~ Tamara Fernando, Jesus College, Cambridge The names Vijayabhahu, Dutugamunu, and S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake are likely more familiar to the student of Sri Lankan history than Kedoe, Selestina and Cander Wayreven. Who were these three, and why are their life histories not better known? For one thing, all of them were slaves. The 23-year-old Kedoe was […]
~ Anushka Kahandagamage, University of Otago Panduka Karunanayake’s new book, Ruptures in Sri Lanka’s Education: Genesis, Present Status and Reflections is a timely intellectual intervention with a great deal of discussion on education in the country and how it should be reformed. In a scenario where state proposals for education reforms are often based on […]
~ Anushka Kahandagamage, University of Otago The idea of slavery has a long history though it is not an issue that registers routinely in South Asian memory. This is mostly because narratives of the South Asian enslaved have become a blind spot in history. I was fascinated to read Nira Wickramasinghe’s recent book Slave […]
යශෝධරා දල්මියා (පරිවර්තනය: අවන්ති උපේක්ෂා කලංසූරිය, හිර්න්‍යදා දේවසිරි, ඵූසතී ලියනාරච්චි, අනුශ්කා කහඳගම සහ සසංක පෙරේරා. ඉන්දීය කලා ඉතිහාසඥවරියක වන යශෝධරා දල්මියා විසින් ලියන ලද මේ කෘතිය සුප්‍රසිද්ධ ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය චිත්‍ර ශිල්පී ජෝර්ජ් කීට් පිළිබඳව ලියැවී ඇති විස්තරාත්මක ම කෘතිය ව්වේ. එමගින් දකුණු ආසියා කලාපයේ චිත්‍ර භාවිතය තුළ නූතනවාදයේ බිහිවීම ගවේෂණය කරන්නේ ජෝර්ජ් කීට් ගේ චිත්‍ර […]
විලාස්නී තම්පෝ-හුටින් වෙලුම් දෙකකින් සමන්විත වූ මේ කෘති එකතුවේ පළමු වෙලුමෙන් අවධාරණය කරණුයේ 1896 සිට 1928 දක්වා වූ කාලය තුළ දිගහැරුන ලංකාවේ සිනමා වංශකතාවේ මුල් යුගයේ එංගලන්තයෙන් හා ඉන්දියාවෙන් ලැබුන දායකත්වය පිළිබඳවය. එහිදී විශේෂයෙන් අවදාරණය වන්නේ මේ දෙරට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සිනාමාවේදයට අවැසි වූ යටිතල පහසුකම් සැපයූ ආකාරය හා මෙරට සිනමාවට අණුප්රාණය ලබාදුන් ආකාරය පිළිබඳවය. දෙවන […]
By Nira Wickramasinghe Everyday life in the Crown colony of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was characterized by a direct encounter of people with modernity through the consumption and use of foreign machines – in particular, the Singer sewing machine, but also the gramophone, tramway, bicycle and varieties of industrial equipment. The ‘metallic modern’ of the 19th […]
By Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri The Adaptable Peasant investigates the structural changes in western Sri Lanka’s agrarian society under the administration of the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) in the mid-eighteenth century. Drawing from an array of Dutch language sources, it attempts to reconstruct the encounter between the Company and two major historical actors in […]
By Alicia Schrikker This book looks at the history of Dutch and British colonial intervention in Sri Lanka between 1780-1815. It unravels colonialism’s layers as they had evolved during different phases of colonial transition in Sri Lanka and shows how traditional historical periodization has made colonial continuities and legacies invisible. While from the perspective of […]
TAP’s Thirangie Jayatilake met up with Nihal Perera in Colombo on 15 July 2020 to talk about his book Decolonizing Ceylon (OUP, 1999), especially its upcoming Sinhala translation and his ventures in the study of social space. As a young architecture student, a core question that piqued Professor Nihal Perera’s curiosity was, “why do Sri […]
This book is a detailed study of the architecture of Valentine Gunasekara (1931-2017). It provides an innovative lens to understand the formation of a Ceylonese middle-class, which was inspired by the post-independence desire for modernity. Their experiments, values and dynamic social history are the framework for this research. Although neglected by his peers and marginalized […]
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