monks, opposed bhikku involvement in politics. —T. Gunasekara