Category Archives: irrigation

October 20, 2022 · 1:49 pm

A Film that charts New Vistas for Sri Lanka: Malwatu Oya Soyaa

Uditha Devapriya, in Newswire, 19 October 2022, where the title reads “Factum Special Perspective: Culture as diplomacy in Sri Lanka” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi and the title rendered as a long aa

The Malwatu Oya is the oldest and most important of the rivers in Sri Lanka. Its history is woven into the history of the country and its culture. Malwatu Oya Soya, in that respect, is a documentary not merely about the river, but the lives of the people and the society that it touched. Directed by one of Sri Lanka’s leading historians and intellectual voices, Malwatu Oya Soya made the rounds at several film festivals, in Pondicherry, Rome, and the Hague, winning awards and accolades at them all. It will have its first international screening on the 28th of this month at the India International Centre, in New Delhi.

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August 17, 2022 · 1:15 pm

Waterpower in Sri Lanka: Natural and Tamed

Thiru Arumugam’s Camerawork in THE CEYLANKAN, 25/3, August 2022

 

 St. Clair Falls

 

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April 12, 2022 · 8:11 pm

Michael Roberts: A Partial Bibliography, 1965-1999

Michael Roberts

Pressed by a friend in Australia, I revisited my academic journey as recorded in my old CV listings and feel that it may possibly be beneficial to the numerous personnel venturing into Sri Lankan history and politics via the stimulation of social media to have these items marked as targts for criticism and, even possibly, inspiration. I commence by listing Articles — but not books – presented in the period 1965 to 1999.

 

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January 27, 2022 · 5:13 pm

Gerald Peiris: His Work on Agriculture in Sri Lanka’s Economy

An Editorial Note from Michael Roberts, 27 January 2022

Recent items on the Senanayake family and on DS Senanayake (Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister) in Thuppahi touched on his work in promoting peasant agriculture . One of Sri Lanka’s foremost researchers in this field is my friend and colleague from undergraduate days in Ramanathan Hall and Peradeniya University in the late 1950s, namely, Gerald H Peiris. As it would be of wider benefit, I asked him to present Thuppahi with a list of his research work on agriculture and the island economy.

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January 26, 2022 · 12:03 pm

DS Senanayake’s Endeavours in Peasant Agriculture

From KM. De Silva:  DS. The Life of DS Senanayake, (1884-1952)

A NOTE from Thuppahi: printed in 2016  this book of 135 pages is clearly meant to provide a distilled assessment of DS Senanayake’s career.  Our readings of this work by Kingsley De Silva must take note of this precising intent on the author’s part — though we must also be aware of Professor De Silva”s conservative UNP affiliations….. and be grateful to Iranga Silva of the ICES in Kandy for making the text of the whole book available to us in a convenient form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DS Senanayake on a field trip … at Gal Oya

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October 29, 2021 · 8:02 pm

Vale Dr. Siran Deraniyagala: Assiduous Archaelogist & A Savant Servant for Lanka

Chryshane Mendis

It is no easy task to pen down few words on the life history of a colossus like Dr. Siran Deraniyagala, but nevertheless I will try. Life has its ways, its own twists and turns at times one would not expect; such was the shocking yet inevitable demise of Dr. Deraniyagala. The mystery of life will take us on many paths, and in the case of Dr. Deraniyagala, it took him to explore the mystery of life itself! While digging the earth to unravel humanity’s origins, perhaps he too realized where his journey would end, in the earth; and it eventually did come to pass on the 5th of October 2021. The Man who studied the past, of the lifeways of past peoples, now himself joined them; Siran Upendra Deraniyagala is now a person of the past! But what of his legacy? Will he be only a person of the past or will he be remembered in the present? Unlike the mystery of life, this is an easy question with a simple answer. Yes. Siran Deraniyagala will live on! Decades later even after fading from living memory, his name will be remembered even centuries on. Such is his legacy. Therefore let us briefly marvel at the amazing life of of Dr. Siran Deraniyagala.

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May 4, 2021 · 4:01 am

Rendering Agriculture in Lanka ARID with Silly Science & Mad Economics

Chandre Dharmawardana, whose preferred title is  “Political Rhetoric, or Sounding the Death Knell of Sri Lanka’s Agriculture?”

A quote attributed to the Greek play write Euripides says that “ Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.  Reading the news from Sri Lanka, one can only wonder if a prescient Euripides had Lanka’s successive rulers since 1970 in mind.

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December 31, 2020 · 12:56 am

Under Scrutiny: Edmund Leach’s PUL ELIYA

Michael Roberts

In late 1965 I set out on an oral history exercise interviewing retired British public servants[1] about their experiences in Ceylon. This work has been clarified earlier in two Thuppahi Items.[2] Because of my strong interest in colonial agrarian policies, I was familiar with the books produced by two outstanding Cambridge University scholars: BH Farmer and Edmund Leach. Farmer’s book on Pioneer Peasant Colonization in Ceylon (1957) reviewed British efforts to develop the dry zone of Sri Lanka via irrigation projects emulating the captivating efforts in ancient times. As such, it focused on DS Senanayake’s inspirational role in this set of enterprises. Leach’s detailed ethnographic experiences in a village arena in Anuradhapura District provided detailed ground-level data and interpretations in this field.

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December 6, 2020 · 1:41 pm

Adelaide University Initiatives-A: Roberts’ Oral History Project 1965-68

VISIT https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/83263 ………………. Michael Roberts. Oral History Project :  303

154 interviews by Michael Roberts of retired public servants who had served in Sri Lanka (mainly in the Ceylon Civil Service), politicians and other notables.

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September 5, 2020 · 5:27 am

The Insidious and False Dimensions of the “Traditional Homeland” Thesis

Gerald Peiris 

The concept of the ‘Traditional Tamil Homeland’ as promulgated by its exponents is based on the notion that, from the distant past, the island of Sri Lanka comprised the territories of two distinct nationalities that were arbitrarily unified in the formation of British Ceylon in the early 19th century.  My survey, which draws from several authoritative writings, some of which have been authored by reputed Tamil scholars, shows that such a notion does not conform to known facts and unbiased interpretations of the country’s history.

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