Eminent Aloysian Historians - 4 - Dr. Michael Roberts

Eminent Aloysian Historians (4)

Dr. Michael Roberts

(Extracted mainly from his own written records)

Courtesy :
https://thuppahis.com etc
https://thuppahis.com/2022/04/12/michael-roberts-a-partial-bibliography-1965-1999/ etc

Introduction

"Michael Roberts is a Sri Lankan Australian whose secondary and university education was in Sri Lanka where he graduated with honours in History at the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya before proceeding to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. After securing his D. Phil in History in 1965 he taught at the University of Peradeniya from 1966 to 1976 and at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Adelaide since 1977 and was promoted to Reader in 1984. He retired in 2002 and was an Adjunct Associate Professor at the same university in 2003.

His special interests are in cultural anthropology and historical sociology. In the result his research work tends to straddle the field of politics, history and culture. He has published a host of articles and a number of books on Sri Lanka. His expertise encompasses social mobility, and social history, agrarian and tenurial issues, peasant protest, popular culture, urban history, caste in South Asia, practices of cultural domination and issues in ethnicity and nationalism. He has ventured occasionally to write on Indian socio-political history, Australian myth making and the sociology of cricket. "

Dr. Michael Roberts is the youngest son of T. W. Roberts, a British Civil Servant of West Indian origin & his Ceylonese wife, Miriam Perera. T. W. Roberts opted to remain in Ceylon after his retirement & was often seen playing a game of tennis at the Galle Club grounds in the Galle Fort, where he lived with his family.

Read about T. W. Roberts here:

https://cricketique.live/2015/04/12/tw-roberts-and-his-cricketing-moments-2/

T. W. Roberts & his cricketing moments

https://thuppahis.com/2019/11/21/a-medley-of-races-by-t-w-roberts/

A medley of races by T. W. Roberts

https://thuppahis.com/2023/03/22/tw-roberts-r-i-p-july-1976/

Four Bajans in Ceylon

https://thuppahis.com/2020/10/26/four-bajans-in-british-ceylon/

Michael Roberts studied at St. Aloysius College, Galle & entered the University of Ceylon in 1957.

Mr. S. A. Ariyananda Perera, a distinguished old Aloysian, who was also at the University of Ceylon earlier, writes as follows in the Centenary Souvenir :

"Michael Roberts, student from 1946 to 1957, later Ph.D. Oxford University, Fullbright Scholar-Chicago University & Humboldt Fellow-Heidelberg University, & Professor of Anthropology , ” not only obtained a First Class Honours in History at the University of Ceylon but also the Prize for History, the Prize for Ceylon History, the Ceylon University Arts Scholarship & the Dr. Wijetunge Cup for the best All Rounder in the University Campus; to cap it all, he won a Rhodes Scholarship tenable at the Oxford University for 3 years – a distinction so rare that Michael was only the 2nd Ceylonese to have won it.” ; he also gained University of Ceylon Colours at Cricket & Soccer, Peradeniya Colours in Cricket, Soccer, Rugby , Tennis & Athletics; he captained the University B Cricket Team; he captained the SAC Cricket team in 1957 & represented the College in both Football & Athletics as well."

The Rhodes Scholarship referred to above is such a rare award that it has so far been won only by a handful of Sri Lankans, since it was awarded in 1905. Dr. G. L. Peiris, Professor of Law, Vice Chancellor & Cabinet Minister won the Scholarship later & recently it has been won by an International School student after nearly 50 years.

Important Milestones

In Ceylon

1947-1957 : St. Aloysius College, Galle, Ceylon

1957/58-1960/61: Arts Faculty, University of Ceylon. First class Honours in History in 1961

1961-62 : Temporary Assistant Lecturer, University of Ceylon for four terms .

Mid 1962: Assistant Lecturer, University of Ceylon

1962 : Selected Rhodes Scholar for Ceylon for the year 1962

1966 March - early 1968 : Returned to the University of Ceylon & engaged also in Oral History Project interviewing former Civil Servants as well as politicians on their careers and experiences.

1970 August : Merit Promotion to Senior Lectureship, University of Ceylon.

1972- June 1976 : Senior Lecturer, University of Ceylon

June 1976: Resigned from the University of Sri Lanka (at which point an application for a promotion to a Readership had been pending for about two and a half years, in large part because of administrative reorganisation)

In the UK

1962-65: Postgraduate research in nineteenth century Ceylonese History at Oxford under the supervision of Professor J. Gallagher

1965: Secured D. Phil. in History for a thesis on "Some Aspects of Economic and Social Policy in Ceylon, 1840-1871", the examiners being Professor K. Ballhatchet and Mr. George Bennett

October 1965 - February 1966 (in England),

March-April 1974: invited to London to deliver a paper at a conference on Sri Lanka organised by Professor Ballhatchet of the SOAS.

In the US

1970-71: Fulbright Research Fellowship to the United States; attached to the University of Chicago as a Visiting Fellow

In Germany

July 1975-December 1976: awarded an Alexander Humboldt Research Fellowship in the Federal Republic of Germany and attached to the Sud Asien Institut, University of Heidelber

In Adelaide, Australia

February 1977: Reached Adelaide to take up appointment as a Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide

January 1979: promoted Senior Lecturer

1981: on study leave in Sri Lanka with ARGS grant

January 1984: promoted to Reader, Department of Anthropology

1986 - early 1987: sabbatical study leave

1987 -2002 : At University of Adelaide

2003 : Adjunct Associate Professor

Special Assignments Worldwide

March - April 1987: Visiting Fellow, International Centre of Ethnic Studies, Colombo

May 1987 - early 1988: study leave on no-pay on the basis of Research Fellowship from the Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung: (i) 4 months spent at the Sud-Asien Institut, University of Heldelberg; and (ii) 5 months at the Department of Sociology, University of Bielefeld

November 1987: Lecture tour of Scandinavia (University of Uppsala, Stockholm, Lund and Copenhagen; the Centre of Development Studies, Bergen University; and the Peace Research Institute, Oslo)

February 1988: Lecture tour of the Caribbean and U.S.A. (University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica and at Barbados; Bates College; Bowdoin College; Columbia; University of Pennsylvania; Northwestern University; University of Chicago; and University of Texas at Austin)

Awarded Research Fellowship at the Commonwealth Center for Literary and Cultural Change, University of Virginia, U.S.A., August to December 1991.

April 1992: invited to deliver a paper at the conference on "Nationalism Today" at the Department of Anthropology, Osaka University.

Large ARGS Grant in 1995-96, which enabled me to spend 4 months in Delhi while freeing me to arrange visits and fellowships elsewhere.

Research Fellowship at the International Institute for Asian Studies, University of Leiden, September-December, 1995.

Invited to present paper at the Conference on “Nationalism and Religion in Europe and Asia,” organised by the Centre for Religion and Society, Amsterdam University, 25-28 November 1995.

Research Associateship at the Centre for Cultural Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz, April to June, 1996.

Teaching Release Associate, ARCHSS, Faculty of Arts, Adelaide University, after internal competition to secure release from teaching for six months in recognition of research work and a specific project proposal, July-December 1998.

Invited to be one of the Team Leaders in Group Project organised by the Marga Research Institute, Colombo, for project on “A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation,” funded by a large grant from NORAD, a Norwegian aid agency, 1999-2000.

