Dukkha and Integral Ecology: Thinking Ecologically in Post-War Sri Lanka

Anupama Ranawana

doi:10.46567/ijt.v13i2.662

Authors

Anupama Ranawana University of Durham

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46567/ijt.v13i2.662

Keywords:

Sri Lanka, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, dukkha, post-war ecotheology, environmental suffering

Abstract

Ecological thinking in contexts such as Sri Lanka, which is recovering from long-term war, must attend to multiple dimensions of the ecological crisis. At first, it is important to consider the ways in which a war that has ranged for several decades has had significant ecological impacts on land, air, and waterways. It is necessary to understand that climate events—heavy flooding and tsunamis—continued to occur throughout the thirty years of war between the Sri Lankan State and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A further complexity to add here is the fact that the state mechanism has consistently grabbed land from minority communities, particularly the Tamil and Indigenous communities, during the war years. This has worked to degrade the relationship between communities and their sacred lands. This paper reflects upon these multiple impacts and argues for the importance of dukkha or suffering as a concept that must be centered in ecotheology focused on Sri Lanka. The article is written in dialogue with Sister Rasika Pieris’s work, which narrativizes suffering from the position of Buddhist and Catholic widows in Sri Lanka, to consider how we might mourn with Creation in the same way as we might with a widow. How do we think about suffering when Creation is multiply ravaged? What are the implications for ecotheology?

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Anupama Ranawana, University of Durham

Anupama Ranawana is a research specialist for Christian Aid and an Associate Tutor for the Queen’s Foundation. She is also a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University. She researches and teaches on ecological justice, indigenous thought, anticolonial feminist religious thought, and religion and development.

References

Amarasuriya, Harini. “Protests and Counter Protests: Competing Civil Society Spaces in Post-War Sri Lanka.” Economic and Political Weekly (2015): 49–55.

_______. “The Politics of Environmental Movements in Sri Lanka.” Polity 8, no. 1–2 (2020): 21–28.

Anālayo. Mindfully Facing Climate Change. Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 2019.

Arunatilake, Nisha, Sisira Jayasuriya, and Saman Kelegama. “The Economic Cost of the War in Sri Lanka.” World Development 29, no. 9 (September 2001): 1483–1500. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00056-0.

Bhambra, Gurminder K., and John Holmwood. “The Trap of ‘Capitalism’, Racial or Otherwise.” European Journal of Sociology 64, no. 2 (August 2023): 163–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000397562300036X.

Briesen, Detlef, ed. Armed Conflict and Environment: From World War II to Contemporary Asymmetric Warfare. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2018. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845293868.

Butler, Colin David. “The Global Environmental Crisis and Sustainability of Civilization: Time for the Buddhist World to Awaken.” In Buddhist Approach to Environmental Crisis. The Internasional Buddhist Conference, 2009.

Camisani, Paola Bianca. “Sri Lanka: A Political Ecology of Socio-Environmental Conflicts and Development Projects.” Sustainability Science 13, no. 3 (May 2018): 693–707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0544-7.

Choi, Vivian Y. “Ecological States: Nature, Militarization, and Nationalism in Sri Lanka.” In Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Sri Lanka, edited by Kanchana N. Ruwanpura and Amjad Mohamed Salem. Routledge, 2025.

Chopp, Rebecca S. The Praxis of Suffering: An Interpretation of Liberation and Political Theologies. Wipf and Stock, 2007.

CNS/Ecosocialist Horizons. “Behind the Brochures: Tourists, Fishermen, and Land Grabs in Sri Lanka.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 25, no. 4 (October 2, 2014): 54–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2014.968320.

Dathan, Jennifer. “Environmental Impacts from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Sri Lanka.” Action on Armed Violence, May 2018. https://aoav.org.uk/2018/the-reverberating-environmental-impacts-from-the-use-of-explosive-weapons-in-sri-lanka/.

De Neui, Paul H. Suffering: Christian Reflections on the Buddhist Dukkha. Vol. 8. William Carey Publishing, 2011.

De Silva, M. U. “Land Tenure, Caste System and the Rājakāriya, under Foreign Rule: A Review of Change in Sri Lanka under Western Powers, 1597–1832.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka 37 (1992): 1–57.

