Remembering Neelan and Sithie
(written for the 21st Death Anniversary of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam) This is the time to remember Neelan and Sithie Tiruchelvam. Along with Kumari Jayawardena, their living rooms were spaces where scholars and…
Reconciliation
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…
Thenuwara’s At/Most/Fear: A Virtual Testament in Times of a Pandemic
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…
The Significance of 1983
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…
Navaly Church Bombing – 25 Years On
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…
The challenge of the second decade of post war reconciliation
Photograph courtesy ‘The Brother’s Grip‘, Global & Mail, by Ishara Kodikara, AFP May 19th 2020, marked the eleventh year of the end of the fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war. A protracted…
Digana: Two years later
5th of March 2018 marked the beginning of a series of violent mob attacks against the Muslims in the central parts of the country, perpetrated by the ethno-nationalist Sinhala Buddhists. A personal…
10 Years After the War: A Reminiscence
Although the war ended a decade ago, the ethno-political and social fractures from violent conflict endure. On no other day are they more apparent than on May 18. Often, what we see,…
Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election: Healing the Wounds is the New Task
Photo courtesy Star Online Sri Lanka’s eighth presidential election held last Sunday has produced an outcome that has surprised the winners, the losers as well as the observers. The most obvious, and…
Thicker Than Water
On April 21, 2019, the doctors working at the National Blood Transfusion Services woke to chilling news. A series of suicide bomb blasts had occurred across the island. As of June 11,…
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…
A Pardon, and a Penalty: A Prelude to a Populist?
As we reflect on Sri Lanka’s 71st Independence Day, many things that have political currency come to mind. Free education and healthcare, a reduced cost of living, and anti-corruption are usually among…
Are We Sri Lankans One People? Where Are Our Leaders?
Politically, it may appear that we are not one people. We have a long history of ethnicity-based politics within a small island with a measure of ethnic diversity unrivalled in countries of…
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…
Demons in Paradise: Capturing the Conversation
On October 2, Director of the documentary film “Demons in Paradise” Jude Ratnam issued a press release, noting that his documentary had been pulled from the programme of the Jaffna International Cinema…