SSC: The Studies in Society & Culture Project, 1992 et seq

SSC PAMPHLET PROJECT

Some of you may remember this project in Sri Lanka in the 1990s directed towards making selected academic articles on the history & politics of Sri Lanka available to the English-reading public at affordable rates. My unreliable memory indicates that the personnel behind this enterprise were myself, Ananda Chittampalam, Willa Wickramasinghe and our engine, so to speak, was the press operated by Haris Hulugalla.

My frequent visits to Colombo in the early 1990s rendered the idea into a workable enterprise. As far as I can work out, only twenty-one of the projected 24 SSC Pamphlets were produced (but I do not have copies of all). Note the list that is referred to at the end of the last few pamphlets.

My camera-copies of the relevant information on the pmaphlets have been magically conerted nto Word File format by my Aloyisan mate John De Silva in Melbourne.

STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND CULTURE: SRI LANKA PAST AND PRESENT

General Editor: Michael Roberts

SSC seeks to promote the diffusion of knowledge through essays pertaining to the socio-political world and culture of Sri Lanka, both past and present. Towards this end it will publish pamphlets and make these pamphlets available at prices that can be afforded by the generality of the population with literate interests. These pamphlets will be selected for their analytical and/or descriptive value as well as the marketability of their subject matter. For the most part they will be reprints of articles published in reputable journals, thereby ensuring that they have been vetted and received the approval of academic referees.

In pursuing this aim SSC proposes to expand its reach by arranging for the translation of some of these pamphlets into the vernaculars. The pamphlets in Sinhala and Tamil will also be marketed at reasonable prices.

This aspect of its programme will necessarily take time to gather pace. The initial objective is to produce 12 English pamphlets Annually usually in groups of 3 or 4. We trust that the world-at-large will encourage us in this endeavour.

The first three pamphlets are reprints of articles published by Michael Roberts, E Valentine Daniel and Vijaya Samaraweera. Subsequent pamphlets will include articles by James Brow, Bruce Kapferer, Steven Kemper, Donald L Horowitz, Mick Moore, Kitsiri Malalgoda, Elizabeth Nissan, Gananath Obeyesekere, Gerald Peiris, John D Rogers, HL Seneviratne, Jonathan Spencer, Ananda Wickremeratne and Deborah Winslow.

1. Michael Roberts: Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and Sinhalese perspectives: barriers to accommodation
2. Valentine Daniel: Three dispositions towards the past: two Tamil, one Sinhala
3. Vijaya Samaraweera: Land, labor, capital and sectional interests in the national politics of Sri Lanka
4. Michael Roberts: Tambiah or de Silva? Apocalypse or accommodation? Two contrasting views of Sinhala-Tamil relations in Sri Lanka
5. Bruce Kapferer: Nationalist ideology and a comparative ideology
6. Jonathan Spencer: Collective violence and everyday practice in Sri Lanka
7. Michael Roberts: Noise as cultural struggle: tom-tom beating, the British and communal disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s-1930s
8. LA Wickremeratne: Religion, nationalism and social change in Ceylon, 1865-1885
9. Kitsiri Malalgoda: Millennialism in Relation to Buddhism
10. Elizabeth Nissan: The work of anthropologists from Sri Lanka – a review in 1987
11. Gananath Obeyesekere: Sorcery, premeditated murder and the canalization of aggression in Sri Lanka
12. Donald L Horowitz:Incentives and behaviour in the ethnic politics of Sri Lanka and Malaysia
13. John D. Rogers: Cultural Nationalism and Social Reform. The 1904 Temperance Movement in Sri Lanka
14. Kitsiri Malalgoda:The Buddhist-Christian Confrontation in Sri Lanka, 1800-1880
15. Gananath Obeyesekere: Science, Experimentation and Clinical Practice In Ayurveda
16. Mick Moore: Economic Liberalisation, Growth and Poverty in Sri Lanka in’ Long Run Perspective
17. Paul Alexander Mãlu Mudalãli: Monopsonies in Southern Sri Lanka Fish Trading
18. Ranjini Obeyesekere: Violence, Censorship and the Sinhala Theatre during the Eighties
19. Deborah Winslow: A Political Geography of Sacred Deities: Space and the Pantheon in Sinhalese Buddhism
20. H. L. Seneviratne: The Asala Perahära in Kandy
21. Steven Kemper: J. R. Jayewardene, Righteousness and Realpolitik
22. Michael Roberts: “Our Duty to Act”: Brown Sahibs in Universal Suits. The Story of the Abortive Coup d’etat in 1962
23. Gananath Obeyesekere: The Social Background of the April 1971 Insurgency in Sri Lanka: A Comment
24. James Jupp: The Revolutionary Challenge of the JVP in 1971

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Sample: SSC No 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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SOME PERTINENT REFERENCES

https://thuppahis.com/2013/07/09/9788/

https://groundviews.org/2014/05/04/the-lover-of-books-and-ecumenical-sri-lankan-patriot-ananda-chittambalam/

The book man and quintessential civil society man: Ananda Chittambalam