Short-term Research Fellowship, Humboldt Stiftung, to spend a month at the Sud-Asien Institute, Heidelberg University, November 1999.

Manasseh Meyer Fellowship, National University of Singapore, 2003.

Publications

Books

2013 Confrontations in Sri Lanka : Sinhalese, LTTE and Others, Yapa Publications,

2010 Fire and Storm : Essays in Sri Lankan Politics, Yapa Publications,

2006 Essaying Cricket. sri Lanka and Beyond, Colombo: Yapa Publications, 372pp + 157 pics.

2004 Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period, 1590s-1818, Colombo, Yapa Publications, 274 pages (A4).

1994 Exploring Confrontation. Sri Lanka: Politics, Culture and History, Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, 377 pages.

1982 Caste Conflict and Elite Formation: The Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500- 1931, Cambridge University Press, 382 pages.

1977 Elites, Nationalisms and the Nationalist Movement in British Ceylon, in M. Roberts (ed.) Documents of the Ceylon National Congress and Nationalist Politics in Ceylon, 1929-1950, Vol I, Colombo: Department of National Archives, 222 pages.

1975 Facets of Modern Ceylon History through the Letters of Jeronis Pieris, Colombo: Hansa Press, 108 pages.

Booklets

2002 Modernist Theory. Trimming the Printed Word: The Instance of Pre-modern Sinhala Society, Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 46 pages, ISBN: 955-580- 068-7

2005 Firstness, History, Place & Legitimate Claim to Place-as-Homeland in Comparative Focus,

Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 44 pages, ISBN: 955-580-099-5

2005 Narrating Tamil Nationalism: Subjectivities & Issues, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 52 pp, with 30 Plates of striking pictures. ISBN 955-1266-03-X

2006 Forces and Strands in Sri Lanka’s Cricketing History, Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association. BOOKS: Joint

1998 Crosscurrents: Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket. In association with Alfred James. Sydney: Walla Walla Press, 168 pages.

1989 People Inbetween: The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformations within Sri Lanka, 1790s-1980s, Vol 1 by M. Roberts, Percy Colin-Thome and Ismeth Raheem, Colombo: Sarvodaya Press, with volume 1 drafted by M. Roberts, 389 pages.

Books: Silent/Joint

2000 Images of British Ceylon. Nineteenth Century Photographs of Sri Lanka, Singapore: Times Editions, with Ismeth Raheem and Percy Colin-Thome. Printing funded by the Ceylon Tobacco Company.

Books: Edited

1998 Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol. 2, Colombo: Marga Institute, 452 pages.

1997 Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol 1, Colombo: Marga Institute, 524 pages.

1979 Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Sri Lanka during the Modern Era, ed. by Michael Roberts, Colombo: Marga Publications.

1977 Documents of the Ceylon National Congress and Nationalist Politics in Ceylon 1929-1950, ed. by Michael Roberts, 4 vols., Colombo: Department of National Archives, Sri Lanka, 1977, 3156 pp. of documentary material.

Books: Jointly Edited

1980 Using Oral Sources: Vansina and Beyond, special issue of Social Analysis, vol. 4, Sept. 1980, edited by Kenneth Brown and Michael Roberts, 129 pp.

1976 Proceedings of the Conference on Agriculture in the Economic Development of Sri Lanka, ed. by Michael Roberts, S.W.R. de A. Samarasinghe, M. Sinnathamby, Piyasiri Wickremasekera, Colombo: Kularatne and Co., for Ceylon Studies Seminar.

Articles

1965 "The Master-Servant Laws of 1841 and the 1860's and Immigrant Labour in Ceylon", Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, vol. 8, 1 and 2 (Jan-Dec 1965), pp. 24-37.

1966 "Indian Estate Labour in Ceylon during the Coffee Period I", Indian Ecnoomic.and Social History Review, 3: 1-52.

1966 "Indian Estate Labour in Ceylon during the Coffee Period II", Indian Economic and Social History Review, 3: 101-36.

1967 "The Paddy Lands Irrigation Ordinances and the Revival of Traditional Irrigation Customs, 1856-1871", Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 10:114-30. This has been reprinted in Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia, ed. by E. Walter Coward Jr., Cornell University Press, 1980, pp. 186-202.

1968 "Grain Taxes in British Ceylon, 1832-1878: Problems in the Field", Journal of Asian Studies, 27: 810-34.

1969 "The Rise of the Karavas", Ceylon Studies Seminar, Series: no. 5, 4 March 1969, 36 pages.

1970 "Grain Taxes in British Ceylon, 1832-1878: Theories, Prejudices and Controversies", Modern Ceylon Studies, 1: 115-40.

1970 "The Impact of the Waste Lands Legislation and the Growth of Plantations on the Techniques of Paddy Cultivation in British Ceylon: A Critique", Modern Ceylon Studies, 2: 157-96.

1970 "The Political Antecedents of the Revivalist Elite in the MEP Coalition of 1956", Ceylon Studies Seminar, 1969/70 Series no. 11, 30 August 1970, pp. 1-37.

1971 "The Ruin of Ancient Ceylon and the Drift to the South-West" in The Collapse of the Rajarata Civilization, a symposium ed. by K. Indrapala, Peradeniya: Ceylon Studies Seminar, pp. 99-109.

1972 "Variations on the Theme of Resistance Movements: The Kandyan Rebellion of 1817- 18 and Latter-Day Nationalisms in Ceylon", Ceylon Studies Seminar, 1970/72 Series no. 10, 5 October 1972.

1972 "Some Comments on Ameer Ali's Paper", Ceylon Studies Seminar, 1970/72 Series no. 31, February 1972.

1972 "Irrigation Policy in British Ceylon During the Nineteenth Century", South Asia, 2: 49- 63.

1973 "Export Agriculture in the Nineteenth Century" in The History of Ceylon, Vol. III, Colombo: Colombo Apothecaries' Ltd., pp. 89-106 and 117-18.

1973 "Land Problems and Policies c. 1832 to c. 1900" in History of Ceylon, Vol. III, pp. 119- 45.

1973 "Aspects of Ceylon's Agrarian Economy in the Nineteenth Century" in History of Ceylon, Vol. III, pp. 146-54.

1973 "Elites and Elite Formation in Ceylon, c. 1830-1930" in History of Ceylon, Vol. III, pp. 263-84.

1974 "Problems of Social Stratification and the Demarcation of National and Local Elites in British Ceylon", Journal of Asian Studies, August 1974, 23: 549-77.

1974 "Fissures and Solidarities: Weaknesses within the Working Class Movement in the Early Twentieth Century", Modern Ceylon Studies, vol. 5: 1-31.

1974 "Labour and the Politics of Labour in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries", review article, Modern Ceylon Studies, 5: 179-208.

1975 "A New Marriage, An Old Dichotomy: The 'Middle Class' in British Ceylon" in The James T. Rutnam Felicitation Volume, Jaffna, pp. 32-63.

1978a "Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka and Sinhalese Perspectives: Barriers to Accommodation", Modern Asian Studies, 12:353-76.

