Category Archives: chauvinism

“Colonization and Ethnic Conflict in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka” – Article in 1990

Patrick Peebles in a refereed article in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Feb., 1990), pp. 30-55 …. which John De Silva in Melbourne, my Aloysian sporting mate, has worked on to make it feasible for me to present it in the Thuppahi format-style. The supporting Maps & Diagrams are presented via web-references, while the web-reference to the article as a whole is placed herein in pdf format.

Sri LANKA’S INABILITY to contain ethnic violence as it escalated from sporadic terrorism to mob violence to civil war in recent years has disheartened observers who had looked to the nation as a success story of social and political development. In retrospect, Sri Lanka lacked effective local institutions to integrate the society, and the Sinhalese elite relied on welfare and preferential policies for the Sinhalese majority to maintain power. These alienated the minorities and resulted in Tamil demands for a separate state. 1

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, colonisation schemes, cultural transmission, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, transport and communications, working class conditions, world events & processes

Black Friday in Colombo: 29 July 1983

Sugath Kulatunga, …. original submission with highlighting added by the Editor, Thuppahi

That** was the story of Monday.  The Friday that followed was a stark tragedy and a national calamity which has left its bloody stain in the records of our recent history. This was my harrowing experience of Friday 29 July 1983.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, conspiracies, disparagement, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry

THAT Monday 25th July 1983 in Colombo: Organized Violence within the Pogrom

Sugath Kulatunga .…. in item entitled “Black July Monday 25th” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

In my last post on the 4th of March, I mentioned that the time I served under Lalith [Athulathmudali] was the golden era of my public service. But it did not occur to me that I had deliberately suppressed in my mind the ugliest and nastiest week in my life as well as of the nation. That was the week of Black July of the ghastliest communal riots. Let me recall my experience of that week.

 

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, conspiracies, ethnicity, historical interpretation, life stories, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, trauma, vengeance, world events & processes

Islamic Hands? Controversy over Moscow Bomb Attack

Michael Roberts

The information and interpretations present in this Thuppahi website by “A Observer in a Black Sea Resort” (see refs at end) have been challenged by several Academic friends of mine located in the West (A and B quoted below within this text).  However, another friend located in USA …. a Sri Lankan as it happens …. has chipped in with a counterpunch (see C below); while another Sri Lankan has also added a note of significance.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, chauvinism, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, heritage, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, jihadists, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, racism, religious nationalism, Russian history, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, Ukraine & Its Ramifications, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, World War II and Ceylon, zealotry

The Roberts Mss at Adelaide University Library

Michael Roberts

Recent Email Exchanges with Jane Russell of UK, who has one foot in England and two feet in island Sri Lanka, and a revived focus on  George E De Silva (1870-1950) reminded me of the George E. Mss Memoirs in typescript which Jane had given me long ago. This led me to a long list which amounts to a treasure trove for those addressing a variety of topics in the history of Sri Lanka. I present the details before. Those wishing to pursue specifics must write to the Head of the Special Collections at the Barr Smith Library Adelaide University, not to me: samantha.farnsworth@adelaide.edu.au

It is my conjecture that the same corpus of material (or parts thereof) will also be part of the Roberts Collection at the National Library Services Board along Torrington Rd (beside the National Archives) in Colombo. They could initially seek specifics from Mr Welimuni Sunil who heads the institution: viz …

Welimuni Sunil … sunilnldsb@gmail.com

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, caste issues, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, colonisation schemes, commoditification, communal relations, counter-insurgency, cultural transmission, demography, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, irrigation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, life stories, literary achievements, LTTE, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, pilgrimages, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, riots and pogroms, Royal College, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil migration, terrorism, transport and communications, unusual people, war reportage, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes, World War II and Ceylon

Tamil Women at War as ‘Birds of Freedom’ in the LTTE Cause

Vindhya Buthpitiya: “How to Capture Birds of Freedom: Picturing Tamil Women at War,” Trans Asia Photography (2023) 13 (1)  … derived from ………………………………………… https://doi.org/10.1215/21582025-10365016 … with the aid of my Aloysian mate KK De Silva; whilr the highlighting is my imposition.

