Geethanjana Kudaligamage

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Rajapakse, regional politics, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Eurocentric DevelopmentalismƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and the western hegemony

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The nationally dominant Colombo based ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Coastal Political cultureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ is a relatively new political phenomenon emerged only after the native culture encountered Europeans in the beginning of the 16^th century. This encounter soon became a clash of civilizations as the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-necropoliticsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of Europe, (As Achille Mbembe describes) that driven by the most anti-human necrophilic love for profiting out of corpses of the global south by the eternal greed of European man, met with its local cultural opponent, a broad philosophy based on Ayubowan, the most humane, collectively communitarian, prudently dialogical, and sensibly nature harmonic philosophical serenity.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ By letting this absurd encounter to happen, the history has done its biggest injustice to the native by giving him an unfair match. Being a culture based on the greetings of live and let live, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, it was so unfair to place it to confront with another culture based on its total opposite; the most anti-human, that is to say, the madness of criminal greed of Britain, Netherlands and the Portugal. It was not a match of philosophical debate like Panadura Wadaya. It was simply an absurd physical match of life and death between two parties such as a philosopher and a butcher. The match becomes unfair because, although the philosopher understands the tool of butchery, butcher in no way can comprehend the tools of the philosopher. So here at this point, the butcher beats philosopher not by having something extraordinary, but by lacking something to match the philosopher, a blissful ignorance can win in such chaos. The west wins not by the superiority of another philosophy, but by inferiority of not having any philosophy at all other than profiting out of irrational savagery. Not by knowing something better to offer for the uplifting of natives of a culture that greets live and let live, but by ignorance of not having anything viable to offer for the prevalence of the life world. However, philosopher got beaten because he never expected to encounter this sort of savagery on his way of history. He never had been prepared to face such outside threat. Yes, no doubt, it was his unpardonable weakness. We must remedy it.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Going back to the match, the philosopherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s weapons were meant to affect the enemyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s mind, the sensory process of intellect of his opponent, which the butcher did not posses, so he was out of the harmƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s way. Whereas butcherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s weapons are concerned, it was physically harming, and targeting to uplift his consumerism by bringing death to his opponent, therefore his attack was solely driven by the pleasure principles of the stomach; it is another contrast in the match, because the philosopherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s motives were driven by the pleasure principles of the mind, but butcher was out of mind. So the game was totally unfair, and was like putting a chess champion to match with an American football champion under the rules of Football. Thus this historical absurdity created the ground situation for the butcher to defeat philosophy by butchery. As a result, a philosophy of live and let live was defeated by its opposite ideology of the genocidal violence of Europe. Thus this necrophilic love of profiting out of corpses emerged as the victorious culture for the first time in native history. In consequence, after the butcher was prevailed over the philosopher, the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-coastal political cultureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ was established upon the native culture of the main land. Today this Coastal political culture is five hundred years old. So we celebrated the day of inauguration of the local version of the kind, the Coastal politics, on February 4^th with unnecessary pride, because unfortunately, the defeated mainland culture of Ayubowan is still remaining marginal.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We must understand that Buddhism is not the only component of native philosophy, because this Native philosophy is older than Buddhism. If we prescribe the nation to give up its millenniums old nature-harmonic, live and let live culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, as the remedy to this historical injustice and resultant defeat of the native, then of course we are aiming at the wrong target and recommending a wrong remedy for a non-existent weakness. And above all, it will be the final nail in the coffin of the defeated culture. It is like recommending the defeated philosopher to quit the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”academy of natureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and a philosophy of marvelous irrigational civilization, merely to get mastered the art of slaughtering at the academy of Butchery in Demetagoda. It will force our Universalist to depart his ethos and mythos altogether with his philosophy of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, which he was preoccupied to develop for many millenniums, to serve mankind to prevail until sun and moon, means till the entire universe exists (Ira handa pawathina thru).

