‘The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company’

Book review by Thomas Gidney, London School of Economics Review of Books, January 16, 2020 In The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, William Dalrymple gives a new character-driven account of the ascent to power of the East India Company following the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the resulting ‘anarchy’ that followed. Tracking the… Read more »

What Lessons Are We Talking About?

Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Civil War Sri Lankan Cinema by Dinidu Karunanayake and Thiyagaraja Waradas, ICES Research Papers, Colombo, September 2013 What_Lessons_Are_We_Talking_About_Reconc The official end of the war coincides with the beginning of a markedly changed Sri Lankan cinematic aesthetic. The post-2009 period has seen a boom in ‘patriotic‘ film productions. Shedding light on Jean-Luc… Read more »

‘The Struggle for a Multilingual Future’

Youth and Education in Sri Lanka by Christina P. Davis, 21 January 2020, Oxford University Press 212 Pages | 10 illus ISBN: 9780190947484 Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Language Demonstrates the challenges of promoting peace and interethnic tolerance through multilingual language policies in post-civil war Sri Lanka Explores how power inequalities and ethnic conflict… Read more »

From Sachi’s File – Chapter 12

Eelam Advocacy in Tokyo during 1980s by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 18, 2020 After completing my Ph.D at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, I arrived in Tokyo in January 1986. Thirty four years had passed. Then, there were four English language print dailies; namely, Japan Times, Daily Yomiuri, Mainichi Daily News and Asahi Evening News…. Read more »

Review of ‘Sri Lanka: A Victor’s Peace: 2009 to 2019’

by Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan, Berlin, January 13, 2020 Ana Pararajasingham, Sri Lanka: A Victor’s Peace: 2009 to 2019, Sydney, 2019. Read online at https://bookmate.com/books/cib47ArH What follows is not a review of this collection of thirty-two, very perceptive, essays but a sharing of a few thoughts arising from the book, particularly from its title. The phrase… Read more »

Shouldering of Responsibility to Save Desperate Tamils in Sri Lanka

by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 11, 2020 There is no denying of the fact that Tamils in Sri Lanka  have been at the receiving end since 1949, when power was transferred to the majority Sinhala Government. Successive Sinhala Governments continued and still continue the marginalisation… Read more »

Media under Fire

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, January 6, 2020 Several weeks into Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency, journalists on the island are coming under increasing threat. Whilst the island has always been a dangerous place for the press, and for Tamil journalists in particular, over the last month there has been a worrying rise in intimidation, harassment and even… Read more »

13A Just a Cudgel in India’s Hand

by MSM Ayub, Daily Mirror, Colombo, December 13, 2019 It was India that first sent its External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka within 24 hours after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s President on November 18. It was also India that became the first diplomatic destination for President Rajapaksa. Indian External Affairs… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 54

An Overview of the Final 31 movies of 1970s by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 27, 2019 Part 53 Front Note Due to commitments in teaching, I took a five month ‘leave’ from writing this series. Since I began this series in December 2012, seven years have passed by. As evident, I have covered MGR’s life… Read more »

High Time to Act on Sri Lanka

By United Nations & international community by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond]. Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been in the limelight of UN and International Community for the last thirty years and more intensively during and after the genocidal war launched against the Tamil civilians and Liberation Tigers of… Read more »

Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution

This article is generally agreed to be the best discussion of the weakness of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, instituted after the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord to provide the ‘devolution’ the Tamils have requested to allow them to manage some of their own affairs within Sri Lanka. by Nadesan Satyendra, ‘TamilNation.org,’ March 1988,… Read more »

Speech by Nadesan Satyendra at Thimpu Talks 1985

posted by Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), February 12, 2012 Satyendra was the TELO representative at the Thimbu Talks We recognise that the Tamil national struggle is not taking place in some Himalayan stratosphere… At the outset, we would like to emphasise something which all of us amongst the Tamil delegation present here today, recognise… Read more »

2004 Tsunami

Note the divergence in information on number of casualties, etc.  The NorthEast of Sri Lanka was one area severely under-counted due to lack of facilities and official interest. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-24/boxing-day-tsunami-how-the-disaster-unfolded/5977568 January 2007 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/29459974_The_Economic_Effects_of_the_Asian_Tsunami_on_the_Tear_Drop_in_the_Indian_Ocean_A_General_Equilibrium_Analysis https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/25/where-did-indian-ocean-tsunami-aid-money-go  

Organized Encroachments on State Land by Indian Tamils

Results of physical survey done on 1983 Settled since 198(illegible) by Gandhian Movement Documents dated 22-Feb-92, difficult to read due to being a copy & age. Organized Encroachment on State Land by Indian Tamils   Pages 1-2 Organized Encroachments on State Land by Indian Tamils              

Devolution of Powers under the 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka

Fact or Fiction? by MCM Iqbal, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, July 19, 2009 (The writer was one of the secretaries of the first Provincial Council of the Western Province) 1. Introduction In the aftermath of the defeat of the LTTE in Sri Lanka, many expected the government to put forward the promised political solution to the problems of… Read more »

From Sachi’s Files – Chapter 11

Sex education in Tamil Countries – Circa 50 years ago by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 14, 2019 The other day, during my routine visit to the Tokyo Metropolitan Library. I glanced at the last month’s The Times (London) newspaper copies. Four brief letters to the editor on sex education, all written by women, in response… Read more »

Will the New President of Sri Lanka Guide the Country on the Correct Path?

by Kumarathasan Rasingam – Secretary, The Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org., December 16, 2019 The Singapore success is attributed to their leader LEE KUAN YEW developing a society where each race appreciate and respect that of others, encouraged to preserve its unique culture and traditions, let alone that of the majority. It’s fostering… Read more »

Sri Lanka Fast Becoming a Failed State

by Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [Lond] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 9, 2019 A Failed state is one which is failing to function properly regarding its responsibilities, including an inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community. Ethnic conflicts and tension, violation of human… Read more »