Documenting and Understanding a People’s Uprising
During four months in 2022, from March to July, Sri Lanka witnessed events unprecedented in its history. Driven to despair at the state of their nation, hundreds of thousands of citizens converged…
#GotaGoHome
Still on the Rotten Bridge
“Homo Sapiens is prone to orgies of stupidity, brutality, and destruction.” Martin Wolf (The crisis of democratic capitalism) So back in the Chalk Circle but this time play ends in Act 2.…
Rusted Metal, Bloodied Minds – Crisis and Struggle
When the GotaGoGama Protest site was attacked by supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 9, a row of tents were destroyed and burned to the ground by the rowdy gang that descended…
2022: A Year Like No Other
2022 was one of the most momentous years in Sri Lanka’s recent history. An unprecedented people’s movement drove out an elected president and prime minister and forced the resignation of the entire…
GotaGoGama: A Learning Curve
GotaGoGama is gone. Gota has returned. Things have regressed in the past two months or so. The nucleus of Sri Lanka’s popular protests have ceased to exist. Its last days were a…
Aragalaya – A Utopian Fantasy or a Long March to Real Reform?
It seems like a long time ago but the reality is that it’s been just 150 days since the urban middle class and their semi-urban cousins stepped out of their comfort zone…
A Janus Moment
“A wandering fire at a terrible height – can it be a star shining like that? Osip Mandelstam (Poem 101) A walking path bordered by the sea and a bit of lawn…
The Evolution of Gotagogama and Its Periphery in Colour: One Photographer’s Perspective
The strange poetic irony of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s fall from grace is difficult to miss. So palpable and stinging is his graceless exile and retirement that it is only fitting that he should…
Taking Aragalaya Ideas Seriously
The emergence of Frontline Social Party (FSP) in July as a major voice of the aragalaya (‘People’s uprising/struggle’) movement has led to many negative reactions. Searching questions are being raised and debated…
If the President Resigns: What Next?
On July 9, an unprecedented number of Sri Lankan protesters marched on the president’s official residence. They demanded one thing: his immediate resignation for his role in causing the most devastating economic…
The Moral Right to Govern
On July 5, in the midst of a worsening economic crisis, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa no longer has the moral right to remain in office. This statement is…
To The New Administrator
The fourth wall has crashed and the audience is now on stage making tea and frying omelets in the kitchen, lounging on the guest beds, diving into the swimming pool. Unheard of,…
Our Day Has Come!
We are drained. At last, after a ninety day struggle, we have a lot to celebrate but nothing left to celebrate with. No fuel, no kerosene, no petrol. No energy. And once…
Sri Lanka Goes to the IMF
Sri Lanka has taken the (rather delayed) initiative to seek International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid and assistance to cure the economic crisis. Before I delve into what the IMF conditionalities and its…
The Tea is Cold: Cinema as Social Responsibility
A young man from Colombo, Randika, travels to Jaffna on an assignment to find out how the war has affected people there. At first he is more interested in sharing photographs on…