Michael Roberts
After discovering the Lorenz letters in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s I worked on the history of the island in the ninetenth cenury-and-thereafter with aid from Percy Colin-Thome and Ismeth Raheem in a book which apeared as People Inbetween under the imprint of Sarvodaya Book Publishing Services in 1989. One of its central themes is embodied in a chapter entitled “Colonial Transitions: The Development of Colombo’s Hegemonic Power.”
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, democratic measures, devolution, economic processes, electoral structures, governance, growth pole, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, transport and communications, world events & processes
Harry Solomons, FOG and Cricketing Philanthrophy Down South
From The ALOYSIAN, April 2021, edit. by Johnny De Silva
Ashen Bandara the promising cricketer is the latest addition to the Sri Lanka team as a brilliant fielder at any position and a useful middle order batsman who also bowls right arm leg spinners. The 22-year old player from St. Aloysius’ College in Galle has already proved his ability during the current West Indies tour and made 44 in the second T20 match that Sri Lanka won and then become the fifth batsman from the island to make a half century on debut in an ODI when he achieved the feat in the first match against the same opposition last Wednesday. Bandara was at home playing the sweep shot like a seasoned pro and scored most of his runs on the leg side in reaching his half century in 60 balls as Sri Lanka were all out for 232.
Jeremy De Lima of Melbourne … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
When Avishka asked me for an opinion of his book, I thought of presenting this to him in a review, but was hesitant, as this has been done before, at greater literary levels that I can ever aspire to. All these have been so comprehensive, there doesn’t seem to be anything left to write without resorting to plagiarism i.e. reproducing the words and ideas of another without attribution. However, not wanting to stoop to this and/or to refuse this genuine request, I thought I will instead, accompany the young author on the rocky road he has journeyed in publishing this book on the story of St Joseph’s College, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Chandre Dharmawardana, whose preferred title is “Political Rhetoric, or Sounding the Death Knell of Sri Lanka’s Agriculture?”
A quote attributed to the Greek play write Euripides says that “ Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”. Reading the news from Sri Lanka, one can only wonder if a prescient Euripides had Lanka’s successive rulers since 1970 in mind.
Filed under accountability, biotechnology, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, environmental degradation, governance, irrigation, island economy, land policies, life stories, medical puzzles, patriotism, politIcal discourse, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Sirima Kiribamune, in Ethnic Studies Report, vol IV/1, January 1986, pp. 1-23 … article retrieved via meticulous work by Iranga Silva of the ICES, Kandy — in a committed labour of love
“The past is intelligible to us only in light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in the light of the past.” E.H. Carr.[*]
Professor Kiribamune
The current ethnic problems of Sri Lanka form the backdrop to this paper. The present tension lies between the majority Sinhalese who speak an Indo-Aryan tongue and the Tamils who use a Dravidian language. The two groups claim distinct racial antecedents, the Sinhalese styling themselves Aryans from north India and the Tamils tracing their origins to the Dravidians of the south. (The use of the terms ‘Aryan’ and ‘Dravidian’ to denote racial groups is considered totally unscientific. This terminology can only be used in a linguistic context. Sinhalese is included in the Indo-European or Aryan group of languages and Tamil belongs to the Dravidian group. The division of people speaking these two groups of languages into distinct racial types is not valid even for India and less so for Sri Lanka.) This division is further marked by religious differences, the Sinhalese being largely Buddhist and the Tamils, Hindus. Interested parties on both sides of the conflict have tried to use the past to legitimise different standpoints. It is the responsibility of the historian to set the record straight and that is the aim of this paper, but one is all too aware of the fact that complete detachment in the writing of history is hardly ever achieved. It is an ideal towards which one strives and needs to strive.
Filed under ancient civilisations, architects & architecture, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, island economy, life stories, politIcal discourse, population, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, world events & processes
Anoma Pieris** with an introductory note in response to my invitation that is pertinent & runs thus “Hello Uncle Michael, Nice to hear from you. Afraid you reach me at a time when I am overwhelmed with work, in fact that has been the case throughout the pandemic. I dont know if I have the mental space to address your text but offer instead reflection on my understanding of the theme. Best, Anoma.”
My childhood sensibilities of being Sinhala were formed in two ways which were moral and monstrous: (1) First by being educated in a language stream with specific texts like the Guttila Kavya, Saddharma Ratnavaliya, Ummaga Jatakaya, which being religious texts, educated even a nominally Christian child in a missionary college into Sinhala Buddhist forms of cultural patrimony and morality. But because it was a Christian school the lines between Sinhala and Tamil classes were lightly drawn and we came together for sports activities, and after 1983 for many more subjects, partly due to the depletion of numbers but also a deliberate strategy initiated by our principal Sirancee Gunawardana, who was committed to empathetic coexistence. (2) The second way in which being Sinhala was made evident to me was through the 1983 pogrom when for a short time I volunteered in the camp set up in our school, seeing people like myself from my social background who had been displaced, dispossessed and fearful and witnessing and being made aware of Sinhala identification as behind monstrous acts. It also made me aware that I was part of a Christian minority and that a division was being drawn within the Sinhala community because of our greater empathy for Tamil friends.
Filed under accountability, communal relations, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, historical interpretation, human rights, language policies, life stories, meditations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, power politics, riots and pogroms, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, violence of language, world events & processes, zealotry
Filed under heritage, performance, sri lankan society
Fr Tissa Balasuriya
VISIT THIS SITE: https://dpul.princeton.edu/sae_sri_lanka_dissidents?fbclid=IwAR0r_CuHdd9OwgkvjStbaGXlscmQ7hwkI1uJRt1uETMLIebFoVq1bPr40vY
This collection documents the activity of a generation of Sri Lankan radical activists who, in their different ways, attempted to escape the claims of rival ethno-nationalisms and build alternative political and development projects, drawing on Marxism, Christian socialism, and feminism, among other inspirations.
Fr Yohan Devananda
Fr Michael Rodrigo & Fr Paul Caspersz
Filed under atrocities, communal relations, cultural transmission, education, heritage, historical interpretation, human rights, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, performance, plural society, politIcal discourse, power politics, press freedom & censorship, religiosity, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, working class conditions, world events & processes
Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, 29 April 2021, where the title reads thus: “Sri Lanka follows an independent foreign policy, will never bend to outside pressures, Chinese media quoted Mr. Rajapaksa”
Filed under centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, China and Chinese influences, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, life stories, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, transport and communications, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
thuppahi
