Religious Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka Facilitates Marginalization and Persecution of Sri Lankan Religious Minorities
Majoritarianism in South Asia — often facilitated through the nationalist weaponization of religion — is a rampant phenomenon that has come at the price of devastating marginalization and persecution of religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities, including in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a majority Sinhalese Buddhist country. The Pew Research Center estimates around 68.6% of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, 13.7% are Hindu, 10.4% are Muslim, and 7.2% are Christians in 2020. The remainder are either unaffiliated or practitioners of other less-represented religions. Despite the diverse, pluralistic nature of Sri Lanka’s religious community, rising religious majoritarianism linked to nationalism has caused the marginalization and persecution of Sri Lankan Muslims, Christians, and Hindus — many of whom are Tamils.
The persecution meted out to Sri Lankan minorities is clearly evident in the discriminatory treatment of Muslims. In a recent report published in October 2021, Amnesty International reports rising anti-Muslim discrimination in Sri Lanka with surging Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism since 2013: “This discrimination has evolved from a rising series of mob attacks committed with impunity, into government policies explicitly discriminating against Muslims, including the forced cremation of Muslim Covid-19 victims and current proposals to ban both the niqab (face veil) and madrasas (religious schools).”
Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists have also targeted the halal certification for food, which helps Muslims know what food is permissible to be consumed according to their faith. Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara — the secretary-general of the extremist group Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Strength Force) — has also made numerous inflammatory, hateful remarks to crowds at anti-halal protests, such as ‘only monks can save this race,’ referring to the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Gnanasara — in an appeal to Sinhalese majoritarian nationalism oppressive of religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities — also hatefully claimed, ‘Our country is a Sinhalese one and we are its unofficial police.” The anti-halal hate campaign fostered an anti-Muslim environment that facilitated attacks and riots against Muslims, their businesses, and their sacred mosques. The extremists responsible for such brutality and violence unfortunately are often not held accountable by the authorities. Amnesty International even reports in the cases of the anti-Muslim violence in Ginthota in 2017 and Digana and Ampara in 2018, “Not only did perpetrators escape accountability, victims and witnesses alleged the police and armed forces did not offer sufficient protection or act to prevent the violence.” Alarmingly, the State Department has noted that hatred against Muslims has risen during the COVID pandemic in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Christians are also marginalized and persecuted. Persecution of Christians has frighteningly risen since the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War between the Sinhalese and Tamils in 2009. This has led to, according to Professor of Religion Chad Bauman, a development of solidarity between the marginalized Sri Lankan Muslims and Christians. Concerning marginalization of both Sri Lankan Christians and Muslims, Bauman states that Christianity and Islam are caricatured ‘as foreign religions that don’t have deep indigenous roots in Sri Lanka.’ These xenophobic caricatures and hateful rhetoric have fueled anti-Christian violence in Sri Lanka. In its 2020 report on religious freedom in Sri Lanka, the U.S. State Department notes, “the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) documented 50 incidents of attacks on churches, intimidation of and violence against pastors and their congregations, and obstruction of worship services” in 2020. Radical Buddhist monks have threatened evangelical Christians and obstructed Christian prayer services, and extremist mobs have even assaulted pastors, their family members, and congregants. Jehovah’s Witnesses have also reported that they’re being discriminated against and abused, which are heartbreaking experiences that are undoubtedly worsened by court delays that delay justice. Just as with Sri Lankan Muslims, the Christian minority of Sri Lanka often gets no assistance from authorities when they are discriminated against. In fact, Christian groups report “that police and local government officials were complicit in the harassment of religious minorities and their places of worship” and that Christian victims of religious persecution are even forced by police authorities to sign statements that absolve those harassing them.
In addition to the extensive persecution and marginalization of Sri Lankan Muslims and Christians, Hindus of Sri Lanka — who are predominantly from the Tamil-speaking minority — also report discrimination. For instance, the aforementioned State Department report states, “Media reports stated police and military personnel were complicit in allowing Buddhists to build religious structures on Hindu sites.” Civil society groups have asserted that these efforts are a land grab orchestrated by Sinhalese Buddhist majoritarians to possess land in historically Tamil and Muslim regions. Further, Hindu, Christian, and Muslim civil society groups have reported “increased monitoring” often occurring with harassment by extremist Buddhist monks and nationalist organizations.
Drawing attention to Sri Lanka’s overall abysmal treatment of religious minorities, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in their October 2021 update for Sri Lanka, “The ethno-religious tensions that dominate life in Sri Lanka have led to numerous religious freedom abuses against the country’s religious minorities. Unequal treatment, problematic laws, dangerous conspiracy theories, hate speech, and other issues contribute to an environment of harassment and stigmatization for religious minority communities.”
The Sri Lankan government must take significant, substantive steps to improve and strengthen human rights protections for Sri Lankan religious minorities. There is also a clear imperative for those outside Sri Lanka to call attention to the gross human rights violations committed against Sri Lankan minorities. Just as importantly, as the threats of religious majoritarianism and anti-minority nationalism rage throughout South Asia, it is incumbent upon South Asian governments to strengthen human rights protections — especially for minorities — and it is vital for those outside the region to raise awareness and support for all marginalized, persecuted minorities of South Asia.
