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B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

@bskanthakumar.bsky.social

150 followers 120 following 25 posts

Co-Editor, Polity magazine (https://polity.lk) | Director, Social Scientists' Association (ssalanka.org) and Women's Education and Research Centre (wercsl.org/) | Alum @soaslaw

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B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Jul 24

The editorial for the forthcoming print issue of @politylk.bsky.social (Vol 13 No 1, June 2025) is online . It is about the new world disorder.

#SriLanka #liberalinternationalism

B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Aug 8

Gripping stories that stay with the reader; adding much to what we think we know (and lesser understand) of #war and #peace in #SriLanka through the prism of conflict-related sexual violence. Thanks to Radhika Hettiarachchi for sharing them with @politylk.bsky.social

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Aug 6

Drawing from the Women’s Histories of Sex Work archive, Radhika Hettiarachchi explores powerful narratives of violence, vulnerability and agency articulated by sex workers in wartime Sri Lanka and their search for justice for their work and for themselves.
polity.lk/radhika-hett...

‘When the Devil Drums We Dance’: Sex Work and Sexual Violence in Wartime Sri LankaRadhika Hettiarachchi - polity.lk

Radhika Hettiarachchi is a public history practitioner, researcher, and curator based in Sri Lanka.

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jul 31

Mountain at a Center of the World destabilises the dominant anthropocentric gaze on #Siripāda in #SriLanka. Anushka Kahandagamage hails Alex McKinley's urging of humans to re-examine our position on Earth.

polity.lk/anushka-kaha...

Anushka Kahandagamage | Mountain at a Center of the World: Pilgrimage and Pluralism in Sri Lanka. Alexander McKinley. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.

Anushka Kahandagamage (PhD, Otago) has researched new Buddhist trends in post-war Sri Lanka. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Divinity School 2025-2026.

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jul 30

"Liberties of expression, association and assembly once taken-for-granted, are in rapid retreat. The liberal firewall has fallen. The traditional parties of the right, centre and even left, embrace anti-immigrant, misogynist, anti-DEI, prejudices, and language..." #Ecocide #Liberalism #IMF #PolityLK

B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Jul 24

The editorial for the forthcoming print issue of @politylk.bsky.social (Vol 13 No 1, June 2025) is online . It is about the new world disorder.

#SriLanka #liberalinternationalism

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jul 8

#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.

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jun 30

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 Shiran Illanperuma.

polity.lk/shiran-illan...

Shiran Illanperuma | The development of S.B.D. de Silva’s political economy

Shiran Illanperuma is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and a co-editor of Wenhua Zongheng: A Journal of Contemporary Chinese Thought.

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jun 24

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-...

Sandunlekha Ekanayake | Aid Interrupted: Reverberations in Sri Lanka of USAID’s Dismantling

Sandunlekha Ekanayake is a Lecturer of English and Business Communication at the Faculty of Business, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. She is also a research analyst at Muragala | Centre for Progres...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jun 18

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-kavish...

Kasun Kavishka | Queer Representation in Sri Lankan Media: A Double-Edged Sword?

Kasun Kavishka is an undergraduate at the University of Colombo, and an intern at the Social Scientists’ Association.

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jun 10

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...

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal Gaza Tribunal - polity.lk

The Gaza Tribunal Sarajevo Public Assembly brought together legal experts, academics, medical professionals, journalists, and Palestinian witnesses, in the historic city of Sarajevo – a location chose...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Jun 4

"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-ellaw...

Themal Ellawala | ‘Crop Top Terrorism’ and the Security State in Sri Lanka

Themal Ellawala is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Working at the intersection of anthropology, postcolonial studies, and feminist and q...

B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Jun 4

The #NPP's idée fixe on #corruption irritated me into reading the #IMF and #CSO governance reports on #SriLanka, to understand the politics behind their respective diagnostics and prescriptions.

The link is available here linktr.ee/politylk

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · May 27

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

B. Skanthakumar | The ‘Governance of Corruption’ in Sri Lanka – An IMF-NGO-NPP Consensus

B. Skanthakumar is with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and an editor of Polity.

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · May 20

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-d...

Harindra B. Dassanayake and Rajni Gamage | Horu versus Boru: The politics of the 2025 local government elections in Sri Lanka

Harindra B. Dassanayake is a policy analyst and co-founder of Muragala | Centre for Progressive Politics and Policy (CPPP), Sri Lanka. Rajni Gamage is a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · May 16

Noura Erakat 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 @kirankgrewal.bsky.social
#NakbaDay77
polity.lk/kiran-grewal...

Kiran Grewal | Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Noura Erakat. Stanford University Press, 2019

Kiran Grewal (PhD., University of Technology Sydney) is Visiting Professor in Gender Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of two books: ‘The Socio-Politic...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · May 14

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-peir...