1978b "Reformism, Nationalism and Protest in British Ceylon: The Roots and Ingredients of Leadership", in Rule, Protest, Identity, Aspects of Modern South Asia, ed. by Peter Robb and David Taylor, Centre of South Asian Studies, SOAS, Collected Papers on South Asia No. 1, London, pp. 259-80.

1978c "1970 and Thereabout in Sri Lanka: The Politics of a General Election", South Asia, n.s., 1:90-101.

1979a "Meanderings in the Pathways of Collective Identity and Nationalism", in M. Roberts (ed.) Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, pp. 1-90.

1979b "Elite Formations and Elites, 1832 - 1931" in Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, pp 153-213.

1979c "Stimulants and Ingredients in the Awakening of Latter-Day Nationalisms", in Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, pp. 214-42.

1979d "Problems of Collective Identity in a Multi-Ethnic Society: Sectional Nationalism vs Ceylonese Nationalism, 1900-1940", in Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, pp. 337-60.

1979e "Nationalism in Economic and Social Thinking, 1915-1945", in Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, pp. 386-419.

1980 "From Southern India to Lanka: The Traffic in Commodities, Bodies, and Myths from the Thirteenth Century Onwards", South Asia, n.s. 3: 36-47.

1981a The 1956 Generations: After and Before, G.C. Mendis Memorial Lecture for 1981, Colombo, Evangel Press.

1981b "Hobgoblins, Low-Country Sinhalese Plotters or Local Elite Chauvinists?: Directions and Patterns in the 1915 Communal Riots", Sri Lanka Journal of the Social Sciences, 4: 83-126.

1981c "Occupational Diversification, Pooling Networks, and Spiralism in the Social Mobility of Karava Families in Sri Lanka", South Asia, 4: 47-57.

1981d "The Hydraulic Society of Ancient Ceylon: Speculations on the Factors Contributing Towards the Relative Stasis in its Socio-Economic Structure", Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, pp. 23-33.

1983 "'Our Duty to Act': Brown Sahibs in Universal Suits", South Asia, 6: 62-77.

1984 "'Caste Feudalism' in Sri Lanka? A Critique through the Asokan Persona and European Contrasts", Contributions to Indian Sociology, 18: 189-217.

1985a "Ethnicity in Riposte at a Cricket Match: The Past for the Present", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 27: 401-429.

1985b "'I Shall Have You Slippered': The General and the Particular in an Historical Conjuncture", Social Analysis, 17: 17-48.

1985c "From Empiricist Conflation to Distortion: Caste in South Asia", Modern Asian Studies, 19: 353-52.

1988 "Sri Lanka: Ethnic Conflict and Political Crisis, A Review Article", Ethnic Studies Report, 6: 40-62.

1989a "The Two Faces of the Port City: Colombo in Modern Times," in Frank Broeze (ed.), Brides of the Ocean: Port Cities of Asia, 1500 to Modern Times, Sydney, Allen and Unwin. pp. 173-87.

1989b "A Tale of Resistance: The Story of the Arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka", Ethnos, 55: 1-2:69-82.

1989c "Pejorative Phrases: The Anti-Colonial Response and Sinhala Perceptions of the Self through Images of the Burghers," in Swedish in Lanka. Tidskrift om Lankesisk Kultur (Uppsala), No. 2, March 1989.

1989d "The Political Antecedents of the Revivalist Elite within the MEP Coalition of 1956" in K.W. Goonewardena Felicitation Volume, ed. by C.R. De Silva & Sirima Kiribamune, Peradeniya University, pp. 185-220.

1989e "Indian Plantation Labour in Sri Lanka," a review essay, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 3: 380-85.

1989f "Apocalypse or Accommodation? Two Contrasting Views on Sinhala-Tamil Relations in Sri Lanka", South Asia, 12: 67-83

1990 "Noise as Cultural Struggle: Tom-Tom Beating, the British and Communal Disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s-1930s," in Veena Das (ed.), Mirrors of Violence: Communities, Riots, Survivors in South Asia, Delhi: O.U. P., pp. 240-85.

1993a "Nationalism, the Past and the Present: the Case of Sri Lanka," Ethnic and Racial Studies, 16: 133-161.

1993b "Emotion and the Person in Nationalist Studies" in Japanese in The Shinso, Jan. 1993. (Special edition on Nationalism Today ed. by T. Aoki), pp. 127-50.

1994a "The Cultured Gentleman: the Appropriation of Manners by the Middle Class in British Ceylon", Anthropological Forum, 7: 55-73.

1994b "Of Traditions, Memories and Ideological Blockages", Asian Studies Review, November 1994, 18:71-76.

1996a "Beyond Anderson: Reconstructing and Deconstructing Sinhala Nationalist Discourse", Modern Asian Studies, 30: 690-98.

1996b "Teaching Lessons and Removing Evil: Strands of Moral Puritanism in Sinhala Nationalist Practice,” Felicitation Volume for Professor S. Arasaratnam, edited by Michael Pearson, as South Asia, sp.issue, Sept. 1996, pp. 205-20.

1996c "Filial Devotion and the Tiger Cult of Suicide", Contributions to Indian Sociology, 30: 245-72.

1996d "Sihadipa: The Power of Ideology in Sri Lanka", IIAS Yearbook 1995, Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, pp. 53-60.

1997a “Sri Lanka: Intellectual Currents and Conditions in the Study of Nationalism,” in Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol 1, ed. by Michael Roberts, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 1-43.

1997b “Histories,” International Social Science Journal, no. 153: 373-85.

1997c “For Humanity. For the Sinhalese. Dharmapala as Bosat Crusader,” Journal of Asian Studies, 56: 1006-1032.

1998b “Meanderings Amidst Heightened Moments: Editor’s Preface to the Second Volume,” Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol 2, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. xxviii-xxvii.

1998c “Cricketing History and Some Nationalist Hues in Ceylon and Lanka,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 19-30.

1998d “An Ethnic Encounter at a Cricket Match” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 95-105.

1998e “Controversies: The Sri Lanka Cricket Team’s 1995-96 Tour of Australia,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 112-23.

1998g “Fundamentalism in Cricket: Crucifying Muralitharan,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 124-25.

1998h “Letters: About Tigers, Bombs and Cricket,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp.126-30.

1998i “Avoiding Lanka: Australia and the World Cup,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 131-42.

1998j “The World Cup on Field and Newsprint,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 143-54

1998-99 “Emotion and the Person in Nationalist Studies,” Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities, vol. XXIV & XXV, pp. 65-86.

1999 “Nationalisms Today and Yesterday”, in Gerald Peiris and S W R de A Samarasinghe (eds)

History and Politics. Millennial Perspectives. Essays in honour of Kingsley de Silva, Colombo: Law and Society Trust, pp. 23-44.

2000 “Himself and Project. A Serial Autobiography. Our Journey with a Sinhala Zealot, Anagarika Dharmapala,” Social Analysis 44, 1: 113-39.

2001a “Submerging the People? Post-Orientalism and the Construction of Communalism,” in George Berkemer et al (eds) Explorations in South Asian History. Festschrift for Dietmar Rothermund on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 311-23.

2001b “Sinhala-ness and Sinhala Nationalism,” in G. Gunatilleke et al (eds.): A History of Ethnic Conflictin Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 4.

