Sri Lankan Independence Movement - The Buddhist Resurgence and The 1915 Riot

The Buddhist Resurgence and The 1915 Riot

A new body of urban capitalists was growing in the low country, around shop-keeping and the alcohol and wood-work industries. These entrepreneurs were from many castes and they strongly resented the historically unprecedented and unbuddhistic practice of 'caste discrimination' adopted by the Siam Nikaya in 1764, just 10 years after it had been established by a Thai monk. Around 1800 they organised the Amarapura Nikaya, which became hegemonic in the low-country by the mid-19th century.

The British attempt at giving a Protestant Christian education to the young men of the commercial classes backfired, as they transformed the Buddhism practised in Sri Lanka into something resembling the non-conformist Protestant model. A series of debates against clergymen of the established Anglican church was organised, culminating in the defeat of the latter by modern logical argument. The Buddhist revival was aided by the Theosophists, led by American Col. Henry Steel Olcott, who helped establish Buddhist schools such as Ananda College, Colombo; Dharmaraja College, Kandy; Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala; Mahinda College, Galle;and Musaeus College, Colombo; at the same time injecting more modern secular western ideas into the 'Protestant' Buddhist thoughtstream.