Polity is a magazine which 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 (since 2003), with critical content on politics, political economy, history, women, ethnicity, sexualities, religion, labour studies, agrarian relations, nationalisms, violence, ecology, and much more…
Asoka Handagama’s Rani: Diminishing Struggles Against Enforced Disappearances
S. Janaka Biyanwila
The film Rani (2025, Lyca Productions) by Asoka Handagama based on the character of Manorani Saravanamuttu, a medical...
Richard de Zoysa in the Classroom
Vihanga Perera
Richard de Zoysa was abducted from his home on the night of 18 February 1990, brutally killed, and body discarded....
The Ritual Sacrifice of Richard de Zoysa: “Not really one of us, hence one of them”
Dhanuka Bandara
In Violence and the Sacred, René Girard (1979) understands ritual sacrifice as a means of stalling the cycle of...
Richard de Zoysa: A Legacy of Injustice and Resistance
Manikya Kodithuwakku
This year marks the 35th death anniversary of journalist, human rights activist, and actor, Richard de Zoysa. As de...
Me Kauda? Monawada Karanne? The Potential Futures of an “Alternative World” and the Political Legacy of Richard de Zoysa
Prabha Manuratne
Me Kauda? Monawada Karanne? (‘Who is he? What is he doing?’) was the title of a play, allegedly, that got Richard de...
Words to Kill a Man, and Free a Man
Kanya D’Almeida
In the early months of 2012, I inherited two troves of literature. I had been hunting for one of them for years; the...
Current Issue
120 pages of analysis and perspective including: Sri Lanka’s elections, politics, and parties; ‘settler tourism’ in the wake of the Gaza genocide; the spaces of the Aragalaya; child marriages and their miseries in the East; gendering climate-adaptation projects in agriculture; the ‘hidden politics’ of critical agrarian studies; Europe’s far right and its battery of women’s rights; Martin Wickramasinghe and the Sinhala short story; trans-gendered lives amidst war, violence, and displacement; South Asia’s debt crisis is missing collective action; India’s general election; race, class and multiculturalism in Hanif Kureishi’s work; and some favourite books in 2024.
Vol. 12, Issue 2 (December 2024) is now available for LKR 500, from the Social Scientists’ Association and Barefoot bookshop, Colombo 3.
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Archive
Pravada (1991-2002) and Polity (2003-) back issues available here.
Social Scientists’ Association
The Social Scientists’ Association (SSA) is an organization working to investigate the way in which social change is contouring the multiple realities faced by communities in Sri Lanka and South Asia. The SSA is deeply committed to promoting a culture of knowledge production that informs and undergirds interventions aimed at achieving social emancipation for marginalized communities.