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.
The Hidden Politics of Critical Agrarian Studies: A Reply to Urs Geiser
Tom Brass
In a recent contribution to Polity, Urs Geiser (2023) endorsed Critical Agrarian Studies (CAS), as an approach he...
Editorial: Compass on an Old Course?
Editors
One hundred days have passed since Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumed the presidency of Sri Lanka after the 21 September...
Bapsi Sidhwa (1938-2024): Parsi Pakistani writer between Lahore, Partition, and the US
Arif Azad
Bapsi Sidhwa, who died aged 86 in Houston, Texas on 25 December 2024, was Pakistan’s pioneering woman fiction writer...
The NPP Government and Its Democratic Promise: A Review
Jayadeva Uyangoda
How democratic will the National People’s Power (NPP) government be? How faithful will the NPP leaders…
Best Reads in 2024
Collective
A sinister thread of horror, known and unknown, real and imagined, has connected much of what I have read this year....
Victims or Saviours? Women in Climate Adapted Agriculture Projects in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone
Nethmi Bathige
In recent years, both the government of Sri Lanka as well as national and international development organisations have...
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.
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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.