Conclusions [Religion and ideology in Sri Lanka]

Abstract

Let us recall the objective and the methodological approach we adopted in taking up our enquiry. Although the object of our study holds already in itself enough interest to warrant a major effort, the present work has gone beyond it into a theoretical plane, setting itself the task of contributing to a sociological explanation of the relations that hold between the political and the religious field. But this is only one stage in our endeavour. The choice of a South-East Asian social complex ruled out the analysis of the phenomenon within an industrial society, even though the colonial factor brought in the effects of exogenous change that had originated in an industrial society.