The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, PoliticsThe Sri Lanka Reader is a sweeping introduction to the epic history of the island nation located just off the southern tip of India. The island’s recorded history of more than two and a half millennia encompasses waves of immigration from the South Asian subcontinent, the formation of Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil Hindu civilizations, the arrival of Arab Muslim traders, and European colonization by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British. Selected texts depict perceptions of the country’s multiple linguistic and religious communities, as well as its political travails after independence in 1948, especially the ethnic violence that recurred from the 1950s until 2009, when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were defeated by the Sri Lankan government’s armed forces. This wide-ranging anthology covers the aboriginal Veddhas, the earliest known inhabitants of the island; the Kings of Kandy, Sri Lanka’s last indigenous dynasty; twenty-first-century women who leave the island to work as housemaids in the Middle East; the forty thousand Sri Lankans killed by the tsunami in December 2004; and, through cutting-edge journalism and heart-wrenching poetry, the protracted violence that has scarred the country’s contemporary political history. Along with fifty-four images of paintings, sculptures, and architecture, The Sri Lanka Reader includes more than ninety classic and contemporary texts written by Sri Lankans and foreigners. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
I From Ancient to Early Modern | 9 |
II The Colonial Encounter | 133 |
III Emerging Identities | 331 |
IV Independence Insurrections and Social Change | 589 |
V Political Epilogue | 713 |
Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources | 735 |
745 | |
751 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Anuradhapura army Bandaranaike bhikkhus boycott British Buddha Buddhist Burghers called camps caste century Ceylon Moors Ceylon Tamil chief Christian cinnamon coast coffee Colombo colonial culture dasa sil matas death discourse District Dutch economic election elephant English ethnic European Gamini garment hand Hindu hold electronic rights hundred identity independence island Jaffna Youth Congress Juki Kandy Kandyan king king’s kingdom land language leaders living LTTE Mahavamsa majority Malay ment modern movement Muslim Nagas Parakramabahu party peasants period plantation planters political Polonnaruva population Portuguese prince Province refugees religion religious rice royal rule S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike Sinhala Buddhist Sinhalese Sirisena social society soldiers South India Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Muslims Tamil Eelam Tamil language Tamil national Tamil-speaking temple thousand Tigers tion Tissa took traditional translated trees Vihara village women