Category Archives: religious nationalism

The Work of Anthropologists from Sri Lanka: Reviewing the World Scenario in 1987

Presenting an academic article published in Contributions to  Indian Sociology , n.s, Vol 21, 1-25 also reproduced subsequently in Sri Lanka in 1989 as No, 10 within the SSC Pamphlet Series marshalled by the late Ana Chittambalam, Willa Wickremasinghe , Hari hulugalle and Michael Roberts

Elizabeth Nissan: “The work of Sri Lankan anthropologists: A bibliographic survey”

 Introduction: Although many of the studies included in this essay are concerned with Sri Lanka, this is not a bibliographic essay on the anthropology of that country. It is, instead, a survey of the work of Sri Lankan anthropologists, wherever they may have carried out their research.

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Reading Donald Friend’s Paintbrush ‘Reading’ of the Bandaranaike Assassination

Thuppahi invited its Limited Circle of Readers to Interpret the Brushwork Reading of the Awful Act of a Buddhist Monk a named Somarama Thero on  29th September 1959 …. who pulled out a revolver as the Prime Minister bowed in the customary worship of a Buddhist religiosi…. and killed him.[1]

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A Lament: Biased US Media Coverage of the Pro-Palestinian Protests at Columbia University

Mobashra Tazamal’s LAMENT from The Campus at Columbia University

“I am left with the understanding that to be Muslim at Columbia is to face extreme censorship of your language to appease an audience that doesn’t represent nor respect you. To be Muslim at Columbia is to be racially profiled and doxxed, beg for administrative resources and support, and still receive none. To be Muslim at Columbia is to face Islamophobia on campus—to be spat on and called “terrorists”—and receive no University acknowledgment or recognition. Instead, our experiences are interrogated, as administrators try to poke holes in our narratives, questioning whether they even happened, while others get seats at the table with the University President and the governor of New York, dedicated to making sure they feel seen, heard, and valued.

To be Muslim at Columbia is to have your community and peers be suspended, arrested, and brutalized by the New York Police Department for peacefully protesting the genocide of those who widely look and practice like us, and still being made out to be the aggressors.”

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A Lifetime Addressing Nationalist Political Currents & Zealotry

Michael Roberts

As I attend a friend’s funeral every now and then in Adelaide or receive mail conveying sad tidings re good friends and other acquaintances, I am reminded that I will disappear into the dust in due course relatively soon. So be it.

However there has been a lifetime of endeavour in various fields. One range of activity has been in the academic realm investigating socio-political events and processes in the world …. with particular attention directed towards my home-country Sri Lanka’s affairs.

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Devastating Israeli Assaults on Rafah

  Observer in a Black Sea Town … writing on 7/8th May 2024 after Israel’s devastating assault began the day before.

Israel has just launched its devastating attack on the densely populated city of Rafah promising to use extreme force against 1.4 million Palestinian citizens. The Wankers of the White House, may shed crocodile tears for the slaughtering of Palestinans and they will wank on about it not being a good idea, but the fact remains that the US did absolutely nothing to prevent it, which means they condone it.
Smoke billows from n Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza, May 6, 2024 ©  AFP

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The Story of Palestinian Christians from 1948 ….. Submerged & Sidelined

An Item in Journeyman Pictures on 19 March 2024 with this title: ”   “The Story Of Palestinian Christians | The Stones Cry Out (2013) … Full Film”  … an item referred to me by Dulip Karunaratne of Brisbane

In 1948 the history of Palestine changed forever, but little is ever said about the upheaval faced by its Christian minority. Christians have lived side by side with Muslims and Jews for almost two thousand years. An integral part of Palestinian society, they have shared in the events of recent history, yet their voices are seldom heard and worse: their existence often ignored.

A NOTE: by 19 March 2024  this TALE had received 109,306 views Mar 19, 2024

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SSC: The Studies in Society & Culture Project, 1992 et seq

SSC PAMPHLET PROJECT

Some of you may remember this project in Sri Lanka in the 1990s directed towards making selected academic articles on the history & politics of Sri Lanka available to the English-reading public at affordable rates. My unreliable memory indicates that the personnel behind this enterprise were myself, Ananda Chittampalam, Willa Wickramasinghe and our engine, so to speak, was the press operated by Haris Hulugalla.

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Epitome of British Perfidy: Piers Morgan Laid Bare

Camel Rider **

Listen//See https://youtu.be/aelzcw0Q3QE?si=GyB80oZknUfG71Fk

When you see the level of stupidity, arrogance and incompetence, as part of a massive disinformation campaign coming from the British mainstream media today (as illustrated in this interview by Piers Morgan) we can have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in anything the Western mainstream media says. In this interview, Professor Marandi’s explanations were correct. His analysis of Iran’s response to Israel’s destruction of the Iranian Embassy was correct. Iran responded by mounting three interrelated operations.

Piers Morgan 

P rofessor Marandi

The first was a Psychological Warfare operation. Here, Iran delayed their retaliatory strike by two weeks in order to sow fear among the Israeli population and to undermine confidence in the Israeli Government.

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Imagine there’s no countries, nothing to kill or die for

Rohini Hensman …. An article composed at the end of the year 2003 for a conference in January 2004; and eventually published in 2012 (see below: fn 1) …. with the title being borrowed from ‘Imagine,’ by John Lennon …. and the highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

I would like to look at the issue of community and nationalism and its continued relevance at the present, and in particular to analyse its association with authoritarianism, militarisation, nuclearisation, terrorism, and questions of war and peace in South Asia. Within this region, there is a very close parallel between the current situation in Sri Lanka [2003-04] and developments which have taken place much earlier in India, Pakistan, and later Bangladesh. In both cases, we see the development of strong authoritarian tendencies, linked up to either religion or ethnicity.

 

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Gross Misrepresentation in Bolt’s Analysis of Penny Wong’s Position on Palestine

Adrian Bishop

Let me deconstruct Bolt’s disinformation about Penny Wong, Hamas and Israel in his item in the Herald Sun 11/4/2024. …. A little analysis of Bolt’s disinformation about Penny Wong, Hamas and Israel. It was published in the Herald Sun 11/4/2024. [THE ITEM had this headline: “Wong’s Palestine plan a win for Hamas …]

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