Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka's Civil War ─ Ethnoreligious Nationalism of the Sinhala Sangha and Peacemaking in Sri Lanka, 1995-2010

Suren Raghavan is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Buddhist Studies - Wolfson College University of Oxford. He turned into academic research after extensive fieldwork in peacebuilding in Sri Lanka during its 30 years of civil war. His multilingual expertise, bi-ethnic background and lifelong studies of Sinhala Buddhist society have provided a rare position for an in-depth and unique analysis of the Sinhalas, the war and especially the historical role of the Maha Sangha - Buddhist Monks. In 2006 Raghavan won the first Asian award for Federal Studies from James Madison Trust the Overseas Research Scholars Award of the British Government in 2008 and the Swiss Federal Government Scholarship for Minority Studies in 2011. His publications includes Politics of Venerable Walpola Rahula (JOCBS 2011 Volume 3) and 'Ethnoreligious Nationalism of Sinhala Sa?gha and the Federalism Project' in Religious Pluralism and Political Accommodation (Routledge 2014).