Lost hopes of freedom
On the 73rd independence anniversary, Victor Ivan traces the country back to 1815 and the Colebrooke reforms to ask how a state that began ahead of Asia ended at the bottom of it.
Playing with history
Answering a published reply to his own column, Victor Ivan sets out what the record actually shows about the decline of the Raja Rata, the British period and the uses to which Sri Lankan history is put.
ඊළඟ මුවහම මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ද?
Ivan warns that a handful of extremist groups acting in the name of Buddhism, apparently with state protection, are pushing the country towards bloodshed again. Black July 1983 internationalised the Tamil question and fed the northern insurgency; turning on the Muslims now would isolate Sri Lanka in a world with a vast Muslim population. He traces the Muslims’ history in the island, their ties with Sinhala castes such as the Salagama noted by Ananda Coomaraswamy and Ralph Pieris, and argues that envy of Muslim success in trade lies behind the hostility.
ජාතියේ හා ආගමේ නාමයෙන් රට රැගෙන යන්නේ කොයිබටද?
Ivan warns that the anti-Muslim campaign now being led by groups of monks mirrors the climate before 1915, 1958 and 1983. He retells the 1915 Sinhala–Muslim riots, rooted in Dharmapala’s revival and Sinhala traders’ envy of Muslim commerce, and traces the Muslims’ long history in the island. Such a riot now, he argues, would be ruinous, and its premise betrays Buddhism itself: from the Kalama Sutta and the parable of the raft to Asoka’s edicts and Walpola Rahula, the Buddha’s teaching is one of free inquiry and tolerance.