Senthooran: Black July Through the Eyes of a Survivor
It has been 37 years since the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983, a riot that set the country ablaze and sparked a 30-year long and bloody war. But even after nearly four…
It has been 37 years since the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983, a riot that set the country ablaze and sparked a 30-year long and bloody war. But even after nearly four…
July. Referred to as Black July to mark the pogrom against Tamils in 1983 carried out by Sinhala mobs. Pogrom is a Russian word meaning ‘to wreak havoc, to demolish violently’, that…
For the past 22 years, activist and renowned contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara has been memorialising the horrific period of July 1983 through paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation. This year, undeterred by the…
I was a PhD student in London when the carnage of July 1983 erupted and thank God for the bravery and foresight of my mother and sister, my family was saved from…
Phillip Larkin (Going) That was Fort magistrate Ranga Dissanayake speaking in open court, on June 24th 2020. The pictures the CID officials wanted to show possible witnesses just before an identity parade…
Ravi Corea can usually be found dressed in shades of gray and green, walking stealthily through the jungles of Wasgamuwa in Sri Lanka. During my many visits to Wasgamuwa, I have observed…
In July 1995 the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Navaly, Jaffna, was filled with displaced Tamils seeking refuge and safety from the war. People in Navaly, including members of the…
Featured image courtesy UNICEF At the dawn of the new normal resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka moved towards an online based education system, which has completely transformed the existing public…
The Scene The morning of July the 25th 1983 is etched in my brain. I saw a group of people running or walking very fast away from the environs of Colombo. On…
Photo courtesy Verite Research Finally, the date of the Parliamentary elections has been announced. There is hardly any doubt about which party would win the election. The only doubt is which ideology…
Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo via HRW Arundathi Roy (Election Season in a Dangerous Democracy – The New York Review of Books – 3.9.2018) The Eastern province is the most ethno-religiously pluralist…
Photo courtesy A single death, triggers a worldwide conflict. In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire was assassinated in Serbia and his death triggered the…
There is a clear global trend of curtailing freedom of expression under the guise of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of writing, 34 countries have been recorded as taking executive…
It is easy to feel disconnected from incidents of police brutality in the USA, and ongoing race-wars across the world that continue to marginalize and disenfranchise Black communities, when we fail to…
Photo by Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images, taken off Middle East Institute In what must surely count as one of the most hilarious, unintentionally ironic and terrifying proclamations ever uttered by a…