Description: The war in Sri Lanka was violent and costly in human and material terms. This was one of the longest wars in modern South Asia. Often referred to as an 'ethnic' conflict between the majority Sinhalas and the minority Tamils, the war had a profound religious dimension. aking the lives of three key Sangha activists as the modern framew
Brief description: 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).