Crystal Baines | Ranjini Obeyesekere interview | A literary man interested in anthropology Ranjini Obeyesekere is Lecturer Emerita at Princeton University | Crystal Baines is a researcher at the Social Scientists’ Association and a lecturer at the University of Colombo.

Gananath Obeyesekere, #SriLanka's celebrated anthropologist, died 25 March 2025. Ranjini Obeyesekere in conversation with Crystal Baines, recalls how literature drew them close and influenced Gananath's study of human society.

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B. Skanthakumar | Plucking the Stars B. Skanthakumar is co-editor of Up-country Tamils: Charting A New Future in Sri Lanka (2019, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo); and a director of the Social Scientists’ Association (SS...

'Plucking the Stars' by Arulraj Ulaganathan confirms the artist as a bold and imaginative interpreter of the Malaiyaha Tamil experience in the tea plantation economy of Ceylon/SriLanka writes @bskanthakumar.bsky.social.

polity.lk/plucking-the...

R. L. Stirrat | Gananath: Renaissance Man Roderick L. (‘Jock’) Stirrat is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sussex, Brighton; and author most recently of Embracing Change in Coastal Sri Lanka: Local Strategies in a Globa...

Celebrating Gananath Obeyesekere who was born today (02.02.1930), Roderick L. Stirrat remembers a generous friend who left us on 25 March 2025, opening #PolityLk's series of remembrances and reflections on #SriLanka's foremost anthropologist.

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Carmen Wickramagamage | A Critical History of Women’s Health in Modern Sri Lanka. Darshi Thoradeniya. Carmen Wickramagamage (PhD., University of Hawaii) is a senior professor in the Department of English, University of Peradeniya. | Darshi Thoradeniya’s book

Carmen Wickramagamage commends Darshi Thoradeniya for centring women in #SriLanka's narrative on modernisation and development. Thoradeniya argues population control was achieved through strict surveillance and control of women's reproductive sexuality.

polity.lk/critical-his...

Editors and Vahed | Iran: Solidarity with popular struggles against poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and repression Once again, the Iranian people are on the streets against their repressive rulers. Once again, the Islamic Republic has retaliated with extreme violence.

In solidarity with the people’s uprising in #Iran, we amplify this message by an independent trade union (trans. Sepideh Jodeyri): neither leaders from above; nor reliance on foreign powers or factions of the ruling class, offer genuine freedom, equality, and justice.

polity.lk/iran-solidar...

Suriya Women’s Development Centre | Review and Repair Microfinance Authority Bill! Safeguard Women’s Dignity, Livelihoods, and Long-Term Security! Suriya Women’s Development Centre is a Batticaloa-based gender justice organisation founded in 1990.

The regulation of #microfinance in #SriLanka must ensure real protections for women borrowers, stricter oversight of unfair lending & abusive recovery practices, & enforceable safeguards during disasters and emergencies urges #Suriya

polity.lk/review-and-r...

Kumudini Samuel | Samanmali: A Life on the Frontlines of Women’s Struggles and Working-Class Resistance Kumudini Samuel is Director (Programs and Research) at the Women and Media Collective and the author of A Hidden History: Women’s Activism for Peace in Sri Lanka 1982-2002 (Colombo: Social Scientists’...

Samanmali of #DaBinduCollective stood at the intersection of political organising, feminist consciousness-building & working-class struggle. Kumudini Samuel recalls the life of a remarkable activist #SriLanka
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Chulani Kodikara and Amalini de Sayrah | Left Feminism in and after the Aragalaya Chulani Kodikara is a director of the Social Scientists’ Association and an editor of Polity. Amalini de Sayrah is a writer, photo-journalist, and activist.

The efforts of women in and around the 2022 #Aragalaya to give meaning and substance to the demand for "system change" from a left feminist perspective, are retraced by Chulani Kodikara and Amalini de Sayrah.

polity.lk/chulani-kodi...

B. Skanthakumar | The Great Flood Balasingham Skanthakumar is with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and an editor of Polity.

