WorldDevelopment, Vol. 8, pp. 577-586 0305-750X/80/0601 -0577$0?.

00/0
Pergamon Press Ltd. 1980. Printed in Great Britain

Buddhist Values
and Development Problems:
A Case Study of Sri Lanka
TREVOR LING
University o,f Manchester

Summary. - A distinction is drawn between traditional Sinhalese Buddhism and so-called

‘Protestant’ Buddhism in Sri Lanka. In terms of Weberian theory the likelihood of the latter
having crucial significance for economic activity is remote. Sri Lanka’s economic development
problems are-examined in relation to these two types of Buddhism. Three areas where Buddhist
values may have had some effect are attitudes to population growth, to education and to trade.
The conclusions are that traditional Sinhalese Buddhism bears some responsibility for retarding
economic development through merit-making practices, non-rational attitudes to life and popu-
lation increase. No clear evidence is found that ‘Protestant’ Buddhism has contributed to econ-
omic development.

1. BUDDHISM: TRADITIONAL AND ism. His argument in his classic essay on the
‘PROTESTANT’ subject was that among all these factors there
was one which for a certain limited period
The problem from which Weber began in (somewhere between the middle of the 17th
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capital- century and the middle of the 18th century)
ism, that is, the striking contrast between the combined with certain other unique historical
economic development of some parts of the circumstances to produce a certain type of
world and that of some others, is still with us. capitalistic development.
The emphasis which Weber laid upon the re- Weber’s argument particularizes to a very
ligious factor in the case of European capitalism fine degree. It was not ‘Christianity’ or ‘the
has sometimes been misunderstood by hasty Christian ethic’, not even ‘Protestantism’, but a
readers. In particular, it has led to the facile well-defined, historically ephemeral form of
assumption that while one type of religious degenerate Calvinism which, although only one
belief and ethic will strongly encourage econ- factor among many, could nevertheless be seen
omic development, another will with equal as capable of tipping the balance towards an
force discourage it; more crudely, that some intensely capitalist entrepreneurial activity.
forms of religious belief are good for economic What was thus brought into being had within
development while others are bad for it. Islam itself the seeds of its own destruction: capitalist
has been cited as an example of the latter kind. entrepreneurship and the wealth it created was
It has been argued that ‘Islamic belief’ is an inimical to the kind of ethic which had engen-
important force affecting economic behaviour, dered it. Both Protestantism (of that kind) and
because it makes men fatalistic in their ap- capitalism (of that kind) disappeared before
proach to life. ‘Such an attitude constitutes a long. The day of both had been remarkable,
significant drag on economic development’ and brief. In our own day, comments Weber,
wrote Parkinson.’ Before assenting to such a the Protestant idea of ‘duty in one’s calling
statement one needs more specific information prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead
about the historical and social situation to religious beliefs . . . Modern man is in general,
which it refers. even with the best will, unable to give religious
.Weber showed himself to be well aware of ideas a significance for culture and national
the multiplicity of factors which had combined character . . .‘z
to produce what he called the spirit of capital- Just as no inevitable conclusion regarding

