Category Archives: communal relations

March 26, 2025 · 1:34 pm

Deeply Lankika: John De Silva

Responding to a Request from An Aloysian Schoolmate and Friend named Roberts, John de Silva, aka “Johnny,” provided these fascinating genealogical details…… Michael Roberts

 UNIQUE FAMILY CONNECTIONS

I am not too sure if I had sent you details of where I came from! In other words, who were my parents and who were their parents. This is often a mundane Family Tree exercise and bears not much significance in the scheme of things. However, I feel that my family connections are unique when it comes to the Island of Sri Lanka.

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March 23, 2025 · 4:14 pm

Revisiting ‘Noble Death’ via the Tamil Tigers

Michael Roberts 

An ‘outfit’ named ACADEMIA.COM has sent me digital links to old articles from my ‘pen’ on web that have attracted HITS. This is a flattering nudge to my weakening memory bank. As new generations of ‘students’ of the Sri Lankan scene may be interested in these old engagements, I place the A1 generated summaries here.

ONE …. “Empowering the Body and Noble Death,” By Michael W Roberts  in Social Analysis, 2006

AI-generated Abstract: The paper “Empowering the Body and ‘Noble Death'” explores how specific cultural practices in Asia, particularly those associated with martial arts, facilitate a sense of empowerment in the face of death. It discusses the interplay of mind and body in rituals and practices that foster a unity with cosmic forces, enabling practitioners to confront death fearlessly. Through a comparative analysis of various contributions in this domain, the authors reflect on the complexity of participant observation in ethnographic studies and the challenges faced by researchers in fully engaging with the cultural contexts they study.

TPS Pictorial — Thuppahi

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March 20, 2025 · 6:17 pm

Lesser Known ‘Armwrestles’: The Baluchistan Liberation Army Within Pakistan

An Item in FRONTLINE …. Produced in India & One of the World’s Leading Journals

In yet another blow to Pakistan’s internal security, militants seized control of a train in the Bolan area of Balochistan on March 11. The Jaffar Express, with around 500 passengers in nine coaches, was travelling from Quetta to Peshawar. An army spokesperson said that the attack was quelled the next day after all 33 militants were killed. He added that 21 passengers and four soldiers were slain by the militants. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) later claimed responsibility for the attack.

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March 13, 2025 · 4:58 pm

Jaffna Women: Their Hidden Powers

Kenneth David ** whose article in  a book edited by Susan Wadley in  1980 (see end)  is entitled “Hidden Powers: Cultural and Socio-economic Accounts of Jaffna Women”

The general concern of this volume is the social position of Tamil women and cultural representations about them. This paper deals with both of these issues. The first part is a symbolic account of the life stages and associated ceremonies of Tamil women from the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka. In the course of showing the varying degrees of subordination or of influence that women have during their lives, I focus on two spe­cific strands of symbolism in these life cycle rites: binding and shaving. These are interpreted as a dual­ image of the woman as slave and renouncer, bound on the exterior but internally powerful. The second part is a socio-materialistic account. It contrasts the public images of female subordination with the practical reality in which women control property and covertly effect pro­ductive and other crucial decisions. The third part situates the first two in the context of a general theo­retical question. What are the pitfalls in studying a disadvantaged sector of society? My critique is di­rected towards the theoretical practice of linking pairs of descriptive terms and asserting that such linkage constitutes explanation. This practice is especially problematic when one is trying to understand a disadvantaged sector. Finally, the symbolic account is linked to the socio-materialistic account.

 

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March 12, 2025 · 3:16 pm

John D’Oyly’s Manifold Skills and the British Conquest of the Kandyan Kingdom

Rajitha Weerakoon in Daily Mirror, 11 March 2025, with this title “How D’Oyly used espionage to conquer Kandy?”

With the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom, the Kandyan Convention, ceremonially signed on March 10, 1815, completed the annexation of the island to the British Empire. This brought an end to the rule of Lankan Royalty.

