by Cherylann Mollan, BBC, London, July 27, 2025 ASI A view of an excavated site in Keeladi where archaeologists have found evidence of industrial activity The Keeladi village in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state has unearthed archeological finds that have sparked a political and historical battle. Amid coconut groves, a series of 15ft (4.5m) deep… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
How Unearthing Keeladi Became a Row over India’s Past
by Kavita Muralidharan, India Today, July 22, 2025 Divergence from the dominant north-centred history of Indian civilisation is alleged to be the reason for marginalisation of the archaeologist who led initial excavations at the Tamil Nadu site. Share In Short Archaeologist K. Amarnath Ramakrishna led key Keeladi excavations revealing early urban Tamil civilisation. His 2023… Read more »
The Rise and Collapse of Sri Lanka’s Right-Wing Dynasty
by The Morning Telegraph, originally in the Sri Lanka Guardian with some edits, Colombo, June 30, 2025 From D.S. Senanayake’s careful grooming of leaders to Ranil Wickremesinghe’s failure to build a new generation, this is the story of how the United National Party (UNP) went from unrivaled dominance to irrelevance. Discover how lost succession planning… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Quiet Reckoning with Its Past
Sixteen Years On In a world currently embroiled in multiple conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine Sri Lanka’s experience stands as a stark reminder of the consequences when power eclipses principle…When military triumph is achieved through the disregard of civilian protection, and when the shield of sovereignty is used to justify systemic abuse, the credibility of… Read more »
An Epochal Episode in the Tamil Freedom Struggle
Black July 1983 Reposting from July 10, 2006 by Dharakan, Brisbane, Australia J.R. Jayawardene said, “The more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here. Really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” Early Ground Work for Genocide Burning Tamil houses, July 1983. Source:… Read more »
ATC Remembers Black July
by Australian Tamil Congress, July 2025
Reflections on Arrival of First Batch of July 1983 Riot Refugees
from Colombo to Jaffna by Ananth Palakidnar, Jaffna Post, July 25, 2025 From the time the land mine explosion took place on July 23, 1983, the Eelanadu regional newspaper, where I was a sub editor, became active on covering every incident in Jaffna and Colombo, as well as India’s stance with regard to the July… Read more »
42 Years Since Black July
by Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, Jaffna Post, July 2025 The fact that there is still no political solution to the ethnic problem is even more shameful than the worst ethnic violence. Forty two years have passed since the July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom that marked a watershed in inter-ethnic relations in Sri Lanka. Beyond the horrors of more than… Read more »
SSA: July 1983
by Civil Society Movement in Social Scientists Association’s ‘Polity,’ Colombo, July/August 2003 polity-vol-1.3-july-1983 Also: polity-vol-1.3-july-1983.pdf
Facing the Truth of July 1983
by Kumar Rupesinghe, Sunday Observer, Colombo, July 17, 2003 See: Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Ilankai Tamil Sangam Before I begin an assessment of the final report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence from 1981-1984, I would like to recollect some encounters I had with former President… Read more »
New Sri Lanka Mass Grave Discovery Reopens Old Wounds for Tamils
by Jeevan Ravindran, AlJazeera, Doha June 16, 2025 So far, 19 bodies have been found. Thousands of Tamils were disappeared during the civil war that ended in 2009. A rusted gate behind which Sri Lankan excavators are digging the latest mass grave they have found from the country’s 26-year-long civil war, in Chemmani, Sri Lanka… Read more »
Adaptation of Archaeological Techniques in Forensic Mass Grave Exhumation: Chemmani
The experience of ‘Chemmani’ excavation in northern Sri Lanka by PR Ruwanpura, UCP Perera, HTK Wijeyaweera and N Chandrasiri, Ceylon Medical Journal, 2006 Sep;51(3):98-102 1251-1-4695-1-10-20091023 Abstract There have been several mass grave excavations in Sri Lanka during the period of 1995 to 1998. Excavation of mass graves in the Chemmani area of northern peninsula of… Read more »
Why Citing Sri Lanka to Justify Gaza Is Strategically and Legally Dangerous
The problem is that Sri Lanka is not a model of anything durable. It is a case study in how military triumph achieved through mass atrocity leads to long-term state failure. Genocide may remove an armed group, but it also erodes legitimacy, triggers unintended consequences, and breaks the systems that sustain governance. by Maxwin Paul… Read more »
May 31-June 4 1981: Five Days Of State Terror In Jaffna
by Santasilan Kadirgamar , Colombo Telegraph, February 3, 2013 Santasilan Kadirgamar Two years after the end of the war in Lanka*, without a political solution in sight, it may be appropriate to look back at events that occurred 30 years ago. 31 May to 4 June 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of days of violence… Read more »
Nixon’s Cold-War Call On Colombo
by Vinod Moonesinghe, Roar Media, October 22, 2021 On 27 November 1953, after a month touring 15 Asian countries, US Vice President Richard M Nixon, accompanied by his wife Pat, arrived at Ratmalana Airport on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka, then known officially as “Ceylon”. It was the first visit by a US holder of… Read more »
Understanding Modern Sri Lanka — Interview with Journalist Mark Salter
A Crisis of Governance and the Fluidity of Ethnic Identity by Pitasanna Shanmugathas, University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Canada, Jurist.org. April 25, 2025 Edited by: Alanah Vargas | JURIST Staff, US Mark Salter, a journalist, analyst, and writer with over 25 years of professional experience in democratization, governance, and post-conflict peacebuilding, speaks to JURIST’s Senior… Read more »
What is the Batalanda Report?
by Tamil Guardian, London, March 11, 2025 Following a disastrous interview with Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan by former Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Batalanda report and his role in facilitating torture has come into the spotlight. We take a look at the report and at Wickremesinghe’s alleged role. What is the Batalanda Report? Established… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Who is to Blame for Sri Lanka’s Crises?
by Head to Head, Al Jazeera, London, March 6, 2025 When Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in 2022 – amidst mass protests and an economic crisis– parliament elected veteran politician and six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. As President, Wickremesinghe negotiated the country’s biggest bail-out, but his critics say he is part of… Read more »
ITJP: Valvettithurai – Testimonies of a Massacre
by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, March 2025 ITJP_VVT-report_Digital_Final-March-2025 [Tamil & Sinhalese versions available] This report uses the voices of those who were there to tell the story of the Valvettithurai massacre in 1989, one of the worst atrocities committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. From 1987-1990, India… Read more »
NESoHR: Massacres of Tamils 1956 – 2008
by North East Secretariat for Human Rights, Vanni, 2010 This Book is dedicated to the thousands of Eelam Tamils who lost their life at the hands of the Sri Lankan and Indian State Armed Forces. NESoHR Massacres-of-Tamils-1956-2008 Originally posted on Sangam at Massacres of Tamil 1956 – 2008 Documented by North East Secretariat for Human… Read more »