577
518 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

the type of economic development which is Buddhism of the traditional South-east Asian
likely to occur today can be drawn from the type inhibits economic activity. Pfanner and
fact that ‘Protestantism’ is in this or that situ- Ingersoll,6 and later Nash and Spiro,7 found
ation one of the factors present, so, too, no that the need to be able to perform their re-
such inevitable conclusions can be drawn from ligious duties to the monks and thereby to gain
the presence of any other religious belief or for themselves religious merit is an incentive to
practice. Each situation must be analysed sui Burmese and Thai Buddhist farmers to produce
generis; conclusions regarding the force of any a sufficient surplus’ which will be available for
specific religious factor, if one is present, will this purpose. In this sense South-east Asian
be valid for that situation only. traditional Buddhist practice encourages extra
However, each time such analysis is made, effort in economic activity. However, once it
the conclusions so reached may serve as bases has been generated the available economic sur-
for comparative study. For example, a tend- plus is, during the harvest and winter time (the
ency has recently shown itself among observers season of festivities in South-east Asia), con-
of modem Sinhalese Buddhist religion to ident- sumed in a round of meritorious giving to the
ify an emergent ‘Protestant’ type of Buddhism Sangha and in various social and ceremonial
in Sri Lanka. Ames contrasts the traditional festivities. The surplus thus expended is re-
Buddhism of the island with the products of garded as well-spent, for it has been invested in
recent religious changes and comments as fol- religious merit-making and this, in the view of
lows: traditional Buddhists, is the best possible way
of securing a better future.
The general pattern of events in Ceylon closely
parallels developments which took place during In the case of Sri Lanka religious change has
the Christian Reformation. Pre-Reformation Chris- marginally, but nevertheless perceptibly, begun
tianity, like Sinhalese Buddhism, was also based on to provide a different orientation. In Weberian
a dualism between monks who followed a religious terms the parallel with the Protestant Refor-
vocation and laymen who pursued worldly occu- mation in Europe is striking. The respect which
pations. But through the course of the Reformation had hitherto been afforded to the monastic
and accompanying social changes, in many Chris- vocation and ascetic life is beginning to be with-
tian communities the monastic vocation became drawn here and there. In Sri Lanka such decline
more worldly while the laity grew more ascetic. As
in public esteem is associated with a variety of
ethics were universalized, the distinction between
monk and laymen became less important or ceased developments in Sinhalese culture. The as-
to exist at all. sassination in 1959 of the Prime Minister, Dr.
No Sinhalese advocatesabolition of the monkhood, Bandaranaike, by a Buddhist monk was widely
but some ascetic-minded intellectuals are taking regarded as symptomatic of the disreputable
ethics, traditionally the concern of a few virtuoso condition of the Sangha and of the urgent need
hermit monks, and generalizing or universalizing for its reform. Other features to which ob-
them to apply to all people, both lay and c1eric.l jection has been taken by various groups and
However, the significance of this for econ- sectors of the Sinhalese community are the
omic development remains unclear. Ames caste differences which the Kandyan Sangha
points out, ‘as Max Weber said, that a change in still observes, and the system of landholding
the socially decisive strata of a religion can be which is a persisting feature of the Sangha’s
of profound importance’. In Sri Lanka, in place in Sinhalese society. Seneviratne’s recent
Ames’s view, there has been a decline in the study of the state cult at the Temple of the
status of the literati monks, that is, the Buddhist Tooth in Kandy, and of the ritual obligations of
professionals in traditional Sinhalese Buddhism. a feudal kind which still bind many of the per-
This has been accompanied by the rise in status formers in these lavish ceremonies, particularly
of a new group of religious intellectuals who the annual Perahira, emphasizes the extent to
have ‘tended to generalize or universalize higher which there is, as he says, a dissonance between
Buddhist ethics so that they applied to all modem society and the PerahZra, between ‘the
people, not just a few religious professionals’.4 general ideology of egalitarianism dominant
Now in the case of Burma and Thailand it today (and on which the modem governmental
was suggested by Pfanner and Ingersoll5 that and administrative structures are built), and the
the attitude of Buddhist lay people towards the fundamental inequality that is the very basis of
Sangha, the institutionalized body of religious the PerahEra’.6
professionals (often misleadingly called ‘monks’ There is, thus, in Sri Lanka a potential for
in English) was the major factor in the failure the emergence of a new spirit and a new ethic,
