SB Hegemonism: Ideological Cloak For An Economic Agenda And A Racist State

By Kumar David -February 19, 2014 

Prof Kumar David

Nobody is likely to disagree when I say that the hegemonic or leading ideology in Lanka for more than half a century has been Sinhala-Buddhism; forget whether it good or bad, this is just a simple fact. In the early 1970s SB had to share a place in the ideology pantheon with socialistic aspirants (coalition government and the JVP), and in the 1980s with JR style neoliberal economics. The 1990s and first half of the 2000s was a potpourri where other aspirants for a place in the ideological pantheon rose and fell; Sinhala-Buddhism however consistently retained its place as a deity.

Then from 2005 and after the demolition of the LTTE in 2009 and the rise of the Gotabahaya brand of extremist political Sinhala-Buddhism, its ascent has been ethereal. Today, the ideological hue of the national state is not painted by Mahinda but by Gota. The latter, a civil servant, mounts the political stage of Jathika Hela Urumaya’sUdaya Gammanpilla and calls on voters to extend their support. There is bugger all Mahinda, who should answer for constitutional propriety or effete Deshapriya who should monitor electoral correctness, can do. Gota has stuck his finger right up Mahinda and Deshapriya with impunity; my point is not to gripe and bitch (what’s the use) but to make clear the relationships of power.

Let me go on with my story about power, I leave griping about Gota to more urgently inclined souls. What I want to draw attention to is ideological hegemony and its relationship to (a) the sibling’s economic plan and (b) the structure of state power. There is a symbiosis, the three blend into an integrated machine. It may sound a bit complicated, but it’s true, so please bear with me for a few more paragraphs.

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