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If the abandoning of this philosophy is the type of development we must have, it will be something like sacrificing precious treasury to gain something not worth of having in exchange? I think this target is wrong. The reason is clear. Firstly, we were vanquished not due to the weakness of our philosophy, but due to our philosopherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s weakness of not having his dagger under his belt to safeguard the philosophy he was holding- that is the weakness we must remedy. Secondly, it was not only Buddhism that had contributed into the local philosophy of live and let live, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. Therefore when we debate over our philosophical weakness, we mustnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t confuse Buddhism with entire local philosophy that built this great civilization.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ However at the moment, it is not only this accumulative culture of the necrophilic globalization of the west that threatens to hit the last nail to the coffin of our philosophical possessions, but also the above said ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-coastal cultureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of the localƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚ residing among us that threatening the native culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Ayubowan to force it into extinction.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  To my knowledge, the proposal of discarding native culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ in exchange with that of the butcher will never serve the interests of the native. I must say this very frankly again, it was not our philosophy that was weak, but the defense of the philosophy. Philosophy has never been a peaceful affair, because it always invites confrontations, because every philosophy has its opponent. So ideology make friends as well as enemies.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The other fundamental aspect we must understand is that, although Buddhism has contributed in great deal to shape this civilization, it was not Buddhist philosophy solely built this splendid civilization, but by native philosophy that was much older than Buddhism. Buddhism was complimented by this culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ because it found some co-habitable similarities between these two philosophies for coexistence. Actually what happened was quite interesting to note; it was not Buddhism that completely overshadowed the native culture, it was rather worked other way around. Under this coexistence, native culture overshadowed Buddhist philosophy that was introduced, giving it a new twist, a new form and a new shape. In that sense, again I must say, it was not Buddhist philosophy that saved the country throughout the history; it was indigenous philosophy that fought the war and saved the nation. We may be able to keep Buddhism away from politics, but we never will be able to keep our age old philosophy out of politics and economics although our coastal political culture has tried and still trying to do it throughout last five hundred years.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ And as far as our development is concerned, as much revealed in this widely debated topic among Lanka Web debaters, if anyone thinks that the native culture was weak to rise above existing poverty to development, I rather like to ask a few questions. To blame native culture for the persistent failure, I must ask, since when our native culture had undertaken the task of building our economy/development after 1505 to begin with? Who and what ideology pushed this great civilization into existing poverty? Was that the culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ or the culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-NecropoliticsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of the west? What we have gained out of this culture of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-NecropoliticsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of the west for last five hundred years? Was this necrophilic culture of excessive greed that is defaulted to bring happiness to minority and misery to majority was capable of building a dam during its rule for last five hundred years to outshine any of existing ones like Parakrama Samudra, Minnariya, Kawdulla, Kalawewa, Ganthala Wewa, Giritale to bring this nation to prosperity other than impractical, white elephants like Victoria? What is the meaning of Deegha Wapee? ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Again, what did the post-colonial coastal politics of Colombo could offer for the nation for last sixty years of so-called independance?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But the native civilization of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ had flourished its culture of live and let live, for nearly three millenniums in the known history, and kept masses out of poverty. It has proved its potency and the impotency of coastal political culture. But what this coastal political culture could do? IsnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t that merely making those masses to be in coconut cues; elevating widely available food source into luxury status, such as making fish a commodity of luxury for an oceanic island nation? IsnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t that making insignificant commodity, like eggs to be unaffordable divine goodie? What a shame for us if we cannot learn even after fife hundred years of a learning process? That is the real existing problem we have.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I am not ashamed to acknowledge that I also was a part of this coastal politico-cultural ideology of Colombo for long time. But proudly I can say now, not anymore. One fine morning I woke-up completely naked, shedding my bondages and realized that I had undressed this coastal ideological trap. I felt eternal redemption. Under such emancipation and redemption, eventually I could reinvent our hero; Awsadahamy the nativeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚ the philosopher; or the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”GodayaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚as the dominant coastal culture disrespectfully identified him. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-GodayaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ the synonym of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”philosopherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and the nick name of our hero in the language of the Costal politics. Our hero the philosopher of Ayubowan, who was indulging the ideology of live and let live for three millenniums of known history, was hiding to live for another day, being unable to bare the onslaught of the naked politico-economic cannibalism of the west and its local counterpart of coastal political culture.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Despite the fact that I was once his enemy, as he saw me face to face, still he murmured, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Ayubowan.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  I replied in the same compassion, AyubowanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ In this article, I will bring some salient features of the Vapee civilization of our hero that reveals fundamental philosophical perspective of living and let living culture of the mainland of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Epitaph of a colonized

