The war in Sri Lanka was violent and costly in human and material terms. This was one of the longest wars in modern South Asia. Often referred to as an 'ethnic' conflict between the majority Sinhalas and the minority Tamils, the war had a profound religious dimension. The majority of Sinhala Buddhist monks (the Sangha) not only opposed any meaningful powersharing but latterly advocated an all-out military solution. Such a nexus between Buddhism and violence is paradoxical; nevertheless it has a historical continuity. In 2009 when the war ended amid serious questions of war crimes and crimes against humanity, monks defended the military and its Buddhist leadership. Taking the lives of three key Sangha activists as the modern framework of a Sinhala Buddhist worldview, this book examines the limitations of Western theories of peacebuilding and such solutions as federalism and multinationalism. It analyzes Sinhala Buddhist ethnoreligious nationalism and argues for the urgent need to engage Buddhist politics - in Lanka and elsewhere - with approaches and mechanisms that accommodate the Sangha as key actors in political reform. Sinhala Buddhism is often studied from a sociological or anthropological standpoint. This book fills a gap by examining the faith and practice of the Sinhala Sangha and their followers from a political science perspective.
Suren Raghavan is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Buddhist Studies - Wolfson College University of Oxford. He turned into academic research after extensive fieldwork in peacebuilding in Sri Lanka during its 30 years of civil war. His multilingual expertise, bi-ethnic background and lifelong studies of Sinhala Buddhist society have provided a rare position for an in-depth and unique analysis of the Sinhalas, the war and especially the historical role of the Maha Sangha - Buddhist Monks. In 2006 Raghavan won the first Asian award for Federal Studies from James Madison Trust the Overseas Research Scholars Award of the British Government in 2008 and the Swiss Federal Government Scholarship for Minority Studies in 2011. His publications includes Politics of Venerable Walpola Rahula (JOCBS 2011 Volume 3) and 'Ethnoreligious Nationalism of Sinhala Sa?gha and the Federalism Project' in Religious Pluralism and Political Accommodation (Routledge 2014).

Suren Raghavan