Buddhism, colonialism and the boundaries of religion: Theravada Buddhism in Burma, 1885--1920

In Burma, the first mass public response to colonialism was a Buddhist response. It took the form of a series of Buddhist movements that interpreted colonialism not as a threat to sovereignty, nature, or economy but as a religious threat precipitating the decline of the Buddha's dispensation or sasana. This dissertation sets out to understand this response as a means of exploring the complex interactions of Buddhism and colonialism. In this, it serves not just to narrate religious conflict or change but to investigate how religious discourses offered a means of comprehending the challenges posed by colonialism and responding to points of conflict. The response to colonialism in Burma between 1885 and 1920 subtly shaped Buddhism and produced modes of collective identity alternative to those proposed by nationalism and colonial rule.;This dissertation examines a number of Buddhist projects, their conflicts with colonial rule and discourse of the decline of the sasana . Organized in thematically, it offers four studies of projects undertaken by Buddhist associations that highlight key issues in their tactical engagement with colonial discourse and the struggles over meaning. The first examines how efforts to preserve pariyatti textual study brought earlier Buddhist reform techniques together with colonial technologies to produce a moral community based on shared responsibility for the sasana . Then a study of Buddhist education explores how a conceptual disconnect between colonial education policy and the pedagogical goals of Buddhist monasteries opened space for new formulations of Buddhist learning. An investigation of concerns about moral decline looks at how focus on behavior in moral reform campaigns shaped how Buddhists came to understand themselves within the moral community. The last study investigates how direct confrontation with British officials over issues of respect inflected Buddhism as a public and political entity and came to shape expectations of the category of religion. Together these investigations paint a picture of a period of dynamic change and interaction that came to subtly shape what was understood as Buddhism in the public discourse and how those who took responsibility for its preservation understood themselves both individually and collectively.