Pali Scholarship "in Its Truest Sense" in Burma: The Multiple Trajectories in Colonial Deployments of Religion. Issue 1 (10th January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Turner, Alicia
• Is Part Of: Journal of Asian studies. Volume 77:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 123
• Page End: 138
• Publication Date: 2018-01-10
• Subjects: Buddhist modernity, -- classical language study, -- colonial Burma, -- colonial governmentality, -- Pali, -- religion and state in Southeast Asia, -- sāsana reform, -- Theravada; East Asia -- Periodicals; 950.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021911817001292
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9118

Abstract

Abstract : Why are histories of colonialism and religious transformation in Southeast Asia so often told as inextricably interrelated? Why were Buddhist movements identified as both the locus for resistance to colonialism and the central means of constructing colonial modernity? Part of the reason lies in how religion served as both a European technique of colonial governmentality and a local repository of techniques for comprehending and responding to change. More than this, religion seems to have offered a multivalent medium for a variety of innovations. Pali examinations were central to Buddhist reform in colonial Burma at the turn of the twentieth century but also fomented conflicts between the colonial state and monastic factions over the purpose of language study. However, beyond such conflicts, Pali examinations proved fertile grounds for Buddhist laypeople to experiment with multiple interpretations of what Buddhist modernity might mean in Burma.