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.
a
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
In Response to the THUPPAHI Item bringing Imran Khan’s ‘fate’ into juxtaposition with that of Sri Lanka, viz. https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/11/kota-uda-imran-khan-and-sri-lanka/ …….. Prithi Perera has fashioned an “Address to Sri Lankan Aussies” …. And, thus, to Thuppahi @@
Dear Sri Lankan Aussies, Unfortunately, this post does not reflect any of the issues mentioned in my email of 30 March 2022 that explained the real reasons for the present foreign debt and foreign exchange crises facing Sri Lanka today. As per that post where the statistics from the World Bank were quoted, it was clearly shown how the External Debt grew and the years that had the biggest increases with the External Debt growing in double digit increases from 2009 to 2014 with 2012 showing the highest annual increase in External Debt as compared to 2012. viz; 38.54 %. The growths in External Debt which involves foreign currency was highest during the periods 2009 to 2014, recording a growth from USD Billion 19,504,201 in 2009 to USD Billion 42,262,755, an increase of 117%. The External Borrowings from 2015 to 2019 have shown only single digit annual changes and the growth in External Debt has been from USD Billion 43,925,371 in 2015 to USD Billion 56,095,469, thus an increase of USD Billion 12,170,098 or 27% increase during the five-year period ending 2019, as compared to the 117% increase during the five-year period ending 2014.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, taking the piss, transport and communications, travelogue, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Michael Roberts, reproducing the GC Mendis Memorial Lecture in 1981** in his collection of essays within Exploring Confrontation as chapter 12, pp 297-314.
ABSTRACT of the Article: The electoral victory of the Mahajana Eksat Peramuna (MEP) led by the SLFP has been described as a “cultural revolution”, “a radical shift of power in Sri Lanka’s politics”, and a landmark in Sri Lanka’s history. Some authors have even gone so far as to speak of “the dethronement of the westernised elite” or the “replacement” of “the westernised bourgeoisie” by the national bourgeoisie. Within the pancha-maha-balavegaya particular attention has been directed towards the role of the bhikkhu, the vernacular school teachers and the ayurvedic physicians. To these interest ‘groups’ and social categories5 should be added the Sinhala journalists, the minor officials, the notaries and petition writers, and the small businessmen. Among the political goals emphasised by the revivalist elite were the demand for an explicit importance to be attached to Buddhism and the demand that the English languages should be replaced by the vernaculars as the language of administration.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, British imperialism, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
Hugh Karunanayake, with highlighting and spacing imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The economy of Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was then known, was basically a peasant economy which through the nineteenth century transformed into a plantation economy. The change commenced with the introduction of the first commercial crop, coffee. Commercial cultivation of coffee as a crop was introduced and encouraged during Governor Sir Edward Barnes’ tenure in the 1830s and by the 1860s had covered most of the upcountry areas. Maskeliya District opened up in the late 1860s, the first estate to be cleared and planted upon in the district being Bunyan Estate.
View of Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada, Sri Paadaya) from Maskeliya, Central Province, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Date: circa 1910
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, commoditification, communal relations, demography, economic processes, heritage, historical interpretation, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, performance, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
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
A VERITE RESEARCH BULLETIN
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As we approach the end of the year, there is much to look back on and reflect upon. I am glad to share with you some of the highlights of the recent month in this Verité Bulletin.
We have long felt that democracy is not meaningful when citizens are not critically cognizant of the information in relation to public finance. This is why Verité Research strategically expanded its work on Public Finance. The platform that we built, PublicFinance.lk, is probably the pre-eminent locus for information and analysis on the state of Sri Lanka’s public finance.
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, democratic measures, economic processes, electoral structures, energy resources, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, land policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom & censorship, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Sarah Kabir and ROAR on “A Journey of a Demcracy: The Sri Lankan Story”
ROAR is embarking on the generation of a documentary thatseeks to create awareness and understanding of Sri Lanka’s post-independence history…… SEE INITIAL NOTICE: https://thuppahis.com/2021/11/19/imaginative-explorations-of-sri-lankas-history-on-the-cards/#more-56776
Project Intervention
It has been over a decade since the end of Sri Lanka’s protracted conflict, but what we have today is ‘negative peace’ – which is the absence of overt violence. Limited understanding of Sri Lanka’s history, politics, democracy, ambition, intent, and the refusal to acknowledge acts of intolerance and discrimination that destroyed lives and led to bloodshed makes it increasingly difficult to avoid the recurrence of violence and we risk repeating the same mistakes. Today, we are confronted with choices that could lead to positive peace or a resumption of cycles of violence. Even now, the difficulties of dealing with COVID-19 and the resulting economic fallout could lead to social unrest that may morph into inter-communal violence if manipulated. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, architects & architecture, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, devolution, discrimination, economic processes, education policy, electoral structures, ethnicity, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, law of armed conflict, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, parliamentary elections, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Presidential elections, press freedom & censorship, propaganda, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, refugees, religiosity, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, trauma, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Chandre Dharmawardana, writing from Canada (see below)
Sri Lanka is heading towards an agricultural disaster similar to that created by Stalin who was guided by a so-called “Dialectical Materialist” version of agricultural science announced by Lysenko, a “party scientist”. Sri Lanka’s leaders also have ideologues who have various scientific and medical backgrounds and are ready to present “justifications” for the push for 100% organic agriculture. Here we trace this pseudo-science movement back to some of its roots and discuss some of the pseudo-science that is being presented as “science”.
Dr. Jayasumana and Dr. Sanath Gunatilleke confronting a farmer in an unequal discussion.
Filed under accountability, biotechnology, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, doctoring evidence, economic processes, education, environmental degradation, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes, zealotry
Dr. Sarath Rajapatirana, in The Island, 28 August 2021, with this title “Appreciation Professor Anton Joseph Weeramunda”
I write this appreciation as one who has been Joe’s classmate at St. Joseph’s, roommate at Marcus Fernando Hall at the University of Peradeniya, and a life-long friend. Joe was an exceptional human being who was quiet, modest, smart, and kind to all and sundry to a fault. His family and friends will miss him terribly. All the friends that I contacted to let them know about Joe’s passing away have written back expressing their profound sorrow to learn about his passing. He was a genuine person that all of us came to admire, like, and be devoted to.
Filed under communal relations, cultural transmission, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
thuppahi