2001c “The burden of history: obstacles to power sharing in Sri Lanka”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, n. s., May 2001, 35: 65-96.

2001d “Ethnicity after Edward Said: Post-Orientalist failures in comprehending the Kandyan period of Lankan history,” Ethnic Studies Report 19: 69-98.

2001f “Sin-bin for verbal intimidation”, Baggy Green Journal of Australian Cricket 4:14-18.

2001g “Dakunen sädi kotiyo, uturen golu muhudai,” [The fierce/vile Tamils to the south, the turbulent/unfathomable sea to the north] Pravāda 6: 17-18.

2002a “The collective consciousness of the Sinhalese during the Kandyan era: Manichean demonisa-tion, associational logic,” Asian Ethnicity, vol. III: 1, March 2002, pp. 29-46.

2002b “Primordialist strands in contemporary Sinhala nationalism in Sri Lanka: urumaya as Ur,” Colombo: Marga Monograph Series on A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 20.

2002c Modernist theory. The printed word. The instance of pre-modern Sinhala society, Colombo: ICES Monograph Series.

2003a “Nomadic intellectuals: Asian stars in Atlanticland,” Social Analysis Spring 2003, 47,1: 170-90. 2003b “Language and national identity: The Sinhalese and others over the centuries,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Summer 2003, 9: 75-102.

2003c “The agony and ecstasy of a pogrom: southern Lanka, July 1983”, Nēthra, April-Sept 2003, 6: 199-213.

2004a “Narrating Tamil nationalism: subjectivities & issues,” Review Article, South Asia, April 2004, 27: 87-108.

2004b “Cricketing Fervour and Islamic Fervour: Marginalisation in the Diaspora”, The International Journal of the History of Sport, June-Sept. 2004, 3 & 4: 550-63.

2004c “The Old and the New: In Memoriam: David Hookes,” Baggy Green, 6:13-20.

2004d “Prejudice and Hate in Plural Settings: The Kingdom of Kandy,” in AJ Canagaratne (ed.) Neelan Tiruchelvam Commemoration Conference Papers, Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, pp. 142-59.

2005a “Sri Lanka: the Power of Cricket & Power in Cricket”, Cricket and National Identity in the Post-Colonial Age: Following On, ed. by Stephen Wagg, London: Routledge, pp. 132-58.

2005b “Tamil Tiger ‘Martyrs’: Regenerating Divine Potency?” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 28: 493-514.

2005c “Saivite Symbolism, Sacrifice and Tamil Tiger Rites”, Social Analysis 49: 67-93. 2006a “Pragmatic Action & Enchanted Worlds: A Black Tiger Rite Of Commemoration,” Social Analysis, 50: 73-102.

2006b “The Tamil Movement for Eelam,” E-Bulletin of the International Sociological Association No. 4, July 2006, pp. 12-24.

2006c “Understanding Zealotry and Questions for Post-Orientalism, I” Lines May-August 2006, vol.5, 1 & 2, in http://www.lines-magazine.org.

2007a “Landmarks and Threads in the Cricketing Universe of Sri Lanka,” Sport in Society, January 2007, vol. 10 (1): 120-42.

2007b “Suicide Missions as Witnessing: Expansions, Contrasts,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 30: 857-88.

2007c “Blunders in Tigerland: Pape’s Muddles on ‘Suicide Bombers’ in Sri Lanka,” Online publication within series known as Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics (HPSACP), ISSN: 1617-5069.

2008 “Tamil Tigers: Sacrificial Symbolism and ‘Dead Body Politics’,” Anthropology Today, June 2008, 24/3: 22-23.

2009 “Wunderkidz in a Blunderland: Tensions & Tales from Sri Lankan Cricket,” in Dominic Malcolm, Jon Gemmell and Nalin Mehta (eds.) Sport and Society, vol. 12, nos. 4/5, special issue on Cricket; International and Interdisciplinary Approaches, 2009, pp. 566-78.

2010a “Kaplan’s Savage Orientalism,” Himal Southasian, January 2010, pp. ???

2010b “Killing Rajiv Gandhi: Dhanu’s Metamorphosis in Death?” South Asian History and Culture Vol 1, No. 1, pp.25-41.

2010c “Self Annihilation for Political Cause: Cultural Premises in Tamil Tiger Selflessness,” in Roberts, Fire and Storm. Essays in Sri Lankan Politics. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 161-201

2012 “Encompassing Empowerment in Ritual, War & Assassination: Tantric Principles in Tamil Tiger Instrumentalities,” in Social Analysis, sp. issue on War Magic ed. by D. S. Farrer, in press. Volume 58, Issue 1 (2014

Joint Articles

1989 with Chris Flaherty "The Reproduction of Anzac Symbolism," Journal of Australian Studies, May 1989, 24: 52-69.

2006 with Arthur Saniotis (eds. by invitation), “Empowering the Body and Noble Death” for Social Analysis Spring 2006 50: 7-24, introducing articles by Douglas Farrer, Marie Lecomte-Tilouine, Michael Roberts and Jacob Copeman.

Compilations

1999a “Bradman and Others in Colombo,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 71-79.

1999b “Hassett and Others at Cricket in Colombo, March 1953,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 80-87.

1999c “Australia versus Sri Lanka at the Prudential World Cup, 1975,” in Michael Roberts and Alfred James (eds) Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, Sydney: Walla Walla Press and Mobitel, pp. 88-95.

Unrefereed Popular Essays : Politics

1996 Understanding Zealotry”, IIAS Newsletter, No. 7, Winter 1996, pp. 25-26; since reprinted in Celebrations. Fifty Years of Sri Lanka-Australia Interactions, ed. by C A & I H Vanden Driesen, Colombo: Government Printer, pp. 544-48.

1999c “Self Immolation,” Lanka Monthly Digest, September 1999, vol 6:2, pp. 56-7.

2000a “Lanka without Vijaya. Towards the new millennium,” Lanka Monthly Digest, Jan.2000, vol. 6: p. 27.

2000b “History as dynamite,” Pravāda, vol. 6, no. ?, pp. 11-13. Also published in the Island Special Millennium Issue, 1 Jan 2000, pp. 43-44.

2000c “The Sri Lankan identity,” Lanka Monthly Digest, November 2000, vol 7: 4, pp. 43- 44.

2001 “Dakunen sädi kotiyo, uturen golu muhudai,” [Wicked-cum-vile Tigers to the south and the turbulent sea to the north], Pravāda, vol 6, no. 11, pp. 17-18.

2002a “Tigerland. Tamil rebels ready to talk,” New Internationalist, 1 May 2002, p. 8. 2002b “Self-Determination(s) and the Tamils,” Sunday Observer,

2002c “The many faces of Eelam,” Daily Mirror, 8 August 2002 (also appeared in Tamil Times, August 2002 [original title = “The Meaning of Eelam”].

2002d “Hyphenated Lankans,” Lanka Monthly Digest, August 2002, pp. 129, 131.

2002e “Vijaya: interpreting our civilisational myth,’ Sunday Observer, 1 September 2002.

2002f “Sri Lankanness: do we have races or are we hybrid?” Sunday Observer, 15 September 2002. [Original title: “Being hybrid in Sri Lanka”].

