Category Archives: social justice

Filed under accountability, charitable outreach, communal relations, economic processes, education, governance, life stories, patriotism, rehabilitation, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, working class conditions

March 1, 2024 · 12:29 am

The Roberts Mss at Adelaide University Library

Michael Roberts

Recent Email Exchanges with Jane Russell of UK, who has one foot in England and two feet in island Sri Lanka, and a revived focus on George E De Silva (1870-1950) reminded me of the George E. Mss Memoirs in typescript which Jane had given me long ago. This led me to a long list which amounts to a treasure trove for those addressing a variety of topics in the history of Sri Lanka. I present the details before. Those wishing to pursue specifics must write to the Head of the Special Collections at the Barr Smith Library Adelaide University, not to me: samantha.farnsworth@adelaide.edu.au

It is my conjecture that the same corpus of material (or parts thereof) will also be part of the Roberts Collection at the National Library Services Board along Torrington Rd (beside the National Archives) in Colombo. They could initially seek specifics from Mr Welimuni Sunil who heads the institution: viz …

Welimuni Sunil … sunilnldsb@gmail.com

Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, caste issues, chauvinism, Colombo and Its Spaces, colonisation schemes, commoditification, communal relations, counter-insurgency, cultural transmission, demography, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, insurrections, irrigation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, life stories, literary achievements, LTTE, modernity & modernization, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, photography, pilgrimages, plantations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, riots and pogroms, Royal College, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil migration, terrorism, transport and communications, unusual people, war reportage, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes, World War II and Ceylon

February 12, 2024 · 9:05 pm

Tamil Women at War as ‘Birds of Freedom’ in the LTTE Cause

Vindhya Buthpitiya: “How to Capture Birds of Freedom: Picturing Tamil Women at War,” Trans Asia Photography (2023) 13 (1) … derived from ………………………………………… https://doi.org/10.1215/21582025-10365016 … with the aid of my Aloysian mate KK De Silva; whilr the highlighting is my imposition.

Abstract: This article examines the uses of images of women fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during and after the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) to explore the contrasting mobilizations of visual representations of Tamil women cadres, focusing on the cultivation and framing of contradictory nationalist imaginaries by competing ethnic and state actors. In northern Sri Lanka, portraits of gun-bearing women fighters were wielded to signal revolutionary possibilities for the future of the Tamil nation-state as well as to inform the political socialization of its hopeful citizens. Meanwhile, images of Tamil women cadres were cast as gendered and ethnicized threats by the Sri Lankan state in what constituted a calculated form of visual ethno-political othering and weaponization. This article reflects on the ways in which such appropriations exacerbated the political precarity of and the denial of victimhood to Tamil women.

Malathy was the First Tamil Tigress to face death for the Tamiil for the Tamil Cause

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, asylum-seekers, authoritarian regimes, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, chauvinism, communal relations, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, doctoring evidence, Eelam, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, language policies, legal issues, life stories, military strategy, nationalism, news fabrication, NGOs, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, refugees, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry

January 1, 2024 · 11:05 pm

Empowering the Body and ‘Noble Death’

Michael Roberts and Arthur Saniotis, … reproducing the editorial introduction to a collection of essays devoted to the topic identified in the title pesented within Social Analysis, Volume 50, Issue 1, Spring 2006, 7–24 © Berghahn Journals ... with highlighting emphasis imposed in this version by Michael Roberts

Facing death with equanimity and with a honed, trained body is an expression of sheer power.[1] When a group of like-minded individuals confronts an opposi- tional force with equal mental and bodily capacities, whether on a sports ﬁeld or in a warring conﬂict, the result is power compounded. Each article in this special section ‘confronts’ such powers. Together they explore several regionally speciﬁc projects in Asia in which dying for a cause is seen as a virtue.

There are several parts of Asia where social practices and cultural traditions have consciously nourished bodily empowerment. In these select yet dynamic traditions, mind and body are conceived as a unity. Attentiveness to cosmic powers is an integral aspect of disciplined ascetic practices that seek to har- ness bodily energy in maximal ways. These practices confront death. They are directed toward transcending the fear of death—and death itself. When they are inserted into a moment of violent conﬂict involving interpersonal combat, they encourage a steely, terrifying fearlessness as well as deadly striking power.

