Thinking about the Buddhist Tradition, Politics, and Aragalaya

In this paper, I explore how we may contemplate the connections between “tradition” of Buddhism and politics against the backdrop of the 2022 unprecedented mass protests, Aragalaya, in Sri Lanka. My interest is in how aragalaya as a movement of political reform and criticism of the state in postwar Sri Lanka is (or is not) predicated on a particular “tradition” of politics itself. To do this, firstly, I look at how “Aragalaya” was translated into the universal language of “struggle,” a language that has been put to global political uses. Secondly, I examine what sorts of political institutions or programs the movement of aragalaya envisions. In particular, I look at how the “language of corruption” (dushanaya) came to define the Aragalaya’s political criticism of the Sri Lankan state. With a focus on its complicated history, I will argue that the language of corruption comes with ideological constraints when used in modern protests confined to particular contexts. The modern protests like Aragalaya that claimed to share the goals and sensibilities associated with the history of political “struggles” in the world, marked by that language of corruption, I suggest, aspire to a tradition; but missing in the structure of the modern protests are important elements like discipline, organization, and authority that make possible the maintenance of a tradition over time. Is this a common malaise that has infected all modern political struggles beyond any hope of renewal?  How might the modern political protests have the durability of a tradition that requires specific political practices within distinct institutional structures?

Ananda Abeysekara is Professor of religious studies in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech, USA. He is the author of two books: The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008) and Colors of the Robe: Religion, Identity, and Difference (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002). He has also authored numerous articles. His current academic interests are in the tradition of Buddhism, temporality, and postcolonial politics.

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