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# Ranil Credits Britain for Buddhism’s Constitutional Status. History Disagrees.
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/ranil-credits-britain-for-buddhisms-constitutional-status-history-disagrees/
- Published: 2026-10-19T03:34:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T06:12:55.000Z
- Author: Aruliniyan Mahalingam
- Tags: JM Exclusive, October  2026

**By Aruliniyan Mahalingam**

**MIHINTALE, Sri Lanka, Oct. 19 —** Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday that the constitutional provision giving Buddhism the foremost place in Sri Lanka originated in an agreement between British colonial authorities and the chiefs of the Kandyan kingdom, and that Sri Lankans had not created it.

The documentary record supports the first part of that account. The Kandyan Convention of 1815 did commit the British Crown to protect Buddhism. The words now in Article 9 of the Constitution, however, appear in no colonial instrument. They were drafted in 1972 by a Constituent Assembly elected by Sri Lankan voters, which considered a proposal to adopt the convention’s own language and chose different wording.

Mr. Wickremesinghe spoke at the unveiling of a new pinnacle and crest jewel at the Mihindu Maha Seya, the stupa on Mihintale hill associated with Arahant Mahinda, the monk traditionally credited with bringing Buddhism to the island in the third century B.C. Thailand’s deputy prime minister attended, and Mr. Wickremesinghe said the restoration had been made possible by the Thai people.

He said Article 9 reflected a long-standing commitment to protect Buddhism while allowing other faiths to be practised without discrimination, and cited Queen Elizabeth II’s 1954 visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy.

## **A treaty for the Kandyan provinces**

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f0/aa/f0aaf7b7-6b61-437a-846a-1a80de683912/content/images/2026/10/ranil-credits-britain-for-budd-ef0eef-1-4.jpg)

The opening page, left, and final page of the Kandyan Convention of 1815, signed between British colonial authorities and Kandyan chiefs. The agreement pledged to protect Buddhism and its religious institutions but did not grant it the constitutional status of the “foremost place,” a designation introduced in 1972.

The convention was proclaimed at the palace in Kandy on March 2, 1815, less than two weeks after British forces captured the last Kandyan king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. Governor Robert Brownrigg concluded it with Kandyan chiefs, among them Ehelepola and Molligoda, who had turned against the king. Article 5 reads: “The religion of Boodho, professed by the chiefs and inhabitants of these provinces, is declared inviolable, and its rites, ministers, and places of worship are to be maintained and protected.”

The pledge applied to “these provinces,” the former Kandyan kingdom, and not to the coastal regions Britain had held since 1796\. The article promised protection. It did not rank Buddhism above any other religion.

The commitment eroded within decades. After the rebellion of 1817–1818, a proclamation of Nov. 21, 1818, amended the settlement and promised that Buddhist monks, ceremonies and processions would receive the respect shown to them in former times.

In the 1840s, under pressure from evangelical Christian groups in Britain and Ceylon, the Colonial Office moved to end official ties with Buddhist institutions. In an 1847 despatch, Earl Grey, the colonial secretary, read Article 5 as a guarantee that Buddhists could worship and keep their temple property without molestation, and likened it to the standard wording of wartime surrender terms. By 1853 the colonial government had stopped appointing senior monks and had handed custody of the Tooth Relic to the Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters.

## **The road to “foremost place”**

When Ceylon became independent in 1948, its constitution gave Buddhism no special position. Section 29(2) of the Soulbury Constitution barred Parliament from restricting the free exercise of any religion or conferring on any religious community a privilege denied to others. Lay Buddhist groups, led by the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, argued that it did nothing to repair the damage colonial rule had done to Buddhism.

