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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Filed under British colonialism, caste issues, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, religious nationalism, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, teaching profession, transport and communications, unusual people, World War II and Ceylon
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.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, colonisation schemes, demography, economic processes, education, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
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
Filed under architects & architecture, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, communal relations, democratic measures, economic processes, energy resources, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
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.
Filed under Aboriginality, ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, irrigation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, pilgrimages, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
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.
Filed under accountability, biotechnology, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, environmental degradation, governance, irrigation, island economy, land policies, life stories, medical puzzles, patriotism, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
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.
Filed under ancient civilisations, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, cultural transmission, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, population, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
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.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
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.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, devolution, doctoring evidence, economic processes, Eelam, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, legal issues, literary achievements, nationalism, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, power sharing, prabhakaran, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
L.C. Arulpragasam, in Sunday Observer, 13 October 2019, where the title is “The Veddas and the Gal Oya scheme: Ultimate resettlement at Bintenne”
In the Jungles of Bintenne: In 1950 I undertook a sociological survey along with Mr. Kuda Bibile, a University colleague, of the Veddas living in the jungles of Wellassa and Bintenne in the Badulla District of the Uva Province. The only authoritative study of the Veddas at that time had been done by Dr. C. Seligmann, a German anthropologist, in 1911. I carried his heavy tome around with me on my entire journey.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, communal relations, economic processes, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, irrigation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, self-reflexivity, Sri Lankan scoiety, trauma, travelogue, world events & processes
Renuka Sadanandan, in Sunday Times, 22 September 2019, where the title is “Lanka’s friend in need and deed“
J.R. Jayewardene entertaining guests on the lawn of the President’s House once asked British MP Michael Morris if he smoked. When he replied no, the President inquired if his father did. Receiving a positive answer he presented Morris with a box of Cuban cigars, saying that President Fidel Castro regularly sent them to him. Back home in the UK, his father called to thank Morris for the cigars, informing him that he cut them in half as they were so strong! “You can’t cut Castro’s cigars in half Father,” he recalls his horrified protest.
Michael Morris aka Lord Michael Naseby
Filed under centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
thuppahi
