KAMALIKA PIERIS The US is an exceptional country that is different from and superior to all other countries,   say admirers of the USA. I always thought that Europe and North America had it figured out. I saw them as Utopia,” a commentator from Buenos Aires told TIME. She changed her mind after the Corona virus.  […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS China kept mum during the time of the general election of 2020. But soon after, China moved quickly to re-affirm friendly relations. The first high-powered Chinese business delegation to Sri Lanka to arrive was a  15-member business delegation  from Mianyang,   to sign agreements with Sri Lanka’s Confederation of Micro, Small and Medium Industries […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS After a long march, a great leap, a cultural revolution and ‘Tiananmen Square’, China is today emerging as the most powerful country in the world. China is the world’s first Communist state with a capitalist economy. China has managed to stay Communist while engaging in free market enterprise. This is considered unique and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS India and Sri Lanka signed an FTA in 1998,  it was done very fast. Discussion started in August 1998and the FTA signed in November 1998 with just 4 consultations. The FTA became effective in 2000, but only the criteria were laid down not the procedures, observed critics.  A Joint Study Group (JSG) was […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka is important to India, because of its location and India is determined to bring Sri Lanka under its control. India set up consulates in Hambantota and Jaffna in 2010. India has a long-standing consulate in Kandy. Critics wanted to know why does India want consulates in Jaffna and Hambantota. Consulates are […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS When India gained Independence as a sovereign state in 1947, it considered itself the natural leader of South Asia because of its size, its antiquity and its classy leader, Jawaharlal Nehru. It considered itself a regional power  and took a very arrogant attitude towards it neighbors. This haughty, aggressive policy only succeeded in […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Part 2 of this series is on international relations. The series starts with India. Despite its impressive size, India is a very young sovereign state, dating only from 1947. Before foreign rule, India consisted of a number of separate kingdoms. These vanished under Muslim and British rule. The responsibility of creating the new  […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 13.10.20  Buddha wanted to spread his ideas   beyond the locality he lived in, and he sent sixty disciples in all directions. This was the start of Buddhist missionary work. 300 years later Emperor Dharmasoka (268 – 232 BC) took over the missionary task. He sent Buddhist missionaries to Syria, Macedonia, Cyrene, Epirus, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS This essay is a preliminary to the study of the modern Sinhala Buddhist civilization of Sri Lanka.  This essay draws attention to   those aspects of Asia’s Buddhist civilization, which are not well known and have not received much attention in Sri Lanka. Buddhism, which originated in north India in the 6th century BC, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Buddhist doctrine was formalized   in the three Councils held after the death of the Buddha. The first Council was held at Rajgir under King Ajatasattu (492 to 460 BC) three months after the death of the Buddha.  A major part of the Sutta and Vinaya pitaka were decided at this Council. Second […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP was given a new lease of life when the UNP came to power in 1977. Under the previous SLFP government JVPers were brought before the Criminal Justice Commission, (CJC) a special tribunal set up through a special Act of Parliament. JVPers were charged with waging war against the lawfully elected government, breaking […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Wiswa Warnapala declared that violence was first injected into the politics of Sri Lanka by the JVP. JVP was a violent murderous movement from the very beginning. They were guilty of gruesome killings. Despite JVP ‘s attempts to identify itself with Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara,  JVP had more in common with the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna  ( Pohottu) had a sweeping victory at the General Election of 2020.  Pohottu got  59.09 %of the total vote and 145 seats. Nobody expected such a  landslide   victory and it was promptly dubbed the ‘mother of  all landslides’. Voter turnout island-wide was 71%.  It would have been more, but […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS JVP   was   out to create a failed state. Firstly, it set out to weaken government authority at village level.  In 1971 insurgency, JVP killed government representatives in the village, such as GA postmaster, station master, and co-op manager. The first killing took place in Tangalle. In 1987 insurgency, even Grama sevakas were not […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS In both JVP insurgencies, 1971 and 1987, JVP tried to infiltrate all four security services, police, army, navy and air force.  The 1971 insurgency this was not very successful in this. Only about ten persons became   JVP supporters in each of the four services in 1971 said Chandraprema., Some joined the JVP when […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Why did the two JVP uprisings happen precisely in 1971 and 1987, asked Nira Wickremasinghe. The answer is that they were both linked to the Eelam war. Rohan Gunaratna observed that JVP insurgency and the Eelam Wars both started around the same time.  