Deckard, Sharae. “The Land Was Wounded: War, Ecologies, Commodity Frontiers, and Sri Lankan Literature.” In Ecocriticism of the Global South, edited by Scott Slovic, Swarnalatha Rangarajan, and Vidya Sarveswaran. Lexington Books, 2015.

Derges, Jane. Ritual and Recovery in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka. Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series 62. Routledge, 2017.

Devoic, B. “Sri Lanka: Physical Reconstruction and Economic Development as Conflict Prevention Factors.” CIRR, n.d.

Dissanayake, Priyanka, Samantha Hettiarachchi, and Chandana Siriwardana. “Increase in Disaster Risk Due to Inefficient Environmental Management, Land Use Policies and Relocation Policies: Case Studies from Sri Lanka.” Procedia Engineering 212 (2018): 1326–33.

Edwards, Denis. Deep Incarnation: God’s Redemptive Suffering with Creatures. Duffy Lectures in Global Christianity. Orbis Books, 2019.

Ferdinand, Malcom. Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World. Translated by Anthony Paul Smith. Polity, 2022.

Fonseka, Bhavani, and Mirak Raheem. Land in the Northern Provinces: Post-War Politics, Policy and Practices. Center for Policy Alternatives, December 2011.

Gäb, Sebastian. “Why Do We Suffer?” Buddhism and the Problem of Evil.” Philosophy Compass 10, no. 5 (2015): 325–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12207.

Geekiyanage, Nalaka, Meththika Vithanage, Hasintha Wijesekara, and Gamini Pushpakumara. “State of the Environment, Environmental Challenges and Governance in Sri Lanka.” In Environmental Challenges and Governance, edited by Sacchidananda Mukherjee and Debashis Chakraborty, 116–32. Routledge, 2015.

Ghosh, Amitav. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis. The University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Goreau-Ponceaud, Anthony. “Conflict and Environment in Sri Lanka, a Complex Nexus.” In Armed Conflict and Environment: From World War II to Contemporary Asymmetric Warfare, edited by Detlef Briesen. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2018.

Gyal, Palden, and Owen Flanagan. “The Role of Pain in Buddhism: The Conquest of Suffering” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Pain, edited by Jennifer Corns. Routledge, 2017.

Hettiarachchi, Missaka, Deepthi Wickramsinghe, Ranjith Mapa, Ajith De Alwis, Tiffany H. Morrison, and Clive A. McAlpine. “The Eco-Social Transformation of Urban Wetlands: A Case Study of Colombo, Sri Lanka.” Landscape and Urban Planning 132 (December 2014): 55–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.08.006.

Hettiarachchi, Missaka, Tiffany H. Morrison, and Clive McAlpine. “Power, Politics and Policy in the Appropriation of Urban Wetlands: The Critical Case of Sri Lanka.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 46, no. 4 (2019): 729–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2017.1393801.

Hoyer, Daniel, James S. Bennett, Jenny Reddish, Samantha Holder, Robert Howard, Majid Benam, Jill Levine, et al. “Navigating Polycrisis: Long-Run Socio-Cultural Factors Shape Response to Changing Climate.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 378, no. 1889 (November 6, 2023): 20220402. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0402.

Ileperuma, O. A. “Environmental Pollution in Sri Lanka: A Review.” Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka 28, no. 4 (2000): 301-325.

Khalili, Laleh. Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy. Verso, 2025.

Klem, Bart, and Thiruni Kelegama. “Marginal Placeholders: Peasants, Paddy and Ethnic Space in Sri Lanka’s Post-War Frontier.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 47, no. 2 (February 23, 2020): 346–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2019.1572604.

Korf, Benedikt. “War, Livelihoods and Vulnerability in Sri Lanka.” Development and Change 35, no. 2 (April 2004): 275–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2004.00352.x.

Meyer, Eric. “From Landgrabbing to Landhunger: High Land Appropriation in the Plantation Areas of Sri Lanka during the British Period.” Modern Asian Studies 26, no. 2 (1992): 321–61.

Ministry of Local Government & Housing and Construction and Department of Town & Country Planning. Colombo Master Plan Project. 1978.

