ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the religious interface between Buddhism and Islam in Sri Lanka through a detailed case study of the Galebandara cult in Kurunagala held in common by local Buddhists and Muslims. The notions of religious syncretism and its successor, multi-religion, do not provide a satisfactory explanation of this cult because they fail to recognize that the cult is part of a hierarchical ordering of the Sinhala Buddhist society, the hegemonic character of which is increasingly questioned by ethnic and religious minorities and other marginalized groups. These contestations are simultaneously driven by globalization and modernization processes and religious reform movements stemming from elsewhere in the world. The cult, however, has survived in a hostile environment largely because it serves marginalized sections of society, including minorities and women, particularly in their quest for justice against a background of deterioration of law and order situation, economic liberalization, and denial of justice and fair play to many people irrespective of their ethnoreligious identities. In other words, Galebandara has emerged as a veritable “god of justice” accessible to Buddhists, Muslims, and others in an otherwise unjust social world where market forces, government failures, and Sinhala Buddhist nationalism serve as incessant drivers of social unrest.
