The modern idea of religion as divorced from power succeeded in dislodging the influence that Buddhism had over Sri Lankan politics, but only for a short time…

The Sinhalese Sangha refused to be “privatized” by the British government, or overpowered by the Sri Lankan elites. Using its immense historical knowledge, the Buddhist Sangha took its totalizing vision of Sri Lankan society public with pamphlets and preaching, leading up to the 1940’s Colombo college-monks’ movement…