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Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, american imperialism, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, Fascism, female empowerment, fundamentalism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, immolation, Indian traditions, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, jihadists, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, martyrdom, military strategy, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, patriotism, photography, politIcal discourse, racism, racist thinking, security, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, violence of language, war crimes, world events & processes, zealotry

December 25, 2023 · 8:42 pm

Pro-Palestinian Rallies on US Campuses

Daniel Arkin, in NBC News, 26 October 2023 where the title runs thus: “Israel-Hamas war continues to roil American colleges, sparking walkouts”

The war has raised the temperature on some campuses, giving rise to social environments that mirror the country’s similarly polarized politics. Dozens of U.S. colleges and universities are increasingly riven by tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas, offering a window into how a rising generation perceives the conflict in the Middle East and the U.S. government’s foreign policy in the region.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest at Columbia University in New York on Oct. 12… Yuki Iwamura / AP

Filed under accountability, anti-racism, arab regimes, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, education, ethnicity, foreign policy, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, life stories, military strategy, Palestine, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, social justice, truth as casualty of war, violence of language, world events & processes

December 9, 2023 · 12:08 am

Hilda Muriel Kularatne, Theosophist & Educationist in Ceylon

Rehan Kularatne, presenting an original essay which has received its title and had highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

My grandmother Hilda Muriel Westbrook was born in Dulwich on 28 November 1895. She was the daughter of Walter Francis Westbrook, later Chief Registrar of the Colonial Office, and Jessie Duncan, a Scottish poet and scholar, the sister of noted (and absolutely dreadful) Celtic Revival painter John Duncan RSA. Jessie Duncan Westbrook was to publish a number of verse renditions of Persian, Sufi and Hindu poetry in the 1910s. She and my great-grandfather, being Theosophists, were both extremely interested in ‘Eastern’ religions.

Hilda was educated at the progressive James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS) in Dulwich. Having excelled in modern languages (French and German) as well as in team sports like hockey (in addition to having Gustav Holst as her music master), she went on to Newnham in Cambridge to do a degree in Modern Languages in 1914, just after WWI broke out. (Though she completed the degree in 1917, she had to wait 30 years to be actually awarded her MA, as Cambridge was the last university in England to accept female graduates.)

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Filed under accountability, British colonialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, Colombo and Its Spaces, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, ethnicity, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, teaching profession, travelogue, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes

November 30, 2023 · 7:58 pm

The Indian Tamils in British Ceylon & Sri Lanka: Pursuing Their Equality TODAY

International Conference focusing on the topic “MOVING TOWARDS EQUALITY AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH.”…. 200 years of People of Indian Origin Tamils (IOT) in Sri Lanka” …. BCIS Auditorium (The Olympus), BMICH, Colombo, 11^th December 2023

Welcome & Opening Address: Dr. Mario Gomez
Executive Director
International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo …

Inaugural Address: Dr. Yasodara Kathirgamathamby
Conference Chair, Department of Legal Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
The Open University of Sri Lanka

Special Address: Prof. Gamini Keerawella,
Executive Director, Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, Colombo

Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, female empowerment, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, legal issues, liberation tigers of tamil eelam, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, unusual people, world events & processes

November 22, 2023 · 3:35 pm

Michael Roberts Papers at Adelaide University Library

Michael Roberts Papers, mainly on Sri Lanka ……MSS 0031 …. AT = University of Adelaide Library………………………………………………. https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/transcripts%20list

Philip Gunawardena

Edmund R Leach

Filed under accountability, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, communal relations, cultural transmission, devolution, economic processes, education, ethnicity, European history, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes, World War II and Ceylon

November 13, 2023 · 1:09 am

Lakshman Wickremasinghe’s Allround Excellence at Royal College in 1944

Lam Seneviratne: Email Note to Michael Roberts, 12 November 2023

The recent articles by you and Rajiva Wijesinha in connection of the 40th death anniversary of Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe are great tributes to him. They speak of him as a Priest, Chaplain and Bishop, his human qualities and how he lived his life as a true disciple of Jesus Christ, touching the lives of many.

Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, language policies, life stories, martyrdom, meditations, patriotism, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, unusual people

November 7, 2023 · 8:28 pm

Ruvendrini Menikdiwela in Key UNHCR Role

News Item: “Secretary-General appoints Ms. Ruvendrini Menikdiwela of Sri Lanka as Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Ruvendrini Menikdiwela of Sri Lanka as Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Ms. Menikdiwela will succeed Gillian Triggs of Australia, to whom both the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Refugees are grateful for her dedicated service to the refugee cause.