Nick van der Hoeven
I wanted to write about a very complex man, one of my grandfathers …. George Frederick van der Hoeven. The main reason for doing so is because history has not been kind to him, especially the unwritten verbal history within our family. Born in 1901 in Colombo Ceylon — then under British rule — Grandpa (as we called him) died here in Melbourne in 1978. I was 6 years old.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, Australian culture, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Cherylann Mollan, presenting an article entitled “India’s pioneering female anthropologist who challenged Nazi race theories” ….. BBC News Mumbai 19 January 2025
Irawati Karve’s writings about Indian culture and civilisation are ground-breaking. 
Irawati Karve led a life that stood apart from those around her. Born in British-ruled India, and at a time when women didn’t have many rights or freedoms, Karve did the unthinkable: she pursued higher studies in a foreign country, became a college professor and India’s first female anthropologist.
She also married a man of her choosing, swam in a bathing suit, drove a scooter and even dared to defy a racist hypothesis of her doctorate supervisor – a famous German anthropologist named Eugen Fischer.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, gender norms, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian traditions, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, social justice, travelogue, unusual people
Mario Arulthas, in Al-Jazeera, 9 January 2025 …. with highlightinging emphasia imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The Maaveerar Dead as A Perpetual Inspiration For Eelam
The nationwide electoral success of the anti-establishment NPP does not mean Tamil nationalism is on the decline.
An election official holding a ballot box gets off the bus outside a vote counting centre after the voting ended for the parliamentary election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 14, 2024 [Thilina Kaluthotage/Reuters]
“They’re trampling on our graves with their boots,” said Kavitha, a Tamil woman, as the torrential rain lashing our faces washed away her tears. Standing barefoot and ankle-deep in mud at the site of a former cemetery in Visuvamadu, Sri Lanka, she was lamenting the adjacent military base built on the graves of fallen Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters, including that of her brother.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, education, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, parliamentary elections, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, propaganda, racist thinking, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
Dr Muralidaran Ramesh Somasunderam, whose chosen title is “The Liberation Ttigers of Tamil Elam.”
The LTTE was the worst thing that destroyed Sri Lanka and its people for nearly forty years.
The LTTE killed many high caste Tamils, including Sinhalese and Muslims. They believed in children and women soldiers and suicide killing.
In fact, the 1983 ethnic riots were blamed rightly or wrongly because the LTTE killed about twelve to thirteen army soldiers in the North of Sri Lanka. Anyway, when innocent Tamils like me faced the brunt in Colombo in July 1983 the LTTE never came to our rescue. Many thousands of innocent Tamils were killed and their properties destroyed totally. In fact, my father Mr Rama Krishna Somasunderam was Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Mahaweli, but our family home located at no 16 Elvin Place, Nugegoda was totally burnt, including a magnificent private library of ancient books and teak furniture was totally destroyed or looted all together.
Michael Roberts
Just today I came across an old political essay of mine, one entitled “Prejudice and Hate in Pluralist Settings: The Kingdom of Kandy.” While the essay is of continued relevance today for Sri Lankan as well as world politics, let me bring readers face-to-face with several insights reposing within two of the COMMENTS which the article attracted, one from Dr Jane Russell and the other from Professor Chandre Dharmawardena.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, Eelam, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, language policies, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power sharing, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
Renuka Sadanandan, whose original title runs thus: “Karen Roberts Writing. Her Way of Staying Close” **
Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
It was probably the single most frightening thing that happened to her. Having to walk alone from the advertising agency in Kollupitiya where she worked part-time to her home in Dehiwela, through the streets aflame. Those terrible scenes stayed imprinted in her mind though it was many years before she would think of putting them down.
“On twenty-third of July 1983, the day the world went mad, was how Karen Roberts would later write about the ethnic violence in her book ‘July’. Her world changed that day, she says sombrely. “Until then my life was great…..my only concern was what to wear on Saturday night!” Her father was abroad, her mother had to fetch her younger sister home from school and her brother was stuck somewhere and the 17-year-old Karen had to fend for herself amidst the mayhem and madness that saw the familiar Colombo landscape turn into killing streets.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Dr. Remy Perumal in Sunday Times 22 December 2024 …. with this title “Dreaming of a joyous Colombo Chetty Christmas of yesteryear ” ………… The writer is a retired Consultant Physician living in the UK
In the early and mid-1950s, Sri Lanka was a united, harmonious nation. They were Christmases before politicians inflamed nationalist fervour, for political gain and drove a wedge between communities. With Christmas this year coming at a time of political change, we hope it will be a turning point fostering a new era of unity.
Ours was an average Colombo Chetty family of five. We lived within walking distance of St. Lucia’s Cathedral and St. Benedict’s College. Family traditions and religious convictions moulded our views and our approach to the celebrations. Our Christmases were celebrated within our means.
Mater Dolorosa Church: Where Colombo Chetties congregated for Christmas
Filed under anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, charitable outreach, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, world events & processes
Introduction by Mithran Tiruchelvam …. a son of Neelan Tiruchelvam of the ICES [who was tragically assassinated by the LTTE in front of the ICES offices one year later]
The present collection of essays arose out of a symposium held at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), Colombo from 13-15 March 1997, where researchers and scholars presented some of their recent research interests. This volume seeks to gather the threads of a hybrid collection of essays and weave them together in their shared historical moment. An anthology of this nature seeks organizational cohesion based on the papers’ common origins at the symposium, thereby sacrificing some degree of thematic or disciplinary unity. It is intended that such a collection make available to the general reader and to the scholar alike, a sense of the variety of social science pursuits being undertaken in Sri Lanka today. As such its purpose is to flavour as much as to nourish the reader’s palate, providing a sampling of the eclectic diversity of topics, methodologies and critical perspectives. engaging the social scientist today.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, commoditification, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
Bishop Chickera in Groundviews, 23 November 2024, where the title reads “Arugam Bay: Hidden Currents” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
There has been growing public concern over the recent weeks about happenings in Arugam Bay. This analysis adds to the discourse. Democratic states are obliged to protect all people within its borders whether citizens or non-citizens. Non-citizens include tourists on short stays subject to the law of the land they visit.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, democratic measures, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tourism, travelogue, world events & processes
thuppahi
