Sri Lanka faces a deep moral collapse as political decay, corruption, and empty ritualism replace the ethical foundation of Buddhism, leaving the nation leaderless, rudderless, and spiritually adrift.
Sri Lanka stands at a perilous crossroads. What was once a land envisioned as the guardian of Theravāda civilisation now grapples with a profound spiritual crisis. The island is mired in corruption, hypocrisy, and political expediency. The Buddha’s vision of ethical governance and compassionate leadership has been cast aside in favor of ceremonial displays and hollow ritualism. The Betrayal of Buddhism: Report of the Buddhist Committee of Inquiry, written in 1956, foresaw much of this moral collapse, warning that a society detached from its conscience would inevitably decay. Nearly seventy years later, its words resonate with painful clarity as the country faces the consequences of ignoring its moral compass.
The report was more than a religious assessment. It was a mirror held to a nation that had already begun to lose its ethical grounding after colonial subjugation. It highlighted the corrosion of the Buddhist moral foundation, the manipulation of faith by political and foreign powers, and the absence of an ethical vision in governance. Today, Sri Lanka is once again leaderless, rudderless, and spiritually hollow. Temples may still draw crowds, sermons may echo loudly, and festivals may appear lavish, but the essence of the Dhamma, the discipline of truth, compassion, and moral responsibility, has evaporated from public life.
The authors of the report warned that democracy in Ceylon faced its greatest danger not from foreign influences alone but from religious institutions corrupted by wealth and power. This was not an attack on Christianity or Western values but a rebuke of a Buddhist society that surrendered its conscience to convenience, ambition, and political compromise. What we are witnessing today is the full flowering of that betrayal. Opportunists, political, religious, and economic, have taken the stage cloaking self-interest with the language of patriotism and piety.
Absolute power, the report cautioned, inevitably breeds absolute corruption. This insight, prophetic in its reach, has become a grim reality in post-independence Sri Lanka. The country has not only experienced the arrogance of power but also the collapse of ethical governance. Today’s crisis is not simply political or economic; it is existential. A nation of managers without monks, economists without ethics, and politicians without integrity has emerged. The Buddha’s vision of the righteous ruler, the Dhammiko Dandadharo Raja, one who governs through justice, has been replaced by leaders who thrive on deceit, spectacle, and repression. The decay is not new, but its consequences have grown unbearable.
What has disappeared from Sri Lankan Buddhism is not ritual or recognition but relevance. The Betrayal of Buddhism stressed that the religion must strive to improve the moral quality of its citizens to the maximum extent possible. Yet Buddhism in Sri Lanka has largely been reduced to ritualism, identity, and ceremonial display rather than moral insight. Temples that were once sanctuaries of learning and conscience have grown silent in the face of injustice, corruption, and violence. Monks, instead of being reformers and moral guides, often enter politics as partisan actors, and the saffron robes have become instruments of ambition rather than symbols of detachment. This erosion is not only institutional but intellectual. Modern Sri Lankan Buddhism has failed to provide a meaningful articulation of the Dhamma that addresses the struggles of the poor, the despair of the displaced, or the alienation of the youth.
The report called for a Buddha Sasana Act to vest the moral authority of the Sasana in a national body insulated from political manipulation. Yet this proposal remains one of the most neglected in the island’s modern history. Instead of uniting the Sangha, successive governments have exploited divisions based on language, lineage, and ideology. Monks themselves, caught in internal rivalries, have often become pawns in a larger game of political patronage. The tragic irony is that the very institution meant to serve as the conscience of the nation has been complicit in its moral collapse.
The misuse of religion for political ends was another danger foreseen by the report. It noted that public opinion might temporarily prevent religious groups from launching overtly sectarian political parties but questioned how long such restraint could last. That concern has been validated. Politicians now exploit Buddhism routinely, wrapping themselves in saffron when it suits their agenda and discarding it when it does not. Buddha statues, once sacred symbols, now stand in roundabouts and government buildings as hollow ornaments of state hypocrisy. Buddhism has been nationalised, not internalised. It has become an aesthetic rather than an ethic.