Moe, David Thang. “Sin and Suffering: The Hermeneutics of Liberation Theology in Asia.” Asia Journal of Theology 30, no. 2 (2016): 208-225.

Morin, Edgar, and Anne Brigitte Kern. Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium. Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences. Hampton Press, 1999.

Nagaraj, Vijay. “From Smokestacks to Luxury Condos: The Housing Rights Struggle of the Millworkers of Mayura Place, Colombo.” Contemporary South Asia 24, no. 4 (2016): 429–43.

Nijamdeen, Ashara, and Thahira Thajudeen. “Exploring the Well-Being of Communities Adjacent to Coastal Forests: A Case Study from Sri Lanka.” Paper presented at Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Prague, Czech Republic, September 14-16, 2022.

Pieris, Rasika Sharmen. “Breaking The Barriers: a Reflection on Suffering in Buddhism and Christianity in the Perspectives of War-Widows in Sri Lanka.” Dissertation, Radboud University, 2017.

_______. “Hope That Confronts Oppression and Suffering: Faith and War-Affected Women in Sri Lanka.” In Faith in the Face of Militarization: Indigenous, Feminist, and Interreligious Voices, edited by Jude Lal Fernando. Pickwick, 2021..

Radicati, Alessandra. “The Unstable Coastline: Navigating Dispossession and Belonging in Colombo.” PhD diss., London School of Economics, 2020.

Ranawana, Anupama. “The Veddah and the Loss of the ‘Kelle-Pojje’: Sri Lanka at 75.” Sri Lanka at 75 (blog), December 18, 2023. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2023/12/18/the-veddah-and-the-loss-of-the-kelle-pojje-sri-lanka-at-75/.

Ranawana, Anupama M. “Rage against the Port City: Southern Theologies Mobilising for Climate Justice.” Politics 43, no. 2 (May 2023): 236–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957221124889.

Ravinthiran, Vidyan, Seni Seneviratne, and Shash Trevett, eds. Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala and English Poetry from Sri Lanka and Its Diasporas. Bloodaxe Books, 2023.

Revi, Vintha. “Colombo Port City Project: Controversial since Its Inception.” Observer Research Foundation, December 28, 2021. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/colombo-port-city-project/.

Saverimuttu, Tharman, Nadarajah Sriskandarajah, and V. I. S Jayapalan. “Ecological Consequences of the War in the Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka.” In Proceedings of International Conference on Tamil Nationhood & Search for Peace in Sri Lanka. 1999.

Sayadaw, Mahasi,.The Great Discourse on the Wheel of Dhamma (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). Buddhasāsana Nuggaha Organization, 2000.

Somasundaram, Daya. “Collective Trauma in Northern Sri Lanka: A Qualitative Psychosocial-Ecological Study.” International Journal of Mental Health Systems 1, no. 1 (2007): 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-1-5.

Spencer, Jonathan, ed. Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict. Routledge, 1990.

“Sri Lanka: Floods and Landslides - May 2024.” ReliefWeb, May 2024. https://reliefweb.int/disaster/fl-2024-000077-lka.

Sri Lanka, UN-REDD. “Land Tenure Considerations in Sri Lanka’s Proposed National REDD+ Strategy.” 2016.

Subramanian, Samanth. This Divided Island: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2015.

Tooze, Adam. Shutdown: How COVID Shook the World’s Economy. Penguin Economics. Penguin Books, 2023.

Trivedi, Dhananjay. “Philosophical Enquiry of Duhkha (Pain) in Shrimadbhagwat Gita and Yoga-Sutra.” Indian Independent Philosophical Journal 1 (August 2025): 14-26.

UCA News. “Sri Lankan Tribe Spurns Government Sponsorship.” August 12, 2014. https://www.ucanews.com/news/sri-lankan-tribe-spurns-government-sponsorship/71658.

Urban Development Authority, Environmental Management Strategy for Colombo Urban Area. 1994.

Van Dort, Leoma. “Neoliberalism and Social Justice in the City: An Examination of Postwar Urban Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka.” Master's thesis, St. Cloud State University, 2016. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/socresp_etds/7/.

Wickramasinghe, Nira. “Sri Lanka’s Conflict: Culture and Lineages of the Past.” Journal of International Affairs 60, no. 1 (2006): 107–24.