| Ethno-Religious
Evolution in Pre-Colonial Sri Lanka
Asoka
Bandarage
Abstract
This article
considers aspects of the socio-economic and cultural evolution
in early and medieval Sri Lanka relevant for understanding
the contemporary civil conflict and questions the validity
of the popular theses of Aryan/Dravidian racial dualism and
primordial hatred between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil
minority. It examines the evolution of Sinhala-Buddhist culture
since third century BC and the emergence of Sinhala-Buddhist
ideology as a response to frequent incursions from South India.
It also considers the origins of Dravidian settlements as
well as Muslim settlements on the island in the medieval period.
The Tamil nationalist assertion that the north and the east
of the island constituted a ‘traditional Tamil homeland’
from the ‘dawn of history’ is addressed as well.
The article is based on a review of secondary sources in the
scholarly literature in English.
Challenge
of Governance and Globalization: Case Study of India's North
East
Partha
S Ghosh
Abstract
The
biggest impediments to good governance in developing countries
are unresolved national questions. Ranging from ethnic and
religious conflicts to disputed frontiers they continue to
attract much attention, often at the expense of what we call
good governance. A vicious circle is thus created—acrimony
over nation building hinders good governance and absence of
good governance thwarts nation building. If the phenomenon
of globalisation is thrown into this mix we articulate the
enduring challenge that developing countries face today. The
present article attempts to investigate the policy imperatives,
pitfalls, and opportunities comprising this challenge through
the case study of India's north eastern region. The purpose
of the article is not to question globalisation per se but
to highlight that globalisation has no answer to problems
that afflict the region. In other words, the region can hardly
take advantage of globalisation because of its own circumstances—in
essence lack of good governance.
Knowledge Information in Multicultural South Asia:
Redefining Education for the Next Generation
Sudharshan
Seneviratne
Abstract
Post-colonial
institutional formation has turned out to be a traumatic experience
for the South Asian region. The region as a whole is venturing
along a painful path coming in to grips with the hard realities
of social change, identities and access to resources and power
in the post-colonial context. This process has strong undertones
of political legitimation based on ethno-linguistic, ethno-religious
and ethno-cultural identities while centrifugal forces are
in motion at different levels. This crisis is best reflected
in the secondary and higher education systems in South Asia.
Some
of the issues raised in education are: to what extent is our
education system knowledge oriented? Is it capable of developing
the intellectually oriented multicultural personality of the
next generation? Do we even provide sufficient space for knowledge?
Is knowledge per se a luxury for developing countries? Is
our educational system parochial, inward looking and stagnant?
Are we dependent on information technology as a quick fix-it
solution in the new global culture imposed from above? Have
we properly evaluated the role of the state and the private
sector in education? Does our system of education sustain
or destroy intellectual freedom? Our failure to find timely
solutions to these questions has resulted in violent and anarchic
responses from the next generation that is rapidly cultivating
a bias towards social fascist and fundamentalist ideologies.
Humanising
education through the Liberal Arts is seen as one solution
in the process of restructuring the future educational policy
in multicultural South Asia. It is seen as a process that
will sustain an intellectually independent next generation
of South Asia who will represent the best traditions of humanistic
values as global citizens.
“O
Kalamas, you have a right to doubt or feel uncertain for you
have raised a doubt in a situation in which you ought to suspend
your judgment. Come now Kalamas, do not accept anything on
the grounds of revelation, tradition or report or because
it is a product of mere reasoning or because it is true from
a stand point or because of a superficial assessment of the
facts or because it confirms one’s preconceived notions
or because it is authoritative or because of the prestige
of your teacher. When you Kalamas, realize for yourself that
these doctrines are unjustified, that they are condemned by
the wise and that when they are accepted and lived by, they
conduce to ill and sorrow, then you should reject them.”
Gautama the Buddha [Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya]
Book
Review:
Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period: 1590s to 1815,
Michael Roberts, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2003
by U C Wickremeratne
Volumes
XV to XIX of the Ethnic Studies Report are currently available
for downloading at www.ices.lk/publications/esr.shtml
|
Ethnic
Studies Report Abstracts: Vol XXI No. 2