Devaka Gunawardena

In the aftermath of the popular uprising of 9 July 2022 in Sri Lanka, the counter-revolutionary regime led by Ranil Wickremesinghe and backed by the party of the disgraced ex-President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has sought to suppress further dissent. The West has extended cover to the government, legitimising its support with rhetoric about stability. But amid global unravelling, Sri Lanka’s crisis demands a new framework to grasp the tremendous changes occurring in the country.

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The Unravelling of the Global Political Economy and Sri Lanka’s IMF Solution

Vol. 58, Issue No. 1, 07 Jan, 2023

Devaka Gunawardena, Ahilan Kadirgamar

Sri Lanka faces an uncertain path to obtaining bailout funding from the International Monetary Fund, while the existing terms of the agreement itself will exacerbate the ongoing economic crisis. Moreover, Sri Lanka’s difficulty in securing the consent of bilateral and private creditors amid great power rivalry reflects the unravelling of the global order. Is there an alternative to austerity in this conjuncture, including possibilities for self-sufficiency?

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The Political Economy of the Crisis in Sri Lanka

Vol. 57, Issue No. 18, 30 Apr, 2022

Devaka Gunawardena, Ahilan Kadirgamar

Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic downturn since independence. The economic establishment is proposing austerity to continue the neo-liberal trajectory, which the working people are bound to resist. Will this conjuncture lead to a progressive social contract between the state and the people based on democratic alternatives of redistribution or further repressive liberalisation with dispossession?

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Contradictions of the Sri Lankan State

Vol. 50, Issue No. 9, 28 Feb, 2015

Devaka Gunawardena

The policies of the Sri Lankan state since the late 1970s have seen a widening gap between its neo-liberal foundations and its attempts to claim popular legitimacy, and this structure of politics seems set to persist. This paper argues that the tension between neo-liberalism and populism is articulated in the disparity between the island's urban and rural areas, and vice versa. This defines contradictory aspects of the Sri Lankan state as we understand its appeal to different constituencies, both the new urban middle classes and increasingly impoverished small farmers. Instead of looking at how neo-liberalism deploys populism to garner mass support, the study examines the messy consequences of the ways in which populism attempts to manage the effects of neo-liberalism, manifest primarily in the increasing immiseration of the masses.