Tools of liberation: Anagarika Dharmapala’s industrial vision

Of the many figures who shaped modern Sri Lanka, Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) stands apart as a colossus of cultural and religious revival.

- By VINOD MOONESINGHE

He is most famously remembered for his pivotal role as a spiritual reformer and nationalist, in resuscitating Theravada Buddhism and Sinhalese nationalist sentiment. However, his contributions to industrial training and economic upliftment are equally profound, although often overshadowed. Less explored than his revivalism, a profoundly significant dimension of his work lies in his vision for industrial and economic self-sufficiency, which encompassed the material and vocational empowerment of the people, particularly in response to colonial economic structures that left local communities impoverished and dependent.

“We allow our cow to die”

Dharmapala believed that true independence was impossible without economic independence. His industrial philosophy was born from a stark diagnosis of the condition of his people under British rule. He observed a native population that had been systematically stripped of its confidence, skills, and economic agency. The colonial economy was designed to keep Ceylon as a supplier of raw materials (tea, rubber, and coconut) and a consumer of manufactured goods imported from Britain and food from elsewhere. “We allow our cow to die of starvation in our own field,” he said, “while we feed the cow in distant Switzerland or Denmark.”

This system, Dharmapala argued, created a state of parasitic dependency, enfeebling the people and eroding their traditional crafts and self-reliance. His famous exhortations were aimed at this psychological and economic malaise: "We are a lazy people; we are an ignorant people; we are a superstitious people." This was not an insult but a call to awaken from this induced stupor and reclaim their inherent potential.