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Alagu Subramaniam ….The Unfolding of a Ceylonese Author-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis Premila Thurairatnam,  an essay that will appear in THE CEYLANKAN of May 2022 ….. with highlghting imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi Further to my article in the November 2020 issue of The CEYLANKAN  entitled The Extraordinary Alagu Subramaniam, I present the findings from my research into how this short story writer formulated some of his stories almost a century ago.  He was commended in the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English as an exemplar of professionalism in the short story and that he wrote fiction of merit1. So, I think my effort on his work is worthwhile. Alagu in 1947 aged 37 when he returned to Ceylon from England Let’s begin with what is considered his finest short story ‘Professional Mourners’ where he points out the inhumanity of the caste system2. The narrator is a child remembering the details of his Hindu grandmother’s funeral and the importance attached to the ...

May 16, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , ,
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Why Thuppahi-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis Because I am quintessentially thuppahi, that is, of mixed ethnic-stock, thus low, inferior, mongrel, pariah in the Asian scheme of things. Moreover, by stressing this dimension of my bloodlines as well as my socio-political background I can confront, challenge and undermine the thinking of those who are attached to notions of caste distinction and/or “racial” superiority. As I have shown in People Inbetween (1989, Sarvodaya), in British Ceylon imported racial theories of a supposedly scientific kind fused with locally prevalent caste theories against admixture to set up exclusivist lines of differentiation. In adopting this label here I am inspired by American example: remember that Black Americans started undermining the disparaging vocabulary of the Whites when they began to refer to themselves as “Niggers” [while yet confronting those Others who directed the term pejoratively at them]. ...

May 14, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , ,
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Vihares and Verandas: Barbara Sansoni’s Magnum Opus-by Michael Roberts Exif_JPEG_420 ………. “Lions from inner wall of PADENIYA TEMPLE” ….      Source:Thuppahis Most versions of this set of amateur reproductions are due to the work done by David Sansoni on amateur mobile-camera pictures taken by Michael Roberts; but the first ‘snap’ of the lion frieze is by Roberts at his Thuppahi worst. A short memo at the end of this production written by the late Laki Senanayake (who passed away on the 20th May 2021) indicates that Barbara’s etchings commenced in 1962 as one aspect of a larger work with Ulrich Plesner and Ismeth Raheem.  So it best to commence this set of limited illustrations by presenting tha MEMO because it is capped by a miniature sketch of the shrine room at Embekke Devale in Barbara’s hand.   ...

May 6, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , ,
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Indian Ocean ANZACs from the Second World War – by Michael Roberts   …. and clariying matters for those unfamiliar with the meaning of ANZAC DAY: Source:thuppahis.com   What does Anzac Day observance mean? …. and clariying matters for those unfamiliar with the meaning of ANZAC DAY: Anzac Day is commemorated on April 25th and is arguably Australia’s most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first key military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War ALSO SEE Robyn Mayes: “Origins of the Anzac Dawn Ceremony: Spontaneity and Nationhood,” …………..  https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/17078/134224_134224.pdf?sequence=2 Chris Flaherty & Michael Roberts:  “The Reproduction of Anzac Symbolism,” Journal of Australian Studies, 1989, vol 13/24: 52-69. John Connor et al: ...

Apr 28, 2022 Posted by In Articles, Michael Roberts Tagged ,
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eLanka Newsletter – 27th March 2022 – 8th Edition – Sri Lankans In Australia Click here or on the image below to read this week’s elanka Newsletter A CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS – by Des Kelly Professor Wije Ariyaratne – Live Interview on Saturday 19 March with Nine Radio Perth on 90th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Sri Lanka Lions Sports Club – New South Wales Presents Under 16’s Junior Cricket Carnival 2022 09 APR 2022 at Raby Oval (Sydney event) Good News From Jayam April 1, 2022 Pls Scroll Down 35 items Silverscene – Official Newsletter of the Silver Fawn Club Inc (Brisbane) – March / April 2022 A FISHERMAN’s PRIDE AND JOY – by Quintus de Zylva TWO GREAT SPORTSMEN OF A BYGONE ERA – by Quintus de Zylva AUSLMAT DONATIONS – by Quintus de Zylva Sri Lanka – Aurudu-Nakath 2022 (in Sinhala) Shane Warne Graham Norton Tokyo ...

