30 Years, and Still Waiting
Rain has turned the red earth roads of Kiula, Hungama in the Southern Province to mud and the skies are overcast. In the verandah of a bright pink house, five women –…
Long Reads
Looking East
Batticaloa and Kattankudy are 318 and 317 kilometers away from Colombo, respectively. They are, however, just under 10 kilometers away from each other. The relationships and experience, that have been shaped by…
Long Overdue: Breaking down the minimum age of marriage in Sri Lanka
One of the most contested issues in the debate around reform of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) has been with regard to increasing the minimum age of marriage for Muslims.…
How our Education System Fails to Address Ethno-linguistic Tensions
After the Easter Sunday attacks, there has been a reinvigorated interest in education reform. Yet disappointingly, the sway of this discourse is too clouded by political gaffe for it to catapult towards…
The Terrorist, The Muslim and the Other
It was a casual Sunday breakfast, as I was making notes on refugees in Sri Lanka, when my partner, his eyes still peeled on his phone, exclaimed in shock that a church…
In the name of security: How the Burqa/Niqab Ban is Impacting Muslim Women
My neighbour, Maya, from a Tamil Christian family, usually attends the mass at St. Anthony’s Church every Sunday. But on Easter Sunday she didn’t attend the mass as her brother had returned…
Arundhati Roy on Caste, Ambedkar and Gandhi
In the Preface to her “The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and ‘Annihilation of Caste’. The Debate between B. R. Ambedkar and M. K. Gandhi” Arundhati Roy states that it was…
The Case for Foreign Judges in a Judicial Mechanism in Sri Lanka: Countering Falsehoods
In a few weeks, Sri Lanka marks a decade since the end of its brutal war, but its long legacy of abuses remains unaddressed. Decades of inaction, denial and silencing have contributed…
The Subaltern in Search of Speech
Professor Gayatri Spivak Chakravarti, I would like to thank you, Mr. Mawng Zarni and his enthusiasm for bringing me here today to discuss one of the most important issues of our lifetime.…
Value Education and Literature
Editor’s Note: Delivered at the Open University on November 30th 2018 Throughout the world today we bemoan the lack of values. No one quite knows what that means and a good post-modernist…
The Removal of the Prime Minister and the Dissolution of Parliament: A Legal Opinion
This legal opinion was prepared by Gehan Gunatilleke, Dinesha Samararatne, Kalana Senaratne and Asanga Welikala in response to a request made by Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne, P.C, Member of Parliament. Since 26th October 2018, Sri Lanka…
The Violence in Sri Lankan Parliament: A Mirror Image of Our Culture of Violence
“” George Orwell “.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn There is no gainsaying in condemning the current parliamentary violence. Nevertheless, our reactions to such violence—surprise and shock—imply that we think such abhorrent uncivilised behavior is…
A Quest For Power: Mahinda, Ranil or Sirisena?
“” (‘The Tempest’) Maithripala Sirisena, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe are invoking the notion of the ’will of the people’ to conceal their selfish interests, and their amoral and deracinated feudal elitism. The current…
Questions of Freedom: Problems in Sri Lanka’s Constitution, Laws and Institutions
Citizens of Sri Lanka should heed this warning to the framers of the US constitution. The Sri Lankan Presidency was, until recently, a fixed executive, not dependent or answerable to parliament and…
No Peace in Rest
The Sri Lankan State’s erasure of the complex history and experiences of the war manifest in varying ways across the country; military monuments that showcase a single victory narrative, the construction of…
