More than any other religion Buddhism has the capacity to capture the imagination of many people born to other faiths. Its intellectual clarity, its appeal to reason and foresight has appealed to…
I thought I would talk about Sunila’s involvement in the seminal moments of the international violence against women movement. Given the violence that has engulfed the world today, this may be a…
There is a tension between “equality” and “difference” in modern South Asia. The tension defines South Asia when it comes to religious and ethnic issues. It is manifest at the individual, community…
(written for the 21st Death Anniversary of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam) This is the time to remember Neelan and Sithie Tiruchelvam. Along with Kumari Jayawardena, their living rooms were spaces where scholars and…
Photo courtesy Iromi Perera’s Flickr album on 2018 constitutional coup Many of us were hoping for a new dawn in 2015. The hope for a “Yahapalanaya” government now leaves ashes in the…
Whenever the topic of counterterrorism is raised my mind goes back to the 2012 film ‘The Gatekeepers’, directed by Israeli filmmaker Dror Moheh. The documentary was shortlisted for an academic award. The…
The United Nations Charter begins “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…..” Yet, the structure and decision making of the United Nations…
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…
I want to thank the organizers for having invited us here today to pay tribute to this great man. I want to particularly thank Shibly Aziz’s wife Fathima. In life she was…
Professor Gayatri Spivak Chakravarti, I would like to thank you, Mr. Mawng Zarni and his enthusiasm for bringing me here today to discuss one of the most important issues of our lifetime….
Editor’s Note: Delivered at the Open University on November 30th 2018 Throughout the world today we bemoan the lack of values. No one quite knows what that means and a good post-modernist…
For the most part of the last few weeks we have been in a suspended state of disbelief. Yes, the 2015 government had not lived up to its expectations, some people were…
Image courtesy Getty Images Keynote Address at the Peace Building Commission, Annual Session 2016 Hon. Chairperson Hon. Secretary General Your Excellences Ladies and Gentlemen, INTRODUCTION Transitions are periods of potential danger in…
ISLANDED By Sujit Sivasundaram (A review by Radhika Coomaraswamy) 17th December 2015 Let me say that ISLANDED by Sujit Sivasunderam is a seminal work. It is an original interpretation of historical fact,…
### When Sanjana Hattotuwa asked me to give the keynote today on the topic “Beyond Violence and War- Imagining a Just Peace” and to center that topic around the question of art,…