of Burma, in particular, to generate capital for The new ethic could be regarded as an ex-
use in economic development. It is not that the pression of a turning away from monastic life,
 BUDDHIST VALUES AND DEVELOPMENT
a denial of its value, and a decline in the respect
hitherto given to it, similar to that which was
at the heart of early Protestantism and as a
‘secularizing’ of the Sinhalese ethic similar to
that which Calvinistic Protestantism constituted
in early modem Europe. It would, however, be
fallacious to expect such an anti-ascetic secular
ethic, such as ‘inner-worldly asceticism’ in
Weber’s term, necessatily to be associated with
the growth of a new spirit of entrepreneurship
in Sri Lanka. Striking though the similarity may
be between early European Protestantism and
what is now being caIled ‘Protestant Buddhism’
in Sri Lanka, the differences in the political,
economic and historical situations are greater,
and possibly more significant. The Protestant
spirit and inner-worldly asceticism are not
unique to Europe; but their presence does not
necessarily signal some approaching outburst
of entrepreneurial activity. Nor does their ab-
sence preclude it. I take Weber’s argument to
be that in certain historical situations, which
need to be defined in detail, a certain religious
factor will have been a decisive determinant of
economic activity, but in a different historical
situation it will not. An attempt will be made
here, in the case of Sri Lanka, to assess the ex-
tent to which the religious factor may serve as
a constraint upon economic activity, or as a
stimulus to it, or may simply be neutral.
2. ACHIEVEMENT-ORIENTED
MODERN BUDDHISTS
In Ames’s account of the Buddhist Reformers
in Sri Lanka they are, like their Protestant fore-
runners in Europe, opposed to giving blind
obedience to traditional religious authority, and
emphasize instead the rational and scientific
aspect, as they see it, of the teaching contained
in the Buddhist scriptures. They are opposed to
the ritualism and idolatry which are practised
by the traditional Sinhalese Buddhist priests,
and (not unexpectedly, adds Ames) they ‘are
more achievement-oriented than are their rural
(and traditional) counterparts’.9
All this would seem to constitute a con-
vincing parallel to the Calvinistic-Protestant
ethic highlighted by Weber. Moreover, such
tendencies have been gathering strength in Sri
Lanka over a period of about 150 yr, according
to Ames, On a more conservative estimate I
should regard the movement as having a history
of ahout a century, since about the time of the
Panadura controversy in the 1870s. In any case
one can safely say that there has been time for
the Buddhist Reformation in Sri Lanka to have
PROBLEMS 579
developed to the stage where it might be ex-
pected to have produced a type of personality
similar to that of Weber’s Puritan, at least in so
far as a well grounded, inner-worldly asceticism
and sense of duty in secular vocation are con-
cerned. It is not yet clear, however, whether
this has in fact happened. For whereas Calvin-
istic-Protestant belief was compatible with a
thorough and total immersion of the Puritan in
his worldly vocation, that is, in the here and
now affairs of his commercial or financial
business, it is questionable whether the ethic of
the emerging Buddhist Protestant is of this kind.
The practice of meditation, for so long neglect-
ed or virtually ignored by the generality of Sin-
halese (as of Thai) Buddhist monks, has now
become by contrast the concern of the Buddhist
Protestant layman, as the growing number of
lay meditation centres in the Colombo area
testifies. But the Calvinistic Protestant did not
meditate, for as Franklin said, ‘time is money.
He that can earn ten shillings a day by his
labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half
of that day, though he spend but sixpence
during his diversion or idleness, ought not to
reckon that the only expense; he has rather
spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings
besides.‘i” Whether the Buddhist Protestant’s
new-found layman’s ethic is likely to be given
expression in these terms is as yet unknown.
The farther back one dates the emergence of
Buddhist Protestantism in Sri Lanka, and the
longer it is seen to have existed, the less likely
it becomes that it possesses this kind of poten-
tial.
Certainly, the course of Sri Lanka’s economic
development during the past 30 yr since In-
dependence cannot be described as an un-
qualified success-story. In spite of the presence
of ‘achievement-oriented’ neo-Protestant Budd-
hists, the country’s economic performance has
been relatively poor. ii Traditional religious
attitudes appear to have had some connection
with this.
3. THE BUDDHIST FACTOR AND SRI
LANKA’S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
Although there is a marginal difference
between Sri Lanka on the one hand and Burma
and Thailand on the other, in the respect that
the Sangha has declined more noticeably in Sri
Lanka, nevertheless there is a large measure of
agreement between the three countries in the
traditional practice of merit-making through
material support of the Sangha. This is notably
the case in the more populous western coastal
580 WORLDDEVELOPMENT

