The 144th birth anniversary of the Anagarika Dharmapala falls on Wednesday September 17. While much has been written on his services to the Sinhala Buddhist cause little attention has been paid to his perception of international politics vis Sri Lanka a view that is valid now as then although the contexts are vastly different.
British colonialism was at its height when Dharmapala was trying to rouse the Sinhalas from their deep slumber. Then as now white imperialists demonized any country that challenged the might of the Western powers in the same way they today condemn China on human rights and various other issues. Her close historical ties with Sri Lanka are an irritant to all those local and foreign hypocrites who want Colombo to seek a "negotiated settlement" with the LTTE terrorists.
During the Anagarika's time it was the rise of Japan that greatly disturbed European colonialists. They called it the "yellow peril." Around the beginning of the last Century Japan won Sri Lanka's admiration for her industrial progress and the crushing defeat she inflicted on the Russian Navy in 1904 an Asian nation's first ever victory over a European power.
The Anagarika visited Japan many times and the Hewavitharana family awarded scholarships for Sri Lankan students to study there. During an early visit to Japan in 1888 he eulogized the Japanese nation as "a sovereign star in a continent of servitude."
In 1913 the Anagarika wrote an article on 'Japan's Duty to the World' in which he stated, "It is a political trick of the Europeans to keep harping about the yellow peril It is the white peril that Asiatic races have to guard against."
Contrasting other Asian nations with Japan, Dharmapala wrote, "When a nation is politically dependent on another, the weaker loses its individuality. Asia with the exception of Japan is in a state of moral, industrial and economic decay."
Regarding dependency, it appears his words were prophetic in the context of Sri Lanka's current crisis where Western donor nations are trying to blackmail and intimidate this country into giving breathing space to the LTTE in the name of peace, human rights and protecting internally displaced people (IDPs). Today's Western neo-colonialists are far more refined than their counterparts during the Anagarika's time. Instead of using crude terms like 'yellow peril' their trick is to use terms like 'human rights' to browbeat less powerful countries that depend them for trade and aid.
The reality today is the 'white peril' vis-vis Sri Lanka and China.
Not surprisingly Dharmapala's links with Japan and the Indian independence movement and his political influence created such an alarm among the British colonial authorities that he was kept under constant police surveillance in Calcutta and not allowed to return to Sri Lanka with the outbreak of the First World War. It was only in March 1920 - two years after the War ended that he was permitted to come back to his motherland.
Fortunately Dharmapala did not live to see Japan tragically losing her bearings in an despicable attempt to ape the West in colonial aggression. It ultimately brought ruin to several East Asian countries including Japan herself.
However the Anagarika like India's Subhas Chandra Bose - was prophetic in a different sense concerning South and South East Asian countries. It was Japan's entry into World War II that really crippled Asia's European colonial powers. Though the latter eventually succeeded in defeating the Japanese the white imperialists could no longer hold on to their empires. This was the real reason for independence to be granted to Sri Lanka and India in 1947-48 far more than the non-violent struggles or campaigns for political reforms that national leaders waged for nearly a 100 years. Even today Japanese nationalists are very keen to emphasize this point.
But since Japan's defeat and her re-emergence as an economic superpower she has become a virtual pet poodle of the West whereas her former victim China is well on the way to achieving the status that Japan held during the early in the 20th century. To day in order to safeguard Sri Lanka's sovereignty we have to look upon China the same way the Anagarika looked upon Japan.
This is important because of another very accurate prediction the Anagarika made. He said that one day the white rulers will leave the shores of Sri Lanka leaving a gang of black-whites or 'coconuts' (white inside and brown outside) in power. The late Tarzie Vittachi called them the 'Brown Sahibs' and 'Off-White Blimps.'
Wearing the patriotic garb nowadays they are at the helm of affairs in the business world and the media the Leader Group of newspapers being the most notorious example. They always look upon the West and its diplomatic missions to set the standards on human rights and democracy for Sri Lanka. They yearn for the West to intervene here on the pretext of R2P to "uphold human rights." To them Sinhala Buddhists is the prime cause of all the troubles in this land. They see Anagarika Dharmapala as a 'notorious' Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist. UNP's Rosy Senanayake thinks that Sri Lanka can progress only if the nation turns its back on its Sinhala Buddhist heritage. R.M.B.Senanayake, a regular contributor to the Island considers Sinhala Buddhists as the primary cause of this country losing its unity and national identity in the contemporary world.
