In Sri Lanka, the word ‘civilized’ has different connotations. In fact, this word has been politicized to such an extent that a person who has a dissenting voice is always branded as an ‘uncivilized’ by the State. Such ‘uncivilized’ characters are either annihilated or made to leave the country. This practice itself is self-explanatory of the meaning of the word civilized: “To be in accordance with State ideology.” Therefore, a person’s civilized condition is simply brought down to the level of ‘friend’ and/or ‘enemy’. 

A deep study on history always proves that ‘friend or foe’ concept had been in action in deciding the civility of a nation’s people. A repressive action has always been visible from time immemorial to build a civilized society. Therefore this notion of ‘civilized’ becomes a relative point. 

If one asks this question from a Tamil civilian in Sri Lanka who got caught in the civil war, ‘How civilized are the Sinhala soldiers at the battlefield?’ what would he say? He would definitely come out with incidences of rape, murder, torture, and looting. His answer would show how the Sinhala civilization is thus built. In the same way minorities, marginalized, underprivileged and weak communities will have interpretations as to how their ‘OTHER’ have become civilized or in turn how they have been made to be uncivilized. The history is a process of misappropriation, exploitation and repression. Therefore, the traditional approach to measure the civilized world is now outdated.

The current practice to measure the civilized world is the literacy indicator. The reading and writing aspect does not mean that a cultured community has been developed. A culture becomes more aggressive when its literacy rate grows! It uses literacy as a weapon to look down upon others who do not have opportunities for learning. In Sri Lanka, knowing the English language or fluency in the language makes one put pressure on the other or to trample the other. This capacity of handling English thus becomes a repressive tool. Not only the language, but the person, too, become the oppressor.

The thought that learning English makes a person a cultured or a civilized person becomes a myth. There are hundreds of schools in Sri Lanka that have not received the attention of the authorities and have just been left to be closed down, making those children underprivileged. Then the question arises, why so much attention to the Colombo children, and are they the only civilized ones?  

Hence, diverse structures in the society, education, health, gender, age, colour, race, ethnicity, wealth etc., become tools of repression in an age where much talk is done on making the society ‘civilized.’ Gender issues in Sri Lanka clearly indicate how the males dominate, molest, rape, and murder women and again the question is left: ‘Who is civilized?’

In the circumstances, it is necessary that the discussion be diverted to find out ways and means of humanizing the society to get a bigger picture of the word ‘civilized’. Marx fought to humanize the society through his advocacy on a Proletarian Revolution, which really did not work as up to date, the so-called Socialist regimes exercise repression on those who ‘disagree’ with them. Today, China keeps on passing death sentences in an escalated manner on its own people. Stalin did the same thing. It happens everywhere in the world as one is always behind power. 

It was only Buddha and Jesus who said renounce power hunger as it is a lust that will bring negative consequences. It is they who say to renounce violence against humanity. Love, or Maithree, (compassionate love,) is the only way one could make the society civilized. The first thing is to civilize oneself. Removal of lust and attachment makes man free of all vice. It makes man help each other. The unconditional love that does not demand anything in return is what makes the world civilized. The postmodern age that makes the people follow advertisements, market places, and sex will never be able to create a civilized world. Therefore, civilized would mean the help that one could give to another in enhancing the other’s life and capacities to face the challenges in this mundane world and spiritually grow with the solid truth of love. One could become civilized only through this enlightenment.

Hence, let us call an enlightened one a civilized one.