lowlands where responsibility for ‘the building from 1965 onwards did it fall regularly and
of monasteries and providing sustenance for steadily, reaching as low a level as 1.5% by
monks’ has fallen entirely upon laymen since 1975.i5 However, the high rates of growth
there were no royal endowments in this part of during the first decade and a half of independ-
the island such as there were in the Kandyan ence following British rule left a legacy of social
region.i2 The fact that such material support is and economic problems in their wake. Some of
regarded as resulting in the accumulation of these, such as widespread unemployment
merit to the donor, and thus to enhanced pros- among Sri Lanka’s predominantly young popu-
pects of a good rebirth, by no means exhausts lation (60% were under 25 yr of age in 197 1)
its attractiveness to the Buddhist layman. For can be seen as directly related to the high popu-
such ‘socially visible forms of piety’ result also lation growth rates of the 1950s and 1960s.
in additional esteem being accorded to the Others were due to some extent to government
donor by his fellow laymen in this present policies which would have been better suited to
life.i3 This has the same effect as in Burma and a period of population stability than to one of
Thailand, that surplus material resources are very rapid growth; that is to say, policies en-
devoted to economically unprofitable ends; a tailing public expenditure on social welfare,
socio-religious tradition of this kind may be medical care, universal free education, food
applauded from some points of view, but such subsidies and so on. One of the more dramatic
‘waste’ would not commend itself to the ascetic indicators of social unrest was the 1971 in-
Puritan seeking to maximize success in his surrection; that was a movement mainly of the
worldly vocation in economic terms. Tambiah unemployed young, led by the left-wing Janatha
points out that traditional Sinhalese Buddhist Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front),
religion entails also a ‘belief in planets, deities who demanded immediate measures to solve
and demons as responsible in some measure for the island’s economic and unemployment
disease and health, good fortune and bad for- problems.16
tune, rain and drought, good harvest and poor That religious vaiues and attitudes were im-
harvest’. Such belief in supernatural beings who plicated in these economic problems may not
are regarded as affecting mundane affairs is, be immediately apparent. Briefly, the argument
comments Tambiah, ‘antithetical to a rational advanced here is that Sri Lanka’s communal
economic ethic which acts on the premise that divisions, between Sinhalese and Tamils, are to
nature can be controlled by man’s mastery of some degree responsible for the island’s econ-
the world and its processes’.i4 Such beliefs and omic problems; that religion and, in particular,
practices do not appear to be diminishing; in the dominant traditional Sinhalese Buddhism,
the early 1970s they appeared if anything to be has to some extent aggravated these divisions;
on the increase. and that one of the important effects of this
Beyond such consideration as these are three has been rapid population growth.
others -which must be taken into account in To some extent the high rate of natural in-
assessing the extent to which Sinhalese Budd- crease was a consequence of the sharp fall in
hism has at least a partial responsibility for the the crude death-rate which occurred after
economic problems which Sri Lanka has en- 1945.” In 1946 it was reckoned that malaria
countered in the 1960s and 1970s. First and had been virtually brought under control in the
most notable is the matter of population island. This benefited the Tamils differentially,
growth. Second is the bearing of Buddhist as the areas which had been more subject to
values on the educational programme in Sri malaria were those in which Tamils were a
Lanka; and, third, the impact of Buddhist majority. The effect of this was to increase very
values on attitudes toward traders and trading slightly the Tamil share of the island’s popu-
as an economic activity. lation. Thus, the share of the total population
who were Hindus and Muslims (the major re-
ligious affiliations of the Tamils) increased by
(a) Sinhalese Buddhism and population growth 0.27% between 1946 and 1953. The share of
the combined Buddhists and Christians (the
In 1946 Sri Lanka’s population was growing vast majority being Buddhists, all of whom are
at the rate of 1 .S%, and had been doing so at Sinhalese) decreased in the same period by
about that annual rate during the preceding 0.27% (the Buddhist share dropping by 0.2 1%).
decade. In 1947 it rose to 2.5% and in 1948 to It is clear that this redistribution in the per-
2.7%. Between 1950 and 1959 it fluctuated centages of .the population represented in effect
around that figure, and in the latter year was a very slight Tamil gain at the expense of the
2.8%. After that it began to decline, but only Sinhalese community. But the fact was certainly
 BUDDHIST VALUES AND DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS 581