#CyloneDitwah laid waste last week. Reflecting on this latest climate calamity, @bskanthakumar.bsky.social invokes @amitav.bsky.social: public education and political will, are crucial in disaster preparedness & saving life #SriLankafloods

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As #CycloneDitwah's aftermath unfolds, humanitarian relief is vital. Amalini De Sayrah has curated a list of mutual aid appeals across #SriLanka. If you can help, please do so —and stay safe. #FloodSriLanka2025

📷: AFP

tinyurl.com/LKfloods25

Ruben Thurairajah | Of Heroes and Villains: Dutugemunu and Prabhakaran Ruben Thurairajah is a Yorkshire-based general practitioner in England; who also tweets https://x.com/RubenThurairaj and writes https://drruben.substack.com/

In #SriLanka, history is not the past but perpetual present writes Ruben Thurairajah. Dutugemunu and Prabhakaran as embodiments of Sinhalas & Tamils; each side finding in the other’s hero, the proof of its own wounds.

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Kaushalya Ariyarathne | Gehenu Api Eka Mitata: Building a Women’s Political Movement in Sri Lanka Kaushalya Ariyarathne (PhD., Colombo), a founder-member of the Progressive Women’s Collective, was elected to the parliament of Sri Lanka in November 2024, and appointed Deputy Minister of Mass Media ...

The near doubling of women parliamentarians in #SriLanka owes to the community activism and left-feminism of 𝐺𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑢 𝐴𝑝𝑖 𝐸𝑘𝑎 𝑀𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 #NPP explains Kaushalya Ariyarathne MP, but challenges persist.

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Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage | Safety is Not a Wall: Beyond Protection from Domestic Violence Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage is a senior lecturer in the Department of Integrated Design at the University of Moratuwa and a Chartered Architect.

The protection order interrupts harm but stops there. Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage asks us to re-design #SriLanka's Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (PDVA 2005)--from a wall to a safe space for victim-survivors.

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Vajra Chandrasekera | “There is nothing inherently liberatory in the imagination, but it must be made so” Vajra Chandrasekera is a writer from Colombo, Sri Lanka, currently visiting New York as one of the 2025-2026 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York...

"Rakesfall is an extraordinary achievement in science fiction, and a titanic work of art.” Congratulations Vajra Chandrasekera ( @vajra.me ) on the award of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction!
polity.lk/vajra-chandr...

Gripping stories that stay with the reader; adding much to what we think we know (and lesser understand) of #war and #peace in #SriLanka through the prism of conflict-related sexual violence. Thanks to Radhika Hettiarachchi for sharing them with @politylk.bsky.social

Anushka Kahandagamage | Mountain at a Center of the World: Pilgrimage and Pluralism in Sri Lanka. Alexander McKinley. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024. Anushka Kahandagamage (PhD, Otago) has researched new Buddhist trends in post-war Sri Lanka. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Divinity School 2025-2026.

Mountain at a Center of the World destabilises the dominant anthropocentric gaze on #Siripāda in #SriLanka. Anushka Kahandagamage hails Alex McKinley's urging of humans to re-examine our position on Earth.

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"Liberties of expression, association and assembly once taken-for-granted, are in rapid retreat. The liberal firewall has fallen. The traditional parties of the right, centre and even left, embrace anti-immigrant, misogynist, anti-DEI, prejudices, and language..." #Ecocide #Liberalism #IMF #PolityLK

The editorial for the forthcoming print issue of @politylk.bsky.social (Vol 13 No 1, June 2025) is online <www.polity.lk>. It is about the new world disorder.

#SriLanka #liberalinternationalism

#PolityLK calls for short pieces on the life, work, and legacy of Gananath Obeyesekere. Send your pitch (under 300 words) to polity@ssalanka.org before 25 August 2025.

Shiran Illanperuma | The development of S.B.D. de Silva’s political economy Shiran Illanperuma is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and a co-editor of Wenhua Zongheng: A Journal of Contemporary Chinese Thought.

SBD de Silva was among #SriLanka's most original Marxist political economists. Seven years since his death this month, there is renewed interest in the significance of his thought, explains Shiran Illanperuma.

polity.lk/shiran-illan...