2002g “LTTE’s ideological retreat,” Sunday Observer, 13 October 2002. [original title: “Sri Lankan and Ilavar”]

2003 “Expectations great and small,” Lanka Monthly Digest, May 2003. 2007 “Tamil Tigers: secular or godly/ or both?”

2007 “Achilles Heel in Democracy,” 17 August 2007, The Nation

2007 “Amnesty’s Sticky Wicket,” Himal Southasian, May 2007, 66-67.

2008a “Split Asunder: Four Nations in Sri Lanka,” www.groundviews.org, 13 January 2008 2008b “Addressing the Nations of Sri Lanka,” in www.groundviews.org, 27 January 2008

2008c “Sacrificial Devotion; a Focus on Selfless Zeal,” http://sacrificialdevotionnetwork. wordpress.com

2008d “State dispensations today: debating and qualifying the label ‘secular’,” in http:// sacrificialdevotionnetwork: Wordpress.com

2008i “The Galle Literary Festival – from the Left Flank,” www.groundviews.org, 9 Feb. 2008

2008j “The Galle Literary Festival—from the Right Flank,” www.groundviews.org, Feb. 2008 And Montage

2008k “Issues for Tamil nationalism,” www.groundviews.org, March 2008

2008l “History-making in Lanka I: problems,’ wwwfederalidea.com, April 2008

2008m “How does one become Sinhalese or Tamil in sentiment?” www.groundviews.org, and Island, 30 April 2008

2008n “July 1983: Looking back in anger and despair, 25 years on,” ICES conference paper, also appearing in www.groundviews.org, 25 July 2008.

2008p “The spectre of terrorism and cricketing fears,” www.groundviews.org, 12 Dec. 2008 and Island, 3 Jan 2009.

2009a “Dilemma’s at wars end; thoughts on hard realities,” www.groundviews.org, 10 Feb. 2009 and Island, Feb. 2009.

2009b “Dilemma’s at war’s end: clarifications and counter-offensive,” www.groundviews.org, 19 Feb. 2009 and Island, 17 February 2009.

2009c “Cricket in an age of suicide missions,” Island, 28 Feb. 2009

2009d “The Lahore atrocity: our cricketing ambassadors,” Island, 14 March 2009.

2009e “The needs of the hour,” www.groundviews.org, 1 April 2009.

2009f “Suicidal political action, I: soundings,” http://transcurrents. com/tc/2009/04/post_340.html

2009g “Suicidal political action, II: Ponnudurai Sivakumaran,” www.transcurrents.com, April 2009.

2009h “Suicidal political action, III: imperatives,” www.transcurrents.com, April 2009

2009i “Suicidal political action, IV: LTTE power & popular support,” www.transcurrents.com, April 2009

2009j “LTTE and Tamil people, I: preamble,” www.groundviews.org, 21 April 2009. 2009k “LTTE and Tamil people, II: interflows,” www.groundviews.org, 22 April 2009.

2009l “LTTE and Tamil people, III: nationalism and living religion,” www.groundviews.org, 23 April 2009.

2009m “LTTE and Tamil people, IV: dedicated Tamils,” www.groundviews.org, 24 April 2009. 2009n “Realities of war,” Frontline, vol 26/10, 9 May 2009

2009p “Some pillars for Lanka’s future,” Frontline, vol 26/12, 19 June 2009.

2009-10 ..... incomplete

2009 “Realities of War,” Frontline, 26/10, 9-22 May 2009. http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2610/stories/20090522261001600.htm

2009 “Adjutant Australia: Controlling Boat People,” 7 Nov 2009, http://groundviews.org/2009/11/07/adjutant-australia-controlling-boat-people/

2009 “Taken in by Tamil Tall Tales,” The Australian, Nov. 2009

2009 “Crude Reasoning,” in ABC Unleashed, 7 Nov. 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/ unleashed/stories/s2736651.htm.

2009 “Tamil Migration within and beyond Sri Lanka,” LankaGuardian, 19 Nov. 2009 http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/11/tamil-migration-within-and-beyond-sri.html andhttp://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/tamil-migration-within-and-beyond-sri- lanka/

2009 “Taken in by Tamil Tall Tales,” 4 Nov 2009, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/taken-in-by-tamil-tall-tales/story- e6frg6zo-1225794053578

2009 “Speaking from Ignorance: Australians on Sri Lanka & Its Boat People,” 4 December 2009, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/speaking-from-ignorance- australians-on-sri-lanka-its-boat-people/

2009 “The Rajapakse Regime & the Fourth Estate,” www.groundviews.org, 8 December 2009. 2009 “The Rajapakse Regime: Brickbats, Plaudits,” www.groundviews.org, 16 December 2009.

2009 “The Sinhala Mindset,” www tuppahi.wordpress.com, Dec. 2009.

2009 “Tamil Tigers & Their Practices of Homage,” www tuppahi.wordpress.com, Dec.

2010 “Twilight of the Tigers: Cogent Exposition of Stance against Federalism,” Island, 20 January 2010.

2010 “ ‘Alex’ Kuhendrarajah and the Australian Media,” South Asia Masala, 20 January 2010;

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/southasiamasala/2010/01/20/%e2%80%98alex%e2%8 0%99-kuhendrarajah-and-the-australian-media/

2010a “Boat People as Blanket Categories,” 19 April 2010, http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/southasiamasala/2010/04/19/boat-people-as-blanket- categories/8

2010 “Aussies swallow lies & Rajapaksas miss a trick,” 31 October 2010, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/aussies-swallow-lies-rajapakses-miss-a-trick/.

2010 “The Jaipur Foot as Renewable Energy in Lanka,” Island, 21 August 2010.

2010 “Mahesh Pushpakumara: the saga of the marooned fisherman,” 20 November 2010, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/mahesh-pushpakumara-the-saga-of-the-marooned- fisherman

2010c “From “Leaky Wooden Boats” to the Imbecile Asian,” 27 December 2010, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/from-%E2%80%9Cleaky-wooden- boats%E2%80%9D-to-the-imbecile-asian-2/

2011-12

2011a “People of Righteousness march on Sri Lanka,” The Island, 22 June 2011 and http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/people-of-righteousness-target-sri-lanka/.

2010 “Symbolic Postscript: A Terrible Violence. Desecration of Tiger War Memorials deserve Condemnation,” transcurrents, 30 Dec. 2009, http://transcurrents.com /tc/2009/12/

2011 “Death and Eternal Life: contrasting sensibilities in the face of corpses,” 29 June 2011, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/death-and-eternal-life-contrasting-sensibilities-in- the-face-of-corpses/

2011b “Amnesty International reveals its Flawed Tunnel-Vision in Sri Lanka in 2009,” 10 Aug. 2011, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/amnesty-international-reveals-its-flawed- tunnel-vision-on-sri-lanka-in-2009/

2011 “From Tsunami Medical Logistics to IDP Camp Medical Aid, 2004-09; Q and A with Dr Herath,” 14 Sept 2011, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/from-tsunami- medical-logistics-to-idp-camp-medical-aid-2004-09-q-and-a-with-dr-herath/

2011 “Missing the Boat: Australians at Sea on Asylum-Seekers,” 19 October 2011, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/missing-the-boat-australians-at-sea-on-asylum- seekers/

2011 “The Tamil death toll in early 2009: challenging Rohan Gunaratna,” 1 December 2011, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/The Tamil-death-toll-in-early-2009-challenging Rohan Gunaratna.