perceived by the Sinhalese, and becoming aware it then continued downwards to 2.2% (instead
of the trend which had shown itself some of of rising again to 2.4% as it had in 1965), and
their leaders began to view with suspicion the from then onwards fell steadily as follows:r9
family planning policies which were being
introduced. While Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Year %
Southeast Asia have what can be called a
potentiuZ opposition to any form of contra- 1967 2.3
ception, this can easily be overcome in situ- 1968 2.2
ations where no communal differential is likely 1969 2.1
to be affected. But in Sri Lanka, where Sin- 1970 I .9
halese-Tamil rivalry has old and deep roots this 1971 1.8
latent Buddhist opposition to contraception is 1972 1.7
1973 1.5
easily awakened whenever there is any sugges-
1974 1.5
tion of a policy of population control. In the 1975 1.5
1960s it was clear that Buddhist monks were 1976 1.5
leading a vigorous campaign both in the villages 1977 1.4
and in public speeches in Colombo against
family planning, on the grounds that it ‘would It is noteworthy that in 1965 the Sri Lanka
annihilate the Sinhalese people in the course of government established a National Family
20 years’.r8 Planning Programme. This programme was
However, by 1963 the Buddhist percentage initially opposed by Sinhalese Buddhist monks
of the population had increased again, from of traditionalist outlook. It is significant that it
64.3% (in 1953) to 66.3% and by 1971 it had was not until 1968 that the decline in the
risen to 67.4%, an increased share of 3.1% in growth rate can be said to have become clearly
18 yr. The Tamil (Hindu and Muslim) share perceptible. The Report on the Family Planning
decreased in the same period from 27.7 to Programme recently issued (1978) emphasizes
25.9%. The Christians, a community made up that the impact of the programme ‘seems to
of both Sinhalese and Tamil, had decreased have been small’ during the early years (just
from 9.0 to 7.7% in those 18 yr. Overall it after 1965) when levels of acceptance were
was a gain for the Sinhalese Buddhists and a quite low among Sri Lankan women, and that
reversal of the incipient trend which had shown they began to rise only in 1971. The mainten-
itself in 1953. Thus, whereas the family planning ance of high fertility rates in the 1950s and
programme, against which Buddhist monks in 196Os, and the well-marked decline in fertility
Sri Lanka were campaigning in the 1950s and from about 1967 is, therefore, better under-
1960s did eventually achieve some reduction in stood if it is regarded as due to an initial resist-
the general growth rate, it was only after 1965 ance from the Sinhalese Buddhist community
that there was a continuous fall, that is, afrer which came to an end a year or so after 1965
the year when the census figures for 1963 were when the Buddhist monks’ propaganda against
available and it was generally apparent that the family planning began to lose its force. As the
Sinhalese percentage of the population had im- Report points out, prior to 1971 there was
proved vis-a-vis the Tamil percentage. The fact some decline in fertility but it was due to the
that as late as 1965 the population growth rate adoption of traditional methods of contra-
stood at 2.4% means that Sri Lanka will have a ception and methods and practices other than
serious population problem for some years to those made available by the National Family
come. It is difficult to see that Sinhalese Budd- Planning Programme.
hist communalism, which has such ancient Moreover, once the Programme’s provisions
roots in Sri Lanka, does not bear a considerable began to be accepted the levels of use were
share of the responsibility. For the Sinhalese ‘highest among women who had had ten or
community has traditionally seen its interests more years education (53 per cent), among
as identical with those of Sinhalese Buddhist those who lived in or near the capital city of
religion, threats to the one being seen as threats Colombo (54 per cent), and among Buddhists
to the other. (47 per cent). Use was lowest among those with
It is also clear, however, that Sinhalese no education (29 per cent) and among Muslims
resistance to population control such as there (26 per cent).‘”
was in the 1950s and 1960s is not a permanent The highest rate of acceptance of contracep-
feature of Sinhalese Buddhist culture. In 1968, tive knowledge and practice by Buddhists in-
when, after 2 yr in which the growth rate of the dicates certain characteristics of a more basi-
island’s population had remained steady at 2.3%, cally Buddhist kind which had temporarily
582 WORLDDEVELOPMENT

