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 development of S.B.D. de Silva’s political economy
Shiran Illanperuma
For those who knew him or have read his work, the late S.B.D. de Silva could be considered one of the greatest...
Aid Interrupted: Reverberations in Sri Lanka of USAID’s Dismantling
Sandunlekha Ekanayake
Trump’s ‘America First’ doctrineIn a shocking move, President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ right-wing populism and...
Queer Representation in Sri Lankan Media: A Double-Edged Sword?
Kasun Kavishka
Queer[1] representation in the media is a polarising topic that has sparked many debates in recent years, revealing...
The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal
Gaza Tribunal
We, the members of the Gaza Tribunal, having gathered in Sarajevo from 26 to 29 May 2025, declare our collective moral...
‘Crop Top Terrorism’ and the Security State in Sri Lanka
Themal Ellawala
The evening of 28 February 2025. A friend and I left his house in Mount Lavinia to board a waiting PickMe...
The ‘Governance of Corruption’ in Sri Lanka – An IMF-NGO-NPP Consensus
B. Skanthakumar
“Between consent and force stands corruption/fraud” ~ Antonio Gramsci IntroductionSri Lanka’s ‘National...
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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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.