Extract from a paper I wrote for my history class 'Evolution of Historiography in Ancient Sri Lanka". The paper in full dealt with how the History of Sri Lanka was depicted in Nationalist Discourse in the late 19th and early 20th century. However I have only reproduced the section dealing with Anagarika Dharmapala for this blog post.
Introduction
Sri
Lanka saw a significant development in the origin and spread of nationalism and
nationalist ideas at the end of the 19th century and at the
beginning of the 20th century. Nationalism
can be defined as
both an ideology and a political movement which
holds the nation and sovereign nation-state to be crucial indwelling values,
and which manages to mobilize the political will of a people or a large section
of the population[i].
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| copyright: Deborah Philip 2012 |
The idea of the nation as an imagined political
community was made popular with Benedict Anderson’s treatise on it. Likewise
Ernest Gellner’s opinion of nationalism as “not the awakening of nations to
self-consciousness” but an invention of nations “where they do not exist” can
be taken in the light of Anderson’s definition of an imagined community
invented through creation and imagination[ii].
Thus the objective of this essay is to explain and analyse how Sinhalese
nationalist discourse at the turn of the 20th century depicted the
history of Sri Lanka and used it to thereby create and imagine a nation,
specifically a Sinhalese nation. This essay will concentrate on the writings and work
of Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, Munidasa Cumaratunga and
Marie MusÓ•us Higgins. Their shaping and interpretation of the History of Sri
Lanka formed the basis of nationalist discourse and in effect shaped the future
of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism in the country.
Jonathan
Spencer feels nationalist discourse is produced by insignificant personal that
live between the cultural boundary of old and new and seek to ultimately
suppress an ominously disruptive history[iii].
The problem of identity and history depends on the impact and influence of
nationalist discourse which to a certain extent rests on an individual
producer’s ability to produce a successful nationalist movement[iv]. This essay is finally an examination of how
nationalist discourse represented history and thereby shaped a potentially
unruly history into the history of a supposedly great nation.
Nationalists
and the History of Sri Lanka
Until the British Colonial powers became
knowledgeable about the existence of the Mahavamsa and thereafter had it
translated from Pali to English in the 1830s, they believed that Sri Lanka did
not have an authentic history as recorded in reliable literary sources. However
George Turnour’s translation of the Mahavamsa in 1838 was to help establish it
as Sri Lanka’s original historical text and contribute to the belief among both
the colonizers and the colonized that the Sinhalese race had an unbroken
magnificent past. British writers and later Sri Lankan writers contributed to
this belief due to the way in which they narrated the history of Sri Lanka[v].
John Plamenatz describes two types of nationalism (Western
and Eastern Nationalism) and in his definition of Eastern nationalism he
explains that there is an essential understanding that the standards the nation
is attempting to aspire to are alien and not inherent. Hence for that reason it
becomes necessary for the nation to transform itself culturally while yet
maintaining a distinctive identity. This was accomplished by an attempt to
revive a national culture which although progressive retains its unique
character[vi].
This theoretical structure is apparent in the nationalist discourse of Sri
Lanka during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Nationalists created what they believed to be a genuine Sinhala past by linking
their ideas to existing visions such as for instance the legend of Vijaya which
was proved to be a most satisfactory explanation for the Aryan origins of the
Sinhalese race. Oral culture and folktales were not prized as much as the
Mahavamsa and with the development of archaeology the discovery of remains
confirmed in the minds of nationalists and colonists that the histories
narrated in the chronicles were valid[vii].
Anagarika
Dharmapala: Establishing a Glorious Sinhala Past
An early Sinhala nationalist who was to have a
tremendous influence on the historiography of modern Sri Lanka was Anagarika
Dharmapala (1864 -1933). He considered the study of history to be essential to
the expansion of a patriotic consciousness[viii].
His writings emphasize his commitment to the belief that Sri Lanka had a
wonderful Sinhalese past which originated with the Buddhist religion.
Dharmapala embodies an unquestioning acceptance of
the island’s mythical past as depicted in the chronicles and his depiction of
Sri Lankan history according to exact dates and years illustrates his
unwavering belief in the authenticity of the past. He depicts the Sinhalese as
the descendants of the Aryan colonists “whose ancestors have never been
conquered and in whose veins no savage blood is found”[ix].
