Category Archives: Left politics

November 27, 2023 · 7:05 pm

DIG Jingle Dissanayake’s Report on the JVP in Lanka, 4th November 1974

A NOTE from Michael Roberts, 27 November 2023

This file is among the documentary material under my name in the Special Collections, Barr Smith Library, Adelaide University and Samantha Farnsworth, its chief, sent me a pdf copy  I cannot recall how the original Mss came into my hands. Its pdf format has been converted to Word File by my friend KKS Perera in Lanka. The spacing is erratic and difficult to change. I have resisted the temptation to highlight important details because I do not have adequate background knowledge of the situation in 1972 to 1974 (even though I conducted one or two lectures to JVPers held in the prison camp at Katugastota …… including Gamini Keerawella …… one of my previous History Honours students).

The photographs are my insertions …. and perhaps hit ‘n miss in character .

Wijeweera in rousing flow on platform … & on way to court with his lawyer

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, conspiracies, governance, historical interpretation, insurrections, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, world events & processes, zealotry

November 5, 2023 · 2:00 am

Debating the Concept of University in Sri Lankan Space: Uyangoda’s Initiative

Siri Gamage

A recent article published on Groundviews by Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda titled  “Re-inventing the idea of University: Some Reflections and Proposals”  deserves wider attention. Given the fact that the university education sector has not been the subject of critical reviews instituted by the government or universities themselves and there are wide ranging criticisms of the way universities are managed as well as about the university academic culture, the critical assessment of Sri Lanka’s universities and their directions is a timely contribution.

      courtesy of Sri Lanka Guardian

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

October 28, 2023 · 8:15 pm

For Lanka: The Profound Interventions of Pauline & Dick Hensman

Rohini Hensman, in a commemorative essay about her politically committed parents in the SSA journal POLITY in 2023 where the title runs “A Hundred Years of Pauline And C. R. (Dick) Hensman”

The birth anniversaries of Pauline Hensman (née Swan) and Dick Hensman occurred over the course of the past year [ …]. This attempt to provide an overview of their life and times will inevitably suffer from gaps, since neither they nor most of their contemporaries are alive. It will, therefore, have to draw on the imperfect memories of their children and younger friends, who would have to rely on hearsay for the parts of their lives from which they were absent. Nevertheless, the main events and themes of their lives emerge quite clearly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, British imperialism, caste issues, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, language policies, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, nationalism, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, press freedom, racism, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes

October 23, 2023 · 7:54 pm

Talking about Oral History Work on Ceylon in the 1960s

Adilah Ismail in the Sunday Times,  7 June 2015,  where the title is “Colourful history of a historian” … with highlighting imposed by the Editor Thuppahi viz, Roberts himself

Looking back on his ‘going-down memory lane interviews’ with retired Britishers and Sri Lankans who served mainly in the Ceylon Civil Service, Michael Roberts who was in Sri Lanka recently, talks to Adilah Ismail about the beginnings of a passion.

In Colombo last week: Michael Roberts. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
It’s the late 1960s: On most Fridays, Michael Roberts would make his way towards Colombo from Peradeniya, [1]  recording equipment balanced at his feet and his bag filled with assorted clothes strapped to the back of his trusty scooter. Navigating the sharp curves and turns on his two wheeler, once in Colombo, he would spend his weekend sprinting from one interview to another.

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, Colombo and Its Spaces, colonisation schemes, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, devolution, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes

September 22, 2023 · 9:11 pm

Liyanage in Conversation & Correspondence with NM Perera

Sumanasiri Liyanage, in Colombo Telegraph, 21 January 2022…. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

At my age an uninterrupted sleep is a luxury. My prostate wakes me up at least two to three time. Hence, it is hard to distinguish dreams from imaginations. It was almost 1 am, I just finished my first lap of deep sleep when I heard knocking at my front door. “Who the hell at this time of the hour” I came out of the bed grumbling. I opened the door and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was Dr NM Perera. “Comrade, at this time of the day” Astonished I asked even not inviting him to come in.

“May I come in” he asked, “it’s a bit chilly outside”. “Please do comrade and take a sit”. “May I make a cup of tea for you.” Having felt guilty, I asked apologetically. “Yes, it would be nice to have a hot cup of tea in a chilly morning like this. But no sugar. We must leave sugar only for kids.” He said making his beautiful laugh. I prepared him a mug of tea with no sugar but with Highland fresh milk.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, export issues, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, Left politics, life stories, meditations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes

July 9, 2023 · 8:30 pm

Travails of a Rookie District Officer in Polonnaruwa, 1957-58

Sugath Kulatunga

Fresh from the University of Peradeniya, after a stint of teaching at St. Anthony’s College Kandy, I was selected as an Administrative Officer in the Department of Agriculture in November 1957 with 18 others in a new cadre of administrative officers established in the Department. This cadre was the brainchild of the then Minister of Agriculture Philip Gunawardhane and was operationalized by the then Deputy Director Administration Sam Silva, who Philip called a ‘” human dynamo”. (Sam was also the prime mover in the establishment of the CWE and the Petroleum Corporation).