Those demands reached the Constituent Assembly convened after Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s United Front government won the 1970 election. The draft resolution before the assembly promised Buddhism “its rightful place.” Two leaders of the opposition United National Party, J.R. Jayewardene and Dudley Senanayake, moved an amendment to declare Buddhism “inviolable” and require the state to protect “its rites, Ministers and its places of worship,” wording taken from Article 5 of the Kandyan Convention. The Federal Party proposed a secular state that would protect Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f0/aa/f0aaf7b7-6b61-437a-846a-1a80de683912/content/images/2026/10/ranil-credits-britain-for-budd-ef0eef-2-3.png)

Page 4 of Sri Lanka’s 1972 Constitution, showing Section 6, which gave Buddhism the “foremost place” and required the state to protect and foster it. The provision was adopted by Sri Lanka’s Constituent Assembly, 157 years after the Kandyan Convention of 1815.

The assembly adopted neither amendment. Colvin R. de Silva, the minister of constitutional affairs, and his drafting committee replaced “rightful place” with “foremost place.” Section 6 of the Constitution promulgated on May 22, 1972, stated that the Republic “shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster Buddhism,” while assuring all religions the rights in Section 18(1)(d). De Silva later said he would have preferred a secular constitution, and defended the clause on the ground that it did not make Buddhism the state religion.

The 1978 Constitution, adopted under Jayewardene as president, kept the provision as Article 9 with one change in wording: the state’s duty became to protect and foster “the Buddha Sasana.” Other religions are assured the rights in Article 10, on freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and Article 14(1)(e), on the freedom to manifest religion in worship, observance, practice and teaching.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f0/aa/f0aaf7b7-6b61-437a-846a-1a80de683912/content/images/2026/10/ranil-credits-britain-for-budd-ef0eef-3.png)

Article 9 of Sri Lanka’s 1978 Constitution retained Buddhism’s “foremost place,” first established under the 1972 Constitution, and required the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana while guaranteeing religious freedoms.

## **The 1954 royal visit**

Queen Elizabeth II visited Kandy in April 1954, during her first tour of Ceylon. Contemporary records show that she went to the Temple of the Tooth and watched the Janaraja Perahera, a procession the temple stages at the government’s request on state occasions. She came as Queen of Ceylon, head of state of a country independent since 1948, a century after the colonial government ended its formal role at the temple. Jaffna Monitor found no record that she reaffirmed the Kandyan Convention or gave any formal undertaking during the visit, which took place 18 years before Buddhism received the foremost place.

## **Thailand and Cambodia**

Mr. Wickremesinghe cited Thailand and Cambodia as Theravada countries where Buddhism holds constitutional standing alongside religious freedom. Their arrangements differ from Sri Lanka’s.

Section 7 of Thailand’s 2017 Constitution requires the king to be a Buddhist and an upholder of religions. Section 67 directs the state to support and protect Buddhism and other religions, with added duties to promote Theravada teaching and to prevent the undermining of Buddhism. Thailand has no state religion; its drafters turned down demands for one in 2016.

Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution goes further. Article 43 declares Buddhism the religion of the state, and guarantees freedom of belief so long as it does not affect other beliefs or public order. Sri Lanka has no state religion, but its Constitution ranks Buddhism first among the island’s faiths.

## **A “Theravada economy”**

Mr. Wickremesinghe described Anuradhapura as a sacred centre for the whole Theravada world, comparable to the Vatican for Catholics, Jerusalem for followers of the Abrahamic faiths and Mecca for Muslims. He recalled Sri Lankan monks carrying Theravada teaching to Southeast Asia; the exchange also ran the other way, and in 1753 monks from Ayutthaya restored higher ordination in Kandy, founding the Siam Nikaya.

He renewed his call for a “Theravada economy” that links Buddhist-majority countries through trade and investment, and pointed to the free trade agreement signed in Colombo with Thailand on Feb. 3, 2024, during a visit by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. He first set out the idea as a “Theravada trade economy” in his manifesto for the 2024 presidential election, which he lost.

The convention’s language came closest to entering the Constitution in 1972, through the amendment moved by Jayewardene, Mr. Wickremesinghe’s uncle. The assembly did not adopt it. When Jayewardene introduced a new constitution six years later, he kept the assembly’s phrase and left out the treaty’s word “inviolable.”