Download the entire contents of the book, by Volume or by individual contribution, here.
The cover of the book …Chandraguptha Thenuwara
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, world events & processes
Jane Russell …. Memo to Michael Roberts re Articles to Sri Lanka Guardian from Sebastian Rasalingam (Toronto) and Thomas Johnpulle (London) on the topic of caste in Jaffna and its effect on politics and culture in Sri Lanka
When I first lived and studied in Jaffna in late 1973, there were elderly women who went around the villages, streets and markets with no upper covering over their breasts. I had come from a UK where young women occasionally went bare-breasted as an extreme commitment to feminism. This was different.. yet somehow also the same…these women appeared to have no embarrassment nor shame about their nakedness..their sagging breasts were blatantly exposed to all..I wondered whether Gloria Steinem might even have approved? But also I instinctively felt that Simone de Beauvoir would have immediately recognised an abuse…..of birth, of poverty, of gender which those women had internalised to the point where it didn’t matter to them anymore.
But when they were young? Imagine the society in which these sixty year old women had entered puberty and grown to adulthood in the 1930’s….where their nudity was demanded by upper caste men and (presumably) the wives, sisters and daughters of upper caste men: possibly these upper caste women felt relief that they were excused this dishonouring custom by the Victorian prudery adopted by the English educated class of which they were part. Continue reading
Filed under caste issues, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Two old articles penned in 2011 by Sebastian Rasalingam and Thomas Johnpulle on alleged caste oppression in Jaffna Tamil society turned up in my email letter box a few months back. Because of my long engagement with caste issues in the Sinhala south and more recent explorations of the caste factor within Tamil nationalist politics and in the story of the LTTE, I embarked on a project of arousal. The procedure will be clarified in another post alongside this one. Here I content myself with reproducing the two essays with my thanks extended to Nilantha Ilangamuwa and the Sri Lanka Guardian for their original sponsorship of these writings. Michael Roberts
ONE: SEBASTIAN RASALINGAM – “Keeping Tamil culture and uprooting the caste system from the North,” July 2011, http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/07/keeping-tamil-culture-and-uprooting.html
My article published in the Sri Lanka Guardian, entitled “Sinhalizatioon of the North and the Tamilzation of the South” was provoked by a response to D. B. S. Jeyaraj’s article on Kokachchankulam by Prof. Dharmawardana who maintains a detailed website on place names. My article was followed by a very compassionate and hopeful article by Pearl Thevanayagam and Dr. Narendran. We also see Jeyaraj taking up the same theme within a different script under the title “Tamil destiny is inextricably intertwined with that of the Sinhalese“.
Filed under authoritarian regimes, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, LTTE, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, reconciliation, Saivism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, working class conditions, world affairs
| Chamitha Kuruppu, courtesy of Daily Ft, where the title is “The mission to oust Mahinda, win over Maithri and select a common candidate”
In a candid interview with the Daily FT, Dr. Kapila Ranasinghe revealed a secret mission they launched to oust once-powerful President Mahinda Rajapaksa, convince the former General Secretary of the SLFP Maithripala Sirisena to cross over and the crucial task of selecting a common candidate. Dr. Kapila Ranasinghe is one of the few scholars who has had the privilege of studying at Harvard University, Cambridge University and University of Colombo. He serves as a Director in six private sector companies, Consultant in Strategy and Innovation and a visiting lecturer for masters programs in local and foreign universities. Following are excerpts:
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Filed under authoritarian regimes, constitutional amendments, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, voluntary workers, world affairs
Mohan Samaranayake, in The Island, 16 May 2015, where the title is “Holes in John Kerry’s bucket“
The two day visit to Sri Lanka by John Kerry, the Secretary of State, USA, on 2nd and 3rd May, the first by a US Secretary of State since Collin Powell’s brief visit here in 2005 in the aftermath of boxing day Tsunami, rightly received wide media coverage in news and commentary. Leaders of the Government lost no time to call it a landmark achievement for its yahapalana principles and it s efforts to win back the International Community which was ‘foolishly antagonized by the Rajapaksa regime’. A section of the media, especially English language, and civil society activists hailed the visit, with heightened joy and enthusiasm.
Filed under american imperialism, governance, historical interpretation, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, propaganda, Rajapaksa regime, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes
Sri Lanka first nation to protect all mangrove forests”
Sri Lanka has become the first nation in the world to comprehensively protect all of its mangrove forests. A scheme backed by the government will include alternative job training, replanting projects and microloans. Mangroves are considered to be one of the world’s most at-risk habitats, with more than half being lost or destroyed in the past century. Conservationists hope other mangrove-rich nations will follow suit and adopt a similar protection model. Commenting on the agreement, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena said: “It is the responsibility and the necessity of all government institutions, private institutions, non-government organisations, researchers, intelligentsia and civil community to be united to protect the mangrove ecosystem.”
The Sri Lankan government is a joint partner overseeing the measures, alongside global NGO Seacology, and Sri Lanka-based Sudeesa, which was formerly known as the Small Fishers Federation of Lanka. Seacology executive director Duane Silverstein said the pioneering framework had “extreme importance as a model” that could be used throughout the world. Continue reading
N. Sivapalan, courtesy of The Island, 6 May 2015, where the title reads “What went wrong with the Tamil Struggle?” … in reviewing Palmyra Fallen Colombo, Globe Printing for UTHR & Rajan Hoole, ISBN-13: 978-9559447054
Friends and Rajan, this book is a monumental work with history, politics, law and several other things. I have restricted my discussion to two things. The first is about the outlook of the book. As a person who has lived in Jaffna during most of the period of conflict, the second thing I am concerned about is what went wrong in our struggle. I will start on the first.
At the outset I have two questions. The book has Rajani’s name in the title. Palmyra Fallen: From Rajani to War’s End. Her photograph is on the first page; then it reminds us that this is the 25th Anniversary of the Assassination of Rajani. It is not dedicated to Rajani but Rajani appears throughout the book in addition to some chapters that talk about her only. The first question I had was: Is Rajani important enough to be given this much space in our recent history? The second question about the outlook is what is the use of so much data and case histories that come again and again in the book? Continue reading
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Neville de Silva, in The Sunday Times, 3 May 2015, where the title is “UK Polls: Looking for A Tenant at No. 10″
It has never been like this for the past several decades. This lacklustre election campaign will most certainly end up with a hung parliament. If voters had half a chance they will hang not only the parliament, but many of the candidates out to dry. They are fed up. Such has been the mood of a people tired of politics and politicians. A plague on both your houses wrote England’s most celebrated bard in “Romeo and Juliet”. If the current public mood can be discerned it must be more like a plague on all your houses meaning those parties in England, which are struggling to perform well enough to put together a government that could at least limp into Westminster. 
The author of this article (second from left) with the organizer of the conference, Professor Meenakshi Thapan, the Dalai Lama and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi, Professor Dinesh Singh.Filed under Afghanistan, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, life stories, modernity & modernization, news fabrication, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
thuppahi