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March 10, 2025 · 11:23 pm

Bradman’s Momentous Task in Amparai in 1971: Facing the JVP Insurrection

An Extract from Bradman Weerakoon’s MEMOIRS presented in The Island, 9 March 2025 under this title “The JVP insurrection of 1971 as I saw it as GA Ampara”

In April 1971, there occurred the JVP insurrection which assumed significant proportions in the Ampara district. Rohana Wijeweera, the leader of the JVP at the time, had been arrested in Ampara, at the bus-stand a few months earlier and was in remand in far-away Jaffna. However, the cells he had initiated in the district schools, specially those with selected teachers and some of the best of the senior students continued to thrive — in Ampara those following science subjects were very active specially in the predominantly Sinhala areas.

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March 8, 2025 · 10:29 pm

Mehdi Hasan’s U-Tube Interview with Ranil Wickremasinghe

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa, in Groundviews, …. https://groundviews.org/2025/03/07/sentiment-analysis-of-ranil-wickremesinghes-al-jazeera-interview-with-mehdi-hasan/

Renowned journalist Mehdi Hasan interviewed the former president Ranil Wickremesinghe on a programme of Head to Head, produced by Al Jazeera. The programme was released to YouTube and first broadcast on March 6.

At the time I studied 5,144 comments in response to it, the video had been watched over 218,620 times and liked over 8,000 times. Comments, views and likes are increasing at pace, which means that by the time this is read, the sentiments, trends and patterns analysed are not going to fully or accurately capture additional sentiment. What follows must be read as a study of the sentiments in the comments published at the time of writing this post.

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March 8, 2025 · 10:36 am

Galle Face Green in Colombo: Pictorials Over the Years

A Thuppahi Journey

Panoramic view of Galle Face Colombo, Sri Lanka around 1880s-1900, looking south from Galle Road (later this path became the Galle Road), ClubHouse & Galleface Hotel (far right) showing in the background……… Lankapura …. https://lankapura.com/2011/04/panoramic-view-galle-face-green-colombo/

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February 25, 2025 · 5:38 pm

Rambanctious Middle-Class Ceylonese of Yesteryear

A NOTE from the THUPPAHIYAA, 25 February 2025

This email memo from a ‘middle class’ Sri Lankan born before World War Two and nurtured in an elite college whci addresses mates nourished in the same schools and planter/military circles is of considerable socio-political significance. Its implications are all the stronger because the “Letter” is An Epitaph for Richard Hermon, an Extraordinary and Rambanctious Sri Lankan of the Old School. 

 AN EMAIL MEMO from Retd Major Lalin Fernando to a  Circle of Ceylonese Pals, 23 February 2025

Dickie was in Alison, a bit junior to me. His cousins Duncan and Tyrone were there too Dickie played Rugby with me in the 2nd XV v SPC (1955) on their grounds when he was 14 or less. There were no age groups then. The Peterites average age would have been around 19. It included their Cricket captain Ken (20 yrs old) but not Russel Duckworth. Dont know if Lakshman Serasinghe too played. Our oldest would have been 16 or so. The first XV match was played before our match as the seniors wanted to watch the CR v CH match. It left us brats to the after the match mercies of the Bamba crowd!

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February 15, 2025 · 12:38 am

The LTTE: Its Initial Founding and Funding

Dr Muralidaran Ramesh Somasunderam, in LankaWeb, 10 February 2o25, with this title “The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. Funding and Training of the Organization”

 The LTTE got their training and funding from the PLO, which is the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the arms they gained or got from Pakistan. This is why the Indian Central Government was very much against the LTTE and its leadership group.

In fact, the LTTE was an organization which diversified their businesses and even sold things like oils and soups to more dangerous items such as drugs and weapons. It is true that Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in overseas countries funded LTTE. The real fact was most of the Sri Lankan Tamils did ordinary jobs in the Western Countries and if the LTTE did not have diverse business interests and support from overseas countries, especially Palestine for tanning (sic) and Pakistan for military equipment, they would not have been able to carry out a civil war against the army of Sri Lanka for more than thirty odd years.  This is why if Kittu Master who was in the LTTE leadership group was able to smuggle the arms the government of Pakistan loaded in the ship he came on outside the port of Madras it would have been very hard to defeat and bring the LTTE down.

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