The time has come for another Anagarika or an L.H.Mettananda to lead a second national revival.
-Janaka Perera
British colonialism was at its height when Dharmapala was trying to rouse the Sinhalas from their deep slumber. Then as now white imperialists demonized any country that challenged the might of the Western powers in the same way they today condemn China on human rights and various other issues. Her close historical ties with Sri Lanka are an irritant to all those local and foreign hypocrites who want Colombo to seek a "negotiated settlement" with the LTTE terrorists.
During the Anagarika's time it was the rise of Japan that greatly disturbed European colonialists. They called it the "yellow peril." Around the beginning of the last Century Japan won Sri Lanka's admiration for her industrial progress and the crushing defeat she inflicted on the Russian Navy in 1904 an Asian nation's first ever victory over a European power.
The Anagarika visited Japan many times and the Hewavitharana family awarded scholarships for Sri Lankan students to study there. During an early visit to Japan in 1888 he eulogized the Japanese nation as "a sovereign star in a continent of servitude."
In 1913 the Anagarika wrote an article on 'Japan's Duty to the World' in which he stated, "It is a political trick of the Europeans to keep harping about the yellow peril It is the white peril that Asiatic races have to guard against."
Contrasting other Asian nations with Japan, Dharmapala wrote, "When a nation is politically dependent on another, the weaker loses its individuality. Asia with the exception of Japan is in a state of moral, industrial and economic decay."
Regarding dependency, it appears his words were prophetic in the context of Sri Lanka's current crisis where Western donor nations are trying to blackmail and intimidate this country into giving breathing space to the LTTE in the name of peace, human rights and protecting internally displaced people (IDPs). Today's Western neo-colonialists are far more refined than their counterparts during the Anagarika's time. Instead of using crude terms like 'yellow peril' their trick is to use terms like 'human rights' to browbeat less powerful countries that depend them for trade and aid.
The reality today is the 'white peril' vis-vis Sri Lanka and China.
Not surprisingly Dharmapala's links with Japan and the Indian independence movement and his political influence created such an alarm among the British colonial authorities that he was kept under constant police surveillance in Calcutta and not allowed to return to Sri Lanka with the outbreak of the First World War. It was only in March 1920 - two years after the War ended that he was permitted to come back to his motherland.
Fortunately Dharmapala did not live to see Japan tragically losing her bearings in an despicable attempt to ape the West in colonial aggression. It ultimately brought ruin to several East Asian countries including Japan herself.
However the Anagarika like India's Subhas Chandra Bose - was prophetic in a different sense concerning South and South East Asian countries. It was Japan's entry into World War II that really crippled Asia's European colonial powers. Though the latter eventually succeeded in defeating the Japanese the white imperialists could no longer hold on to their empires. This was the real reason for independence to be granted to Sri Lanka and India in 1947-48 far more than the non-violent struggles or campaigns for political reforms that national leaders waged for nearly a 100 years. Even today Japanese nationalists are very keen to emphasize this point.
But since Japan's defeat and her re-emergence as an economic superpower she has become a virtual pet poodle of the West whereas her former victim China is well on the way to achieving the status that Japan held during the early in the 20th century. To day in order to safeguard Sri Lanka's sovereignty we have to look upon China the same way the Anagarika looked upon Japan.
This is important because of another very accurate prediction the Anagarika made. He said that one day the white rulers will leave the shores of Sri Lanka leaving a gang of black-whites or 'coconuts' (white inside and brown outside) in power. The late Tarzie Vittachi called them the 'Brown Sahibs' and 'Off-White Blimps.'
Wearing the patriotic garb nowadays they are at the helm of affairs in the business world and the media the Leader Group of newspapers being the most notorious example. They always look upon the West and its diplomatic missions to set the standards on human rights and democracy for Sri Lanka. They yearn for the West to intervene here on the pretext of R2P to "uphold human rights." To them Sinhala Buddhists is the prime cause of all the troubles in this land. They see Anagarika Dharmapala as a 'notorious' Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinist. UNP's Rosy Senanayake thinks that Sri Lanka can progress only if the nation turns its back on its Sinhala Buddhist heritage. R.M.B.Senanayake, a regular contributor to the Island considers Sinhala Buddhists as the primary cause of this country losing its unity and national identity in the contemporary world.
The time has come for another Anagarika or an L.H.Mettananda to lead a second national revival.
-Janaka Perera