The first JVP insurgency started in the south in 1971 […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The two JVP insurgencies of 1971 and 1987 have not been looked at deeply or analytically. Commentators have concentrated on describing what the JVP did, not why they did it.  Commentators treat the JVP with great indulgence, calling the JVP an idealistic, romantic youth movement.  Dharman    Wickremaratne said that, as a working journalist, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  THIS ESSAY INCLUDES MATERIAL WHICH COULD NOT BE USED IN THE PREVIOUS ESSAY. BOMBS In 1970 JVP had experimented with making  safety bombs and Molotov cocktails. JVP conducted training classes in bombs at Kandy, Matale, Nuwara  Eliya, Moneragala, Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee, Kalutara. In  1970 3000 bombs were sent  to Badulla, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The JVP did not fade away after April 1971 as it would have done, had it been a purely local affair. Instead, JVP met secretly and reorganized.  JVP first retreated into their hideouts in the jungles of the North Central Province. They moved the camps from place to place.  They did not stay […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS First person accounts of the second JVP insurgency have been given in autobiographies of Drs B.J.C.  Perera, Sarath Weerasinghe and W.A. Wiswa Warnapala. They have spoken of their experiences with the JVP in their places of work.  B.J.C. Perera was Consultant Pediatrician in Kurunegala in 1988.  In Kurunegala there was a lot of […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The 1971 JVP insurgency has been described as a romantic, innocent revolution, an unplanned spontaneous attack. It was nothing of the sort. It was pre-planned and well organized. The purpose was to bring down the SLFP government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. JVP was planning a putsch, to remove the government by force.  Prime Minister […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The April 1971 JVP insurrection took the country by surprise because it was against a popular, SLFP government which had just one year before, won 91 seats out of 151 in the 1970 general election. The JVP insurrection of 1971 was met with stunned disbelief, said Suriya Wickremasinghe. It was marked with confusion, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The animosity towards Buddhism in Eastern Province is becoming confrontational. There is now an open tussle between the Buddhists and non Buddhists in Eastern Province. Neither side is prepared to give in. Buddhists are determined that the Eastern Province must continue as a Buddhist province. They are setting up new Buddhist temples. It […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Ellawala Medhananda has drawn attention to the damage done by ‘non-Buddhists’ (Hindus and Muslims), to the Buddhist monasteries, hermitages and ancient ruins in the north and east. Medhananda says that more than five hundred sites with ancient Buddhist ruins are either destroyed or are being destroyed in the north and east. Destroying […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Malinda Seneviratne, the respected journalist,   went to Budubava in 2020 and observed that the Buddhist ruins in Eastern Province were getting destroyed. The jungles around Panama are full of Buddhist shrines. There are remains of stupas and monastic complexes. There are hundreds of caves. [They are now being demolished]These were not destroyed by […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The   Eastern Province was an integral part of the Rajarata of the Anuradhapura kingdom. The Raja rata was divided into uttara passa (north) dakkhina, (south) pacina, (east) and pajjima (west) and ruled by king nominees. The Eastern Province played a special role in the political life of ancient Sri Lanka. The Province    functioned […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven Ellawala Medhananda has  explored the present day  Buddhist ruins of the Eastern Proivince.  He found  evidence in today’s Eastern   Province , to show  that the Eastern Province had a vibrant Buddhist civilization in the ancient and medieval period.  He has also shown that it had special features, such as hillside monastic complexes […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Northern Province was an integral part of the Rajarata of the Anuradhapura kingdom. The Raja rata was divided into uttara passa (north) dakkhina, (south) pacina, (east) and pajjima (west). Uttara passa consisted of today’s Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Mannar, and Jaffna. Each division was ruled by officer appointed by king.  Jambukolapatana in Jaffna […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Buddhist shrines and temples are not accepted by the non-Buddhists in the north .Here is an example. In 2009 57 Buddhist families were brought in and settled in Navatkuli.  They were Sinhala families that had been driven out of Jaffna in 1984 and 1990. Navatkuli is located 6 km from Jaffna. There was […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS There is a tug of war going on in the north between the Buddhist and non-Buddhists regarding the new Buddhist temples built in the north. Neither side is prepared to give in. The Tamil Separatist Movement complained loudly that Buddhist temples were being built in the north where there were no Buddhists. There […]