The insight of the Betrayal of Buddhism into the dangerous fusion of religion and state power remains chillingly relevant. It declared it anomalous for a secular state to wield the authority of a Buddhist monarch, yet Sri Lanka continues to oscillate between the rhetoric of Buddhist nationalism and the stark reality of moral bankruptcy. The state invokes the Buddha’s name to justify repression, ignoring his call for justice. The Sangha, which once preached detachment, now seeks privilege. Ordinary citizens, weary of empty sermons and slogans, drift into cynicism. What remains is not a Buddhist nation but a spiritually colonised one, a society that has traded wisdom for convenience and surrendered conscience for consumerism.
The Betrayal of Buddhism made clear that the issue was not merely about religion but about nation-building. Its authors insisted that governance must aim to improve the moral quality of citizens through the wisdom of all religions. This radical inclusivity offered a blueprint for renewal. Revitalising Buddhism should never be about dominance but about direction, about reclaiming the Buddha’s teachings as a moral foundation for governance, education, and civic life.
Sri Lanka’s paralysis today is a direct outcome of the moral vacuum the report warned against. A government that is meant to be neutral has too often become a tool of corruption, using religion as camouflage for self-interest. Every national crisis, economic stagnation, ethnic tension, environmental degradation, has been deepened by the absence of ethical leadership. The Buddha’s principle of appamāda, or heedfulness, has been replaced by indulgence, impunity, and corruption.
To revitalise Buddhism is not to romanticise the past but to restore its moral essence. It means stripping away political ornamentation and recovering ethical substance. The Sangha must reclaim its original role as teacher, critic, and moral guide rather than functionary or beneficiary of power. The state must cease treating Buddhism as a political asset and begin treating it as a spiritual responsibility. The public, too, must rediscover the courage to demand genuine moral leadership instead of settling for theatrical nationalism. Only then can the Dhamma once again unleash its transformative power.
The Betrayal of Buddhism remains one of the most intellectually honest and morally courageous documents in Sri Lanka’s history. Its authors were not chauvinists but patriots who recognised that a nation’s strength lies not in political dominance but in moral integrity. Their lament that Ceylon had been delivered “hand and foot to the foot of the Cross” was not born of hatred but of despair. They mourned the spiritual subjugation that replaced one colonialism with another. Today, that subjugation has taken new forms, consumerism, cynicism, and a permanent culture of betrayal.
The lesson is clear: no nation can rebuild itself on a foundation of hypocrisy. Sri Lanka’s crisis is not intellectual failure but a failure of conscience. The Dhamma, once a living philosophy, has been reduced to decoration. The Sangha, once a moral compass, has grown silent in the face of injustice. The state, once envisioned as a guardian of the people, has become a playground for opportunists. Revitalising Buddhism means reversing this decay, reawakening a sense of responsibility that transcends political expediency and restores humanity.
We are urged to see ourselves as Sri Lankans first and Buddhists afterwards. Yet to be truly Sri Lankan, one must first be truly human, anchored in truth, compassion, and discipline. The Buddha did not create a religion of empty ritual but a culture of awakening. That culture must be restored if the nation is to find its moral direction.
Sri Lanka does not need another saviour or strongman. It needs a moral awakening. It needs leaders who treat the Dhamma not as a slogan but as a standard. It needs citizens who understand that nation-building does not begin with constitutions but with conscience. The Betrayal of Buddhism is not merely a relic of the past; it is a warning for the present and a call to action for the future. Its voice still speaks clearly: a nation without virtue will perish, and the greatest betrayal of Buddhism is not by outsiders but by ourselves.
Sri Lanka’s destiny will not be determined by politicians draped in saffron or by ceremonies in crowded temples but by whether the people reclaim the Dhamma as a living ethic. Only by returning to truth, compassion, and discipline can the island overcome its moral collapse and find renewal.