been overshadowed by Sinhalese communal was strongly classical and literary, mainly
sentiments during the period up to about 1966. favouring arts subjecfs. When the colonial rulers
These more basic, longer-term characteristics at a later period began to take a more direct
are associated with Buddhist cultures elsewhere interest in education the basic pattern and
in Asia, notably in Burma and Thailand. Tra- direction which had by then been established
ditionally, Buddhist populations have relatively remained virtually unchanged. At the end of
high rates of literacy; certain districts in Burma, colonial rule in 1948 institutions of higher
for example, have achieved 100% literacy. This education remained confined to ‘a Medical
is part of the credit side of Buddhist culture College, a Law College, and a University College
and of the presence in almost every village of at which prepared students for examinations of
least one Buddhist monk. The idea of universal the University of London’.22 Jayaweera’s
education (in which girls also are naturally comment on this situation is that the academic
included) comes more easily to a people among bias which had thus been established in the elite
whom literacy is a familiar accomplishment; English educational institutions, the alienation
there is a contrast in this respect between Budd- of these institutions from the economic environ-
hist and, say, Muslim culture. Moreover, there is ment of the mass of the people ‘and the values
also in the popular Buddhism of Sri Lanka, they created and buttressed continued after
Burma and Thailand a high appreciation of the independence and were instrumental in delaying
importance of a wholesome social environment educational and social change’.23
of the kind which is favourable to the proper After independence educational policy-
pursuit of Buddhist religious goals; in general makers ‘were motivated by the need and demand
it is considered that social overcrowding and to re-orient the education system in conformity
poor, over large families do not constitute such with national aspirations, and therefore to
an environment. Crime is held to be attributable revive and develop traditional languages, re-
in large part to children not being properly ligion and culture’.24 The result of such policies
cared for and provided for.21 Sinhalese Buddhist may have been to give education a more tra-
social norms are thus generally more likely to ditionally Sri Lankan quality, but this does not
favour population restraint then rapid growth appear to have been of much greater relevance
of population even although in exceptional to the Sri Lankan situation in the 20th century.
circumstances, as in Sri Lanka in the 1950s Education remained overwhelmingly academic
and 196Os, population restraint may be tem- rather than practical or vocational, a disposition
porarily out of favour among those for whom a which is wholly in keeping with the emphasis of
Buddhist identity is very closely related to the Buddhist monastery schools of the villages.
ethnic and culturalidentity when this is believed The non-practical nature of traditional Buddhist
to be threatened. education, imparted as it is mainly by bhikkhus,
is natural, since bhikkhus themselves are pro-
hibited by their religious rules from practical
(b) Buddhist values and education occupations, especially the cultivation of the
soil. Thus, in 1978 vocational learning was still
The educational programme in Sri Lanka is severly limited:
heavily biased, at all levels, in the direction of
A single level Agriculture School, eight elementary
the arts and humanities. This is to some extent practical farm schools, two senior and eight junior
a legacy from the British system of education as technical schools, an Institute of Aesthetic Studies,
it was established in the island in the 19th cen- and twenty-nine teachers’ colleges, all with a total
tury. The pattern was one in which Christian enrolment of approximately 15,000 and a limited
missionary agencies took the initiative and the quantity of non-formal trade, craft, and technical
colonial rulers more or less acquiesced. This set courses are available to meet the needs of about
the direction in which education was to develop. 150,000 annual school leavers. As in the past. these
institutions tend to be a refuge for dropouts from
The beneficiaries were mainly Christian chil-
academic courses.”
dren, Sinhalese or Tamil, and the children of
well-to-do, non-Christian families of both these Various attempts have been made, even
communities who took advantage of the prestige before independence, to establish schools of
which education in the Christian schools agricultural training or even some training of an
afforded, modelled as these often were upon industrial type, but these schemes collapsed, as
the upper-class ‘public’ schools of England. The de Silva comments, chiefly because at that time
Christian educated minority thus became a they ‘failed to compete with the existing
privileged elite in the colonial set-up in Sri secondary schools which provided access to the
Lanka. The content of this English education more lucrative avenues of employment’.26 But
 BUDDHIST VALUES AND DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS 583

