“ An inquiry into the killings is expedited and all state forces brought under democratic forms of governance. As an initial step towards the latter, a process of demilitarization in the north and the east carried out speedily and effectively. Such a process should fall within a broader process of demilitarization in the rest of…
'kathika' social, cultural and political review
From politics
The Origins and Institutionalisation Of Political Violence (Part 1)- Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere
This essay by Gananath obeyesekere that appeared in Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis(Ed.James Manor, 1984) is a close investigation into post 1977 political realities, the implications of which have much to do with present impasse that Sri Lankan society seems to be in. Gananath obeyesekere, the greatest anthropologist produced by Sri Lanka was born…
The common good, market economy and politics By Kumudu Kusum Kumara
( The following article was originally published in The Island on 8th and 9th of February 2005 under the name Citizen-Ordinary. The article was written in response to the proposals made by the then Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesinghe inviting public discussion on what should be the ‘podu yahapatha’ or the common good of…
ව්යවස්ථාව කාටද ?/Constitution : For Whom ?- අහිලන් කදිර්ගාමර්/Ahilan Kadirgamar
” ව්යවස්ථාව කාටද?” යන මැයෙන් ජුනි 22 දින පුරවැසි සභාව සංවිධානය කොට සාමයික කේන්ද්රයේ ශ්රවණාගාරයේ පැවති මහජන සාකච්ඡාවේදී අහිලන් කදිර්ගාමර් ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අවධානය යොමු කරන ලද කරුණක් වූයේ ව්යවස්ථාව පිළිබඳ මහජන අදහස් විමසීමේ කමිටුව හමුවේ මෙසේ ජනතාව අදහස් ඉදිරිපත් කිරීම විශේෂඥයන් විසින් ව්යවස්ථාව සකස් කළ යුතුය යන කරුණට එරෙහිව යන සුභවාදී දෙයක් බවත් ව්යවස්ථාව හෝ…
Women in Politics in Sri Lanka: the Left Movement – Pulsara Liyanage
The lack of female representation in the Sri Lankan legislature has been of great concern for over a decade. This concern has lead to some theorizing and attempts at practical solutions to the problem. Among these has been the suggestion of a reservation for a quota for women in the electoral process in every political…
Ragging, Student Violence, & University Academics: A Brief Note – Kumudu Kusum Kumara
“In the context of student politics, ragging would have been used as a means of “getting to know” the freshers and thereby recruiting them to political groups. It is with the entry of the JVP into student politics in the late ‘60s that ragging and student violence takes the pernicious form that the Sri Lankan…


