Bhadrajee Hewage
Biographic Data
| ID | 1127598 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bhadrajee Hewage |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bhadrajee |
| FAMILY NAME | Hewage |
| SIGNATURE | HEWAGE B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 5 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 5 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Gandhi’s Buddhism: Assimilation, theologisation, and politicisation by a ‘modern Buddha’
This article examines Mahatma Gandhi’s lifelong engagement with Buddhism as a process of assimilation, theologisation, and politicisation that recast the Buddha from a historical teacher of renunciation into a modern moral archetype. Drawing on Gandhi’s extensive corpus of writings and speeches, it shows how Buddhist concepts were reinterpreted within a theistic, sanātana Hindu moral framework to serve his ethical and political aims. Gandhi’s Bud…
The Making and Unmaking of a Sri Lankan Buddha
This article reconstructs a largely forgotten episode in the history of Buddhist studies: the period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when the Buddha was widely considered to have been Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) in origin. Contrary to modern scholarly consensus situating the Buddha firmly in northern India, early European encounters with Buddhism unfolded amid profound uncertainty regarding its geographical and historical origins…
From inclination to immersion: Reconstructing B.R. Ambedkar’s Long Road to Buddhism
This article argues that B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism was not a sudden rupture at Nagpur in 1956 but the culmination of a five-decade process shaped by intellectual inquiry, social crisis, and political responsibility. Drawing on Ambedkar’s writings, speeches, and recollections and existing scholarship on his religious conversion, the article reconstructs a chronological arc beginning with his first encounter with the Guatama Buddha Car…
The Caste Negotiations of Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) in Colonial Ceylon
Analyses involving Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) and his relationship to caste— rare enough as they are—often mirror conversations on the position of caste in Sri Lanka more generally. Despite the presence of caste and its previous significance in the island’s history, these discussions hold that caste no longer maintains a critical social purpose. Dharmapala’s formulation of Buddhism as an ethnocentric and hegemonic ideology that concealed ra…
Venerating Bodh Gaya: The Return of the Ceylonese to Buddhism's Holiest Site
In 1891, the Ceylonese Anagarika Dharmapala made his first pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, the supposed site where Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, in northern India. Following his visit, Dharmapala established the Maha Bodhi Society and himself became a household name in subcontinental Buddhist circles, especially for his campaigns to reclaim Buddhist ownership over the Bodh Gaya site. While Bodh Gaya currently remains a popular pilgrimage locatio…
No prominent works on this page.
The Caste Negotiations of Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) in Colonial Ceylon
Analyses involving Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) and his relationship to caste— rare enough as they are—often mirror conversations on the position of caste in Sri Lanka more generally. Despite the presence of caste and its previous significance in the island’s history, these discussions hold that caste no longer maintains a critical social purpose. Dharmapala’s formulation of Buddhism as an ethnocentric and hegemonic ideology that concealed ra…
Venerating Bodh Gaya: The Return of the Ceylonese to Buddhism's Holiest Site
In 1891, the Ceylonese Anagarika Dharmapala made his first pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, the supposed site where Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, in northern India. Following his visit, Dharmapala established the Maha Bodhi Society and himself became a household name in subcontinental Buddhist circles, especially for his campaigns to reclaim Buddhist ownership over the Bodh Gaya site. While Bodh Gaya currently remains a popular pilgrimage locatio…
Gandhi’s Buddhism: Assimilation, theologisation, and politicisation by a ‘modern Buddha’
This article examines Mahatma Gandhi’s lifelong engagement with Buddhism as a process of assimilation, theologisation, and politicisation that recast the Buddha from a historical teacher of renunciation into a modern moral archetype. Drawing on Gandhi’s extensive corpus of writings and speeches, it shows how Buddhist concepts were reinterpreted within a theistic, sanātana Hindu moral framework to serve his ethical and political aims. Gandhi’s Bud…
The Making and Unmaking of a Sri Lankan Buddha
This article reconstructs a largely forgotten episode in the history of Buddhist studies: the period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when the Buddha was widely considered to have been Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) in origin. Contrary to modern scholarly consensus situating the Buddha firmly in northern India, early European encounters with Buddhism unfolded amid profound uncertainty regarding its geographical and historical origins…
From inclination to immersion: Reconstructing B.R. Ambedkar’s Long Road to Buddhism
This article argues that B.R. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism was not a sudden rupture at Nagpur in 1956 but the culmination of a five-decade process shaped by intellectual inquiry, social crisis, and political responsibility. Drawing on Ambedkar’s writings, speeches, and recollections and existing scholarship on his religious conversion, the article reconstructs a chronological arc beginning with his first encounter with the Guatama Buddha Car…
Buddhism (5 works) · Indian and Buddhist Studies (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (3 works) · Colonialism (2 works) · Gautama Buddha (2 works) · Hinduism (2 works) · Indian History and Philosophy (2 works) · Politics (2 works) · Archaeology (1 works) · Art (1 works)