Amid a suffocating consensus on austerity, any opportunity to expand on the current stakes of Left strategy in Sri Lanka must be seen as a small victory. The debate provoked by my original piece, including Ramindu Perera’s response in Polity, ought to continue to widen to include a diverse set of voices. But I must… Continue reading 2024 and Beyond: Electoral Politics and the Left by Devaka Gunawardena
Author: ssalanka
Repatriation and Reparation: Objects and the Colonial Museum by Lara Wijesuriya
Exhibit 1: Throne of Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, Colombo National Museum In 1934, the Duke of Gloucester paid a State visit to Ceylon, bringing with him the throne and regalia of Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, the last king of Kandy. The return of the throne, which had been taken to Britain when Kandy was conquered in 1815,… Continue reading Repatriation and Reparation: Objects and the Colonial Museum by Lara Wijesuriya
Why 2024 Will Not Be 2015 Redux by Ramindu Perera
Amidst the woes of a deepening economic crisis and the disastrous effect of International Monetary Fund-dictated austerity measures, Sri Lanka is passing through a tremendous political crisis. On the one hand, the government — an unstable coalition between the Sri Lanka Podujana Pakshaya (SLPP—People’s Party) and Ranil Wickremesinghe has become increasingly desperate due to lack… Continue reading Why 2024 Will Not Be 2015 Redux by Ramindu Perera
ප්‍රවාද 39 (2023, ජූලි) – වියමන් හා ලියමන්
පිටකවර ඡායාරූපය: සකුණ මියැසිනාද ගමගේ පටුන විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍ර තුළ “ආකයිවය” පිළිබඳ න්‍යාය – මාර්ලීන් මෑනොෆ් ආකයිවය ගොඩනැගීම: මිනෙට් ද සිල්වා, ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පය, සහ ඉතිහාසය – අනූරාධා අයියර් සිද්දිකී ශිල්පකලාවන්ගේ වටිනාකම් උභතෝකෝටිකය: තලගුණේ රෙදි වියමනෙහි වටිනාකම පිළිබඳ දේශපාලන ආර්ථික විමර්ශනයක් – සුලාරි ද සිල්වා ප්‍රවාද මතකය සාහිත්‍යකලා න්‍යායට හා විචාරයට සුචරිත ගම්ලත්ගේ සම්ප්‍රදානය – උදේනි… Continue reading ප්‍රවාද 39 (2023, ජූලි) – වියමන් හා ලියමන්
The Nazification of Israel by Aijaz Ahmad
In 2002, Polity magazine’s predecessor, Pravada (Vol. 7, Nos. 10 & 11, pp. 12-16) published the essay below by the distinguished Southasian political and cultural theorist Aijaz Ahmad (1941-2022). Since the abominable killings of 1,200 Israelis and hostage-taking of more than 240 persons by Hamas on October 7, as of late last week 11,078 Palestinians of whom 40% are… Continue reading The Nazification of Israel by Aijaz Ahmad
Sri Lanka must act in solidarity with Palestine!
The diabolical horrors unfolding in Gaza compel people of conscience across the world to take a principled stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The current violence unleashed indiscriminately on Gaza in particular, is supposedly aimed at eradicating Hamas whose surprise attack on 7 October, and abhorrent killings of civilians as well as subsequent taking… Continue reading Sri Lanka must act in solidarity with Palestine!
Fault Lines in Indian Agriculture: Solidarities and Contradictions in Southern Haryana by Srishti Yadav
November 2023 marks three years of the historic farmers’ protests in India that captured the imagination of people in India and around the world; and two years since the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government capitulated and repealed the farm laws at the bedrock of the protests.[i] The government’s retreat in the face of… Continue reading Fault Lines in Indian Agriculture: Solidarities and Contradictions in Southern Haryana by Srishti Yadav
Reflections on Critical Agrarian Studies in Sri Lanka by Urs Geiser
In this essay, my aim is to reflect on the situation in Sri Lanka’s agrarian sphere, through the gaze of ‘critical agrarian studies’.[i] I begin with a glance at related discourses during the 1970s and early 1980s with their emphasis on the ‘peasantry’. I then turn to the present, arguing that the contemporary moment poses… Continue reading Reflections on Critical Agrarian Studies in Sri Lanka by Urs Geiser
Gaza: Into the Abyss by Devaka Gunawardena
Gaza and the wider world are heading into an abyss. With the announcement and preparation of Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response to a massacre by Hamas, longstanding fears appear to be on the verge of realisation. The collective West remains eager to absolve itself of its historical guilt for the Holocaust, which shades into… Continue reading Gaza: Into the Abyss by Devaka Gunawardena
A Hundred Years of Pauline and C. R. (Dick) Hensman by Rohini Hensman
Dick and Pauline Hensman, Mount Lavinia, 1982 The birth anniversaries of Pauline Hensman (née Swan) and Dick Hensman occurred over the course of the past year. This attempt to provide an overview of their life and times will inevitably suffer from gaps, since neither they nor most of their contemporaries are alive. It will, therefore,… Continue reading A Hundred Years of Pauline and C. R. (Dick) Hensman by Rohini Hensman