 Abstract: This article examines the uses of images of women fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during and after the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) to explore the contrasting mobilizations of visual representations of Tamil women cadres, focusing on the cultivation and framing of contradictory nationalist imaginaries by competing ethnic and state actors. In northern Sri Lanka, portraits of gun-bearing women fighters were wielded to signal revolutionary possibilities for the future of the Tamil nation-state as well as to inform the political socialization of its hopeful citizens. Meanwhile, images of Tamil women cadres were cast as gendered and ethnicized threats by the Sri Lankan state in what constituted a calculated form of visual ethno-political othering and weaponization. This article reflects on the ways in which such appropriations exacerbated the political precarity of and the denial of victimhood to Tamil women.

Malathy was the First Tamil Tigress to face death for the Tamiil for the Tamil Cause

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, asylum-seekers, authoritarian regimes, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, doctoring evidence, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, language policies, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, news fabrication, NGOs, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, refugees, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

Reviewing Chatterjee’s Book on Anti-Muslim Riots in Gujarat in 2002

Nishkula Suntharalingam, presenting a book review in Asian Affairs 2023  …..  https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/raaf20 …. of the book by Moyukh Chatterjee. Composing Violence: The Limits of Exposure and the Making of Minorities. Duke University Press, Durham, 2023. pp. 166. Notes. Bibliog. Index. Ackmts. Hb. $94.95. ISBN 9781478017028. Sb. ………….$24.95. ISBN 9781478019664

Moyukh Chatterjee was an eyewitness to the aftermath of the 2002 riots in the west Indian state of Gujarat; three days of communal violence during which Hindu mobs attacked Muslims, their businesses and homes, leaving over a thousand people dead. This book focuses on how and why, in multi-ethnic, democratic states like India, targeted violence and anti-minority politics persist. In doing so, the author suggests an alternate approach to understanding violence against minorities while raising disquieting questions about the formation of modern states and the ways that ideas of “minorities” and “majorities” are produced and reproduced.

401733 08: Indian state police patrol the streets of Ahmadabad, India after rioting between Muslims and Hindus March 1, 2002 in Ahmadabad, India, two days after a Muslim mob attacked a train, killing 58 people in the Indian state of Gujarat. Indian troops arrived in the riot-torn western state of Gujarat but were unable to quell the Hindu-Muslim violence that has claimed the lives of 251 people. (Photo by Ami Vitale/Getty Images)

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, demography, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, historical interpretation, Indian religions, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, religious nationalism, riots and pogroms, self-reflexivity, trauma, vengeance, violence of language, zealotry

Debating the Value of Tangential Historical Forays

Michael Roberts

 A FEW DAYS BACK, on 28th November 2023, I circulated this item among Lankan aficianado…. [ Let me add, here, that I was prompted to do this by the burgeoning world debate on the Palestinian-Israeli War that has been raging since August]. ………………………………………………………………….. https://thuppahis.com/2014/11/18/cartographic-photographic and -illustrations-in-support-of-the-memorandum-analysing-the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda

ROHANTHA GUNARATNA in Canada responded in critical fashion. …. So I circulated his Memo to some personnel  with this NOTE: “I encourage responses [to his Memo] from interested personnel – here, quite deliberately, reaching out beyond Lankans to Indians and Brits familiar with the Lankan scene in that period past.”

 

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under american imperialism, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, refugees, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

Articles on the Easter Sunday Attacks in 2019 presented within TPS in May 2019

Michael Roberts

I have recently presented the list of items placed in this site during April 2019 immediately after the shocking events and now commence  to  present the itmes that appeared in May 2019. I can hardly claim to have provided a comprehensive coverage, but readers will find a wide variety of  personnel from different ethnic groups within this list.  That it should evoke such wide interest is not surprising: it was a kind of 9/11 in Sri Lankan and Indian Ocean history.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, atrocities, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, martyrdom, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, security, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, violence of language, world events & processes

Sinhalese & Tamils Locked in Prejudice?

Michael Roberts 

An interesting chat with Mark LaBrooy in Melbourne on the phoe today induced me to re-visit my old SIGNATURE PIECE on “The Sinhala Mindset” in my Thuppahi site ….. Some of the commentary is as enlightening today as refreshing. That inserted by Jane Russell on 1 March 2012 and Chandre Dharmawardena’s  response  should continue to stimulate our thinking TODAY.

The problems of YESTERDAY still persist today.

Note that Jane is an Oxford graduate who secured her Ph.D in History at Peradeniya under KM de Silva’s supervision in Peradeniya in the 1970s. She has lived for lengthy spells in Sri Lanka since then because of her deep commitment to individuals and places within the land.

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry