UNIVERSITY OF JAFFNA, SRI LANKA

BACHELOR OF LAWS DEGREE PROGRAMME

YEAR -1, SEMESTER-2

SOCIOLOGY
IN-COURSE ASSESSMENT -II

Registration number of the student -2022/L/070

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Word count - 1500
 Task

“When the state favors one particular religion over others in a multi-religious society, the

result is division and violations of equality. Therefore, a secular state, with a strict

separation between the state and religion, is the best option for Sri Lanka.”

Do you agree? Write a critical essay stating your position. You may draw on examples

from other jurisdictions.

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 Table of content

01.The concept of Secularism………………………………………………………………..

02.Secularism and Sri Lanka…………………………………………………………………

03. Impact of “Non-Secularism” to the Sri Lankan context………………………………

04. International experience of Secularism and how it was impact to the countries….

05.My recommendations regarding establishing the secularism in Sri Lanka…………

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 01. THE CONCEPT OF SECULARISM

The separation of religion and state is the foundation of secularism. A Secular state is

where a state claims to be officially neutral in matters in religion. Such a state supports

treating its citizens equally and does not recognize a state religion or equivalent. True to

its word1 , a secular state should consistently maintain national governance without

influence or interference of religious factions. Secular democracy champions human

rights above religious demands a secular constitution plays a crucial role in establishing

such a society

The core idea of secularism is associated with the “Age of enlightenment” in Europe and

served against the church’s role and its dictatorial interference of governance and

human life. Particularly against the Pope, who affirmed that he can rightly judge all but

could be judged by none. Most of the modern national states were established against

religious dominance and it’s order.2

02. SECULARISM AND SRI LANKA

As a small island nation, it contains four religious traditions existing side by side.

Therefore it provides an opportunity to explore how interfaith dialogue and collaboration

can contribute to the harmonious coexistence of a multi religious society. When we do

an analytical and unbiased investigation of the past of our country, we can understand

1 Humanists International.com,Humanism and secularism, <https://humanists.international/policy/humanism-and-

secularism> February 4, 2024
2 Secularhumanism.org , What is Secular Humanism?,<https://secularhumanism.org/what-is-secular-
humanism> ,Feburuary 04

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clearly the problematic situations that have arisen in the merging of state and religion

and the disastrous situations that have arisen. So I thoroughly agree with the concept of

“Sri Lanka should move towards a Secular State” and there should be strict separation

between the state between religion.

When sri lanka passed the first republic constitution in 1972 ,the country leaders

granted Buddhism “foremost status”. The privilege was reiterated in the 1978

constitution also3. According to the Article 09 “The republic of sri lanka shall give to

buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the state to protect

and foster the Bhuddha sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by

articles 10 and article 14(1)” As Buddhism received state patronage, the other religions

were only protected under the fundamental rights chapter in the constitution. This was a

significant departure from Article 29(2)4. The buddhism clause was unconventional in a

multi religious state and was potentially divisive as it resulted in identifying those who

professed in other religions falling to give equal rights to them. According to the Article

14(1) “every citizen is entitled to the freedom, either by himself or in association with

others, and either in public or in private to manifest his religion or belief in worship,

observance, practice and teaching. But according to the political expertise interpretation

of Article 10 and 14(1) safeguards from article 09 was roundly rejected since having

freedom of thought, conscience and religion does not mean equality that the

government takes from the common pool to foster Buddhism.

3 groundviews.org,Secularism or Barbarism,https://groundviews.org/2019/05/16/secularism-or-barbarism , February

04
4 The constitution of Sri Lanka,Article 09

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 03. IMPACT OF NON SECULARISM TO THE SRI LANKAN CONTEXT

Sri Lanka has tragic hisotry for the ethnic and reiligous conflict in the late 19th centuary

and throughout the 20th century in the times of socio-economic and political stress

caused due to state favours one particular religion and race over other in a muti cultural

society. In most instances the violence was unleashed upon ethnic or religious

minorities by members of the sinhala majority. There are some instances which happen

due to these racial and religios biases of governing which affect to the entire society in

disastrous way

● Black July in 1883

● 30 years of Civi war between Tamil separetists and govenment (1883 - 2009)

● Mawanella riots between sinhalese and Muslims in 2001

● Anti muslim riots in Kaluthara in 2014

● Anti muslim riots happen due to easter sunday attack

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In addition to these kinds of ethnic conflicts there was a huge social discussion aroused

of the interference of religious monopoly, in the situations when bringsout important and

timely ammendments and new features to the constitution, the views of the chief monks

were to be seriously taken by the political leadership. So according to my point of view,

there is a danger that the hopes of ordinary people, including minorities would be

dashed.

