Compiled by Michael Roberts to assist present-day debates on Sinhala -Muslim tensions …with RED identifying contemporary material
Abdul Rahiman, W. M. 1915 Letter from WM Abdul Rahiman to Sir Robert Chalmers [Governor], 1 July 1915, in Colonial Office 54/782.
Ameer Ali, A. C. L. 1981 “The 1915 racial riots in Ceylon (Sri Lanka): a reappraisaof its causes,” South Asia 4: 1-20.
Amunugama, Sarath 1978 “John de Silva and the Sinhala nationalist theatre,” Ceylon Historical Journal 25: 285-304.Amunugama, Sarath 1979 “Ideology and class interest in one of Piyadasa Sirisena’s novels: the new image of the ‘Sinhala Buddhist’ nationalist,” in M. Roberts (ed.), Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 314-36.
Bertram, Anton 1920. Memorandum on certain arrests and searches made during the period of martial law, DNA 65/232.
Blackton, Charles 1970 “The action phase of the 1915 riots,” Journal of Asian Studies 29: 235-54.
Brayne, C. V. 1916 Evidence before the Police Inquiry Commission, pp. 28-32.
Command Paper 8167 1916 Correspondence relating to the disturbances in Ceylon, bound and printed by the Colonial Office, Jan. 1916.
Denham, E. B. 1915, [Memorandum on the 1915 riots], Dept. of National Arhcives, 65/229.
Devane, James 1915 “Report on recent riots in Yatinuwara, Harrispattuwa, Tumpane, and Uda Nuwara,” 15 July 1915, rep. in Eastern 128, pp. 59-61.
Dharmapala, Anagārika 1965 Return to righteousness, ed. by A. Guruge, Colombo: Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs.
De Silva, K. M. 1988 “Political crisis and ethnic conflicts in Sri Lanka: a rejoinder,” Ethnic Studies Report 6: 68-74.
Dowbiggin, Herbert 1915 “The temperance movement and the recent disturbances,” Memorandum in Dept. of National Archives, 65/229, also printed in Eastern 128, pp. 62-65.
Eastern 128 1915 Correspondence printed and bound in Colonial Office as892/10/128.
Fernando, P. T. M. 1969 “The British Raj and the 1915 communal riots in Ceylon,” Modern Ceylon Studies 3: 245-55.
Hellings, R. B. 1915 “Riots in Galle District, June 1915,” rep. in Eastern 128, pp. 68-73.
Izat, N. 1915 “Report on riots in Siyana Korale East, Western Province,” as Special Commissioner, n. d. rep. in Eastern 128, pp. 121-23.
Jayasekera, P. V. J. 1970 Social and political change in Ceylon, 1900-1919, University of London: unpub. Ph.D dissertation in History.
Jayawardena, V. K. 1970 “Economic and political factors in the 1915 riots,” Journal of Asian Studies 39: 223-33.
Kannangara, A. P. “The riots of 1915 in Sri Lanka: a study of the roots of communal violence,” Past & Present No. 102, pp. 130-65.
Macan Markar, M. 1915 Letter from M. Macan Markar to the Principal Assistant to the Colonial Secretary, 19 June 1915, rep. in Command Paper 8167, pp. 8-11.
Nugawela, P. B. 1912a Letter from PB Nugawela (President, District Committee, Buddhist Temporalities, Kandy) to G. A. Kandy, no. 1197/14 of 17 August 1912,in Gampola Perahera Case, vol. II, p. 36.
Nugawela, P. B. 1912b Letter from PB Nugawela (President, District Committee, Buddhist Temporalities, Kandy) to G. A. Kandy, no. 1258/14 of 17 August 1912, in Gampola Perahera Case, vol. II, pp. 36-37. Also in The Sinhalese Memorial 1915 as Appendix II.
Nugawela, P. B. 1912c Letter from PB Nugawela (President, District Committee, Buddhist Temporalities, Kandy) to G. A. Kandy, no. 1455/14 of 10 October 1912, in Gampola Perahera Case, vol. II, pp. 9-10.
Obeyesekere, Gananath 1979 “The vicissitudes of the Sinhala-Buddhist identity through time and change,” in M. Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga, pp. 279-314.
Packeer Ally, A. 1915 Evidence presented by Packeer Ally, Police Sergeant, Gampola, 28 June 1915, in Dept. of National Archives, 65/242.
Police Inquiry Commission 1916 Sessional Paper XVI of 1916, Colombo: Government Printer.
Roberts, Michael 1979c “Stimulants and ingredients in the awakening of latter-day nationalisms,” in M. Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, pp. 214-42.
Roberts, Michael 1981 “Hobgoblins, Low-Country Sinhalese plotters or local elite chauvinists? Directions and patterns in the 1915 communal riots,” Sri Lanka Journal of the Social Sciences 4: 83-126.
