Category Archives: Indian Ocean politics

Gerald Peiris: A Lifetime of Wide-Ranging Research & Service

These are but some of his publications over a career spanning the 1950s to 2020s — with eyesight deterioration blighting his last platform of life. No more table tennis, but much to remember. So, here. let me doff my cap to thee, Gerry Machang, …. Mike

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Rajiv Gandhi’s Reasoning behind the IPKF Operation

Madhur Sharma, in Outlook.com, 28 November 2022, where the title runs thus “Why Rajiv Gandhi Sent IPKF To Sri Lanka And How LTTE Played Both Sides” .… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord with Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayawardene in 1987. Under the pact, the Indian military was deployed as the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka. Soon after the deployment, the circumstances changed and IPKF was engaged in combat by the Tamil armed group LTTE.

Rajiv Gandhi with Anton Balasingham, Pirapaharan & AN Other in India ….. and Pirapahrana & MGR chat in South India

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Israeli Tourists and Investments in Arugam Bay Area Under Threat

ITEM in THE GUARDIAN, 29 October 2024 with this headlin

The golden sands of Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay are usually carefree, a place for tourists to surf the famous break and relax on the beach.

But last week, the slow rhythm of the bay was dealt a shock. The US embassy, followed up by Sri Lankan police and Israel’s national security council, warned of a serious terrorist threat in the area. Israeli travellers were believed to be the intended target of a planned attack and were told to evacuate immediately. Hundreds of police and senior intelligence officials descended on the small coastal town, setting up patrols and road blocks.

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Appreciating Beena Sarwar’s Documentary on Sri Lanka’s Parlous Situation

AUTHOR unknown –An Item sent by  Nandi Jasentuliyana — Ex-Richmond College and long resident in USA

This documentary is by Beena Sarwar….. https://www.dawn.com/news/1864914

“There is a fine line between order and chaos. Its tenuous separation lies at the heart of the grand cycle of oppositional linkages in myth and history, in which fate, humans and nature seek a way out of the turbulence to which they may well have themselves contributed.

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The Personnel Behind THE CEYLON JOURNAL

Thuppahi is pleased to present a photo of the key personnel located in Sri Lanka who were involved in launching the new cutting/edge academic venture known as THE CEYLON JOURNAL this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Deciphering the Past to Secure Reform in the Present

Michael Roberts

Let me suggest that in any country one cannot address the fundamental problems of the present without understanding its immediate past. This prescription was/is inherent in an article that I penned for the Indian journal FRONTLINE in June 2009 one month after the LTTE had been vanquished in war (1). Its title was “Some Pillars for the Future.” 

On re-reading this essay today in September 2024, I affirm that it is marked by good sense and presents several worthwhile propositions. It is reproduced here for others to assess and comment critically on its arguments — standing now in the midst of the many developments and changes between 2009 and 2024.  Continue reading

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Democratic Processes Worldwide and Sri Lanka Today

 Ever since he addressed the failed coup of 1962 in a book-length stud,y Donald L. Horowitz has kept an eye on Sri Lankan affairs and has now unveiled a new book tackling central issues in the democratic process on a worldwide scale –with one chapter devoted to the problems TODAY in Sri Lanka ….. Editor, Thuppahi 

Donald L. Horowitz, James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus, Duke University

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Noel Nadesan’s Critical Reflections on the Sri Lankan Tamils’Armed Struggle

Rajeswary Balasubramaniam, reviewing Odyssey of War by Noel Nadesan **

The ‘Odyssey of War’, a novel by Dr. Noel Nadesan published by Sarasavi Publishers, reflects the struggle for the liberation of Tamils in Sri Lanka (1977-2009) and the failure of interwoven world politics. The novel illustrates how upper-class Tamils overcame caste, religion, and regions and united for the liberation of Tamils, but went beyond the spirit of liberation, migrated, and eventually made the liberation struggle of Tamils a profitable business.

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Let’s Remove the Colonial Tropes in the Writings on Sri Lanka

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, whose preferred title is  “Decolonizing July 1983’s Fiction and History for a Post-Ethnic Sri Lanka: Tropes of Violence and Cold War at the end of the American Century”

 “Fair is foul and foul is fair”William Shakespeare, Macbeth

 !@#$!!!! …. The Editor’s efforts to insert appealing cartoons and/or pictures of Macbeth were defeated by the digital world’s capitalist principles & demands for payment

Why are there no Booker Prize-winning novels about mundane multicultural families that inter-married for generations, shared religion/s, language/s and co-existed for centuries, while living in relative harmony in Ceylon/ Sri Lanka? Is the trope of dark natives engaged in endless chaotic violence an international literature prize-winning bestseller that masks white mischief, including sanitized, techno-scientific AI guided drone warfare? Susan William’s brilliant and brave book “White Malice” is subtitled, “The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa’.

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Michael Roberts Mss stored at Adelaide University

Michael Roberts

The library at Adelaide Univeristy is known as the BARR-SMITH LIBRARY.  The staff in the “Special Collections” within the library over the years have been especially helpful over a long period and were hands-on central in organising the Roberts Oral History Project from the 1980s and subsequently (see https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/).

But it is by pure chance that I came across a document penned in my hand detailing the stock of manuscripts and photocopied material that I had placed within the Special Collections –maybe because our home is adjacent to a National Park and within a high fire-risk arena.

Let me assure all ye readers that I have been stunned by some of the items that I have collected –some of them original Mss items; with the others being copies. but the main point is that some of these copies reproduce very rare items.  Moreover, I find that the range and type of items placed within the realm of the Barr-Smith are quite astonishing. It remains to be seen whether readers and investigators of the past accept that evaluation. I should add that I will be among the personnel delving into some of the data within this stock; but I do not have long to live…..and this stock is there for posterity.

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