His comparison of Sri Lanka’s ancient civilization against that of Britain,
Greece and Rome find the latter three lacking in comparison[x].
Anagarika Dharmapala’s use of binary distinctions
conveys his negative perceptions of non-Sinhalese such as the ‘pagan Tamils’ or
the ‘European vandals’[xi].
He propagates ethnic nationalism and makes the general claim of most
nationalists who say that they represent “ancient racial, religious and
linguistic communities”. Anthony Smith’s argument that the root of national
identities is found in the continuous bond beyond ethnic ties and sentiments is
a comprehensive theme through most of Dharmapala’s writings[xii].
The idea of great and victorious past is consolidated in the history of the
Sinhalese which is equal to the history of Sri Lanka. For there is “no race on
this earth today [with] a more glorious, triumphant record of victory than the
Sinhalese”[xiii]. Significant is also the
fact that the history of Sri Lanka is not just founded on the Sinhalese race
but also on the Buddhist faith, archaeological artifacts and the literary
chronicles. No other nation is able to boast of such a ‘history of the island’,
of such ‘a history of Religion’ and it is only the Sinhalese race which has a
“Dipavansa” and a “Mahavansa”[xiv].
Dharmapala’s strives to match his exaggerated importance of the history of Sri
Lanka with a 19th century empiricist approach to history which would
perhaps be a more convincing representation of the past.
Nevertheless in the process of glorifying Sri
Lanka’s history Dharmapala is obviously imagining and creating a pure and
honourable history in which no blood was shed or cattle killed due to the
superior influence of Buddhism. Good kings such as Gamini, Buddhadasa and
Parakramabahu were Aryan Sinhalese who were able to preserve the splendid
inheritance of their Aryan past[xv].
Interesting is the fact that although Dharmapala wholeheartedly condemns the
foreign conquerors (i.e Portuguese, Dutch and the British) who contaminated and
contributed to the decline of the Sinhalese nation he subscribes to the Aryan
theory which was introduced by the British Colonial powers. According to
R.A.L.H Gunewardana, by the beginning of the 20th century the Aryan
theory was very much a part of Sri Lanka’s intellectual baggage. 19th
Century British historiography played a considerable part in influencing the
writing of history at this time and the Aryan theory which posited the
Sinhalese as superior to the Tamils in language and race was to thereby ensure
a significant following among producers of Sinhala nationalist histories[xvi].
Dharmapala's discourse on Sri Lankan history illustrates a process of inclusion
and exclusion where the non-Sinhalese, non-Buddhist are evil outsiders who
ruined the pure and magnificent Sinhalese past. A return to Buddhist principles
– Buddhism being the “religion of the conqueror”- is the only way in which the nation can be
restored to an era reminiscent of its splendid historical past[xvii]
[i] Lloyd Kramer, ‘Historical
Narratives and the Meaning of Nationalism’, Journal
of the History of Ideas, vol.58, no.3, (1997), pp.525-526
[ii] Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London. New York,
Verso, 2006, p.6
[iii] Jonathan Spencer, ‘Writing
Within: Anthropology, Nationalism and Culture in Sri Lanka’, Current Anthropology , vol.31.no.3
(1990), p.287
[iv]
Ibid
[v] Nira Wickremasinghe, Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: a History of
Contested Identities, Sri Lanka,
Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2006, pp.88-89
[vi] Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World:
A Derivative Discourse?, Tokyo, Zed Books, 1986, p.2
[vii] Wickremasinghe, p.89
[viii] Anagarika Dharmapala, Return to Righteousness, Ananda W.P
Guruge (ed), Ceylon, 1965, p.506
[ix] Ibid, p.479
[x] Ibid, p.479-480
[xi] Ibid
[xii] Kramer, p.540
[xiii] Dharmapala, p.481
[xiv] Ibid
[xv] Ibid, pp.489 - 496
[xvi] Marisa Angell, ‘Understanding
the Aryan Theory’ in (eds) Mithran
Tiruchelvan and Dattathreya. C.S, Culture
and Politics of Identity in Sri Lanka,Colombo, ICES, 1998, pp.49 - 63
[xvii] Dharmapala, pp.482-489
[xviii][xviii]
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