Mar 27, 2022 Posted by In Articles, eLanka Newsletters Tagged , , , ,
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Jeff Thomson emphasising his KILLER Image-by MICHAEL ROBERTS Source:Thuppahis Jon Hotten, in The Guardian, 20 June 2013, where the title is “Reminiscing with Jeff Thomson, who tells a story the way you want to hear it” It was a few hours after David Warner had taken a swing at Joe Root in a Birmingham bar, and Jeff Thomson was standing in a marquee full of people with a microphone in his hand. We were there to play six-a-side cricket, but the rain was coming down and the buffet was excellent, so Thommo had a full house. He was wearing the hooray uniform of red jeans and a blue blazer; set upon his broad shoulders and pipecleaner legs it made him look like the kind of guy who joins a soap opera and makes off with the unsuspecting widow’s money. ...

Mar 23, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , ,
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Nationalist Studies and the Ceylon Studies Seminar at Peradeniya, 1968-1970s-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis The years 1966 to 1975 were heady days in Ceylon. Especially so for some of us in Peradeniya Univeristy where the CEYLON STUDIES SEMINAR was launched in November 1968 by a few members of the Arts Faculty assisted by the facilities provided by Professor Gananath Obeyesekera at the Sociology Department – located then on Lower Hantane Road away from the centre of teaching. Not least among these facilities was the service provided by the Sociology Department peon Sathiah[i] who cyclostyled the written seminar papers beforehand for circulation so that those who were keen could read any presentation beforehand if they so wished – a procedure that also maximized discussion time. This background service was seconded by the typing services of Mrs Hettiarachchi in the History Department and Mr Kumaraswamy in the Sociology Department.  A . Jeyaratnam Wilson   Gananath Obeyesekera This ...

Mar 13, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , , , ,
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Australia vs Ceylon at the Colombo Oval in March 1953 … and Constantine-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis In focusing on Learie Constantine’s spell as a coach in the island in 1953 I was prompted initially by his report on the one-day encounter between the Australian cricket team led by Lindsay Hassett and a Ceylon team, a “whistle-stop game” as it was known then because the Aussies played such matches on their way to England by ship on several occasions dating from the early decades of the 20th century. The details of this encounter were presented in 1998 in the book Crosscurrents. Sri Lanka and Australia at Cricket, by Michael Roberts & Alfred James under the cover of Walla Walla Press.[1] I was able to present such reports because of my convivial interaction with one of Sri Lanka’s star batsman, CH ‘Channa’ Gunasekara, whose scrapbook was a goldmine of news cuttings.[2] These details include reviews of ...

Jan 14, 2022 Posted by In Articles Tagged , ,
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Australian Nationalism and the Ideology of Sacrificial Devotion-by Michael Roberts “Archie” Source:Thuppahis Michael Roberts, being an abridged version of an old article presented in the Library of Social Science run by Richard Koenigsberg and others. Addressing the practices of remembrance in Australia, Richard Koenigsberg has noted the irony that a battlefield defeat at Gallipoli in World War One, 1915, served a people as an emblem of nationhood: the “Australian nation, came into being on the foundations provided by the slaughter of its young men.” There is more irony. The commemoration of Australian courage, sacrifice and manliness at Gallipoli (and subsequently on the Somme) was threaded by tropes of youthful innocence that drew on classical Hellenic motifs. While the monuments and epitaphs that were crafted in Australia to mark this event were manifestly Greek in form. The gendered masculine metaphor, in turn, was often embodied in the seminal image of a full-bodied blonde young man. “Archie Hamilton” in ...

Nov 15, 2021 Posted by In Articles Tagged ,
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