However, it is from the distant perspective, as an alien living in the alterity of the west that I happened to rediscover Sri Lanka in its completely different image. This rediscovery, as I have understood now, is the archaeological recovery of ethical, and mythical sources of Sri Lanka, a different panorama that unveiled colonial roots of many national issues through an external perspective. This view from the occident, offered much needed clarity and distinction of the spectacle. And it exposed some horrific realities in the social, political and economic structures of current disparities and deformities of our grotesque system which had correlated with its historical colonial relics.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Moving back and forth from a former colony in the periphery to the center, I was able to move through the layers of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”spatialƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ differences of two opposite worlds. Although temporally they were located in the same time period, for the liner narration of universal history in western theory and history, we were forced to believe that Sri Lanka and the western centers are not only spatially, but also temporally different. To say Sri Lanka is located behind in the time line of manƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s evolution according to this western narration of human history (evolution). After realizing this fundamental ideological fallacy, this rediscovery on the other hand allowed me to understand the so-called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”universalƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ historical perspective of the alleged ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”third worldƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ within which I was able to place the life world of Sri Lanka and asses its historical relations with current conditions.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ At the beginning, this sudden rediscovery caused a severe crack in the universe that I was comfortably dwelling in, and left me in complete disbelief of all idols and ideals, gods and deities I treasured throughout my life; no need to tell, completely due to the suffering from a common colonial disease, the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”ignorance of selfƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. However many middle class Sri Lankans still living in this specific colonial domain of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”ignoranceƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ comfortably, because coloniality glorifies this ignorance. According to which, to be modern, you must know every thing but yourself. Knowing about you will make you to be backward. So as a way forward, our middle class has given up their identity, language and culture. In overall, this rediscovery was an awful void of a lost faith and hope; a condition of an unbearable bitterness of a betrayal of both god and the Reason at once; not to mention the most irrational of all, the western ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”ReasonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and its unpleasant ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”odorƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of racism in the western air.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As a result, I began to believe that, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”one must go to west if one needs to discover true global position and the image of Sri Lanka within the big picture of global political fabric where marginality, racism and exploitation becomes governing principles of the global rule. Under such circumstances no wonder why larger section of expatriates supported Rajapaksa administration with hope and faith in face of this intense yet fraudulent and sinister criticism of the west.

As I dug deep through layers, I was able to ascertain the historical relations of many fundamental issues and the colonial genesis of socio-political and economic conditions currently we are grappling with. The concept of development was such an issue I was trying to understand within this colonial debris. And I also discovered our poverty is largely embedded in our reluctance to learn about ourselves. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For last few years I was trying to locate the locus of this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”persistent failureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”third world developmentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ as a specific ideological theme within the historical aberration of colonialism. This whole series of articles is the outcome of my investigation. For that reason, with all its limitations, this series of articles became strictly ideological rather than mere economics. After recovering of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”selfƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, it was very easy to comprehend many seemingly complicated issues, such as third world economics.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Failures of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Coastal IdeologyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of the city of Colombo over the biopolitical landscape and natural life world of mainland Sri Lanka