2012 “Mahinda Rajapaksa: Cakravarti Imagery and Populist Processes,” 28 January 2012,http://thuppahi.wordpress. com/ 2012/01/28/mahinda-rajapaksa-cakravarti-imagery-and- populist-processes/

2012 “Inspirations: Hero Figures and Hitler in Young Pirapāharan’s Thinking,” 13 February 2012, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/inspirations-hero-figures-and-hitler- in-young-pirapaharans-thinking/

2012 “Sri Lanka: Blackmail during the Endgame in Eelam War IV -- Analysis,” Eurasia Review, 10 April 2012, http://www.eurasiareview.com/10042012-sri-lanka-blackmail-during-the-endgame-in- eelam-war-iv-analysis/.

2012 “Boat People to Australia: A Comment on The Social Architects’ Survey and Twist on the Tale,” 24 July 2012, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/boat-people-to-australia- a-comment-on-the-social-architects-survey-and-twist-on-the-tale/.

2012 “Australian Gullibility: forgeries, lies and manipulation in the netherworld of in- migration,” 26 July 2012, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/australian-gullibility- forgeries-lies-and-manipulation-in-the-netherworld-of-in-migration/

2012 “Amanda Hodge adds twist to Dayan Anthony’s tale,” 28 July 2012,http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/6405/

2012 “Deported from Britain: back to ‘duress’ or ordinariness in Sri Lanka?” [11 August 2011], http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/deported-from-britain-back-to-duress-or- ordinariness-in-sri-lanka/

Unrefereed Popular Essays : Sports

1999a “Media responsibility in the branding of Murali”, The Island, 20 February 1999.

1999b “Seaming turfs: the lottery of the World Cup,” Lanka Monthly Digest, World Cup Supplement, May 1999, pp.17-18

1999b “The Ugly Face of Australian Sport”, Lanka Monthly Digest, July 1999, vol. 5:12, p. 50.

1999c “The Many Sides of Arjuna Ranatunga,” TheWicket.com,

1999d “Arjuna Ranatunga”, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, Australia, 1999, pp. 52-56.

2000a “Susanthika: as beleagured as gutsy,” Lanka Monthly Digest, December 2000, vol. 7: 5, pp. 70-71.

2000c “Against verbal intimidation in cricket,” TheWicket.com, ?

2001a “Sotheby’s stumped by stumps,” Thewicket.com, 2 July 2001.

2001b “Arjuna’s regime,” TheWicket.com Commemorative Issue, pp. 16-19.

2001c “Four Bajans in Sri Lanka during the early 20th Century,” The West Indies & Zimbabwe tours to Sri Lanka, 2001-2002, Colombo: BCCSL Publication, pp. 7-8.

2001d “Joe Hoad, allrounder,” The West Indies & Zimbabwe tours to Sri Lanka, 2001-2002, Colombo: BCCSL Publication, pp. 20-21.

2001e “Uniformity & difference in cricketing rules,” TheWicket.com, 2001f “The falling wicket: it’s failures,” TheWicket.com,

2001g “Travelling Cricketers, I” TheWicket.com, 25 February 2001.

2001h “Cricket as global as honourable,” TheWicket.com, 25 April 2001. 2001i “Travelling Cricketers, II” TheWicket.com,

2001j “Darrell Hair’s moral crusade threatens the game,” TheWicket.com, 2001k “Twin blunders in one game,” TheWicket.com,

2002a “Bomb blasts and cricket,” Sunday Observer, 26 May 2002. 2002b “The 1996 syndrome,” TheWicket.com,

2002c “Cricketing greats, cricketing lords,” TheWicket.com, 17(?) July 2002.

2002d “Brickbats at Fernando, stones at Johnston,” Sunday Times, 4 August 2002. 2002e “Positive proof? The camera lies,” TheWicket.com, 19 July 2002.

2002g “All-rounder for Lanka, with pace,” TheWicket.com, 5 August 2002.

2002h “Weighted cricket commentary,” TheWicket.com, 5 August 2002.

2002i “Faint hearts in cricket, Part I,” TheWicket.com, 5 August 2002.

2002j “Faint hearts in cricket, Part II,” TheWicket.com, 11 August 2002.

2002k “Letter to the ICC, July 2002” Uthayam, August 2002, p. 23.

2002m “Kaleidoscope Rajasthan,” Lanka Monthly Digest, September 2002, pp. 149. 2002n “Sri Lanka’s cricket at the ICC Trophy,” TheWicket.com, 2 October 2002. 2002p “The power of fame,” TheWicket.com, 23 October 2002.

2002q “Blatant discrimination in TV cricket From South Africa,” www.ozlanka.com

2002r “Letter to ICC on sledging,” 25 November 2002; also on www.ozlanka.com

2002s “Pollock’s patronising faux pas,” www.ozlanka.com November 2002.

2002t““Await embarrassment? Sri Lankan cricketers in Australia” www.ozlanka.com 13 Dec. 2002.

2002u “ODI Teams. Messy selections” www.ozlanka.com, 21 Dec. 2002.

2003a “Training for Bouncy Pitches” www.ozlanka.com, 1 Jan 2003

2003b “Run-Out Cricket,” www.ozlanka.com, 2 Feb. 2003

2003b “Racism in cricket?” Sunday Observer, 26 Jan. 2003 and Uthayam, Feb. 2003, p. 16. 2003d “Lankans should give the Game their Best Shot,” Daily Mirror, March 2003.

2003d “Death Threats by Match Fixing? Cricketer Paranoia,” www.ozlanka.com and Sunday Island, February 2003.

2003e “Cricket, Politics and Zimbabwe,” Uthayam, March 2003 and Island, 20 March 2003. 2003f “Abusive Sri Lankan Cricket Fans: A Clarification,” Island, 23 April 2003.

2003g “Fears of Africa in World Cricket: the Kiwis,” www.ozlanka.com March 2003.

2003d “Some Lessons from Galle and Kandy for the Lankans,” www .cricket.dilmahtea.com, 2003e “Legitimising the Bullyboys on the Cricket Field,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 16 Dec

2003f “Transparent Justice? About Lozenges, Dravid and Camera Teams,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com

2004a “The Old And The New: In Memoriam, David Hookes,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, & www.cricket_online.com

2004b “Australia’s Power & Depth in Cricket,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, March 2004 &www. cricket_online.com

2004c “George Orwell to rule Bowling Actions?” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, March 2004 & www.cricket_online.com,

2004e “About Technology, Bruce Elliott & the Doosra” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, & www.cricket_online.com, 8 April 2004

2004f “Monitoring The Monitors: ICC And Match Referees” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, & www.cricket_online.com, 23 April 2004

2004g “Musical Chairs in Cricket Selections in Sri Lanka” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, August 2004

2004h “Cricket Umpiring and Sri Lanka,” ” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, and www.cricket- online.org, August 2004.

2004i “Testing Tests: A Review of Sri Lanka’s Test Teams, 2004” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, and www.cricket-online.org, August 2004.

