Category Archives: island economy

July 18, 2025 · 2:21 am

How the ICES – the International Centre of Ethnic Studies – Arose

A Note by the Late SWR de Samarasinghe penned in 2021 and presented now in his Honour, albeit against his wishes then.

 Dear Michael:

I will have a look at the document when you place it on Thuppahi.

BTW, I noticed that you mention the names of KM, Neelan and Radhika as the three people responsible for the establishment of ICES. Factually, Neelan got the initial grant from the Ford Foundation, KM got permission from JR to set it up. JR also instructed the then Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel to facilitate the process. Neelan invited Radhika [Coomaraswamy] to join as Associate Director and KM invited me to join as the Associate Director.  

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July 10, 2025 · 9:21 pm

Professor Sinnappah Arasaratnam: Historian Outstanding

Michael Roberts

Sinnappah Arasaratnam was one of my inspirational teachers in History at Peradeniya University in the late 1950s. In chancing upon a printed copy of one of his articles — entitled “Sri Lanka’s Tamils under Colonial Rule,” (date ??), I have been inspired to remind new generations, as well as older ones. of his contributions to scholarship in Lanka, Malaysia/Singapore and Australia.

It was to my benefit that I was able to interact with him on occasions after he moved to Malaysia and Australia. Alas, the details of these exchanges have not taken root in my fading memory.

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July 4, 2025 · 7:26 pm

Biographical Paths to Lankan History via ‘Hits’ on TPS

A MEMO From Michael Roberts as Editor, Thuppahi,  July 2025

The Word Press system keeps me informed about the HITs on TPS items everyday and also assembles figures for each week. Reviewing these details provides one with a glimpse of internet viewers and their interests. As an exercise with this objective I provide figures of HITS on items carrying biographical tales.

HEREWITh, then, are the figures of such hits — HITS on bio-tales –– during the past week.

 

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June 22, 2025 · 7:02 am

Territorial Claims: First Settlers & Their Primacy

Michael Roberts, presenting an article published in 2005 as a pamphlet by the ICES, Colombo with this title “The First Settlers and Their Claim to Ownership of Terrain/State. A Comparative Excursion” … an essay originally presented in Abdul Rahman Embong, Rethinking Ethnicity and Nation Building: Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fiji in Comparative Perspective, Panbrit UKM, Bangi, Malaysia, (c. 2003) which was then reprinted as a booklet by ICES, Colombo in 2005 – see ISBN 955-580-099-5 I.

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April 3, 2025 · 8:43 pm

India’s Looming Interventions in Sri Lanka

Dr. Asoka Bandarage, in The Island, 31 March 2025  ……. where the title runs as “Indian colonialism in Sri Lanka” with highlighting being interventions by the Editor, Thuppahi

Following independence from Britain, both India and Sri Lanka emerged as leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, which sought to advance developing nations’ interests during the Cold War. Indeed, the term “non-alignment” was itself coined by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his 1954 speech in Colombo. The five principles of the Non-Aligned Movement are: “mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual non-aggression; mutual non-interference in domestic affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful co-existence.”

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April 2, 2025 · 10:29 am

THOMIA’s Frontal Pages ….

The hard copy of THOMIA by Richard Simon in two volumes — all 868 + lxv pages of this searching history — is now in print. Presented here are the initial pages.

 

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March 30, 2025 · 11:24 am

Financial Restraint: Sri Lankan Government’s Initial Measures Applauded

Jehan Perera  

The government’s commitment to cut down on waste and corruption so that resources can be saved and added to enable economic growth can be seen in the strict discipline it has been following where expenditures on its members are concerned. There is a need, however, for new and innovative development projects that require knowledge and expertise that is not necessarily within the government. So far it appears that the government is restricting its selection of key decision makers to those it knows, has worked with and trusts due to long association. Two of the committees that the government has recently appointed, the Clean Lanka task force and the Tourism advisory committee are composed of nearly all men, and men from the majority community. If Sri Lanka is to leverage its full potential, the government must embrace a more inclusive approach that incorporates women and diverse others from across the country’s multiethnic and multireligious population, including representation from the north and east.

Younger Srilanka _ The winning combination – AKD & Dr. Harini. Sri Lanka gets a new leadership! ❤️_🔥🇱🇰 _ Instagram

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March 29, 2025 · 12:07 am

Nationalisms in Sri Lanka: A Bibliography Cast in 2014..

bull-mascot-team-logo-design-longhorn-133746227 Presented here at ……………………………………………………….. https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/nationalism-the-past-and-the-present-the-case-of-sri-lanka/…. & thus in need of updating.; while being dedicated to a Peradeniya University buddy -alas deceased– with whom I shared notes and thoughts during undergraduate days and thereafter in the 1970s & 1980s in Chicago: namely, Ananda Wickremeratne …

Amunugama, Sarath 1979 ‘Ideology and class interest in one of Piyadasa Siris­ena’s novels: the new image of the “Sinhala Buddhist” nationalist’ in M Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka, Colombo:: Marga Institute, pp 314-36

Anderson, Benedict 1983 Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of Nationalism.  London: Verso

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March 26, 2025 · 10:05 pm

An Epitaph for Gananath Obeyesekere

Chandra R. De Silva, … with highlighting emphasis added by The Editor, Thuppahi

I write to add a few words to the outpouring of appreciations of Gananath Obeyesekere, a scholar whose research in anthropology, religion, myth, and cultural practices  has won him accolades across the world. I will not comment on the advances in knowledge and the discussions he provoked by his many scholarly works of which among the best known are Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Buddhism Transformed (co-author), The Work of Culture, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and The Doomed King. There has been much written on this world renowned scholar, and there will undoubtedly be more comments by experts in the years to come.

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March 26, 2025 · 1:34 pm

Deeply Lankika: John De Silva

Responding to a Request from An Aloysian Schoolmate and Friend named Roberts, John de Silva, aka “Johnny,” provided these fascinating genealogical details…… Michael Roberts

 UNIQUE FAMILY CONNECTIONS

I am not too sure if I had sent you details of where I came from! In other words, who were my parents and who were their parents. This is often a mundane Family Tree exercise and bears not much significance in the scheme of things. However, I feel that my family connections are unique when it comes to the Island of Sri Lanka.

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