When we look into the persistent failure of entire national politico-economic sphere in the island for last sixty years, what we can see is a stark contrastƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚complete aloofness and absolute detachment of existing political ideology of the power center of Colombo to the very soil that it represents and exerts its power upon. Colombo based political culture is the new variety of its erstwhile political ideals of unethical mercantile greed of the insensitive mercenary of Europe of the 16^th century, that was only intended at profiting through the bamboozling and terrorizing the native. This is the Coastal Political Ideology nurtured throughout colonial Sri Lanka up until now and still is continuing. It is such a dominant ideology, perhaps even Rajapaksa administration would have found impossible to get out of it.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The illusive characteristic of this Coastal Ideology is that it maintains the false impressions of its predecessors of Europe, who maintained marginality over native culture and its civilization of the mainland as something irrelevant to progress, illogical to modernity, unproductive to contemporary economics, dead and gone to make living out of, and something needed western intervention to put it right. The contemporaries of this Coastal Ideology not only learning about the rest of the world through European eye, but also they learn about their very ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”selfƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ from the European. Under this circumstance, the tendency of neglecting native civilization including its vast network of irrigational system was overlooked as a dead system that need European wisdom to bring them back to life into function. Instead of researching and learning of it, they try to appropriate the ancient system of agriculture into current system of economical marginality.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Level of ignorance of this coastal travelers about their own culture, including me, can be seen when they react into these ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”mysteriousƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ mainland culture with gigantic reservoirs and ruined archeological sites in the same way their European masters did in the past. They cast their ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Bell gazeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ not only into archaeological evidences, but also into indigenous lives; and then fetishize their living-culture for their thrill and amusement. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”WanderlustƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ is the only attracting substance that brought fascination of Coastal Culture toward the ancient civilization, but not identifying its potentialities of productivity, because simply they did not understand it. In no way they desired to learn from it and shape their lives according to it. Perhaps this ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”wanderlustƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of the coastal culture would be the reason why most of our post-British imperial archeologists and anthropologists are descending from Colombo post colonial elite class. That is one way for them to relate themselves with their mystic fantasy of colonial glory affiliating them with personas like H.C.P Bell. What a pathetic condition we are living in if we have to turn toward Bell to learn about ourselves?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When encountered these ruins, a magic feeling of a fetish estrangement arise between these folks of coastal culture and this inland civilization, continuously keeping them away from embracing this ancient knowledge as a living treasure that can shape our future. Instead of identifying the treasure of the civilizational knowledge of the past as a living knowledge treasury, they see this civilization possessing only a magical commercial potency to sell its fetish value. Thus above said coastal culture preoccupied to further fetishize the ancient culture, in order to sell it as fetish-commodity and earn a few bucks out of it through tourism. That is the only value they see in our past. Their reaction to this inland civilization was similar to that of above said white manƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s necrophilic confused gaze. In which the erotic necrophilic attraction that the ancient culture has received was nothing more than eliciting and unquestioning reverence, like an old Kurahan gala, located in the middle of a courtyard of a house in Kurunduwatta (Cinnamon Gardens) as a big stone with a useless man made hole in the middle.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Negative impact of Coastal Ideology over mainland culture

The applications of political power that exerted from Colombo upon the biopolitical and natural landscape of inland culture have inflicted enormous negative impact over the land and its life-world; but unfortunately, this negative impact has never been taken into serious consideration since 1505. Political power not only affects human lives and their economics, but also it affects all aspects of natural life of the land. When we think about political aberration in Sri Lanka, what we can see is a clash between two or more different political ideologies backed by different philosophical foundations mostly originated in the west, clashing each other seeking dominance over the cultural and natural life of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”inland civilizationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of the native. Actually it is an internal clash of civilizations between groups motivated by different ideals.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka possesses its own philosophy which has its own political ideology as well. Although time to time rulers have been crossed this philosophical framework, in general, history and archeology reveals how ancient man thought about life, living and let living. This political ideology was sensitive to all living beings within the geographical entity that this political system was functioned. It respected human life, animal life and even plant life. Nature was the paramount law that offered the guideline of this political ideology. Now, one can argue pointing that such political ideology is outdated and can never handle contemporary global political/economical challenges. Then my question is, firstly, how can we judge it if we have never tried it? Then, if that philosophy of living and let living is outdated, then why currently, even some of the European countries such as Spain have brought laws to grant fundamental rights to animals? Is Spanish political system is out dated to their own modern standards? The recent decision by the Spanish Parliament to grant fundamental rights to great apes, challenges such notions of anti nature-friendly politics. It even justifies our ancient political criterion that safeguarded cultural notion of legal rights and justice for non-human animals and plant life. The following website will tell how the American public who were troubled by the conditions of animal life has been organized to act as a pressure group. Visit http://www.humanesociety.org/about/overview/

