PolityLK

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

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. Climate change is uncontrolled. We must change course. But where, and how? polity.lk/there-is-great…

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-damo…

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 @shiranperuma. polity.lk/shiran-illanpe…

#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.

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-ek…

"The focus should be 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…

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-kavishka…

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-d…

"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-ellawal…

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

In this latest article published by @Polity 'Horu versus Boru: Politics of 2025 local elections in Sri Lanka' @HarindraBD and I write on the emergence of a ‘liars versus thieves’ axis of political polarisation, replacing the ‘patriots versus traitors’ axis introduced in 2009.

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-das…

.@4Noura 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 @kikigee24 #NakbaDay77 polity.lk/kiran-grewal-j…

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-peiris…

"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...."