Polity aims to advance democratic consciousness, gender equality, state reform, and social change in Sri Lanka, while interested in South Asia and the World.
As its predecessor Pravada (1991-2002), Polity is published by the Social Scientists’ Association in Colombo, with critical content on politics, political economy, history, women, ethnicity, sexualities, religion, labour studies, agrarian relations, nationalisms, violence, ecology, and much more.
Our support for the open letter: To Iran’s political prisoners, trapped ‘between two blades of a scissors’
Collective
As migrants and refugees in diaspora and in exile from Iran, who have our loved ones suffering in the Iranian state’s...
Breaking the Spell of an Imperial Photo Album: The Unlikely Beginnings of ‘Colombo Histories’
Sujit Sivasundaram
Where one is based in the world, one’s own positionality, the perspective with which one is writing, is crucial to the...
State Formation and Conflicts in Sri Lanka. Sunil Bastian. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.
Bhadrajee Hewage
Sunil Bastian’s State Formation and Conflicts in Sri Lanka is an ambitious and intellectually sophisticated...
A ‘Duty of Care’ to Animals: Two Decades of Struggle for Law Reform in Sri Lanka
Kasun Kavishka
In late April 2026, Sri Lanka welcomed Aloka, an Indian stray dog who walked along with US-based Buddhists monks in...
A Heart That Never Forgets
Binu Peiris
Over the high walls of the white mansions where our money lay, Our youth sped their way holding the tears of our...
DBS Jeyaraj: The Witness in Exile
Ruben Thurairajah
He died in Canada, and the news arrived with a certain administrative neatness, as though it was an update rather than...
Current Issue
Out Now! Vol. 13 No. 2 (July – December 2025). 148 pages. #SriLanka. Politics. Cyclone Ditwah. Ecology. Feminism. Education. Justice. Domestic Violence Act. History. Culture. Work. Labour. Books. Cover Picture Sakuna M. Gamage. LKR1000 from the Social Scientists’ Association or Barefoot or SLBOOKS.lk.
Calls
Archive
Pravada (1991-2002) and Polity (2003-) back issues available here.
Social Scientists’ Association
The Social Scientists’ Association (SSA) was founded in 1977, at a turning point in Sri Lankan politics, economy, and society, marked by among other aspects: the ‘open economy’ market reforms; deepening ethnic conflict; and the growing concentration of executive power. Its initiators were academics from public universities, seeking an autonomous space to grapple with these shifts; and to promote progressive political, economic, and social change.