2004j “Mahadeva Sathasivam,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com Sept. 2004

2005a “Politics, Poisonous Pens, Murali & Disaster Aid,” www.dilmahtea.cricket.com 29 January

2005b “Daryl Foster: Measured Man and Unsung Servant,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, April 2005.

2005c “Dan Cullen, the Doosra & an Aussie Media Twist” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, April 2005.

2005d “Van Dort, Mubarak & Other Prospects,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, July 2005 2005e “Mentors in Sri Lanka’s Cricketing World,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, October

2006a “The 1996 Syndrome” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 31 January 2006.

2006b “Sri Lanka’s Super Sub – The Issues,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 8 February 2006.

2006c “Remote Control: How Not to Coach,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 20 February 2006.

2007a “Pallekele, Asgiriya and Rangiri,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, January 2007. 2007b “More about Pallekele,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, February 2007

2007c “The Squad for Australia,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com,

2007d “Dad’s Army? About Age Limits in Cricket,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 2007e “Sri Lanka’s Pacemen,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com

2007f “Vilification, Zero Tolerance and Double Standards in Cricket,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 7 November 2007.

2007g “Marvan versus ‘Muppets’,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 12 November 2007

2008a “Felicitating the Sri Lankan Cricket Squad in Australia, www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, February 2008

2008b “The ODI Squad for Australia – in January Then,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 3 March 2008

2008c “Reviewing Lanka’s Performance in the ODI Series in Australia,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 10 March 2008

2008d “Thoughts—ODI Squads for the Near Future,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com, 18 March 2008

2008e “Testing Our Test Potential: Batsmen,’ mid-April 2008,” www.cricket.dilmahtea.com 2008f “Bouquets for Ajantha Mendis and Sri Lanka Cricket” www.cricketdilmahtea.com, 9 July 2008 and Island, 11 July 2008.

2008g “Reserve Strength: Sri Lanka’s A Squads,” www.cricketdilmahtea.com, 8 September 2008.

2008h “Extreme Prejudice: Emotions, Fans & Cricket Commentary,” www.cricketdilmahtea.com, 14 September 2008 and Ceylankan, vol. 47/12, Nos 1 and 2, July and August 2009. .

2009 “Whine or play cricket, January 2009” Himal Southasian, Jan 2009, 22/1, pp. 41-42

2009 “The spectre of terrorism and cricketing fears,” Island, 3 Jan 2009.

2009 “Militant Outrages & Cricket Tours: English Grit at Last,” Island, 17 Jan 2009. 2009 “Cricketing Wimps in an Age of Terror: ‘Abandon Ship’,” Island, 31 Jan 2009. 2009 “World Cup and beyond,” Island, 14 Feb.2009

2009 “Cricket in an age of Suicide Missions: Three Sturdy Responses,” Island, 28 Feb.2009 2009 “South African cricketers run from Colombo, August 2006,” Island, March (?) 2009 2009 “The Lahore atrocity: our cricketing ambassadors,” Island, 14 March 2009

2009 “The referral system: hasty disapproval,” Island, 28 March 2009

2009 “The referral system: why it should remain with fine-tuning,” Island, 25 April 2009 2009 “Young Cricketers: Under-19 and triple promotions,” Island, 25 April 2009

2009 “Cricket and Lahore: Atrocities, shambles, miracles,” Baggy Green, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 7-9.

2009 “Twenty-20 Championship Well done, Sri Lanka!” Island, 27 June 2009 2009 “Stable selections versus chop-chop-chop: ODI policies,” Island, 4 July 2009

Other Developments

** Published numerous articles and edited several works. Among the latter are (a) Using Oral Sources: Vansina and Beyond, special issue of Social Analysis, vol. 4, Sept. 1980, edited by Kenneth Brown and Michael Roberts; and (b) acting upon an invitation, together with Arthur Saniotis he edited a symposium Empowering the Body and Noble Death for Social Analysis, Spring 2006, 50: 7-24, introducing articles by Douglas Farrer, Marie Lecomte- Tilouine, Michael Roberts and Jacob Copeman.

** One of the Team Leaders in the Marga Project begun in 1999 with support from NORAD directed towards a collection of essays on A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, that has led to 24 pamphlets written by a number of specialists appearing in print in Colombo between 2001 and 2003.

** In 2008 secured a grant of 10,000$ to organise a Workshop on Sacrificial Devotion in Comparative Perspective from the ARC funded cluster known as the Asia Pacific Futures Research Network.

• The European Science Foundation has recently listed the journal SOCIAL ANALYSIS in the “A Category” of international journals. Roberts was one of the founding editors of this journal in 1979 and kept it going in hard times from then till 1995.

• The journal SOUTH ASIA sent a circular in January 2006 indicating that the article on “Narrating Tamil Nationalism” by Roberts was among the top ten essays evaluated by “hits” online in the period 2003-05.

Websites

• Since 2009, Editor of four web sites and these include several of his essays without being restricted to them, vIz.

http://thuppahi.wordpress.com

http://cricketique.wordpress.com

http://sacrificialdevotionnetwork.wordpress.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thuppahi/

Biographical Note

from https://thuppahis.com/2024/07/24/michael-roberts-mss-stored-at- adelaide-university/

Michael Roberts was trained in history and the social sciences at Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka. His initial Ph.D work on agrarian policy took him into intellectual history as well as economic history and political economy. Once he began in the late 1960s to look at the social base of the nationalist movement in British Ceylon, his researches moved him into social history – this involved a study of social mobility and elite formation. This shift was further promoted by his involvement in the interdisciplinary discussions of the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya, in which he was a key founder.

His oral history work among administrators and politicians in the late 1960s provided a foundation for his deepening engagement with the phenomenon of nationalism. These researches crystallised in the four-volume Documents of the Ceylon National Congress (1977, Dept of National Archives) and the edited anthology Collective Identities (Marga, 1979).

When he gained an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship to Germany in 1975-76 and then secured a post at the Dept of Anthropology at the University of Adelaide, this process of transformation continued. Teaching anthropology meant studying the subject and gaining awareness of ethnographic field study methodology. Though he never pursued extensive field studies, his researches in effect involved the deciphering of the life ways of the middle classes of modern Sri Lanka. His Caste Conflict and Elite Formation: The Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500-1931 (1982, CUP) is as much a product of Peradeniya as Adelaide, while People Inbetween (Sarvodaya, 1989) is about the middle classes of British Ceylon and the growth of Colombo city to hegemonic status.

When the ethnic conflict within Sri Lanka sharpened after 1983, Roberts’ familiarity with nationalist ideology stood him in good stead; while his anthropological awareness of human relations and inter-personal subjectivity also came in handy. Thus, his recent writings in the 1990s and 2000s have concentrated heavily on ethnic politics in Sri Lanka, both in the British period (for. e. g. studies of Anagarika Dharmapala’s thinking and the 1915 anti- Muslim pogrom) and in contemporary Lanka (Sinhala nationalist writing and the LTTE’s hero rituals). At the same time he has (a) undertaken an excursion into the pre-British era and analysed the political structure and ideological form of the state of SinhalÄ“ in the period 1590s to 1815 and (b) ventured to analyse the politics of cricket in Sri Lanka as well as abroad (see Essaying Cricket, 2006 Vijitha Yapa Publications). .... (extracted from Michael Roberts’ Thuppahi’s blog’ concerning the politics of Sri Lanka and cricket. ...............

