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.
‘A Collective Voice must be raised for Plantation Workers’
Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union
“This Tribunal is horrified and shocked by the stark realities of the lives of tea and rubber plantation workers. It...
Authoritarian Populism in the Global South
Alf Gunvald Nilsen
During the 2010s, many states across the global South turned decisively to the right. Foreshadowed by the rise of...
Performance in a Time of Terror: A Conversation with Dr Ranjini Obeyesekere
Kanchuka Dharmasiri
In 2021, Dr Ranjini Obeyesekere published her English translation of five Sinhala plays from the 1980s and 1990s...
Out of Sri Lanka: Tamil, Sinhala, and English Poetry from Sri Lanka and its Diasporas. Edited by Vidyan Ravinthiran, Seni Seneviratne, and Shash Trevett. Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd. 2023. 424p.
Gnei Soraya Zarook
Out of Sri Lanka, the “first true anthology of Sri Lankan and diasporic poetry,” is a wonderfully complex...
Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida: Impunity, violence, and the politics of representation – The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Shehan Karunatilaka. Gurugram, Harayana: Penguin Books, 2022
Reviewed by Harshana Rambukwella
A murdered journalist “awakens” in a ghostly world to witness his dead body being pulled out of a polluted Colombo...
A Hierarchy of Grief and the Politics of Mourning: Reflecting on Sri Lanka in the shadow of Palestine
Tania Perera
On 18 May, Sri Lanka marked the 15th anniversary of the end of war. In 2009, many Sinhala people in the South took to...
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.