The fabric of life
At the time of founding Selyn Handlooms in 1991, Sandra Wanduragala did not know much about the handloom industry, but this didn’t stop her. “I thrive on challenges,” she says, laughing. Despite having initial…
Kurunegala
Contending with Rejection and Exclusion: Take Two on the Kuliyapitiya Debacle
Featured image courtesy BBC I preface this piece by acknowledging my own discomfort as an educator in addressing sticky issues of equity and justice in education. I was motivated to write this piece…
#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…
Weliweriya and the challenge of demilitarizing the North
Photo courtesy Ada Derana Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, a former military spokesman and decorated combat officer, assumed duties on the 1st of August 2013 as the 20th commander of the Sri Lanka Army. No…
Archiving ‘Her Stories’: In conversation with Radhika Hettiarachchi
Her Stories, a unique archive of oral history, was conceived of and curated by Radhika Hettiarachchi. We begin by Radhika going in to what the archive is, and how it came about.…
A quotidian response: Letter to President regarding religious extremism
On 4th July 2012, along with printed and bound copies of the over 1,400 comments in Tamil, Sinhala and English generated by Not In Our Name (coming to over 300 pages), a…
Not In Our Name: 1,400+ signatures against religious extremism in Sri Lanka
Not In My Name (NION) ran from 27th April to 31st May 2012. The blog was created and launched late on the 26th, just under a week after a violent attack on…
Mobs, Monks and the Problems of Political-Buddhism
Original photograph REUTERS/Damir Sagolj It is always a curious and odd little matter, to witness how even Buddhists become so obsessively attached to ‘sacred’ lands and in protecting them, commit acts seemingly…
Dambulla Mosque Attack: A Litmus Test of a Nation in Transition from Chauvinism to Civility
This is in response to the comments to my previous post – Dambulla Mosque Attack: Is there a hidden hand? At the time of writing this, there were nearly 50 comments displaying…
The Mind of Compassion: Buddhism and Violence
A lion carries a dead wild boar in his mouth. He is walking through the grasslands, victorious after the hunt. On the dead boar is a crudely imprinted crescent moon and star.…
Photo essay: Freedom, Religion, and Dambulla
Navin Weeraratne’s photo essay around the recent violence in Dambulla has already been shared widely on Facebook, and elsewhere on the web. Describing himself to us as “an amateur photographer, toy painter,…
The middle finger to the middle-path in Sri Lanka
A week ago, we disgraced ourselves. Racist louts, some in the garb of Buddhist monks, engaged openly in speech and behaviour so violent, even those who led it were forced to suggest…
Not In Our Name: Against religious extremism in Sri Lanka
A week ago, a violent a mob of about 2,000 Sinhalese, including a group of Buddhist monks led by the Mahanayaka of the Rangiri Dambulu chapter Inamaluwe Sumangala thero, stormed and vandalised…
Is Dambulla, Babri Masjid Redux?
The events in Dambulla over the past week, when Buddhist monks led the storming of a mosque, bear chilling resemblance to events in Ayodhya, India, on and around the 6th December 1992,…
Fake video and lies: The strange case of Dambulla’s Inamaluwe Sumangala thero
The Mahanayaka of the Rangiri Dambulu chapter Inamaluwe Sumangala thero, one of the key figures in the on-going tensions in Dambulla over the presence of a mosque and kovil near his Temple,…