Sandunlekha Ekanayake | Aid Interrupted: Reverberations in Sri Lanka of USAID’s Dismantling Sandunlekha Ekanayake is a Lecturer of English and Business Communication at the Faculty of Business, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. She is also a research analyst at Muragala | Centre for Progres...

While we are right to be suspicious of the politics of foreign aid, Trump's defunding of #USAID should be seen for what it is -- and his co-thinkers in #SriLanka know it, writes Sandunlekha Ekanayake.

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Kasun Kavishka | Queer Representation in Sri Lankan Media: A Double-Edged Sword? Kasun Kavishka is an undergraduate at the University of Colombo, and an intern at the Social Scientists’ Association.

Too often exhibiting misrepresentation and bad journalism, queer representation in Sri Lankan media is a double-edged sword, writes Kasun Kavishka in #PolityLK this week.
#SriLanka #PrideMonth

polity.lk/kasun-kavish...

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal Gaza Tribunal - polity.lk The Gaza Tribunal Sarajevo Public Assembly brought together legal experts, academics, medical professionals, journalists, and Palestinian witnesses, in the historic city of Sarajevo – a location chose...

The Gaza Tribunal declares its collective moral outrage at the continuing genocide in Palestine, solidarity with Palestinians, commitment to ensure accountability, redress, a more just international order, & a free Palestine.
polity.lk/the-sarajevo...

Themal Ellawala | ‘Crop Top Terrorism’ and the Security State in Sri Lanka Themal Ellawala is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Working at the intersection of anthropology, postcolonial studies, and feminist and q...

"Dangerous. Monstrous. A threat to the nation."
Themal Ellawala writes on how LGBTQ+ communities experience the surveillance, interrogation, and violence of the security state in #SriLanka
#PrideMonth
polity.lk/themal-ellaw...

The #NPP's idée fixe on #corruption irritated me into reading the #IMF and #CSO governance reports on #SriLanka, to understand the politics behind their respective diagnostics and prescriptions.

The link is available here linktr.ee/politylk

B. Skanthakumar | The ‘Governance of Corruption’ in Sri Lanka – An IMF-NGO-NPP Consensus B. Skanthakumar is with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and an editor of Polity.

Diagnostics of corruption in #SriLanka by the IMF, NGOs, and the NPP are reviewed by @bskanthakumar.bsky.social. Their assumption of a technical (including digital) fix to a problem of political economy is found wanting.
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Harindra B. Dassanayake and Rajni Gamage | Horu versus Boru: The politics of the 2025 local government elections in Sri Lanka Harindra B. Dassanayake is a policy analyst and co-founder of Muragala | Centre for Progressive Politics and Policy (CPPP), Sri Lanka. Rajni Gamage is a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian...

In the aftermath of #LGElection2025, @HarindraBD and @Rajni_Gamage dissect the state of political parties in #SriLanka. Politics has been polarised along the axis of 'thieves' and 'liars'.
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Kiran Grewal | Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Noura Erakat. Stanford University Press, 2019 Kiran Grewal (PhD., University of Technology Sydney) is Visiting Professor in Gender Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of two books: ‘The Socio-Politic...

Noura Erakat offers an invaluable resource to those interested in the modern political history of #Palestine, the roots & residues of the international legal system, & limits & possibilities of using law in emancipatory politics, writes @kirankgrewal.bsky.social
#NakbaDay77
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Pradeep Peiris | System Stability not Change: The NPP abandons populism for liberal democracy Pradeep Peiris (PhD., Colombo) is senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Colombo. He is the author of Catch-All Parties and Party-Voter Nexus in ...

Whatever happened to the populism of the #NPP? Pradeep Peiris asks whether, in politics as well as economics, #SriLanka's progressive political movement is more committed to stabilising than changing what the #Aragalaya rejected.

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Taniya Silvapulle | Made in Sri Lanka, Taxed in America, and Failed by the IMF Taniya Silvapulle is a researcher with the Social Scientists’ Association... On 2 April 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, imposing trade measures on partners ac...

#Trump’s #LiberationDay2025 tariffs shook the #NPP government’s reliance on export revenue. Taniya Silvapulle unpacks the combined effect of US protectionist policies and the #IMF’s neoliberal debt restructuring plan on #Sri Lanka’s economy.
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