Decolonising Buddhist Revival: How India-Mongolia Partnerships Reproduce or Redress Historical Power Imbalances in Global Spiritual Economies
Original framing: “India-Mongolia Buddhist Partnership: A Civilisational Bridge Linking India’s Buddhist Heritage with Mongolia’s Contemporary Revival” — bing news
The headline silences Mongolian Buddhist monks and laypeople who may critique the partnership as a form of cultural appropriation or economic exploitation. For instance, some Mongolian clergy have expressed discomfort with the commercialisation of relics, arguing that it distorts the sacredness of these objects. Marginalised voices would also include women monks in Mongolia, whose roles in spiritual leadership are often overlooked in favour of male-dominated narratives of Buddhist revival. The absence of these perspectives reduces the partnership to a top-down exchange between governments and elite religious institutions, ignoring the grassroots dynamics that shape its success or failure.
The India-Mongolia Buddhist partnership is not a harmonious 'civilisational bridge' but a contested terrain where historical power imbalances, economic dependencies, and cultural syncretism intersect.
The headline’s emotional framing obscures how this partnership reproduces colonial patterns of spiritual extraction, where India’s soft-power projection positions itself as the custodian of 'authentic' Buddhism while Mongolia’s revival is framed as a passive recipient. Yet, this dynamic is also a site of resistance and creativity: Mongolian Buddhists are actively redefining their tradition through syncretism, economic sovereignty initiatives, and critical dialogue, challenging the notion of Buddhism as a static heritage object. The trickster lens reveals the absurdity of this 'bridge' as a mere veil for power asymmetries, while the future-modelling dimension warns that without structural changes, the partnership risks deepening Mongolia’s dependency rather than fostering true inter-cultural exchange. Solutions lie in decolonising the narrative through co-creation, ensuring economic sovereignty, and centring marginalised voices—transforming the partnership into a model of mutual agency rather than cultural extraction.