Dr. Roberts explains

The Roberts Oral History Project in the 1960s. Origins .... Outcomes | Thuppahi's Blog (thuppahis.com)

I did not fail on another front. I was, then in the 1960s, a young historian in the empiricist mould and had an intense interest in Ceylon’s history – my topic for the doctoral dissertation being Britain’s agrarian policies in the mid-nineteenth century. Thus motivated, at one point I had the good sense to request my pater to write down his memoirs on his administrative experiences in the island. This was around 1963 or 1964.

However, in a momentous step I went further. I considered it fruitful to gather information from retired British public servants who had seen service in Ceylon either in the CCS or in specialist departments. An official government department in UK provided a list of these men and there was no problem in securing their addresses.

So, there developed the Roberts Oral History Project – an innovative idea for its time and one that I am, now, quite proud of. Its fruition, however, is due to two individuals and I cannot lay adequate praise here for their support. These two are Professor Karl Goonewardena who was head of the Department of History at Peradeniya University in the 1960s, and the head of the Asia Foundation in Colombo. I sought money and equipment from the latter and an endorsement of my idea from Professor Karl. I believe that Professor Goonewardena supported the project unreservedly. The Asia Foundation responded favourably.

https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/

https://thuppahis.com/2024/07/24/michael-roberts-mss-stored-at-adelaide-university/

https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/roberts/

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/150607/plus/colourful-history-of-a-historian-152007.html

https://island.lk/dr-michael-roberts-donates-his-research-collection-to-national-library/

https://www.veriteresearch.org/insight/a-historian-s-collection-michael-roberts-curios- worth-preserving/

https://isbn.lk/index.php/Welcome/news_view/3196 https://www.archives.gov.lk/English

https://thuppahis.com/about/ https://thuppahis.com/2024/07/24/michael-roberts-mss-stored-at-adelaide-university/

https://thuppahis.com/2010/08/04/michael-roberts-papers-now-at-barr-smith-library- adelaide-university/

http://archives.dailynews.lk/2004/12/20/spo10.html

Dr. Michael Roberts by Premasara Epasinghe

https://quadrangle.lk/of-men-and-matters-as-michael-sees-them/

Agriculture in the Economic Development of Sri Lanka Conference held at Gannoruwa in August 1974 — PROGRAMME Circulated Then | Thuppahi's Blog (thuppahis.com)

Addressing the Place of Agriculture & the Mahaweli in Lanka’s Economic Future–In August 1974 | Thuppahi's Blog (thuppahis.com)

Nationalist Studies and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya, 1968-1970s | Thuppahi's Blog (thuppahis.com)

Thuppahi's Blog · This web site presents the interventions of MICHAEL ROBERTS in the public realm with reference to Sri Lankan political affairs. It will embrace the politics of cricket as well. ROBERTS was educated at St. Aloysius College in Galle and the universities of Peradeniya and Oxford. He taught History at Peradeniya University and Anthropology at Adelaide university. He is now retired and lives in Adelaide

Career Highlights:

• First Class Honours in History, University of Ceylon at Peradeniya in 1961.

• Rhodes Scholar for Ceylon, 1962

• Guiding light of the Ceylon Studies Seminar at the University of Peradeniya 1969-75

• Part of the editorial collective organising Modern Ceylon Studies 1970-75.

• Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships, 1975-76 and 1987 and 1999

• Founding Editor, and a key hand, in the production of Social Analysis, 1979-94.

• Author of several books on Sri Lanka: 1977, 1979, 1982, 1989, 1994 1997. 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

• Diverse range of subjects encompassed in research: namely, agrarian policy, economic history, intellectual history, social mobility, ethnic relations, political culture and historical anthropology.

• Teaching at the University of Adelaide since 1977-2002: promoted initially (1979) to Senior Lecturer, then in 1984 to Reader

• 2003 Adjunct Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of Adelaide

International Connections:

International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo and Kandy

Marga Research Institute, Colombo

Center for Cultural Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz

Sudasien Institüt, Heidelberg Universität

International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden University

Anthropology, University of Virginia

Center for Cultural Studies, University of California at Santa Cruz

South Asia Program, National University of Singapore

As well as numerous individual links with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Sussex, Edinburgh, Virginia, Chicago, Princeton, Austin, Osaka, Colombo, Peradeniya, et cetera

• Selection Committee, Rhodes Association for South Australia, 2001-03

• Manasseh Meyer Fellowship, National University of Singapore, September 2003

• Grant of Rs 750,000 from Presidents’ Fund, Sri Lanka towards translation of book Sinhala

Consciousness in the Kandyan Period (Letter dated January 2005)

• Grant of 10,000$ from APFN to organize Workshop on Sacrificial Devotion (Sept-Dec 2005).

Teaching Experience

At the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya, 1966-1976

Modern British History, 1485-1939 (or 1760-1939)

Outlines of European History from 1789

Nationalism and its Problems (a course initiated by the author in 1972, well before the present efflorescence in nationalist studies)

At the Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, 1977-2002

Peasants and Proletarians

Towns and Cities

Australian Society and Culture

Peasants and Peasant Rebellions

The Anthropology of Social Transformation (Sri Lanka) Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Conflict

Discourse and Power

Administrative and Editorial Experience

Administrative

1968-70 and 1973-75: Director Dogsbody, Ceylon Studies Seminar

1970-75: associated with the collective producing Modern Ceylon Studies, serving as Managing Editor part of the time from 1972-75.

August 1974: secured 2 grants from leading banks in Sri Lanka and was chief organiser on behalf of the Ceylon Studies Seminar of the conference on "Agriculture in the Economic Development of Sri Lanka", which attracted 70 participants to discuss 30 papers.

1978: Deputy Chairman, Department of Anthropology 1979: Chairman, Department of Anthropology 1979-80, 1982-86, 1992-95: Editor, Social Analysis 1995-2000: Editorial Panel, Social Analysis

Editorial

• Elites, Nationalisms and the Nationalist Movement in British Ceylon, in Documents of the Ceylon National Congress, Vol I (Colombo: Department of National Archives, 1977)

• Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Sri Lanka during the Modern Era,

Colombo, Marga, 1979

• Caste Conflict and Elite Formation: The Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500-1931 (Cambridge University Press, 1982)

• People In Between: The Burghers and the Middle Class in the Transformations within Sri Lanka, 1790s-1980s, Vol 1 (Colombo: Sarvodaya Press, 1989)

• Exploring Confrontation. Sri Lanka: Politics, Culture and History (Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994)

• Crosscurrents: Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, (Sydney: Walla Walla Press, 1998)

• Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol 1. (Colombo, Marga, 1997)

• Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol. 2. (1998, Marga, 1998)

• Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period, 1590s-1818, (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2004).

• Essaying Cricket; Sri Lanka and Beyond, (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2004).

• Confrontations in Sri Lanka: Sinhalese, LTTE and Others (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2004).

• Fire and Storm: Essays in Sri Lankan Politics, (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2010).

• Incursions & Excursions in and around Sri Lankan Cricket (Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2011).

• Potency, Power & People in Groups (Colombo, Marga Institute)

END

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Eminent Aloysian Historians - 4 Dr. Michael Roberts