Women from across #SriLanka call for a reformed family law and practice that centres equality, dignity, and safety for women and children. Read, sign, amplify, and organise, around the Women's Declaration. polity.lk/suriya-women...

Has #NPP rule overcome #SriLanka's deeply embedded ethno-religious cleavages? Shashik Silva thinks not in his dissection of state responses to Sinhala Buddhist sentiment and nationalist mobilisation. polity.lk/shashik-silv...

Two men once in power. Two men disgraced. In a striking comparison between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Boris Johnson, Ruben Thurairajah plumbs the depths of their hubris and its consequences #SriLanka #UK polity.lk/ruben-thurai...

Join the Global Action for Gaza! On September 6th, starting at 4pm outside the UN Office in Colombo.

Two men once in power. Two men disgraced. In a striking comparison between Ranil Wickremesinghe and Boris Johnson, Ruben Thurairajah plumbs the depths of their hubris and its consequences #SriLanka #UK polity.lk/ruben-thurai...

In a moving photo-essay, Sakuna M. Gamage brings poetry and pictures into conversation to ponder grief, resistance, and justice, in the wake of the ongoing #Chemmanimassgrave excavation in northern #SriLanka. polity.lk/sakuna-gamag...

Yes. #SriLanka's education system needs overhaul. No. The @NPPSLOfficial warmed-up proposals are not solutions to ongoing problems. Why squander precious political capital, asks Niyanthini Kadirgamar? polity.lk/niyanthini-k...

One week more to submit your EOI for the forum on the life, work, and legacy of Gananath Obeysekere. Send your pitch (under 300 words) to [email protected] by 25 August 2025.

Women migrant domestic workers, heroines and victims? Reviewing Magic Maids, Nadeera Rajapakse showcases how these women subtly and definitively resist these restrictive narratives through their own forms of feminist praxis. polity.lk/nadeera-raja...

Please note changed assembly point and route.

#PolityArchive Today is the anniversary of the 1953 ‘Great Hartal’, when the collective action of the masses changed the course of Sri Lanka. Skanthakumar writing in 2023 on its 70th anniversary dissects the causes and reach of the Hartal, with the 2022 #Aragalaya in mind. polity.lk/ceylons-grea...

Gripping stories that stay with the reader; adding much to what we think we know (and lesser understand) of #war and #peace in #SriLanka through the prism of conflict-related sexual violence. Thanks to Radhika Hettiarachchi for sharing them with @politylk.bsky.social

Drawing from the Women’s Histories of Sex Work archive, Radhika Hettiarachchi explores powerful narratives of violence, vulnerability and agency articulated by sex workers in wartime Sri Lanka and their search for justice for their work and for themselves. polity.lk/radhika-hett...

Drawing from the Women’s Histories of Sex Work archive, Radhika Hettiarachchi explores powerful narratives of violence, vulnerability and agency articulated by sex workers in wartime Sri Lanka and their search for justice for their work and for themselves. polity.lk/radhika-hett...

Mountain at a Center of the World destabilises the dominant anthropocentric gaze on #Siripāda in #SriLanka. Anushka Kahandagamage hails Alex McKinley's urging of humans to re-examine our position on Earth. polity.lk/anushka-kaha...

"Liberties of expression, association and assembly once taken-for-granted, are in rapid retreat. The liberal firewall has fallen. The traditional parties of the right, centre and even left, embrace anti-immigrant, misogynist, anti-DEI, prejudices, and language..." #Ecocide #Liberalism #IMF #PolityLK

Anarchy. The world imagined by liberal internationalism is no more. The US battens its hatches. Europe fortifies its walls. Israel wreaks chaos in West Asia. The Earth burns. Literally. Climate change is uncontrolled. We must change course. But where, and how? polity.lk/there-is-gre...

The ’radical impulse’ in Indian music has influenced the political, social, and cultural trajectory of pre- and post-Partition India and continues to articulate alternative political and popular imaginaries today, writes Sumangala Damodaran. polity.lk/sumangala-da...

SBD de Silva was among #SriLanka's most original Marxist political economists. Seven years since his death this month, there is renewed interest in the significance of his thought, explains Shiran Illanperuma. polity.lk/shiran-illan...

#PolityLK calls for short pieces on the life, work, and legacy of Gananath Obeyesekere. Send your pitch (under 300 words) to [email protected] before 25 August 2025.

SBD de Silva was among #SriLanka's most original Marxist political economists. Seven years since his death this month, there is renewed interest in the significance of his thought, explains Shiran Illanperuma. polity.lk/shiran-illan...

While we are right to be suspicious of the politics of foreign aid, Trump's defunding of #USAID should be seen for what it is -- and his co-thinkers in #SriLanka know it, writes Sandunlekha Ekanayake. polity.lk/sandunlekha-...

"...on creating new ways to celebrate queer identities that seek to do more than merely induce pity; representations that do not fall into the trap of commodification or Eurocentrism; and, most importantly, representations of reality, where LGBTQ+ members are more than the rainbow aesthetic"

Too often exhibiting misrepresentation and bad journalism, queer representation in Sri Lankan media is a double-edged sword, writes Kasun Kavishka in #PolityLK this week. #SriLanka #PrideMonth polity.lk/kasun-kavish...

Two weeks more to send us your submissions on the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act in Sri Lanka. polity.lk/20-years-aft...

The Gaza Tribunal declares its collective moral outrage at the continuing genocide in Palestine, solidarity with Palestinians, commitment to ensure accountability, redress, a more just international order, & a free Palestine. polity.lk/the-sarajevo...