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Ancient Sri Lankan biopolitical theory was not only doctrinaire ethics, but also an articulation of rights and our treatment to nature including non-human animals and plants. This reveals that our ancestors were way ahead of the west in ideological superiority. In every human activity in ancient Sri Lanka, these fundamental principles were evident. But in contrast, the genocidal philosophy of the west branded this appreciation of nature as backward primitive trait of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-nature worshipingƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The first such known government decree of animal rights was proclaimed at Mihintalaya by king Devanampiyathissa in 3^rd century B.C. but the tradition of cohabitation with nature must be older than that. I am saying this based on the principles that governed ancient irrigation technology of the island. That is why our ancient political theory has become universal in true sense when western theories become narrow and shallow. The existing notion portraying ancient political philosophy of Sri Lanka that encouraged peaceful cohabitation of nature as a novel introduction of Buddhism is complete disregard of historical facts. Because nature friendliness was there in irrigation technology that was existing in the island before the introduction of Buddhism, and this proves that sensitivity to nature was older than the Buddhist civilization of the island.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ However, the excerpts of the research of Udula Bandara Awsadahamy that I am going to attach into this article will tell more about native philosophy behind the ancient irrigation technology. Anyway the important fact is that although Sri Lankan philosophy that defined native politics and economics lasted for three millenniums, whereas western philosophy and its concomitant political and economic theory could never last for two hundred years. And now it is in the verge of complete collapse. Its innate contradictions are increasing and coming on to the surface. This single fact reveals that who ever follow the western principles of economics, sooner or later will go to the abyss with them altogether. I donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t think Sri Lanka desired to have such end. The reason is, I do not believe the notion that development is something that can achieve only through western philosophy, because development can be achieved without causing environmental damage as well. Change of attitude will do marvels. We can do business with the world, develop sciences, arts and ideology without being servile to outside too deeply.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Problem of our current dominant political ideology is its reluctance to understand the heart of the native. They simply do not recognize native aspirations. They do not respect their talents, opinions. The detachment of our existing Coastal Political Culture from the biopolitical and cultural life of the land is largely attributed to the reason that our land was ruled by culturally disconnected post colonial classes of the costal belt of Sri Lanka. This coastal mentality, obviously based on alien ideologies that were cultivated during colonial and post-colonial era is not even older than four hundred years, but became dominant since the Portuguese encounter. This coastal mentality determined the future of the mainland, which has been matured for last three millenniums. The ignorance of this coastal mentality has become the curse of the ancient culture of the mainland for last four centuries; because it has been deeply influenced by European modern ideology marginalizing native cultures, but has little or no understanding of indigenous cultural knowledge of the mainland.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This Coastal Political Culture of saltwater belt of Sri Lanka encroaching inland inch by inch and had brought, and still bringing destruction and misery to the remaining remnants of ancient civilizational culture of the mainland. This new destructive ideology was developed since 1505 and still is the dominant culture in the country. Political decisions of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Coastal CultureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ are very often suspected of being incompatible with domestic values, priorities, such as respect for affected parties like in the case of mass displacement in Dumbara, lack of representation of diverse groups, and lack of values and transparency in the decision-making processes. And they mostly have taken cheap power motivated decisions rather than meaningful political or economical choices that are more frequently insensitive to history, culture and even affected parties of those decisions. This is the culture we must abandon, that is the revolution we expect from current administration. Let us put full stop to this Colombo based ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Coastal Political CultureƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of Sri Lanka.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

(To be continued)