Many of optimistic and timely proposals had to be withdrawn due to impact of religious

and narrow minded communities. Some of those can be list out as below

5 journals.openedition.org,Religion and Education in a Secular Age: A Comparative Perspective,

<https://journals.openedition.org/extremeorient/198?lang=en> , February 04

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 ● Reforms and proposals which taken to legalize the abortion by the Law

commision of Sri lanka to address the problems relating to abortion6

● Proposals to secure the rights of LGBTQ community

● The proposal to legalize the same sex marriages to protect the rights of

homosexual community

● The proposal to legalize and regulate the prostitution7

04. INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE OF SECULARISM AND HOW IT WAS IMPACT

TO THE COUNTRIES

When we are discussing secularism and how it will be its application to the local

context, we have to definitely research the global experience of secularism and how the

countries use this concept of secularism in diverse societies to overcome the problems.

In this scenario our neighbor state India can be taken to identify the impact of

application of secularism as a country where the concept of state secularism has been

included in the Indian constitutions, When India became independent in 1947 it was

partitioned into India and Pakistan with later deciding to be an Islamic country. India

could have easily followed suit and declared itself as a hindu nation. but given the

proven secular credentials of Hinduism, it chose not to do so. It adopted secularism and

willingly accepted the decision of millions of Muslims to stay back in India.8

Has secularism succeeded in India from 1947 till date?. It may be more prudent to

answer this question with some hard truths and facts. Some of these are
6 www.ft.lk,Decline of secularism in South Asia, <https://www.ft.lk/Columnists/Decline-of-secularism-in-South-Asia/4-
665524> 03 February 2024
7 Dailymirror.com, legalizing prostitution in local
context,<https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/news-features/Legalizing-Prostitution-in-Sri-Lanka> February 04
8 www.timesofindia.com, adopting secularism,
<https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/blunt-frank/understanding-secularism-in-india> February 04

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 ● All minorities have complete freedom to propagate, teach and run their religions.

Similar freedom is not available to Hinduism

● Minorities with genuinely small numbers like Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis /

Zoroastrains and Jews have prospered, contributed to nation building much

beyond their numbers and have no issues with numbers and have no issues with

Hindus
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● Since independence, the country has had three presidents and three vice

presidents from Muslim community, One president and one prime minister from

Sikh community.

● There is no discrimination in government jobs against any religious community.

Nation armed forces are an epitome of secularism at its best.

● There have been no Hindu centric government initiatives but there have been

many for minorities and their religions10.

It is obvious that the fundamentals of secularism have been distorted in India to favor

the minorities. Political compulsions, dictated by vote bank politics, have forced political

parties to adopt this approach at the cost of the majority. Secular democratic

governments practice social equality by keeping religion out of governance. Due to this

concept of state secularism, India has managed social coherence and national

coexistence as a country with huge ethnic, religious and caste diversity.

There are many countries in modern world which successfully manage the division and

violations of equality by adopting the concept of secularism in the governance

9 www.researchgate.net,Secularism, Schools and Religious Education - ResearchGate,

<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293325392_Secularism_Schools_and_Religious_Education> ,04
February 2024
10 www.academia.edu, Rethinking secularism, <https://www.academia.edu/29398833/Rethinking_secularism> 04
February

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Turkey

Turkey is a secular state with ahistory of overcomming religious divisions. Kemal

Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey implemented secular reforms to seperate religion

from politics. While challenges persist, secularism ha helped in mitigating religious

tensions and promoting more inclusive society

South Africa

Despite its history of racial and ethnic divisions South Africa’s post-apartheid

constitution promotes religious freedom and equality. The commitment to a secular

state has helped in overcomming historical divisons and promoting inclusivity

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05. MY RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING ESTABLISHING THE SECULARISM IN

SRI LANKA

As a developing country in the south Asian region secularism holds a significant

importance for Sri lanka in establishing social coherence and harmony in various

aspects. If we look at countries like India, Turkey, south Africa those countries has

acomplished their social inclusivity by adopting the concept of “secular state” as suitable

to thier countries and implementing in to practical way. Now those countries are rapidly

focusing on the economical growth due to free from interfering of ethnic and religous

authorities. But as a country we are still stuck in this traditional ethnic and religous mire

with the inability to reforming the secularization of the country.

When we investigate very deeply, we understand by studying examples that the

existence of a state religion has caused much more destruction to this country than

good. As well as the reseachers found that “secular rationality was linked to a higher

11 www.secularsociety.org, Secular Society, https://www.secularsociety.org.za/, 03 February 2024

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level of economic development and educational, while human development index and

ethnic prosperity was linked with democracy. So ultimately while considering all those

facts regarding secularism, Sri lanka has to establish a fundamental principles of a any

democratic society as well as impose the secularism through the constitution to defend

citizens ability to have an input to public policy and to avoid having religious demands

imposed upon them. Definitely it would not be a easy pathway to convert sri lanka as

secular because of the long term traditional “Sinhala Buddhist” dominion and the

political sponsorship of that. Therefore the honest political dedication is essential

towards to create the secular mind set of country by promoting secularist principles both

constitutional and practical way.

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 Bibliography

Books

● The constitution of republic of Sri Lanka

● Galle face protest : System change or Anarchy

Web sites

● https://humanists.international.com

● https://m.economictimes.com

● https://journals.openedition.org

● https://www.secularism.org.uk

● https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

● https://www.academia.edu

● https://www.researchgate.net

● https://www.colombotelegraph.com

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