Avishka Mario Senewiratne, reviewing the book by Rajiva Wijesinghe that assesses Ranil Wickremasinghe’s recent political career
Last December, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha released a new book titled Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Emasculation of the United National Party. As the title suggests, the book tackles a contentious and provocative topic and may not be an easy read for everyone. Nevertheless, it presents a highly engaging and insightful narrative that warrants close attention.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, economic processes, electoral structures, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, taking the piss, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions
Sarath Rajapatirana & Premachandra Athukorala, whose appraisal is entitled “In Memoriam: Sisira Jayasuriya, 1946-2025″
The distinguished economist Professor Sisira Kumara Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka-born and a scholar who spent much of his professional life in Australia, passed away on 18 February 2025, after a prolonged battle with cancer. Sisira was a remarkable man: a highly respected economist whose intellectual contributions ranged far and wide; an influential public intellectual; a wonderful teacher, mentor, and institution-builder; and a deeply loved friend to many people across cultures and all over the world. Continue reading
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CR De Silva in Memo responding to a Query from Shihan De Silva in UK
The evidence as to from what parts of India the KSD (Karava, Salagama, Durawa) castes arrived in Sri Lanka is not totally clear, but there are some indications in Portuguese sources. I have no data on the origins of the Durava.
However, here is what I have traced on the Salagamas. It suggests that the Salagamas came from the South Indian Malabar or Kerala coast and that the Karavas migrated from the eastern shores of the South Indian coast (currently Tamilnadu). Given that caste identity was connected to occupation, we should note that changes in occupation could have enabled some individuals to move from their caste identities especially during migration.
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Mick Moore, whose chosen title is “It’s the Party, Stupid: Sri Lanka’s Political Turnaround – Part 1” ….. while the highlighting in this version with a different title has been imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Photo courtesy of BBC
It is not quite a miracle. But it is certainly a very impressive turnaround. From around 1970 until 2021, Sri Lanka seemed to be on an irreversible track toward steadily worsening governance: grand corruption, disregard of the law, ethnic and religious conflict, state violence and (non-military) government incapacity and incompetence. Today, by contrast, following the September 2024 presidential and the November 2024 parliamentary elections, the prospects for more substantive democracy and better governance seem bright. The old political elite and the broader politician class have been replaced almost completely through the most peaceful and fair elections that the country has seen for a long time. The prospect of military intervention in politics has entirely faded. The female proportion of MPs doubled from a very low 5 percent in a year when the global trend was in the other direction.
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M. W. Amarasiri De Silva: “Do name changes to “acaste” names by the Sinhalese indicate a diminishing significance of caste?”
ABSTRACT of article pubd in in Cultural Dynamics, 2018, Vol. 30(4), pp. 303–325 ………………………………….. sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav httpDs:/O/dIo: i1.o0r.g1/1107.171/0779/201932173470410918982299660055
In modern Sri Lankan society, caste has become less significant as a marker of social identity and exclusion than was the case in the past. While acknowledging this trend across South Asian societies, the literature does not adequately explain why this is happening. Increasing urbanization, the growing number of inter-caste marriages, the expanding middle class, and the bulging youth population have all been suggested as contributory factors. In rural Sri Lanka, family names are used as identifiers of family and kinship groups within each caste. The people belonging to the “low castes” identified with derogatory village and family names are socially marginalized and stigmatized. Social segregation, marked with family names and traditional caste occupations, makes it difficult for the low-caste people to move up in the class ladder, and socialize in the public sphere. Political and economic development programs helped to improve the living conditions and facilities in low-caste villages, but the lowness of such castes continued to linger in the social fabric. Socially oppressed low-caste youth in rural villages moved to cities and the urban outskirts, found non-caste employment, and changed their names to acaste names. By analyzing newspaper notifications and selected ethnographic material, this article shows how name changes among the Sinhalese have facilitated individualization and socialization by people who change their names to acaste names and seek freedom to choose their own employment, residence, marriage partners, and involvement in activities of wider society—a form of assimilation, in the context of growing urbanization and modernization.
Keywords: acaste; individualization; low caste; name change; rural change; urbanization
Filed under authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, disparagement, Dutch colonialism, economic processes, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian traditions, intricate artefacts, island economy, legal issues, life stories, modernity & modernization, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, transport and communications, unusual people, working class conditions, world events & processes
A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://thuppahis.com/2017/02/18/james-taylor-and-the-ceylon-tea-industry/
https://thuppahis.com//2017/02/21/the-tea-business-in-ceylon-and-the-life-and-times-of-tony-peries/
https://thuppahis.com/2017/07/18/ceylon-tea-and-its-surrounds-richard-simons-tour-de-force/
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Michael Roberts
Those with some knowledge of island Lanka’s history over the last two centuries know that one of the most significant figures in its history was the Scottish plantation manager James Taylor (1835-92) because he was the entrepreneur who pioneered the cultivation of tea in the hill-country during the mid-19th century when coffee was the reigning plantation crop. This initial work bore full fruit –literally and figuratively–when the coffee leaf disease decimated the coffee plantation industry in the 1870s and 80s.
Buddhika Dassanayake in Lanka has now added a ‘gold nugget‘ in the world of historical memorabilia: by securing a scrap of a letter by James Taylor recommending one of his working class aides—a kangany (in effect ‘sergeants’ within the plantation coolie labour force).
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Item in The Economist, 23 Nov 2024: “Sri Lanka’s Left Turn: Sri Lanka’s president with Marxist roots now dominates parliament too” .… with highlighting emphasis imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
SRI LANKA was once a pioneer of free-market capitalism in South Asia. After J.R. Jayewardene took power with a super-majority in 1977, he introduced a French-style executive presidency and economic reforms that overturned the left-wing orthodoxy of the previous two decades. Cheered on by Western governments concerned about Soviet influence, Sri Lanka became the first country in the region to liberalise its economy.
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These are but some of his publications over a career spanning the 1950s to 2020s — with eyesight deterioration blighting his last platform of life. No more table tennis, but much to remember. So, here. let me doff my cap to thee, Gerry Machang, …. Mike
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