Budhists World Must Help Stop Political-Christian Agenda to Displace Budhhism’s Historical Place in Sri Lanka through new Constitution
By Shenali D Waduge
Buddhism came to Sri Lanka by royal invitation. Buddhism was followed by Sinhala Buddhists and respected by Tamil Hindus. 180 rulers of the Sinhale nation ruled following the Dasa-Raja-Dhamma: The ‘Ten Royal Virtues’. No politician (local or foreign), the UN, NGOs on payroll or heads of Abrahamic religions have any right to usurp that place on the argument that all religions must be equal only in Sri Lanka.
This argument is strengthened by the fact that if Catholicism is the only religion to be given a sovereign country and a place in the UN while in majority Muslim countries the place of Islam is non-negotiable, why should Buddhism’s place that received State patronage for over 2500 years be removed just to pacify politically correct theories?
As one of the 5 major religions of the world and the only to be scientifically proven the foremost place given to Buddhism in Sri Lanka is in grave danger of being removed. It is the duty of the Buddhist world to come to Sri Lanka’s assistance before a new constitution aims to dislodge the historical place afforded by the State to Buddhism.
The fear the Buddhist community has is based on factual and solid evidence.
When Christian colonial invaders saw all non-Christian religions as a threat and forced people to convert or face death, how different is the missionary program funded by Western governments aligned to western imperialism and gathering of flocks across all continents?
Did the British not lie when they promised to continue to give Buddhism its rightful place resulting in the 1815 Kandyan Convention the contents of which the British broke kick starting a well calculated plan to systematically remove the Buddhist identity of Sri Lanka?
If the Evangelical agenda made majority Buddhist South Korea into a nation ruled by Evangelicals in less than 60 years is it not this same fear that the Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka have? USAID funds many faith-based organizations across the developing world.
When colonial Christians were ordered to convert natives by force and kill those that refused what makes this different from the role of missionaries/ Christian NGOs and other Evangelical groups with specific instructions to penetrate into poverty-stricken society riding on the camouflage of providing education, helping development and social service and thereby slowly entering non-Christian heartlands and converting innocent people? This was how South Korea was turned from a Buddhist nation to an Evangelical stronghold. The same fate happened to Buddhist Maldives which is today only Islam and even museums have no place for Buddhism.
That sad fate cannot be allowed to happen to Sri Lanka as history has shown how European colonials destroyed Buddhist Temples and Kovils throughout Sri Lanka.
When orders were given by the Church to colonial explorers to take over and declare as Christian any land/territory that was non-Christian “to invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ, to put them into perpetual slavery, and to take away all their possessions and property” how is this different to the military interventions by US/NATO and their illegal occupation? The US/NATO occupies nations in Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia using ‘status of forces’ agreement and other illegal means.
The Spanish conquest in the America’s resulted in 8-10million indigenous deaths. In 170 years the Spaniards succeeded in subjugating the Mayas while their campaigns against Aztecs and Incas were much shorter. “A short account of the destruction of the Indies” by Bartolome de las Casas in 1552 says that the colony of Hispaniola was reduced from 400,000 to just 200. 500 years of colonial crimes included decimating Native Americans. An estimated 10m Native Americans lived in the land now known as US before European explorers arrived. By 1900 their numbers were less than 300,000. A hallmark of colonial rulers has been to totally remove the independent thinking capacity of indigenous/natives and use a system of dependent thinking through education wherein majority of people continue to be made to think that only the West has the answers to all the world’s problems.
When the Christian colonials excused their invasions to ‘civilize’ the unknown world is that any different to the manner US/Western nations and their allies are using ‘democracy’ ‘freedom’ ‘rights’ as terminologies to descend and force nations to function according to their dictates?
Walter Rodney’s “How Europe underdeveloped Africa’ and Richard W Hull’s ‘African cities and towns before the European conquest’ also expose the falsely publicized notion that Africans were primitives and needed to be ‘civilized’ by the Europeans. William Blum’s “U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II” will shock most readers!
When colonials used merciless methods to annihilate and destroy the cultures, traditions and historical monuments of the indigenous people was this any different from the manner US/NATO are neutralizing Islam/Muslims using a bogus ‘war on terror’ created by them?
