Narrated With Poignancy And Hilarity by Sreevalsan Thiyyadi, ‘Outlook India,’ January 28, 2018 It was on this date nine years ago that immigrant Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada intensified protest against a “genocide” of their community in the Northern Province of the island-nation. Appadurai Muttulingam’s stories take a kaleidoscopic view on their everyday lives—and beyond… Read more »
Monthly Archives: February 2018
War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka
After the End by Rachel Seoighe, Palgrave Studies in Compromise After Conflict, Palgrave MacMillan, Dec. 5, 2017 Abstract This book begins from a critical account of the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, tracing themes of nationalism, discourse and conflict memory through this period of immense violence and into its aftermath. Using these… Read more »
Caged Independence
by Thamil Ananthavinayagan, ‘Sri Lanka Guardian,’ Colombo, February 4, 2018 Introduction ( February 4, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The cherished Maya Angelou wrote once in her famous poem ‘Caged Bird’: [T]he caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for… Read more »
Diaspora Joint Letter on Independence Day
Tamil Diaspora Joint Letter on Sri Lanka Independence Day 2018 February 3, 2018 Honorable Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland Dear High Commissioner, Tamil Diaspora Organizations call for action on the eve of Sri Lanka’s… Read more »
Remembering A. Sivanandan (1923–2018)
We Are Here Because You Were With Us by Virou Srilangarajah, ‘Ceasefire,’ UK, February 4, 2018 That he was still alive at the time, though in comparative retirement, makes that neglect even sadder.” So wrote Ambalavaner Sivanandan in 1980, commenting on the lack of acknowledgement by black political movements of the 1960s in the United States of the… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 42
Importance of Voice and Inspiration of Raja Sandow by Sachi Sri Kantha, Feb. 4, 2018 Part 41 Importance of Voice Nearby, I provide a question and answer item that appeared in the Thuglak weekly (around 1980 I guess, when MGR was Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister), edited by drama-movie actor and humorist Cho Ramaswamy (1934-2016). For… Read more »
Inscribing the Victor’s Land
Nationalistic authorship in Sri Lanka’s post-war Northeast by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Conflict, Security & Development,’ Vol. 16, 2016, Issue 5 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14678802.2016.1219507?scroll=top&needAccess=true Abstract This article examines the nationalistic authorship of space in Sri Lanka’s post-conflict Northeast as part of the state’s nation-building strategy and as a continuation of a post-colonial process of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalistic revival. Exploring issues… Read more »
Nationalistic Authorship and Resistance in Northeastern Sri Lanka
by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Society and Culture in South Asia’ 2(1) 1–30, 2016 Nationalist Authorship Resistance in NE Sri Lanka 2016 Abstract Post-war Sri Lanka is defined by the logic of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, glorification and expansion of the military, and the exponential growth of state-corporate economic projects. This article examines the performative politics of the state in mass… Read more »
Discourses of Victimization in Sri Lanka’s Civil War
Collective Memory, Legitimacy and Agency by Rachel Seoghe, ‘Social and Legal Studies,’ UK, January 8, 2016 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0964663915614097 Abstract This article explores the availability of discourses of victimhood to political actors who aim to justify violence and mass atrocity in the name of those victims. Arguing that the label of the ‘victim’ is equally available for… Read more »