NATIONALISM AND BUDDHISM
Buddhists traditionally maintained close ties with es-
tablished political authority, which typically meant
KINGSHIP. When the global system of nation-states be-
gan to develop in earnest during the nineteenth cen-
tury, Buddhists too began to engage in nationalist
imaginings. The linear, progressive, and essentialist
concept of nation is a modern construct. Researchers
have attributed the following characteristics to na-
tionalism: global industrialization, the development of
print capitalism and of modern science and technol-
ogy, and the pursuit of status and respect.
There is an affinity between modernity and nation-
alism and between Buddhism and nationalism. For ex-
ample, “Zen nationalism” was born through the
process of interaction between Japanese Buddhism and
Western modernity. As a way of defending Buddhism
during the MEIJIBUDDHIST REFORM, the Japanese cre-
ated what they termed New Buddhism, a “modern,
cosmopolitan, humanistic, and socially responsible”
form of the tradition (Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism,”
p. 247). Robert Sharf notes that the contemporary ver-
sion of Zen Buddhism is an offspring of this New Bud-
dhism. Japanese Zen Buddhists employed Western
discourse to create the new tradition and eventually
presented it as being superior to Western modernity.
This universalizing discourse of Zen implied the cul-
tural superiority of Japanese Buddhism.
Similarly, the universalism of religion and the par-
ticularism of nationalism go hand in hand, despite
their apparent differences. Religion remains a strong
force, if not an active accomplice, in the formation of
nationalism. Kenneth Wells points out that Korean
Protestants, for example, had no difficulty in retaining
their identities as both Koreans and Protestants. Ko-
rean Protestants fused their religion and nationalism
by trying to incorporate their Christian beliefs into the
process of nation building. The same may also be said
for Buddhist nationalism.
Buddhist responses
During the latter half of the nineteenth and the first
half of the twentieth centuries, most Buddhists in Sri
Lanka, China, Korea, and Japan faced similar political
and social changes due to the colonial expansion of the
West. To these Asian Buddhists, who had theretofore
enjoyed stability, Western invasions initiated crises
that threatened the survival of the religion. The rapid
influx of Western civilization brought about chaotic
disturbances to the traditional social and political equi-
librium; Asian Buddhists could no longer enjoy their
privileged status in the traditional order. Some Asian
intellectuals began to believe that their traditional re-
ligions, including Buddhism, were superstitious and
backward, and thus obstacles to the modernization
process. Under these circumstances, Buddhist institu-
tions throughout Asia soon became the target of attack
and they found themselves surrounded by rapidly sec-
ularizing societies.
The survival of Buddhism depended largely on the
capability and willingness of Buddhists to adapt their
religion not only to Western modernity but also to the
new political structure of nation-states that emerged
as a result of interaction with the West. In particular,
the rapid dissemination of Christianity awakened Bud-
dhists to the imminent nature of the challenges they
were facing. Whether Buddhism could demonstrate its
viability in this new context became a pivotal point for
the continuance of the religion.
Buddhists participated in nationalist movements,
often embracing nationalism in the name of modern-
ization. Buddhism was reappropriated in terms of is-
sues central to Protestantism and the Enlightenment,
namely, anticlericism, this-worldly engagement, ra-
tional and pragmatic inclination, and individualism.
In this process of reappropriation, religious identity
was formed and intensified. The emergence of reli-
gious identity instilled national pride in many Bud-
dhists. Buddhism was regarded as their indigenous
heritage vis-à-vis the imported Western religion of
Christianity.
In Sri Lanka, the challenge of Christian missionar-
ies sharpened the Buddhist sense of self-identity. It
took much time and prolonged attack from Christian
missionaries before the Sinhala Buddhists entered
into polemical debates with them. Before the 1860s
Buddhists did not react in any organized way to the
hostile attacks of Christianity. With the developing
self-awareness prompted by the need to respond to
Christian inroads, however, Buddhists began to refute
the coexistence of variant religious practices that char-
acterized their traditional religion. Buddhists tried to
purge such popular elements as spirit cults, magic, and
astrology from their practices. They took a funda-
mentalist approach, attempting to return to what they
considered to be canonical Buddhism.
Furthermore, the history of organized Buddhism in
Sri Lanka was identified with the history of the nation,
and Buddhism was promoted as a way to defend theNATIONALISM ANDBUDDHISM