“Churchill had only four members backing him in 1939. How did he become Prime Minister? Because of the crisis. I have done the same.” — Ranil Wickremesinghe to a British journalist, after his appointment The Constitution of Sri Lanka empowers the President to appoint as Prime Minister any MP who…

The protests at Galle Face have been continuing for more than a month now. Initially aimed against Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his band of brothers, the infiltration of certain groups has diluted the tone and trajectory of the demonstrations. Over the last few weeks, the country at large has taken part…

Dileepa Perera’s biography of Tissa Liyanasuriya does more than tell a story. Full of sharp insights and historical anecdotes, it places us in a past I wished we grew up in. A product of an urban Sinhalese middle-class, Liyanasuriya lived through some of the country’s headiest years. His hometown in…

With input from Dhananjaya Samarakoon In 1965 the Sri Lankan government published the findings of a Commission of Inquiry into the Film Industry. Filled with proposals and representations from prominent players in the cinema, the Commission made several recommendations. The most important of these was the establishment of a National…

In his book on the rock and wall paintings of Sri Lanka, Senake Bandaranayake questions whether the southern tradition of Buddhist temple art was derived from or inspired by the Kandyan tradition. Though displaying an entirely different character from Kandyan art, low country temple paintings nevertheless shared certain affinities, in…

I’d like to say this is the beginning of the end, but it’s not. The latest spate of protests to hit Sri Lankahas now been going on for more than a week. These protests have targeted one thing and one thing only: the Rajapaksas’ exit from power. While some argue…

The social and cultural history of Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka has been the object of study for well over a century. Far from receding into a world of their own, these temples occupied a prominent place in the world around them. Buddhist monks lived under a code of piety…

What they won’t tell you about the Asian Tigers Neoliberal economists take the South-East Asian economic miracle as a case study and a litmus test for their theories and assumptions. They argue that the post-war boom in the region was fuelled by a set of reforms which emphasised private players and free markets over State intervention and central planning…

The need for a new perspective Basil Rajapaksa recently made plans for an official trip to India. The visit comes two months after he led a delegation which secured credit lines, currency swaps, and financial assistance from New Delhi. India has so far helped secure USD 2.4 billion worth of such assistance, a much-needed intervention at…