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 Great Flood
B. Skanthakumar
Cyclone Ditwah ripped through Sri Lanka between 27 and 29 November. The toll is devastating. Seven days later, the...
Of Heroes and Villains: Dutugemunu and Prabhakaran
Ruben Thurairajah
History in Sri Lanka has never been allowed to rest as history. It is not a settled archive of facts but a living...
Dying for the Target
Ishankha Singha Arachchi
The harsh working conditions faced by workers in the pursuit of ever-intensifying production targets have long been a...
One Year On: Reading the NPP “From Below and to the Left”
Janaka Biyanwila
The National People’s Power (NPP) in Sri Lanka achieved a significant two-thirds parliamentary majority in the...
Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit towards COP30
Peoples’ Summit
16.11.25 - Belém (Brazil) We, the Peoples’ Summit, gathered in Belém do Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, from 12 to 16...
Gehenu Api Eka Mitata: Building a Women’s Political Movement in Sri Lanka
Kaushalya Ariyarathne
The recent election of 22 women to Sri Lanka’s new parliament in November 2024 has sparked significant interest and...
Current Issue
Out Now! Vol. 13, No. 1 (2025), LKR800 from the Social Scientists’ Association and LKR1000 from Barefoot and Vijitha Yapa bookshops.
170 pages of analysis, commentary and perspective: the implosion of liberal internationalism; aspirations for, and appraisal of, the NPP government; the long march of the JVP from subversive to sovereign; feminist statements demanding action against misogyny and male violence; the May 2025 local government election and axes of polarisation; US and Lankan narratives on culling USAID; the thriving and prosperous national security state, and its gaze on queers; Richard de Zoysa’s short life, long death, and literary legacy; Asoka Handagama’s Rani and memory against forgetting in struggles against enforced disappearances; avatars of privatisation in higher education; continuities and concerns in AKD’s first budget; anatomization of an economy in permanent crisis; retrieving the political economy of SBD de Silva; an IMF poster-child in the crosshairs of Trump’s tariffs and the Washington Consensus; combating corruption in market mode; caricaturing gay representation in mainstream media; celebrating Bapsi Sidhwa’s itinerary and oeuvre; Indian and Pakistani women speak out against war and hate; the performance of Tamil nationhood in and after war; international law facts and fictions in Filastin; and Iranian voices against Israeli-US warmongering and state repression. Front cover art by Minal Naomi Wickrematunge.
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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.