Anusha Palpita in 2016: “Independence Day in Black and White Video,” 20 July 2020, https://thuppahis.com/2020/07/30/independence-day-1949-in-black-and-white-video/
Thuppahi 2022: ….. https://thuppahis.com/2022/11/21/eureka-the-film-clip-of-the-1949-independence-day-festivities-secured/
KLF Wijedasa: “A Symbolic Moment of Ethnic Oneness,” 4 February 2021, https://thuppahis.com/2021/02/04/a-symbolic-moment-of-ethnic-oneness-at-independence-day-4-february-1948/
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cultural transmission, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, tolerance, unusual people, world events & processes
Translation by Vinod Moonesinghe from Robert Gunawardena’s “Memoirs of Bracegirdle” … 1.44 to
Mark Anthony BracegirdleIn April 1937, a remarkable incident took place which strengthened the anti-imperialist struggle and aroused the interest of the masses. That is, the Bracegirdle Incident which is spoken about by older people to this day.
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, martyrdom, nationalism, performance, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Laleen Jayamanne, in The Island, 28 December 2022, reviewing Ayesha Wickramasinghe’s ‘The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka’
Dr. Ayesha Wickramasinghe, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Textile and Apparel Engineering, at the University of Moratuwa, has recently published her doctoral research on sartorial styles, The Dress of Women in Sri Lanka (2021), in a handsomely designed hardcover book. The historical information, which spans the colonial and the postcolonial periods, with glances at the ancient past, is presented as a cultural survey, in an engaging manner, with a large number of photographs embedded, in the text, as illustrations. It has been published by The National Science Foundation and has recently received a national award as well.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, British colonialism, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, gender norms, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, nationalism, photography, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
Courtesy of Richard Koenigsberg in New York
HITLER: “If I don’t mind sending the pick of the German people into the hell of war without regret over the spilling of precious German blood, then I naturally also have the right to eliminate millions of an inferior race that multiplies like vermin.” …..
Adolf Hitler raises a defiant, clenched fist during a speech.
circa 1933: German Dictator, Adolf Hitler addressing a rally in Germany. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, disparagement, ethnicity, Fascism, historical interpretation, Hitler, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, military strategy, nationalism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, racist thinking, self-reflexivity, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, war reportage, world events & processes, World War II, zealotry
Michael Roberts …. presenting the first section in Chapter X of People Inbetween (1989) pp 140-47. … The chapter is entitled “Standing Forth as Ceylonese, 1850s” *++*
Introduction
We need to begin by reaching back into the Maritime Provinces of Ceylon during the first decades of British rule after their seizure of these territories in 1795-96. We shall first recapitulate some of the points made in previous chapters.
We saw that the distinction between VOC officialdom and the Burghers quickly disappeared under the British; that the Hollandsche and even the Tupass of yesteryear were defined as Europeans in some British regulations. We also saw that there was some measure of social interaction between the British and creole families of respectable status during the early decades of British rule (supra: 50ff). In both social intercourse and collective designation, however, the old distinction between the Hollandsche and the Tupass persisted in the form of the opposition between the “Burgher Inhabitants” (or its equivalent, for example, “Dutch”) and the “Portuguese” (or Tupass, Topaz, Mestizos, Mechanics) when people used the English language; and in Sinhala between “lánsi” on the one hand and “tuppáhi” or “párángi” or sinno on the other.[1]
Filed under British colonialism, British imperialism, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, racism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
A Section translated from Robert Gunawardena, Satanaka Satahan, Kosgama: 2007, Vijith Gunawardena: ….. provided here by Vinod Moonesinghe …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In April 1937, a remarkable incident took place which strengthened the anti-imperialist struggle [in Sri Lanka} and aroused the interest of the masses. That is, the Bracegirdle Incident which is spoken about by older people to this day.
Mark Antony Lyster Bracegirdle, an Australian, came to Lanka in December 1936 to gain appointment as the assistant superintendant of a tea estate owned by a British plantation company. It is possible that the plantation company which appointed him to this position did not know that he had been a young member of the Australian Communist Party. Having come to Lanka, Bracegirdle took up his duties in a tea estate not far from Madulkele, beyond Katugastota.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, discrimination, disparagement, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
Uditha Devapriya, in The Island, 9 December 2022, where the title runs thus: “Some reflections on nationalism, extremism, and warfare”
“Ethnonationalism was not a chance detour in European history: it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit that are heightened by the process of modern state creation. It is a crucial source of both solidarity and enmity, and in one form or another, it will remain for many generations to come. One can only profit from facing it directly.” …. Jerry Muller, “Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism”, Foreign Affairs (Council on Foreign Relations), March 2008 The first Human Security Report, published by the Human Security Centre, released in 2005, and subtitled “War and Peace in the 21st century”, strikes a dissonant chord in a world still reeling from the horrors of the September 11 attacks. Noting a decline in armed warfare since the end of the Cold War, its authors dismiss worries of increasing conflict in a section tellingly titled “Myths and misunderstandings.”
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, economic processes, European history, foreign policy, historical interpretation, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, religious nationalism, security, self-reflexivity, truth as casualty of war, 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
Kumar Kirinde et al in the RAFOA circle
Ref to the subject, each year on 11th November, Britain and the Commonwealth countries remember their war dead in a formal manner by laying Poppy wreaths at their respective national war memorials and war graves related to those fallen in battle and those who died while in service during the two World Wars. 11th November 1918 is the day WW1 came to an end with the signing of the Armistice. Hence this day is considered as the remembrance day.
Filed under accountability, Britain's politics, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes
Fair Dinkum, an original essay, with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In August 2022, under coercion from India, the Sri Lankan authorities denied a Chinese research vessel entry into Hambantota port for provisions and refuelling. India falsely accused the vessel of being a spy ship without a shred of evidence. China requested the Sri Lankan authorities reverse its decision and in good faith, China disclosed the activities of the ship to the Sri Lankan authorities, reassuring them the ship was not a spy ship tracking India’s intercontinental missile. Sri Lanka quickly reversed its decision, and a grand ceremony was organized to welcome the Chinese vessel and its crew with Presential staff attending, speeches, and performances of low-country dances, almost like it was the first moon-landing.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, economic processes, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tourism, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, world events & processes
thuppahi
