A Tribute to Malathi de Alwis and Her Work
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…
Culture
Watching Funny Boy in Sri Lanka: A Review
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…
Equality, Difference, Religion and Ethnicity in South Asia
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…
The VIGED, the Vulnerable and the Wise: Thoughts on the Birth of Jesus for Our Times
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…
Cancel Culture and What It Empowers
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…
Corona with the Big Brothers
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…
A Review: Arumuga Navalar and ‘Heritage History’ Deconstructed
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…
Thé Kahata Exhibitions: Discovering the Creative Expression of Plantation Youth
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…
The Past and the Present in the (Re)Constitution of the State
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 Coming Constitution of the Civilization-State
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,…
Faces of Resistance: The Omnipresent Force of Bob Marley in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the face of Bob Marley is a recurring visual motif- from tuk tuks, to street art, to reggae bars on the beach, and adorning various paraphernalia. But how did…
Speaking Malay in Kompannaveediya
The Kompannaveediya area has seen rapid transformation over the last decade. What is being termed ‘urban development’, in the form of skyscrapers and luxury properties, has come at the cost of several…
Visvasam: Fantasy, Melodrama, Stereotypes and Violence
With two of my colleagues, I was on a rollercoaster last week at Sarasvathi cinema hall in Trincomalee, watching the new South Indian blockbuster film by Siva, “Visvasam” (Loyalty). No escape whatsoever…
The Multiculturalism of Sinhala Song: a Review of Sons and Fathers
Multiculturalism in Sri Lanka is often understood as the co-existence of distinct ethnic communities, whose individual histories have unfolded independently during different eras, in different parts of the country.[1] Conventional historical narratives…
“Her. Him. The Other” – Exposing Political Realities and Eroding Human Values
We stand today with our collective consciousness bruised almost beyond repair. We feel devastated by the chaos, anarchy and culture of impunity. As someone recently said, the beast rides again. What is…