these ‘lucrative avenues’ have recently shown this, new agricultural enterprise has not been a
themselves to have a very limited capacity to very prominent feature of the Sri Lankan scene,
absorb the vastly swollen ranks of those classi- and the responsibility for this must to some ex-
cally well-educated young people seeking to tent rest with the direction which education has
enter them. In spite of an increasing amount of taken and still largely takes, as a result partly of
money which Sri Lanka has spent on free edu- the colonial heritage which Sri Lanka received,
cation for all, this does not appear to have been and partly of the non-practical tradition of
of great benefit. Sirisena has pointed out in re- education which Sinhalese Buddhist culture
spect of Sri Lanka that ‘when social objectives maintains.
and economic objectives are treated as mutually It is sometimes argued that economic de-
exclusive they are competitive’. Educational velopment is a policy which a country may
training, he observes, should on the one hand wish to pursue, or may not. One can respect the
‘be in accordance with the requirements of the latter decision even if one does not agree with it.
economy (while on the other hand) economic It may certainly be argued that capitalist
development should be organised to utilise entrepreneurship is not readily reconciled with
products of the educational system’, that is, traditional Sinhalese and Southeast Asian
when the latter is made to bear some relation Buddhist culture. A people has the right to
to economic facts. ‘In short, the social sector choose. Economic development is also a
planning and economic planning ought to be possible method of mitigating population
coordinated to provide a comprehensive growth; this view has its exponents.ac In certain
socioeconomic development programme.’ situations there could be strong arguments in
Sri Lanka’s economic policy since in- favour of giving development priority rather
dependence has been one of almost complete than population control. But to maintain tra-
reliance upon plantation products and dom- ditional cultural attitudes which inhibit agri-
estic agriculture. The former (tea, coconut and cultural development and at the same time to
rubber) are largely exported and provide the oppose population control, as Buddhist
foreign trade. The latter partly supplies dom- bhikkhus were doing in the 1960’s, is simply to
estic food needs. The remainder of the island’s compound economic difficulties. In the situ-
food, which cannot be met from internal ation itself, however, Sinhalese bhikkhus may
sources, has to be imported, and consists prin- not have seen it in those terms. This is a good
cipally of rice, flour and sugar. The economy reason for seeking to clarify as fully as possible
is thus at the mercy of world prices. When Sri the nature of the interrelationship between
Lanka’s imports increase in price, and her ex- religion and culture and modern development
ports decrease in price on the world market it policies.
becomes necessary to bring about a massive
contraction of imports of all kinds, except the
most basic items, that is foodstuffs. This hap- (c) Buddhist values and trade
pened in Sri Lanka from about 1960. By 1965,
in spite of a situation so adverse to the island’s Stirrat has pointed out that the role of
balance of payments that the issue of import traders in the economy of Sri Lanka has been
allocations had to be totally suspended, imports generally neglected by anthropologists and
of food had to be paid for by the aid of a sociologists.31 Attention has instead been
standby loan from the IMF for Rs 142.8 focussed on peasant co-operatives on the as-
million. This critical situation had been aggra- sumption that it is the producer of goods
vated by a decline in the domestic production who is all-important, the distributor being a
of rice, the staple food, thus compelling the parasite who lives off the exploited peastnt.
country to increase imports of this com- There may be some truth in this latter as-
modity.% sertion, so far as Sri Lanka is concerned.
It is thus evident that a major economic The lack of success of the peasant co-operatives,
problem for Sri Lanka is domestic rice pro- however, suggests the problem of distribution
duction; this industry would seem to be one of cannot so easily be brushed aside. The weakness
vital importance to the island’s economy. Much of the co-operatives, Stirrat points out, is that
attention has been given to the matter of in- they do not have the wide-ranging role of the
creasing the area under rice (even since the trader.32
latter part of colonial rule), by the development The disinclination of those who are engaged
of irrigation in the ‘dry zone’ of the centre and in the study of Sri Lankan society to concern
east of the island, and by establishing new themselves with networks of distribution is
peasant settlements there.29 But, apart from in line with the general attitudes of Sinhalese
584 WORLDDEVELOPMENT
Buddhists, By this I do not mean that the
ordinary Sinhalese person has no inclination to
study the problem of distribution; rather that
he rates the trader very low in his scale of social
values. In a study of a jungle village in Matale
District in central Sri Lanka33 Tambiah found
that the villagers generally ranked shopkeepers
lowest in status. Five status personalities were
used by Tambiah; wealthy landowner, pious
upcisaka (a lay Buddhist disciple who goes
beyond the normal lay requirements of Buddhist
devotion and practice), schoolteacher, shop-
keeper and high-caste (goyiguma) cultivator.
The pious upfisaka was rated higher than the
wealthy landowner, so also was the school-
teacher but by a slightly smaller margin. Bu,t
the wealthy landowner was rated much higher
than the shopkeeper (who also was wealthy).
The schoolteacher, less wealthy, was rated far
higher than the wealthy shopkeeper. The high-
caste, goyigama, cultivator was rated mar-
ginally higher than the wealthy, non-goyigarna,
landowner. In general the villagers had a poor
opinion of traders and shopkeepers. ‘[Com-
merce] is deprecated because the ethics of com-
merce are alien, and the pursuit of commerce
is the monopoly of outsiders.‘”
Somewhat different attitudes had been
found by Ryan in the less isolated village of
Pelpola, in the coastal lowlands some 25
miles south of Colombo.as There, social status
among its ‘exclusively Sinhalese and exclusively
Buddhist’% villagers was found to be partly a
matter of piety and partly a matter of wealth.
Wealth had favourable connations in so far as it
enabled its possessors to engage in almsgiving
and other generous acts of traditional piety
more dramatically and more frequently than
would otherwise have been the case. The
wealthy in the village were of two kinds:
those whose wealth was derived from the
ownership of land which they had inherited,
and those whose wealth came from business
activities, and even small ‘industrial’ enter-
prises. But the latter were regarded less highly
than the former: the landed proprietors are
held in honour and esteem, while business men,
‘particularly the traders, are generally viewed as
squeezing their riches from their neighbourn’
purses . . . Buying cheap and selling dear has no
basis in indigenous [i.e. Sinhalese Buddhist]
ethical values.‘37 Perhaps not too much should
be made of such objections, however, since
they could certainly be found for example
among some English Christians; but that does
not entail the conclusion that other English
Christians, given the opportunity, would not
engage in commercial or entrepreneurial activity.
Stirrat, in the study which has been mentioned,
found that while the retail traders on the shore
belonged to fishing families, were mostly
widows of fishermen, and were ‘all Roman
Catholics’, the traders in fish, who brought the
fish from the coast to the urban markets inland
or in Colombo were ‘predominantly Buddhist’,
and were from trading backgrounds, or pro-
fessional ones, retired or practising school-
teachers being notable among them.ss
The rather tentative conclusion that may be
drawn from such evidence as is available is that
there appears to be some ethical disapproval
among Sinhalese Buddhists of the activity of
traders, but that this declines in strength as one
moves away from more remote and isolated
areas towards the coast and especially towards
the metropolis. What is not clear is whether this
slight increase in readiness among Sinhalese
Buddhists to engage in commercial and trading
activities is due to any possible effect of the
‘Protestant’ type of movement in Sinhalese
Buddhism which was mentioned at the be-
ginning, or to a general secularizing effect of
contact with a wider world. It is perhaps
noteworthy in this connection that the present
government under the Presidency of J. R.
Jayawardene (a pious and active Buddhist)
enacted legislation in 1978 to set up a ‘free-
trade zone’ of about 123 m2 adjacent to the
port of Colombo which would be somewhat
similar in character to the free-trade area of
Singapore. ‘It will be in the charge of a Greater
Colombo Economic Commission which is
vested with considerable authority.‘3g
To sum up on this point: (a) in areas which
are more traditionally Sinhalese Buddhist in
culture commercial and trading activity is
regarded with suspicion or accepted with
reluctance, and is not a natural and spon-
taneous characteristic of such culture; (b) in
areas which are less traditionally Sinhalese
Buddhist such activity is disliked by some, but
pursued by others; (c) whether the latter
attitude of acceptance is the manifestation of a
Protestant Buddhist spirit is still unclear but on
balance unlikely.
My general conclusions are, therefore, as
follows:
1. Traditional Sinhalese Buddhism can be
seen to have had some indirect responsi-
bility for Sri Lanka’s economic difficulties
in the 1970s: partly through traditional
merit-making practices which entail the
consumption of economic resources in
support of non-productive monastic in-
stitutions; partly through the non-rational
attitude to contemporary problems which is
 BUDDHIST VALUES AND DEVELOPMENTPROBLEMS 585

