Michael Roberts
Early in the month of February 2023, I was invited by a young friend, Dr Geethika Dharmasinghe, to deliver a Zoom Video Lecture to a small class of her students at Colgate University in New York. These students were following her course on “Religion and Violence in Asia.”
Gandhi speaking and Zahran Hashim in pact with fellow Lankan jihadists 
…. Zahran was one of the two suicide bombers at the Shangri La Hotel in Colombo on Easter Sunday 2019 where where 36 people died
Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, atrocities, cultural transmission, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, jihad, jihadists, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, meditations, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, politIcal discourse, racism, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes
Laleen Jayamanne, whose title is “Notes towards a Politics and Aesthetics of Film” in a review essay presented in The Island, 1 & 2 February 2023: the focus being Ashfaque Mohamed’s ‘Face Cover’ **
‘Face Cover’ by Ashfaque Mohamed
Asfaque Mohamed
“Black cat, at the tip of my fingers pulsates poetry,
Desiring hands, yours, nudgingly pluck those roses of mine
In the soft light of the moon
The dreams we picked from the foaming edges of waves of the sea.”
Jusla/Salani (in Face Cover)
Filed under anti-racism, art & allure bewitching, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Islamic fundamentalism, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, performance, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Dennis B. McGilvray, in India Review 5(2-3) November 2006, special issue on public anthropology, …. where the title reads “Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka: An Anthropologist Confronts the Real World” …. with highlighting in different colours imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
Recent calls for a new “public anthropology” to promote greater visibility for ethnographic research in the eyes of the press and the general public, and to bolster the courage of anthropologists to address urgent issues of the day, are laudable although probably too hopeful as well. Yet, while public anthropology could certainly be more salient in American life, it already exists in parts of the world such as Sri Lanka where social change, ethnic conflict, and natural catastrophe have unavoidably altered the local context of ethnographic fieldwork. Much of the anthropology of Sri Lanka in the last three decades would have to count as “public” scholarship, because it has been forced to address the contemporary realities of labor migration, religious politics, the global economy, and the rise of violent ethno-nationalist movements. As a long-term observer of the Tamil-speaking Hindu and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka’s eastern coastal region, I have always been attracted to the classic anthropological issues of caste, popular religion, and matrilineal kinship. However, in the wake of the civil wars for Tamil Eelam and the 2004 tsunami disaster, I have been forced to confront (somewhat uneasily) a fundamentally altered fieldwork situation. This gives my current work a stronger flavor of public anthropology, while providing an opportunity for me to trace older matrilocal family patterns and Hindu-Muslim religious traditions under radically changed conditions.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, disaster relief team, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, insurrections, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, meditations, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, nature's wonders, politIcal discourse, power politics, rehabilitation, security, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, teaching profession, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Neloufer De Mel, in History Today, Vol 72/8, September 2022, where the title reads “Sri Lanka’s Deep Wounds” **
On 31 March 2022 a public protest occurred in the vicinity of the home of the Sri Lankan president Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The protest marked frustration at the shortages of essential commodities (gas, medicines, fuel) and the gruelling ten-to-13-hour power cuts imposed by a cash-strapped government with insufficient dollars to pay for imported fuel. The protestors also sought answers as to why certain neighbourhoods (such as Mirihana, where the president lived) continued to enjoy uninterrupted power.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, debt restructuring, democratic measures, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Ajit Kanagasundaram
40 years have now elapsed since the launch of the accelerated Mahaweli project, so it is an opportune time to review what was done and the benefits and shortfalls of the project to the nation. This project was the culmination of a 50 yearlong process that started with the rehabilitate ancient irrigation works and settlement of the dry zone lands that was initiated by our first Prime Minister, DS Senanayake, when he was the Agriculture Minister in the State Council during the British Raj. After independence, this moved on to more ambitious projects building large multi-purpose schemes like Gal Oya and Uda Walawe culminating in the accelerated Mahaweli project.
Filed under ancient civilisations, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, colonisation schemes, communal relations, demography, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, power politics, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society
Avishka Mario Senewiratne, whose preferred title reads “The Josephian Cricketer who became the First British Qualified Muslim Doctor of Sri Lanka”
Small by area, large in diversity and history is the country, Sri Lanka. We, since the early Aryans came to the island, experienced the arrival of nations, either friendly or dominating, from the east and west. Some left, some stayed. Those who remained became us. We strived to accept this diversity. Yet, rulers tried to exploit us, by dividing and ruling. Beautiful is it to see people from all walks of life, irrespective of class, caste, creed and race working together and of course studying.
Uditha Devapriya, reviewing Gananath Obeyesekere’s new book The Many Faces of the Kandyan Kingdom (1591-1765) Colombo, Perera-Hussein, 2020, 200 pp., Rs. 1,200 ... with ‘arbitrary’ highlighting imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
In 1602, the year of the Dutch East India Company’s founding, Joris van Spilbergen reached the shores of Sri Lanka after setting sail from the seaport of Veere in Holland a year earlier. Tasked with opening up trade negotiations with the King of Kandy, Vimaladharmasuriya, Spilbergen bore with him a letter from the Prince of Orange, acknowledging their willingness to counter the Portuguese. Not for one moment underestimating the Portuguese presence in the island, though, they disembarked at Batticaloa, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Kandyan Court. They anchored off the coast on May 31.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, population, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, religiosity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
One can win the War, but lose the Peace. A cliche this may be, but it is also a hoary truism that looms over the post-war scenario in Sri Lanka. The triumphant Sri Lankan government now has to address the human terrain rather than the fields of battle.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, education, ethnicity, gender norms, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, IDP camps, language policies, legal issues, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tolerance, unusual people, world events & processes
Rajesh Venugopal, … presenting here the second chapter in his book Nationalism, Development and the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka, Cambridge University Press, 2018,…. 78-1-108-42879 8 hdback
Sinhala nationalism is the dominant form of political consciousness in contemporary Sri Lanka. As what might easily be characterised as an illiberal ‘ethnic’ nationalism of the east rather than the western ‘civic’ ideal[1], it is also widely identified as a serious challenge to the functioning of liberal democratic institutions, and to multi-ethnic coexistence. Sinhala nationalism features as a central element in the literature on contemporary Sri Lankan politics, and in particular, on the ethnic conflict. Understanding Sinhala nationalism is thus of critical significance and this imperative has inspired an extensive and sophisticated literature.
Filed under British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, democratic measures, demography, discrimination, economic processes, electoral structures, ethnicity, European history, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, parliamentary elections, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, 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
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