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Category Archives: historical interpretation
Chemmani Graves: The Site Today
Filed under accountability, atrocities, counter-insurgency, Eelam, ethnicity, historical interpretation, human rights, insurrections, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage
Global Economics & Sri Lanka over the Recent Centuries
Sunil Bastian: “Sri Lankan state in a changing global context” … a 2025 article presented here with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi.**
This short article emphasises the need to analyse the Sri Lankan state by placing it in the global context. This means not confining our minds within the borders of the Sri Lankan state. To emphasise this point I would like to point out that the formation of the Sri Lankan state itself was a product of a global phenomenon – British colonialism (see Bastian Sunil (2025) State formation and Conflicts in Sri Lanka. London: Bloomsbury Academic for an analysis of Sri Lankan state formation).
Under British colonialism the entire geographic space of the island was covered by a single unit of territorial power. To administer the territory, the island was divided into spatial units using the directions of a compass. In this way cartography became an instrument of British colonialism. Other techniques of state formation were establishing an administrative structure, a judicial system, a system to collect taxes, regular census and the coercive power of the state to cover the entire island.
Filed under Americna imperialism, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, China and Chinese influences, commoditification, economic processes, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, land policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, sri lankan society, transport and communications, world events & processes
Chemmani Graves Site & OCHCR Finds
N. Sathiya Moorthy, in CEYLON TODAY, 1 August 2025, with this title “Hundred Not Out” **
For the uninitiated readers of the national media, and possibly the majority Sinhala media, Chemmani may yet to happen. But after weeks of digging up unmarked graves in Northern Jaffna town, Government officials under Court supervision have already taken out over a hundred human skeletons, including those of infants and grown-up children. The numbers are growing with each passing day of digging, which is at times halted for logistics reasons, one should assume.
Yes, only scientific studies would show if they are of recent origin, but the fact that they have been recovered from dig-outs six to eight metres deep may indicate that they are not ancient. Yet, they are historic in their own way, adding heft to the Tamils’ charges that the Armed Forces ruthlessly killed their civilians during the three-decade-long ethnic war – and are yet to be held accountable.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, ethnicity, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war reportage
For Lankan Researchers: An Oral History Workshop
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Filed under caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, doctoring evidence, economic processes, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, foreign policy, fundamentalism, gender norms, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, Indian Ocean politics, land policies, language policies, law of armed conflict, Left politics, lettering--history, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society
Is Sri Lanka permanently Kota Uda?
Jehan Perera in The Island, 29 July 2025, where the title runs thus: “Engagement is essential for national progress”
Filed under accountability, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, legal issues, parliamentary elections, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, working class conditions, world events & processes
From Kamburupitiya … Malkanthi’s Multi-Faceted Journey
Fazli Sameer in Those Fuzzy Days, July 2025 … presented in fazli@substack.com with a slightly different title and the sub-title: “A trek through days of milk, honey, and roses”
In the small southern village of Kamburupitiya, nestled amidst the mist-covered hills of the southern coastal city of Matara, a determined teenage girl named Malkanthi prepared for a journey that would alter the course of her life. At sixteen, she was the pride of her village school, a bright, kind-hearted girl who had earned a scholarship to pursue her higher studies in Colombo.
Filed under centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, migrant experiences, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
In Appreciation of James T. Rutnam
Sachi Sri Kantha, whose preferred title is “James T Rutnam (1905-1988): Noted Bibliophile and a Valued Mentor” … with the highlighting in colour being impositions from The Editor Thuppahi
Introduction
My destiny to meet and interact with James T Rutnam came in the aftermath of the August 1977 anti-Tamil riots. Previously, I had written a little about the anti-Tamil riots that engulfed the island then, and my initial attempts to make a grade as a writer in English. [Please check this link. https://sangam.org/s-p-amarasingam-1977-anti-tamil-pogrom/].
I wrote to Mr. S.P. Amarasingam, the editor of the Tribune (Colombo). At that time, I was unaware that James Rutnam was an influential contributor to the Tribune, since its inception in 1954.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, historical interpretation, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, tamil refugees, trauma, travelogue, unusual people
FIRE AND STORM analyses Sinhala-Tamil Confrontations Over the Decades
Neil Jayasekera introduces FIRE AND STORM by Michael Roberts … printed by Vijitha Yapa Publications in 2010 …. ISBN 978955-665-14-8 ….presenting 28 articles & an Amalgamated Bibliography …. Posted
Anonymous Reviewer in Sunday Times, 21 July 2013, where the title runs “Important contribution towards a dialogue on Lankan polity. Book facts”
When Michael Roberts left Peradeniya in the late seventies, he was part of an exodus of intellectuals from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, arguably one of the best universities at that time. The exodus of academics at that time was compelled by the economic difficulties faced by university dons. It was the second wave of such emigration that diminished the intellectual life of the university and country.
Pirapāharan and leading Tiger Commanders at the Indian sponsored training camp at Sirimalai in 1984
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, counter-insurgency, disparagement, Eelam, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, island economy, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, liberation tigers of tamil eelam, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, propaganda, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, Rajiv Gandhi, religiosity, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war crimes, war reportage, women in ethnic conflcits, zealotry
James T. Rutnam (1905-1988): A Radical Activist in Ceylon Politics
Sachi Sri Kantha, ... with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Introduction: Previously, I had studied the electoral performance of three prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politicians, namely Ganapathipillai Gangesar Ponnambalam (1901-1977), Appapillai Amirthalingam (1927-1989) and Murugesu Sivasithamparam (1024-2002). All three were electorally successful in most of their attempts, though suffering defeats intermittently.
E.W.-Abeyegunasekera-Rutnams-formidable-rival-in-1931-and-1936.jpg
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, communal relations, demography, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, historical interpretation, language policies, Left politics, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, unusual people
Featuring Andrekos Varnava’s Swathe of Political Studies
Andrekos Varnava is a Greek Cypriot and it has been the privilege of Flinders University in Adelaide and Australia-at-large to have him researching and teaching in their various reaches. CYPRUS is in a strategic location in the Eastern Meditteranian and has beenat the centre of many invasions and tussles.
Books by Andrekos Varnava
Exiting War: The British Empire and the 1918-20 moment, 2022
Exiting war explores a particular 1918-20 ‘moment’ in the British Empire’s history, between the F… more
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Filed under accountability, ancient civilisations, art & allure bewitching, australian media, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, democratic measures, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, European history, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power sharing, religiosity, travelogue, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