Today, there are no historical buildings or monuments in Africa. West Africa (present Nigeria) once had beautiful cities and monuments. Africa’s glorious past is detailed by Robin Walker (pan-African historian) in his book “When we ruled”. Benin City is just one of the cities burnt to the ground by British forces in 1897 while the British war crimes in Iraq since 2001 are being suppressed by the British Government. Similarly Gold Coast (present Ghana) Asante Kingdom was also blown up and destroyed by the British. So too was Timbuktu (present Mali) the richest city in the world and emperor Mansa Musa who was worth $400billion producing half the world’s salt and gold. Today Timbuktu is almost 300 times smaller than London and impoverished with beggars. http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-great-bini-empire-african-legacy/comment-page-1/ This list gives an idea of the cultures/traditions destroyed by Christian conquest with the carnage continuing through missionaries. http://www.crusadewatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=355&Itemid=36
Australasia’s indigenous people too suffered. Tasmania’s natives who had been living for over 10,000 years were all annihilated in 73 years after Britain began settling criminals in 1803. Australian aborigines also suffered genocide in the 19th and 20th centuries with their population dropping from about 1m to 0.1m in the first century after the invasion in 1788. David Cameron who proudly says Britain is still a Christian nation is reminded that his ancestors used Terra Nullius (empty land) papal bull to take possession of Australasia and Britain destroyed a 50,000 year old culture in less than 200 years. Britain is also yet to be accountable for starving to death 29 million Indians.
Christian history books have been telling lies. Christopher Columbus did not discover Americas in 1492. Americas were already inhabited by natives living there for centuries. Columbus and his men committed horrendous atrocities. If Christopher Columbus were alive today, he should be put on trial for crimes against humanity but why do Americans celebrate Columbus Day every year on the second Monday in October? It is because the knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization were looking for a Catholic hero as a role-model their kids could look up to. How many other mass murderers have been made saints! Joseph Vaz also with a scarred past was recently made a saint by Pope Francis.
Though it was only in 1944 that the word Genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin, the accountability for mass murders, stealing land from indigenous people, forced conversions, inflicting diseases with intent to kill, annihilating entire tribes, destroying ancient monuments, cultures, stealing ancient artifacts and treasures and 500 years of Christian colonial crimes against humanity and genocide across Americas, Africa, Australiasia by conquering Christian Europeans have been conveniently brushed under the carpet with not one of these nations held for accountability.
Using the ‘war on terror’ in one hand and ‘bringing democracy’ in the other the evil axis are manipulating world systems to bring people under their control and plunder the world’s wealth amongst themselves.
None of the military interventions taking place provide any benefit or relief to the ordinary people of the West except burdening them by having to pay for the illegal wars. Every political decision being made by the West is to secure additional profit to a handful of people only using more sophisticated methodologies that what was adapted by colonial rulers.
Christianity has $170billion while Islam has $87billion to promote their faith globally. Buddhism only promotes a philosophy inherent to the individual’s goal of purifying the mind. Buddhism was founded long before Christianity or Islam. Sri Lanka is the oldest country to follow Theravada Buddhism which claims to be the oldest and authentic school. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand are facing similar existential threats by the same forces that are manipulating the local politicians and influencing a new constitution that would legally remove the place Buddhism held for centuries thereby realizing a long attempted historical goal.
Into this axis India has joined though India is the birthplace of Buddha attracting visitors from the world. If India watches while the place of Buddhism is uprooted in Sri Lanka, India will lose its respect and bring to nought all the cosmetic efforts India is doing politically to project itself as championing the cause of Buddhism.
The present Government will be doing a historical injustice to Buddhism by removing the State patronage afforded to Buddhism over centuries just to please the forces that brought them to power. It is good to remember that these forces are capable of removing puppets just as quickly as placing them in power when they read the pulse of the people!
It is therefore crucial that China and fellow Buddhist nations including Russia, the only western nation to officially recognize Buddhism, come to Sri Lanka’s assistance and diplomatically lobby to deny the removal of the foremost place & state patronage given to Buddhism in a new constitution being drafted without the People’s wishes.
578 Viewers
