Nationalism, Ethnicity and Conflict
Photo via Sri Lanka Guardian I read with appreciation, the contents of the article of DBS Jeyaraj under the title “Imperative need to support Tamil Moderates in the struggle against Extremists” (…
Jaffna
Post-war reconstruction and women: Has the Indian Housing Project become a debt trap?
Photo courtesy Red Cross Following the end of the armed conflict, people returned to their areas of origin in the conflict affected areas with limited, and in some cases no resources, to…
Beyond Genocide
Image courtesy When I heard that the Northern Provincial Council had passed a resolution on Genocide, I put my “head in my hands” again- something I did often during the previous regime….
Heroes, Traitors and Tamil Politics: Lessons (Un) Learnt
Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via Yahoo Following the deferral of the presentation of the report of the UN Human Rights Council mandated investigation on Sri Lanka (IOSL) conducted by the UN Office…
Army in the North: Contesting the views of Prof. Rohan Gunaratna
Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images, via A Sri Lankan Quest This is in response to the views expressed by “International Terrorism Expert” Prof. Rohan Gunaratna to Zahrah Imtiaz in the article titled “Don’t Withdraw…
#icanChangeSL & #wecanChangeSL: Shaping a new Sri Lanka
Engage with this campaign in Tamil (புதிய இலங்கையை வடிவமைப்போம்…) or Sinhala (ශ්රී ලංකාවේ අනාගතය හැඩගැස්වීම සදහා…) too! ### The Presidential poll of 8 January 2015 inspired the largest number of voters in Sri Lanka’s…
Contrasting post civil war development trajectories in Nepal and Sri Lanka
Photograph courtesy Asian Tribune In both Nepal and Sri Lanka the transition from war to durable peace has been painful and is ongoing and not devoid of pitfalls as has been the…
How is this development?
A few months ago I travelled to Jaffna. I saw a very different, ‘developed’ Jaffna than the one I had visited just a few years previously in 2011; a mall, 3D cinema,…
Does the North of Sri Lanka need a ‘Movement Joint’?
Photo courtesy Getty Images, by Buddhika Weerasinghe One of the features about the run up to the January 2015 Presidential election is the uncertainty about how the Northern voter will vote. This…
T. Shanaathanan in conversation with Sharmini Pereira
Sharmini Pereira: What’s your earliest recollection of wanting to study art? Was it something that you were encouraged to do or something that you encouraged your family to allow you to do?…
Uthayan in Jaffna: All the news that’s fit to print, and then some
JAFFNA. “Even though the war is over and the guns are silent…it doesn’t change a thing. We still face threats. We are still feeling the fear,” said 35 year old Thevanayagam Premananth,…
The Tamil Elephant in the Green (Blue?) Room
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Brief Kalana Senaratne’s characteristically perceptive article on the implications of Maithripala Sirisena’s common candidacy for the upcoming Presidential election flags the Tamil question: what role do Tamils and…
The new Yarl Devi to Jaffna: What do people in Jaffna think?
Photograph courtesy Colombo Gazette. A version of this article appears on the author’s blog. The Yarl Devi was a train. A hulking pile of metal on wheels, just like any other train….
Kerosene, Koothu and Paper: Questions and answers
On Sunday, 19 October 2014 the Sri Lanka Archive of Contemporary Art, Architecture & Design screened, for the first time in Jaffna, three short films by Kannan Arunasalam. Kerosene, Koothu and Paper were produced…
A Presidential visit up North
Photo courtesy Yahoo By all accounts, President Rajapakse’s unprecedented and rather controversial third term re-election campaign, though unofficial, has begun in earnest. Last week he presented the Cabinet of Ministers with a…