Sugath 

Philip Gunawardena

CP De Silva

c

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, commoditification, communal relations, democratic measures, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, transport and communications, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, wild life

July 2, 2023 · 8:22 pm

Philip Gunawardena, The “Lion of Boralugoda

Sugeeswara Senadhira, in Daily News, 26 March 2021, where the title reads “The Relevance of Philip Gunawardena’s social nationalism”

Philip Gunawardena was a born leader who instinctively understood the hopes and aspirations of the people, a man close to the heartbeat of the nation. Today ( 26) is the 49th death anniversary of Philip Gunawardena, who earned the sobriquet ‘Lion of Boralugoda’.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, communal relations, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, social justice, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes

June 16, 2023 · 1:27 am

Revisiting Tarzie VittachI’s EMERGENCY ’58

Michael Roberts

In re-visiting an assortment of historical episodes in Sri Lanka’s past in unsytematic fashion I have been led to Tarzie Vittachi’s Emergençy ’58 (published in 1958) by Sugath Kulatunga’s detailed and invaluable recounting of his experiences as a government official in Polonnaruwa in the 1950s (an item still being processed).

While Vittachi was an experienced journalist, we cannot take every ‘fact’ that he presents as indubitable. However, this pointer towards his slim volume should, hopefully, bring new generations of Sri Lankans and outside observers into reflections on the consequences of the political currents unleashed in the general election in 1956 — notably the upsurge of the underprivileged classes and the demand for Sinhala Only.

This focus, however, should not promote currents of denunciation which throw the baby out with the bathwater. The inequalities of the pre-existing dispensation must be clinically drawn out as well.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, democratic measures, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, education policy, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, power politics, propaganda, racist thinking, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, trauma, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes

March 10, 2023 · 11:25 pm

The Marga Institute: Debating Sri Lanka’s Way Forward …. From Way Back

 Uditha Devapriya, in The Island, 10 March 2023, where the title reads “A visit to Marga” …. and where the highlighting embodies editorial intervention by Thuppahi

 Sri Lanka’s oldest development think-tank, Marga Institute was formed in 1972, at a time of deep social unrest.

“The ideological direction of the journal will be radical in that it will unremittingly question the values and systems that hinder development. It stands for an equitable and humane social order which will eradicate social and economic privilege and which will leave no room for the concentration and arbitrary exercise of power in any form.” ………. “About Marga”, Marga Journal, Volume I, 1971

photo by Uthpala

A random jaunt in Borella took me and my research assistant to Marga Institute, in my old hometown at Kotte. Sri Lanka’s oldest development think-tank — and Sri Lanka’s oldest such institution — Marga was formed in 1972 to promote and facilitate research into the island’s socioeconomic problems. That its founding coincided with the first JVP insurrection is not fortuitous: as Gamini Samaranayake would point out, the insurrection proved for the first time that an armed group could threaten the State. Among other commentators, Gamini Keerawella, Gananath Obeyesekere, Fred Halliday, and Hector Abhayavardhana grappled with the JVP’s origins, what it was doing, and where it intended to go. It was in the midst of these often-fiery debates and discussions that Marga came to be. This essay is an attempt at framing and understanding these debates, and how Marga emerged from them.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, constitutional amendments, democratic measures, economic processes, education, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, language policies, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom & censorship, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, world events & processes

March 3, 2023 · 4:51 pm

Reviewing Horowitz’s Analysis of the Aborted Coup D’etat of January 1962

Michael Roberts, presenting his review article on the study of the abortive 1962 coup plot by elements in the Sri Lanka officer corps by Donald Horowitz: namely, Coup Theories and Officers’ Motives. Sri Lanka in Comparative Perspective, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. This essay was entitled “Brown Sahibs in Universal Suits” and went through a refereeing process and appeared in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 1983 vol 6, pp. 62-77 …………… while the pdf version was converted/retyped for me by Nadeeka Pathuwaaratchchi in the Colombo metropolitan area.

The year 1956 is rightly regarded as a major junction in Sri Lankan history. At the general elections that year, a coalition of parties known as the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), in which the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was the major partner, achieved a landslide victory. This victory marked a populist upsurge of the vernacular educated and under-privileged mass of the population against the privileged few- a minority which was regarded as being both Westernised and conservative. In particular, the SLFP saw itself as the vanguard and instrument’ of “the common people of [the] country, the rural people” – that is to say, the rural Buddhist Sinhalese-speakıng masses.[1] Interlaced with this movement against privilege was a virulent expression of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. Its demand for a rapid switchover to Sinhala as the language of administration was at once a symbolic statement and an instrumental blow against the old structures of discrimination.[2]

 Mrs B and Felix Dias Bandaranaike                                                                                                                                            

 

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under accountability, communal relations, cultural transmission, electoral structures, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, military strategy, parliamentary elections, patriotism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, world affairs