Open Access Contemporary Sinhala-Buddhist Nationalism in Sri Lanka: The Relevance of a (Neo-) Marxist Interpretation

Abstract: Post-colonial political societies, where class and caste serve as important analytical categories for understand-ing nationalism, often reveal a different sort of nationalism than most Western countries. Classical theories of nationalism, however, tend to simplify or overlook such important determinants in the post-colonial world. This paper discusses the class nature of nationalism and nationalist politics in Sri Lanka by applying an alternative Marxist discourse on national-ism. The paper, which is the reflection of a survey of nationalist discourse in Sri Lanka of field research, which was car-ried out in Sri Lanka, argues that the nature of Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism can only be understood when sufficient at-tention is paid to the class-based nature of politics in Sri Lanka. Only by applying such logic is it possible to unravel the role of nationalism in the country, as a powerful instrument for the political mobilisation of the Sinhalese faction of the ruling class