A Spark from The Editor, Thuppahi, 26 October 2024, by resurrecting a TPS Comment from 2017
Perchance I recently came across an old comment from Professor Chandre Dharmawardena [based in Canada] which raises explosive questions about the dry zone irrigation projects in Sri Lanka launched in the mid-20th century — questions which engage the political currents of that period and thereby invole such figures as DS Senanayake, LH Mettananda, GG Ponnambalam, SWRD Bandaranaike.
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AUTHOR unknown –– An Item sent by Nandi Jasentuliyana — Ex-Richmond College and long resident in USA
This documentary is by Beena Sarwar….. https://www.dawn.com/news/1864914
“There is a fine line between order and chaos. Its tenuous separation lies at the heart of the grand cycle of oppositional linkages in myth and history, in which fate, humans and nature seek a way out of the turbulence to which they may well have themselves contributed.
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Edward Upali
I address the issues raised by Dr. Dharmawardene in his essay ……………… https://thuppahis.com/2024/10/09/the-mahaweli-development-project-in-hindsight/#more-85348.
Dr. Dharmawardene says thousands of lives could have been saved if the planners of the Mahaweli Project had provided pipe-borne water supply to the colonists. In hindsight, similar arguments could also be made with respect to the Second World War 2, such as, if some of the European countries were more decisive and united against Germany, millions of lives would have been saved.
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Q and A with William Dalrymple, Historian …. in Q and A in The Weekend Australian Magazine, 21/22 September 2024
William Dalrymple was born in Scotland in 1965, and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He was educated at Ampleforth and Trinity College, Cambridge where he was first History Exhibitioner then Senior History Scholar.
He is the author of nine books about India and the Islamic world, including City of Djinns , White Mughals, The Last Mughal and Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India.
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About Bart Klem = My research is focused on questions of political order amidst and after civil war. I am interested in state institutions, de facto sovereignty of rebel movements and public authority. Sri Lanka has been my main country specialization, but I also work on Northern Cyprus and I have done some work on Indonesia (mainly Kalimantan). More details may also be found on my personal website.
Before joining Gothenburg University in 2020, I was lecturer at the University of Melbourne and the University of Zurich.
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Chandre Dharmawardena … an original article …with highlighting imposed by The Editor. TPS
It is interesting to look at the agenda of the workshop held at GANNORUWA in August 1974 [see references below] and ask what questions (and topics) should have been raised at that time, in hindsight, in the context of a number of issues where the Mahaweli project went very badly wrong.
Although there are many issues to consider where the Mahaweli project made mistakes, I will here write on just one issue that led to the deaths of thousands of farmers, beginning from late 1990s, initially mostly in the Mahaweli C project area (I think).
The map is adapted from Balasooriya et al 2020.
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AGRICULTURE IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA’ … conference organised by the Ceylon Studies Seminar ……16th – 19th August, 1974 …… at the In Service Training Centre, Gannoruwa
** The times of the mid-morning and afternoon tea-breaks will be announced each day.
** The names of the chairman and the discussant for each session will be indicated in a list which will be circulated later.
** The two papers marked with an asterisk may not be available for discussion.
A symbolic natural phenomenon from the Peradeniya University campus …. anticipaing potential prospects from the intellectual flowerings generated within its portals
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Michael Roberts
The three-day conference on 16-19 August 1974 devoted to the topic of AGRICULTURE IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA held at the excellent conference facility at the Department of Agriculture at Gannoruwa – within easy distance from the Peradeniya University campus – was an instance of the capacities and vitality of the Ceylon Studies Seminar at the Peradeniya University. The CSS had been launched in 1968 and its story has been documented elsewhere with an emphasis on the roles of Prof Gananath Obeyesekere, myself, Vijaya Samaraweera, SWR de Samarasinghe, CR de Silva, typists Mrs Hettiaratchchi & Kumaraswamy and cyclostyle-operator Sathiah (see …………………………………. https://thuppahis.com/2018/10/02/nationalist-studies-and-the-ceylon-studies-seminar-at-peradeniya-1968-1970s/).
Piyasiri
CR …. and Sathiah
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Michael Roberts
Kumar Sangakkara’s recent step as a front-personage for tourism in Sri Lanka (see https://thuppahis.com/2024/09/29/kumar-sangakkara-for-tourist-trips-to-sri-lanka/) calls to mind his bold steps on behalf of ethnic compromise and reconciliation in Sri Lanka in the 200os. In these efforts he was joined at diferent moments by Murali and Mahela [tsunami relief tours) and his wife Yehali (visit to St Patricks College in Jaffna, 2009).
These instances underline the weight of the messages in an article from my pen which was presented in GROUNDVIEWS by Sanjana Hattotuwa and Co towards the end of THE YEAR 2012.
Standing now in the year 2024 this essays — as well as the comments it attracted — may serve as useful points of departure for meaningful commentary.
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Thuppahi is pleased to present a photo of the key personnel located in Sri Lanka who were involved in launching the new cutting/edge academic venture known as THE CEYLON JOURNAL this year.
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