Pradeep Peiris | System Stability not Change: The NPP abandons populism for liberal democracy

Pradeep Peiris (PhD., Colombo) is senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Colombo. He is the author of Catch-All Parties and Party-Voter Nexus in ...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Apr 8

#Trump’s #LiberationDay2025 tariffs shook the #NPP government’s reliance on export revenue. Taniya Silvapulle unpacks the combined effect of US protectionist policies and the #IMF’s neoliberal debt restructuring plan on #Sri Lanka’s economy.
polity.lk/taniya-silva...

Taniya Silvapulle | Made in Sri Lanka, Taxed in America, and Failed by the IMF

Taniya Silvapulle is a researcher with the Social Scientists’ Association... On 2 April 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, imposing trade measures on partners ac...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 26

#Budget2025 #SriLanka passed on 21 March with the NPP's massive majority. President Dissanayake's opening remarks call for inclusive economic growth. But do the proposals walk the talk? @bskanthakumar.bsky.social unpacks #AKD's 17 February speech, and what drives it.
polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

B. Skanthakumar | Budget 2025: Playing A Bad Hand

B. Skanthakumar is with the Social Scientists’ Association (SSA) of Sri Lanka; and the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM).

B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Mar 25

Budget2025 easily passed in parliament on 21 March. I discuss President #AKD's speech opening the debate in @politylk.bsky.social What can be gleaned on the #NPP government's handling of #SriLanka's economic crisis, within #IMF "guardrails"?

polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

B. Skanthakumar | Budget 2025: Playing A Bad Hand

B. Skanthakumar is with the Social Scientists’ Association (SSA) of Sri Lanka; and the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM).

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 18

Sumanasiri Liyanage's magisterial lecture disputes neoclassical explanations of #SriLanka's economic crisis. #Marx's critique of political economy is invoked to differentiate between the conjunctural/cyclic and the organic/structural elements of crisis in #capitalism
polity.lk/sumanasiri-l...

Sumanasiri Liyanage | Contingence, Conjuncture and Structure: The Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka

Sumanasiri Liyanage is a political economist who retired as associate professor in the Department of Economics and Statistics at the University of Peradeniya; and co-convenor of the Marx School in Sri...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 14

Polity Volume 12, Issue 2 available in print now!

Purchase for LKR 500, from the Social Scientists' Association and Barefoot Bookshop, Colombo 3

B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Mar 14

Out now! Latest print issue of #PolityLK with analyis and commentary on and from #SriLanka, and lots to read and discuss. Get your copy now.

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 14

Polity Volume 12, Issue 2 available in print now!

Purchase for LKR 500, from the Social Scientists' Association and Barefoot Bookshop, Colombo 3

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 5

The #privatisation of state-funded #HigherEducation in #SriLanka takes many guises. As commercialisation creeps and burrows with consent and collusion by the #state, Kaushalya Perera (@kauship.bsky.social) & Hasini Lecamwasam unmask a few.
polity.lk/unveiling-pr...

Kaushalya Perera and Hasini Lecamwasam | Unveiling ‘Privatisation’ in Higher Education in Sri Lanka

Kaushalya Perera (PhD., Pennsylvania State University) is a senior lecturer at the Department of English, University of Colombo, where she teaches linguistics. Hasini Lecamwasam is a lecturer at the D...

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 2

#PolityLK thanks all who contributed to remembering Richard de Zoysa on the 35th anniversary of his death.

See their contributions and read more at polity.lk

Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Mar 1

"What appears on screen influences what is remembered and what is forgotten”, write Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage & Malithi Liyanage in a searing critique of Asoka Handagama’s Rani (2025) for #PolityLK, 35 years since the abduction and murder of Richard de Zoysa

polity.lk/rani-the-pol...

Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage and Malithi Liyanage | Rani: The Politics of Erasure and the Aesthetics of Forgetting

Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage is a senior lecturer in the Department of Integrated Design at the University of Moratuwa and a Chartered Architect. Malithi Liyanage holds a degree in engineering and is a ...

B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸 @bskanthakumar.bsky.social · Feb 28

"In locating the film #Rani within circuits of capital and money flows, it is important to consider how meanings created by artists, the subjects they consider, and the way they express those subjects contribute to specific public conversations about art.." #JanakaBiyanwila

PolityLK @politylk.bsky.social · Feb 28

In Asoka Handagama's #Rani, a mother's search for justice for her son’s disappearance and murder is aesthetically rendered to undermine struggles for truth and accountability in #SriLanka, writes Janaka Biyanwila for #PolityLK

polity.lk/asoka-handag...

S. Janaka Biyanwila | Asoka Handagama’s Rani: Diminishing Struggles Against Enforced Disappearances

Janaka Biyanwila (PhD., University of Western Australia) is the author of Debt Crisis and Popular Social Protest in Sri Lanka: Citizenship, Development and Democracy Within Global North-South Dynamics...