Shashik Silva | Ditwah Relief Management: Politics and Perceptions in ‘Kolamba Gama’ Shashik Silva is Chief Operations Officer of the Social Scientists’ Association (SSA) and the Quantitative Research Lead for the SSA January 2026 survey on public perceptions of Cyclone Ditwah impact,...

#CycloneDitwah Everyday #politics at a #disaster relief management centre near Colombo; and during a restitution handover ceremony, vividly described by Shashik Silva #SriLanka

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Gananath Obeyesekere - polity.lk Gananath Obeyesekere Collection

In memory of Gananath Obeyesekere, anthropologist and public intellectual [02.02.1930-25.03.2025], #PolityLK featured 14 pieces by former students, colleagues, friends & admirers. We thank them all. This collection will appear in print in Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan-June 2026).

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Jonathan Spencer | The Conscience of the Scholar Jonathan Spencer is Emeritus Professor of South Asian Language, Culture and Society at the University of Edinburgh; co-editor (with Harini Amarasuriya, Tobias Kelly, Sidharthan Mounaguru, and Galina O...

Wrapping up and reflecting on @politylk.bsky.social's memorial to Gananath Obeyesekere, Jonathan Spencer observes: 'He did not make directly for the centre of anything: instead, the centre followed him. That is why so many things he said and wrote have stuck with us.'

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Dennis B. McGilvray | Gananath Obeyesekere: Dazzling Scholar of Integrity Dennis B. McGilvray is Professor of Anthropology emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a past president of the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS). His new book, A House for...

Gananath Obeyesekere exemplified clarity of exposition and integrity as a scholar, writes anthropologist Dennis B. McGilvray, recalling their first encounter in #SriLanka and contretemps over Kannaki in the United States.

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Selvy Thiruchandran | Laughter, Debate, and Dissent: Personal Glimpses of Gananath Obeyesekere Selvy Thiruchandran is a founder, former executive director, and presently a Trustee of the Women’s Education and Research Centre (WERC) in Colombo.

Reminiscences of a brilliant #academic, intellectually fearless and honest: feminist scholar Selvy Thiruchandran on interactions professional and personal with Gananath Obeyesekere. #SriLanka

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Richard F. Gombrich | A Bridge Between East and West Richard F. Gombrich was Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1976 to 2004 and is the founder-president of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies; author among other works of Pr...

Richard F. Gombrich, co-author with Gananath Obeyesekere of '#Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in #SriLanka', recalls a friendship forged six decades ago over beefsteak and wine in Cambridge, England.

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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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Geethika Dharmasinghe | Conversion and Tradition: The Religious Public in Millennial Sri Lanka Geethika Dharmasinghe (PhD., Cornell University) is senior lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Colombo and post-doctoral fellow in the Department for the Study of Religion at the...

Geethika Dharmasinghe applies Gananath Obeyesekere, on the reworking of Sinhala Buddhist tradition interacting with 19th c. Protestant Christianity, to 'ex-Buddhists' drawn to Pentecostal evangelism in 21st c. #SriLanka

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Anne M. Blackburn | A Tale of Two Islands Anne M. Blackburn is the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University; and author most recently of Buddhist-inflected Sovereignties Acro...

Guide and interlocutor to many, Gananath Obeyesekere and 'The Work of Culture' (1990) in particular, are recalled by scholar of Buddhism in the Indian Ocean region, Anne M. Blackburn. #Culture.

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Radhika Coomaraswamy | Gananath’s Tryst with Lawyers Radhika Coomaraswamy is a lawyer and academic; earlier the Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo; past Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka; the...

Radhika Coomarasawamy remembers Gananath Obeyesekere on "The Thatched Patio" at Kynsey Terrace and a rich debate between #law and #anthropology during a time of violence.

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Out Now! Vol. 13 No. 2 (July-Dec 2025). 148pp. LKR1000 from SSA, Barefoot & SLBOOKS.lk

#SriLanka. Politics. Ditwah. Ecology. Feminism. Education. Justice. Domestic Violence Act. History. Culture. Labour. Books.

Mark P. Whitaker | An Accidental Education with Gananath Obeyesekere Mark P. Whitaker is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky; and co-editor (with Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake and Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran) of Multi-Religiosity in Contemporary Sri L...

When anthropology grad student Mark P. Whitaker found himself "a pilgrim without a pilgrimage", serendipity led him to Gananath Obeyesekere and later #SriLanka to study Hindu temple festivals in #Batticaloa

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Chulani Kodikara | Twenty Years of the PDVA: How has it worked for Women? Chulani Kodikara is an editor of Polity and a director of the Social Scientists’ Association.

