“Declining Hindu population in Buddhist majority Sri Lanka should be of concern for India”, Swarajyamag, May 15, 2024:
“The recent EAC-PM report on the changes in share of population of religious minorities across countries between 1950 and 2015 states that the population of Hindus in Sri Lanka had declined by 5 per cent while that of the Buddhist majority had risen by 5 per cent. While the decline in Hindu population in the country could be attributed to a number of reasons like the wars against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north and the east where a lot of Tamils live (the Hindus in Sri Lanka are mostly Tamils), migration to other countries and the transfer of plantation Tamils to India in the 1960s, the post-war years of relative peace and stability should have ideally been a time when the Hindu population could have thrived.
After all, Sri Lanka is not a country like Muslim-majority Pakistan or Bangladesh, though its Constitution gives the foremost place to Buddhism. But unfortunately, there still remains an ethnic divide, (though not at the same level as during the LTTE years), and Hindus are having to contend with Sinhala Buddhist domination. According to a report by The Hindu, a large number of new Buddhist sites and shrines have been coming up in Tamil areas in recent years and access to some temples is being controlled under the name of archaeological research.
The report also mentions that there have been incidents of vandalism in Hindu temples. Further, even though the war against the LTTE ended more than a decade ago, the Sri Lankan army allegedly continues to remain in possession of a lot of land belonging to Tamils. While it is important for India to maintain cordial relations with the Sri Lankan government, it should also be more assertive and try to find ways to convey to Sri Lanka that we cannot remain quiet if Hindus are facing difficulties in that country……”
Read the full article at Swarajyamag.com
