Operation Liberation: 25 years on
Twenty five years ago, on May 26th 1987, the Sri Lankan military forces launched ‘Operation Liberation’, which, at the time, was the biggest military operation in Sri Lanka since independence. At least…
Features
THE SRI LANKAN REPUBLIC AT FORTY: REFLECTIONS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL PAST AND PRESENT
Image courtesy Daily News Forty years ago this week, at the auspicious time of 12:34 p.m. at the Navarangahala on 22nd May 1972, a new constitution was signed into law, creating the…
Transcript of first one-to-one interview with Sarath Fonseka after release from prison
Image courtesy the Economist GV editors note: In the transcript below and the video of it available on the BBC online, the BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka Charles Haviland asks Sarath Fonseka…
Truth and Dialogue as Theatre: Some Reflections on the Frontline Club Panel on Sri Lanka
I watched the Frontline Club panel on Sri Lanka, belatedly and reluctantly. I am skeptical about such public enquiries and debates into complex matters, which threaten to reduce the dialogue and truth…
3 years after the end of war: Official statements vs. reality
Sri Lankan Army soldiers march during a Victory Day parade rehearsal in Colombo on May 16, 2012. Sri Lanka celebrates War Heroes Week with a military parade scheduled for May 19. PHOTO/…
Three years after the war in Sri Lanka: To celebrate or mourn?
Photo courtesy For the 3rd successive year, the Sri Lankan government has made elaborate arrangements to celebrate the end of the war in Colombo. This year, May was declared as “war hero’s commemoration…
A different take from the Sangha: The dhamma and religious co-existence in Sri Lanka (UPDATED)
[Editors note: Sanjay Senanayake in a comment below raises a number of concerns regarding inflammatory statements made by Rev. Dambara Amila Thero in the past, which invariably inform the appreciation of the…
Samhara: An interweaving of the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and the Chitrasena Dance Company
Photo provided by Nrityagram Dance Ensemble. All copyrights reserved. Audiences in Colombo were over the weekend treated to caught up with Nrityagram’s lead dancer Bijayini Satpathy, the artistic director and choreographer of…
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…
Not In Our Name: Campaign update and video
After the email update reproduced below was sent on 2nd May, less than a week after the Not In Our Name initiative was launched, Deshabandhu Jezima Ismail, senior lawyer and HR activist JC…
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….
The State and Religion in South Asia
Photo by Massimiliano Clausi, courtesy SAJA Secularism implies the relationship between Religion and Politics, more specifically between Religion and the State. The concept of secularism has drawn its sources from the philosophy that…
Cluster bombs in Sri Lanka: From denial to discovery
Ravi Nessman from Associated Press has broken what’s perhaps the most important story on the war, since it ended three years ago. In a story published by AP a few hours ago,…
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,…