But the struggle we are facing today is not just economic. Across the globe, the movement toward oligarchy runs parallel to the growth of authoritarian regimes – like Putin in Russia, Xi in China, Mohamed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Viktor Orbán in Hungry among…
“For Arendt, the private sphere is the realm of necessity where life in the household and family life, sustained by labour, production and consumption, take the centre. In contrast, the public sphere is the realm of freedom and action, with its focus on the world rather than life; it is the realm of public discourse…
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 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?” 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…
Department of English, University of Peradeniya What is striking about the 2015 elections? It is the upsurge in the call for democracy and the call to put an end to aggression, arbitrary actions. Significantly, it has opened up spaces for the minority community, the minority voter, to once again find a voice within the politics of the state. My writing here concerns largely Tamil politics, political leadership and the north and east Tamil voter, particularly of the north. In this, I wish to state at the outset, I am not addressing the Malaiyaha Tamil voter or those who are ‘traditional’…
'කතිකා' සංවාද මණ්ඩපය 'kathika' sanvada mandapaya 