encouraged by the popular cults of deities seem strikingly similar to the religious
and demons; and partly through high rates reformation which took place in Europe
of population growth resultant upon the from the 16th century onwards, but in the
hostility between Sinhalese and Tamils, Sinhalese case there is no warrant, so far at
aggravated as this was by the opposition of any rate, for regarding this movement as
Buddhist bhikkhus to family planning. having contributed to Sri Lanka’s economic
2. ‘Protestant’ Buddhism in Sri Lanka, development; nor is it necessary, in Weberian
that is, the movement away from traditional theory, to suppose that it should, however
Sinhalese Buddhism, may in certain respects ‘Protestant’it may be.

NOTES

1. B. Parkinson, ‘Economic retardation of the 15. Balakrishnan and Gunasekera (1977), op. cit., p.
Malays’, in Modem Asian Studies (London: Cambridge 112. See also, US Department of Commerce, World
University Press), Vol. 1, Part 1 (January 1967), p. 40. Population 1977 (Washington, D.C.: 1978), p. 213.
See also Vol. 2, Part 2 (April 1968), pp. 155-I 64; and
Vol. 2, Part 3 (July 1968), pp. 267-272. 16. R. N. Kearney and J. Jiggins, ‘The Ceylon in-
surrection of 1971’, Journal of Commonwealth and
2. M. Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spin’? of Comparative Studies (March 1975), pp. 40-64.
Capitalism, trans. by T. Parsons, 2nd ed. (London:
George Allen & Unwin, 1976), pp. 182-183. 17. R. H. Gray, ‘The decline of mortality in Ceylon
and the demographic effects of malaria control’, Popu-
3. M. Ames, ‘Ideological and social change in Cey- lation Studies, Vol. 28. No. 2 (July 1974), pp. 205-
lon’, in S. N. Eisenstadt (ed.), The Protestanr Ethic 229.
and Modernization (New York: Basic Books, 1968).
18. T. 0. Ling, ‘Buddhist factors in population
4. Ames (1968). op. cit., p. 283. growth and control’, Population Studies, Vol. 23, No.
1 (March 1969), p. 59.
5. D. Pfanner and J. Ingersoll, ‘Theravada Buddhism
and village economic behaviour’, Journal of Asian 19. US Department of Commerce (1978), op. cit., p.
Studies, Vol. 2 1, No. 3 (May 1962).
213.

6. Pfanner and Ingersoll (1962), op. cit.

20. International Family Planning Perspective and
Digest, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Fall 1978), p. 91.
7. M. Nash, The Golden Road to Modernity (New
York: John Wiley, 1965); and M. Spiro, ‘Buddhism
and economic activity in Burma’, American Anthro- 21. Ling (1969), op. cit., p. 54.
pologist, Vol. 68, No. 5 (October 1966). See also
T. Ling, Buddhist Revival in India (London: Mac- 22. S. Jayaweera, ‘Education’, in T. Fernando and
millan, 1980), Chap. 7, ‘Buddhism and Wealth’. R. N. Kearney (eds.), Modem Sri Lanka: A Modern
Society in Transition (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Uni-
8. H. L. Seneviratne, Riruais of the Kandyan State versity Press, 1979), p. 134.
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1978), p. 150.
23. Jayaweera (1979),op. cit., p. 135.
9. Ames (1968), op. cit., p. 278.
24. ibid.
10. Weber (1976),op. cit., p. 48.
25. ibid., p. 146.
11. See N. Balakrishnan and H. M. Gunasekara, ‘A
review of demographic trends’, in K. M. de Silva (ed.),
26. In K. M. de Silva (1977), op. cit., p. 408.
Sri Lanka:A Sunq (London: C. Hurst, 1977). p. 119.

12. K. Malaeoda, ‘Buddhism in Sri Lanka: continuity 27. N. L. Sirisena, ‘Population increase and the
and change’,‘in K. M. de Silva (1977), op. cit., p. 385. growth of social services in Sri Lanka’, Paper presented
at the Centre of South Asian Studies Conference on
13. See Pfanner and lngersoll (1962). op. cit. Social Change in Sri Lanka, 21-22 March 1974,
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
14. S. J. Tambiah, ‘Ceylon’, in R. D. Lambert and London, p. 10.
B. I:. Hoselitz (eds.), The Role of Savings and Wealth
i,” .S;;fhrrn Asia and the West (Paris: UNESCO, 1963), 28. L. A. Wickremeratne. in K. M. de Silva (1977).
op. ciz., p. 157.
586 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

29. See B. H. Farmer, Pioneer Peasant Colonisation in 32. Stirrat (1974),op. cit., p. 190
Ceylon (London: Oxford University Press, 1957); and
H. N. C. Fonseka, ‘Land use problems in the peasant 33. Tambiah (1963), op. cit., pp. 98-107.
colonies of the dry zone’, The Ceylon Journal of
Historical and Social Studies, Voi. 9 (January-June 34. ibid., p. 107.
1966).
35. B. Ryan, Sinhalese Village (Miami, Fla.: University
30. S. Kuznets, Six Lectures on Economic Growth of Miami Press, 1958).
(Glencoe: Free Press, 1959); see also G. D. Ness,
‘Population growth, economic development and devel- 36. Ryan (1958),op. cit., p. If.
opment policies’, in Studies in the Geography of
Southeast Asia (University of Singapore and Univer- 37. ibid., p. 13f.
sity of Malaya), Vol. 17 (1963), pp. 116-126.
38. Stirrat (1974), op. cit., p. 195.
31. R. L. Stirrat, ‘Fish to market: trade in rural Sri
Lanka’, South Asian Review, Vol. 7, No. 3 (April 39. A. J. Wilson, Politics in Sri Lanka 1947-1979
1974). (London: Macmillan, 1979), p. 86.