Cathedral, Jaffna
I am praying in a pew at Saint Mary’s Cathedral. The building has suffered burning, cyclones, the Eelam war’s bombs. Four hundred years ago Portuguese built the first church here, which…
Year: 2019
On the Presidential Pardon: Reactions to Gnanasara’s Release
The photos, depicting a saffron-robed Gnanasara Thero, received thousands of reactions on Facebook. “He has been freed” they read. commenters posted on the Facebook Pages of mainstream media like Neth FM and…
Memory and the Security State
The sun was scorching at the Mullivaikkal memorial grounds as people gathered to remember loved ones and Tamil civilians killed during the war that came to an end on May 18th 2009….
In the name of security: How the Burqa/Niqab Ban is Impacting Muslim Women
My neighbour, Maya, from a Tamil Christian family, usually attends the mass at St. Anthony’s Church every Sunday. But on Easter Sunday she didn’t attend the mass as her brother had returned…
Testing Muslims in the Month of Patience
Ramadan, the month of abstinence is when Muslims observe fast, voluntarily depriving themselves from all that are permitted to them on ordinary days. These abstentions are replaced with worship and acts that…
Memorialisation on May 18th: From Politicisation to Peoplisation
At the last stages of the war thousands of civilians who lived in the Vanni Region of Northern Sri-Lanka were killed, injured and disappeared. Surrenders of war and persons among detainees were…
Silence and Solidarity
Featured image by Carl Court/Getty Images, via CNN Whatever people may tell you, whatever clichés are spouted in novels and TV broadcasts, silence isn’t deafening. It is, in fact, painfully empty, your…
Secularism or Barbarism
The blue, red, yellow, orange and white lights are on, as are the makeshift stalls selling lanterns. Yet few pause to see, haggle, buy. Vesak, so near chronologically, had never seemed so…
Random Musings
AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena What does ail thee Sri Lanka? Is it, as Bishop Heber once notoriously stated, that it is a land ‘? We could dismiss his views as those of a…
Madrasahs, Extremism and National Security
Photo by Gemunu Amarasinghe, via The nexus between Madrasah education and Islamic extremism have been in the global discussions ever since the emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. This phenomenon emerged in…
Sensitivity, solidarity and social stability: A post Easter-Sunday reflection
Photo courtesy The message The worship had just reached the the affirmation of God’s intervention in history, when the police arrived. The officer was courteous but firm. The service had to be…
Security, Freedom and Co-Existence after the Easter-Sunday Attacks in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Getty via The Easter-Sunday attacks have changed a lot of things in Sri Lanka. It proved, if proof was indeed required, the sheer inefficiency of the present government. Some of…
From casualty to catastrophe
Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for We hadn’t seen him in years, ever since he left to work abroad. So, on the day of his return, his mother invited the extended family…
Independence Square Vigil: Speech by Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy
Photo courtesy AP / Manish Swarup via For people of my generation, as Sharika Thiranagama wrote in her recent article, news like the Easter Sunday blasts does not initiate a new fear, it…
Refugee crisis in Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday bombings
Photo courtesy Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press via “Pakistanis a country where suicide bombings happen on a regular basis, mobs gather and kill minorities and people who think differently, houses and settlements are attacked,…
