Watching Funny Boy in Sri Lanka: A Review
Photo courtesy of Eastern Eye 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…
Remember the Riots
Senthooran: Black July Through the Eyes of a Survivor
Photo Credits: Munira Mutaher 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…
Black July: The Unspoken and the Unspeakable
Photo courtesy of Sangam 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,…
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
Photo courtesy of The Morning 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,…
Remembering To Rebuild
Featured image by Raisa Wickrematunge Another July has passed. A month filled with dark associations, thanks to “Black July”, a month that only escalated events leading to a three-decade war and a…
The Agony and Ecstasy of a Pogrom: July 1983
Featured image courtesy the Quint Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in “Exploring Confrontation: Sri Lanka- Politics, Culture and History” and is not easily available online. It is published here, with permission, to…
A Forgotten Community: Remembering Black July
Writer S Karunakaran reflects on Black July from the perspective of a marginalised and often forgotten community – the Malaiyagha Tamils – and specifically those who tried to resettle in the North…
On Documenting: Remembering Black July
“There is no proper record of what happened, or how the killings took place during that time. We do not have any information or documentation to pass it on to our future…
Black July, Government promises and our future
(Featured image courtesy Thuppahi Transcript of sharing at the Black July commemoration in London, 25th July 2016) I’m thankful to British Tamils Forum (BTF) for inviting me to share some reflections and…
Everyday Heroes: Untold Stories of Black July
July 23. The date has an awful significance for some, and has been blotted out by time for others. On that date, in 1983, a group of LTTE militants killed 13 Army…
30 Years Ago: Audio recordings of panel discussions
Photograph by Tehani Ariyaratne, from 30 Years Ago To complement the launch of 30 Years Ago and focus on some of the issues the project is anchored to and inspired by, four panel discussions…
July 1983, State Racism and Truth Commissions
Image courtesy Sangam To everyone who has not read them I recommend reading Izeth Hussain’s, articles of 31 August and 7 September in The Island, and my article in groundviews and in…
‘Black July’ now available for download on iTunes
Groundviews is pleased to announce that ‘Black July‘, an edited volume anchored to articles originally published on this site, is now available for download on Apple’s iTunes bookstore in 51 stores globally. The volume…
Archiving multiple drafts of history
Presentation by Dilrukshi Handunnetti delivered at panel discussion on 25th August 2013, as part of the ‘30 Years Ago‘ exhibition. Photograph courtesy The Ravaya Collection. My first memories of July 1983 remain vivid. There…