"Dangerous. Monstrous. A threat to the nation." Themal Ellawala writes on how LGBTQ+ communities experience the surveillance, interrogation, and violence of the security state in #SriLanka #PrideMonth polity.lk/themal-ellaw...

Diagnostics of corruption in #SriLanka by the IMF, NGOs, and the NPP are reviewed by @bskanthakumar.bsky.social. Their assumption of a technical (including digital) fix to a problem of political economy is found wanting. polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

Diagnostics of corruption in #SriLanka by the IMF, NGOs, and the NPP are reviewed by @bskanthakumar.bsky.social. Their assumption of a technical (including digital) fix to a problem of political economy is found wanting. polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

Noura Erakat offers an invaluable resource to those interested in the modern political history of #Palestine, the roots & residues of the international legal system, & limits & possibilities of using law in emancipatory politics, writes @kirankgrewal.bsky.social #NakbaDay77 polity.lk/kiran-grewal...

In the aftermath of #LGElection2025, @HarindraBD and @Rajni_Gamage dissect the state of political parties in #SriLanka. Politics has been polarised along the axis of 'thieves' and 'liars'. polity.lk/harindra-b-d...

Noura Erakat offers an invaluable resource to those interested in the modern political history of #Palestine, the roots & residues of the international legal system, & limits & possibilities of using law in emancipatory politics, writes @kirankgrewal.bsky.social #NakbaDay77 polity.lk/kiran-grewal...

Whatever happened to the populism of the #NPP? Pradeep Peiris asks whether, in politics as well as economics, #SriLanka's progressive political movement is more committed to stabilising than changing what the #Aragalaya rejected. polity.lk/pradeep-peir...

"Klem sees the Tamil insurgency (and others) as “arenas of contingent political performance”. Rather than dismissing them as political theatre and illegitimate, he unravels the symbolic value that they hold for the actors...."

Closer attention to the sovereign performances of #Tamil nationalists in #SriLanka yield insights for peace-builders and political negotiators in how we understand and diagnose insurgent separatism writes Sakuntala Kadirgamar on Bart Klem's innovative book. polity.lk/performing-s...

polity.lk/20-years-aft... #PolityLK calls for articles on the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act in Sri Lanka, 20 years on. Send your pitches and drafts to [email protected] by 30 June.

#Trump’s #LiberationDay2025 tariffs shook the #NPP government’s reliance on export revenue. Taniya Silvapulle unpacks the combined effect of US protectionist policies and the #IMF’s neoliberal debt restructuring plan on #Sri Lanka’s economy. polity.lk/taniya-silva...

After its brutal suppression in 1988-89, the #JVP transformed into the formidable force leading #SriLanka today. This week, historian Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri reflects on its journey from underground subversives to parliamentary politics, and what lies ahead for the JVP-NPP. polity.lk/nirmal-ranji...

#Budget2025 #SriLanka passed on 21 March with the NPP's massive majority. President Dissanayake's opening remarks call for inclusive economic growth. But do the proposals walk the talk? @bskanthakumar.bsky.social unpacks #AKD's 17 February speech, and what drives it. polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

#Budget2025 #SriLanka passed on 21 March with the NPP's massive majority. President Dissanayake's opening remarks call for inclusive economic growth. But do the proposals walk the talk? @bskanthakumar.bsky.social unpacks #AKD's 17 February speech, and what drives it. polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

Sumanasiri Liyanage's magisterial lecture disputes neoclassical explanations of #SriLanka's economic crisis. #Marx's critique of political economy is invoked to differentiate between the conjunctural/cyclic and the organic/structural elements of crisis in #capitalism polity.lk/sumanasiri-l...

Out now! Latest print issue of #PolityLK with analyis and commentary on and from #SriLanka, and lots to read and discuss. Get your copy now.

Polity Volume 12, Issue 2 available in print now! Purchase for LKR 500, from the Social Scientists' Association and Barefoot Bookshop, Colombo 3

#PolityLK marks the passing of Professor Sisira Jayasuriya on 18 February 2025. Professor Jayasuriya was a past contributor. Read his writing in the #polityandpravadaarchive linktr.ee/politylk

I loved writing this short piece for @politylk.bsky.social with Hasini Lecamwasam. It is an initial exploration of what “private universities” are in #SriLanka - what are they really? And are they the only HEIs giving degrees for fees? #UniversitiesLK 1/n polity.lk/unveiling-pr...

The #privatisation of state-funded #HigherEducation in #SriLanka takes many guises. As commercialisation creeps and burrows with consent and collusion by the #state, Kaushalya Perera (@kauship.bsky.social) & Hasini Lecamwasam unmask a few. polity.lk/unveiling-pr...

#PolityLK thanks all who contributed to remembering Richard de Zoysa on the 35th anniversary of his death. See their contributions and read more at polity.lk

"What appears on screen influences what is remembered and what is forgotten”, write Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage & Malithi Liyanage in a searing critique of Asoka Handagama’s Rani (2025) for #PolityLK, 35 years since the abduction and murder of Richard de Zoysa polity.lk/rani-the-pol...

In Asoka Handagama's #Rani, a mother's search for justice for her son’s disappearance and murder is aesthetically rendered to undermine struggles for truth and accountability in #SriLanka, writes Janaka Biyanwila for #PolityLK polity.lk/asoka-handag...

The circulation of Richard de Zoysa's poems in English kept aflame the memory of his life, his work, and his death. Vihanga Perera explores the distance his poetry has travelled in #SriLanka schools and universities, 35 years on. Image: Minal Wickrematunge polity.lk/richard-de-z...