Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism - Contributions of Anagarika Dharmapala

Contributions of Anagarika Dharmapala

Anagarika Dharmapala was one of the contributors to the Buddhist revival of the 19th century that led to the creation of Buddhist institutions to match those of the missionaries, and to the independence movement of the 20th century. He illustrated the first three points in a public speech:

"This bright, beautiful island was made into a Paradise by the Aryan Sinhalese before its destruction was brought about by the barbaric vandals. Its people did not know irreligion... Christianity and polytheism are responsible for the vulgar practices of killing animals, stealing, prostitution, licentiousness, lying and drunkenness... The ancient, historic, refined people, under the diabolism of vicious paganism, introduced by the British administrators, are now declining slowly away."

He once praised the normal Tamil vadai seller for his courage and blamed the Sinhalese people who were lazy and called upon them to rise. He strongly protested against the killing of cattle and eating of beef.