#SriLanka: The Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (PDVA) 2005, though falling short of expectations, was a step forward for the abused, writes Chulani Kodikara, introducing two essays in #PolityMagazine marking its 20th anniversary. #IWD2026

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Victor C. de Munck | Gananath: Two Stories and A Review Victor C. de Munck is Professor of Anthropology at Vilnius University, Lithuania, and the author of several works on Sri Lanka including Seasonal Cycles: A Study of Social Change and Continuity in Sri...

Anthropologist Victor C. de Munck recounts two anecdotes of Gananath Obeyesekere from the 1970s; and reviews his former teacher's method of ethnographic psychoanalysis #SriLanka

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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.

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Anushka Kahandagamage | Obeyesekere the Dreamer: Visionary Journeys in Anthropology Anushka Kahandagamage (PhD, University of Otago) is a post-doctoral fellow in the Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University.

Gananath Obeyesekere documented visions and trance as a primary source of anthropological insight, across 'Medusa's Hair', '#Buddhism Transformed' and 'The Awakened Ones', writes Anushka Kahandagamage, sharing a fieldwork dream of her own.

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John D. Rogers | Gananath Obeyesekere: The Anthropologist and the Historian John D. Rogers is United States Director of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies; and author of Crime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka (Curzon Press, London, 1987).

Historian John D. Rogers recollects four decades of interaction with the anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere; a constant intellectual presence on scholars of humanities and social sciences in late 20th century #SriLanka.

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R. S. Perinbanayagam | The Creation of the Hunter. The Creation of the Hunter. The Vädda Presence in the Kandyan Kingdom: A Re-Examination. Gananath Obeyesekere. | Robert Siddharthan Perinbanayagam died on 5 November 2025 in New York City where he liv...

Who were the Väddas? What happened to them? In #SriLanka there were no “indigenous peoples”, no “aborigines”, no “wild men” and “tribes” of Western imagination argues Gananath Obeyesekere, reviewed by RS Perinbanayagam.

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Sanmugeswaran Pathmanesan | ‘Guru-Ship’: An Epistemological Turn in My Anthropological Education Sanmugeswaran Pathmanesan is a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka | Gananath Obeyesekere

#anthropology is not only about studying the Other but also about transforming the Self. Sanmugeswaran Pathmanesan reflects on how personal interaction with Gananath Obeyesekere and Mark Whitaker, transformed his epistemological perspective.

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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.

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Shashik Silva | From Living With, to Drowning Under, Floods: A Village Transformed Shashik Silva is Chief Operating Officer at the Social Scientists’ Association and a resident of Kolonnawa | Welewatta has always flooded. This village in the Kolonnawa Divisional Secretariat (DS), ho...

In Welewatta, people once coexisted with flooding. Now they fear it. Shashik Silva records the local history of a village on the edge of Colombo, changed by development and consumerism #CycloneDitwah #SriLanka

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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.

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Editors | Governing in Anticipation of Backlash | polity.lk As Sri Lanka reels from the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his address to the people on 30 November 2025...

The NPP's vision of governance is neutral to social identity and political power, therefore entrenching already existing inequalities, write the Editors in their closing reflection on #SriLanka in 2025.

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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

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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

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Jayadeva Uyangoda | Year One of the NPP Government: Some Heretical Thoughts Jayadeva Uyangoda is emeritus professor of political science and public policy at the University of Colombo; and editor of the two-volume Democracy and Democratisation in Sri Lanka: Paths, Trends and ...

Jayadeva Uyangoda's report-card on Year 1 of the National People's Power (NPP) government, in the backdrop of South Asia's #GenZ-led uprisings, plus a postscript on #CycloneDitwah and forecast of political storms ahead #SriLanka.

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As planetary politics roil from US invasion of #Venezuela & kidnap of Maduro & Flores with the aim of robbing its wealth, two past editorials on the unravelling global order: Jan 2023 polity.lk/palestine-an... ; and July 2025 polity.lk/there-is-gre... may be of interest #SriLanka

Top 20 Articles read in 2025 - polity.lk ‘When the Devil Drums, We Dance’: Sex Work and Sexual Violence in Wartime Sri Lanka - Radhika Hettiarachchi

The Polity Team Wishes Its Readers a Happy New Year!

Top 20 articles read in 2025: polity.lk/top-20-artic...

Collective | Best Reads 2025 Ponni Arasu is an independent scholar, activist, expressive arts therapist, translator, and theatre artist. Ameena Hussein is a writer of fiction and non-fiction and the co-founder of the Perera Husse...

Ponni Arasu, Ameena Hussein, Nubendra Liyanage, Madhubashani Disanayaka Ratnayake, Kalana Senaratne and Praveen Tilakaratne tell us the three top books they read this year. What were your favourites in 2025, and why?

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