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Bridging the Cultural Divide Through Art
Sri Lanka is a pluralistic society where communities of different cultures and religions exist side by side. However, a 26 year civil war as well as attempts by political leaders to create…
Sri Lanka is a pluralistic society where communities of different cultures and religions exist side by side. However, a 26 year civil war as well as attempts by political leaders to create…
Histories of the tri-traditional dances of Sri Lanka – Kandyan, Low Country and Sabaragamuwa – generally highlight a handful of pioneering women, point out their significance as the first female dancers on…
A destructive civil war, social upheaval, market forces and plastic have all played a part in the gradual erosion of Jaffna’s rich legacy of arts and crafts. A major dyeing and weaving…
Artist Gayan Prageeth is exhibiting his latest collection, Eyes Only, at the Saskia Fernando Gallery. His work reflects a deep concern for the state of society and politics, delving into the psyche…
In a tribal region of Afghanistan, a sad 10 year old girl, heavily made up and veiled, sits silently at her wedding ceremony to a 70 year old man. In a rural…
Malathi de Alwis, friend, mentor, teacher, feminist, anthropologist, birder, foodie and the most amazing cook, passed away on January 21. As we mourn this utterly devastating, untimely loss of one of the…
We watched the film, Funny Boy, directed by Deepa Mehta and adapted from Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel, twice. We were surrounded by the numerous debates and controversies about the film. The first…
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…
At the outset In the 19th Century a French sociologist Emile Durkheim coined the acronym ‘anomie’ to describe the then growing absence of norms in society. Today, global trends of governance under…
A brilliant friend of mine at university was upset one day because someone had vandalized her final exam results on the printout the University had pinned up on the board. She had…
It is increasingly evident that the lasting impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic will not be merely health related. In the early stages of government efforts to contain the virus and over the…
Ratnajeevan Hoole, 2020, London: Thesam Publications, i-xxvii, 327 pages. Professor Ratnajeevan H. Hoole’s book on Jaffna Heritage Histories is a fascinating critique of several strands of invented recent histories of Sri Lanka’s…
Despite their contribution to the lucrative tea industry of Sri Lanka, the voices of plantation workers often go unheard and their potential unrecognised. is a series of photographic exhibitions organised by the…
By Asanga Welikala and Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne The election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019 marked the beginning of a new era of a Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist ascendancy in Sri Lanka. The…
The governing party’s general election campaign is centred on obtaining a two-thirds majority in the next Parliament. It is expected that the governing party will fulfil its wish – if not directly,…