Opinion

Part I of Richard Simon’s essay asked whether Ravana is supplanting Vijaya as the father of the Sinhalese race. Part II traces its historical origins and then why Hela Ravana took so long to penetrate Colombo’s English-speaking bubble.

Is Ravana supplanting Vijaya as the father of the Sinhalese race? Richard Simon traces how and why the Ravana myth took wing in the island's popular consciousness following the defeat of the LTTE.

Bigger prisons, ankle bracelets, more guards; “common sense” ideas for prison reform abound after the Negombo prison violence. But there’s actually a very simple solution to prison overcrowding — send people home. Our laws actually encourage it, argues Ambika Satkunanathan.

Conventional fertilisers aren’t very effective, nor are they environmentally-friendly. The world is shifting towards “improved” varieties. But in Sri Lanka, old-fashioned subsidies are slowing down the transition.

The Gratiaen prize winner teases a transgressive story of a gay monk. What unfolds is far more profound, argues Praveen Tilakaratne in his review. “The Son and the Lover” portrays the mundane and excruciatingly normal world of human intimacy and offers a timely critique of Sinhala Buddhism.

The LTTE’s defeat in May 2009 is almost always portrayed as a government win. Peter Stafford Roberts argues that it was actually an LTTE loss. After Balasingham’s death, Prabhakaran, the LTTE supremo, started making serious mistakes.

Railways are poorly maintained, track length is shrinking, and the share of passengers using trains is reducing. H.R. Pasindu thinks Sri Lanka Railways can reverse this decline, if it copies the Road Development Authority.

The Sri Lankan poet-king Kumaradasa fashioned his Ramayana from the familiar ingredients of great epics: gods, demons, wars, and sex. But it remains forgotten. To recover it is to recognise the sophisticated Sri Lankan engagement with Sanskrit literary culture.

Famously bureaucratic and long neglected, the IRD is getting a facelift. Mick Moore is hopeful: fixing the tax department’s personnel and technology woes will help solve a good chunk of the country’s budgeting problems.

SriLankan Airlines has accrued billions of rupees in losses. Many believe the government should sell it, restructure it, or simply run it better. But Stefan Furkhan argues the biggest problem isn’t ownership, it’s clarity.