B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
LightNews LightNews
bskanthakumar.bsky.social
B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
@bskanthakumar.bsky.social
160 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
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
bskanthakumar.bsky.social
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.bsky.social
#CyloneDitwah laid waste last week. Reflecting on this latest climate calamity, @bskanthakumar.bsky.social invokes @amitav.bsky.social: public education and political will, are crucial in disaster preparedness & saving life #SriLankafloods

polity.lk/b-skanthakum...
B. Skanthakumar | The Great Flood
Balasingham Skanthakumar is with the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and an editor of Polity.
polity.lk
December 5, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
As #CycloneDitwah's aftermath unfolds, humanitarian relief is vital. Amalini De Sayrah has curated a list of mutual aid appeals across #SriLanka. If you can help, please do so —and stay safe. #FloodSriLanka2025

📷: AFP

tinyurl.com/LKfloods25
November 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
In #SriLanka, history is not the past but perpetual present writes Ruben Thurairajah. Dutugemunu and Prabhakaran as embodiments of Sinhalas & Tamils; each side finding in the other’s hero, the proof of its own wounds.

polity.lk/ruben-thurai...
Ruben Thurairajah | Of Heroes and Villains: Dutugemunu and Prabhakaran
Ruben Thurairajah is a Yorkshire-based general practitioner in England; who also tweets https://x.com/RubenThurairaj and writes https://drruben.substack.com/
polity.lk
November 27, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
The near doubling of women parliamentarians in #SriLanka owes to the community activism and left-feminism of 𝐺𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑢 𝐴𝑝𝑖 𝐸𝑘𝑎 𝑀𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑎 #NPP explains Kaushalya Ariyarathne MP, but challenges persist.

polity.lk/kaushalya-ar...
Kaushalya Ariyarathne | Gehenu Api Eka Mitata: Building a Women’s Political Movement in Sri Lanka
Kaushalya Ariyarathne (PhD., Colombo), a founder-member of the Progressive Women’s Collective, was elected to the parliament of Sri Lanka in November 2024, and appointed Deputy Minister of Mass Media ...
polity.lk
November 4, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
The protection order interrupts harm but stops there. Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage asks us to re-design #SriLanka's Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (PDVA 2005)--from a wall to a safe space for victim-survivors.

polity.lk/prasanna-pit...
Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage | Safety is Not a Wall: Beyond Protection from Domestic Violence
Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage is a senior lecturer in the Department of Integrated Design at the University of Moratuwa and a Chartered Architect.
polity.lk
October 30, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
"Rakesfall is an extraordinary achievement in science fiction, and a titanic work of art.” Congratulations Vajra Chandrasekera ( @vajra.me ) on the award of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction!
polity.lk/vajra-chandr...
Vajra Chandrasekera | “There is nothing inherently liberatory in the imagination, but it must be made so”
Vajra Chandrasekera is a writer from Colombo, Sri Lanka, currently visiting New York as one of the 2025-2026 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York...
polity.lk
October 28, 2025 at 5:33 AM
bskanthakumar.bsky.social
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.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.
polity.lk
August 8, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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.
polity.lk
July 31, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
"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
July 30, 2025 at 8:19 AM
bskanthakumar.bsky.social
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
July 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
#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.
July 8, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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.
polity.lk
June 30, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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...
polity.lk
June 24, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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.
polity.lk
June 18, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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...
polity.lk
June 10, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
"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...
polity.lk
June 4, 2025 at 8:16 AM
bskanthakumar.bsky.social
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
June 4, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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.
polity.lk
May 27, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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...
polity.lk
May 20, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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...
polity.lk
May 16, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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 ...
polity.lk
May 14, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
#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...
polity.lk
April 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
#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).
polity.lk
March 26, 2025 at 5:20 AM
bskanthakumar.bsky.social
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).
polity.lk
March 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by B. Skanthakumar 🇵🇸
politylk.bsky.social
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...
polity.lk
March 18, 2025 at 2:12 PM