Roberts, Michael 1989a “The political antecedents of the revivalist elite within the MEP coalition of 1956,” in C. R. de Silva & Sirima Kiribamune (eds.) K. W. Goonewardena Felicitation Volume, Peradeniya University, pp. 185-220.
Roberts, Michael 1990 “Noise as cultural struggle: tom-tom beating, the British and communal disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s-1930s,” in V. Das (ed.) Mirrors of violence, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 240-85.
Roberts, Michael 1994a “The imperialism of silence under the British Raj: arrestingthe drum,” in M. Roberts, Exploring confrontation. Sri Lanka: politics, culture and history, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 149-182…. This builds on and supersedes the article Noise as Cultural struggle.
Roberts, Michael 1994b “Mentalities: Ideologues Assailants, Historians and the Pogrom against the Moors in 1915,” in in Roberts, Exploring Confrontation. Sri Lanka: Politics, culture and History, Reading, Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 149-82. This essay is reprinted as “Marakkala Kolahālaya” in Roberts, Confrontations in Sri Lanka, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa, 2009, pp. 113-54.
Rogers, John D. 1987 Crime, justice and society in Ceylon, London: Curzon Press.
Rogers, John D. 1989 “Cultural nationalism and social reform: the 1904 temperance movement in Sri Lanka,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 26: 319-41.
Samaraweera, Vijaya 1979 “The Muslim Revivalist Movement, 1880-1915,” in Michael Roberts (ed.), Sri Lanka: Collective Identities Revisited, vol. 1 (Colombo: Marga Institute, 1997), pp. 293-321
Scott, Jnr. George M. 1989 “The economic basis of Sinhalese-Muslim ethno-religious conflicts in twentieth-century Sri Lanka,” Ethnic Studies Report 7: 20-35.
Sendanayake, J. P. 1915 Evidence presented by J. Perera Sendanayake, Police Sergeant at Gampola, 22 June 1915, in Dept. of National Archives, 65/242.
Sinhalese Memorial, The 1915 The humble memorial of the undersigned members of a committee appointed at a public meeting of the Sinhalese, held in Colombo, the 25th of September, 1915, — addressed to the Rt. Hon. Bonar Law, rep. in D. D. Ranasinghe, The lion of Kotte. His life and times, Colombo: MD Gunasena & Co., 1976, pp. 8-22.
Sirisena, Piyadasa 1954 Apata vecca dē, [What has happened to us!] Colombo: MD Gunasena & Co. Originally published in 1909.
Thaine, R. N. 1915a Diary of the Govt. Agent, Sabaragamuwa, Dept. of National Archives, 18/46.
Thaine, R. N. 1915b “Report on the riots in the Ratnapura District” by the G. A., Sabaragamuwa, 8 Sept. 1915 in Eastern 128, pp. 250-57.
Thalgodapitiya, W. 1963 Studies of some famous cases of Ceylon, Colombo: MDGunasena & Co.
Tranchell, C. L. 1916 Evidence presented by Tranchell, Suptd. of Police, Kandy, Police Inquiry Commission, pp. 81-90, 181-86.
Tyrell, F. G. 1967. Memo on “Disturbances at Gampola 27.05.07,” 12 July 1907 in DNA 83/1373.
Wickremeratne, Ananda 1969 “Religion, nationalism and social change in Ceylon, 1865-1885,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, GB & Ireland 56: 123-150.
Woolf, Leonard 1962 Diaries in Ceylon 1908-1911, as Ceylon Historical Journal, Vol. IX, Colombo: Metro Printers.
Thanks. Somebody needs to look at this Muslim/ant-Muslim manifestation on a broad-based historical framework, but without forgetting the existence of `new Muslims’ supported by the Saudis and some more radical forces.
They are not a significant factor in such a historical perspective, but may be a key factor in modern Muslim politics. The inter-Muslim confrontations in Beruwala were related to new Mosques by new, more fundamentalist Muslim groups.
This is a useful list. One might add Vijaya Samaraweera, “The Muslim Revivalist Movement, 1880-1915,” in Michael Roberts (ed.), Sri Lanka: Collective Identities Revisited, vol. 1 (Colombo: Marga Institute, 1997), pp. 293-321. This article, like some of the other readings above, shows how Islam in Sri Lanka has always been influenced and sometimes reshaped by interaction with peoples and ideas outside the island. Thus recent changes in Islam, prompted by Saudi/Gulf money and the return of workers from the Middle East, have historical analogies. Of course, the same processes can be seen in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity — the Sri Lankan manifestations of these religious traditions have also always been shaped by interaction with wider regional/global networks.
Pingback: Marakkala Kolahālaya: Mentalities Directing the Pogrom of 1915 | Thuppahi's Blog
Pingback: Virulent Shameless People! Cry OUR Beloved Country! | Thuppahi's Blog
Pingback: Sinhala-Muslim Violence in Lanka: An Appeal and Allegations from a Muslim Proffessional | Thuppahi's Blog