Devaka Gunawardena

Contact: devakagunawardena(at)gmail.com

Research Fellow, Social Scientists Association, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Devaka Gunawardena is a post-doctoral fellow participating in the OSUN Forum on Democracy and Development at the Colombo hub convened by the Social Scientists’ Association in Sri Lanka. He obtained his PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to having published in academic journals such as the International Quarterly for Asian Studies and Political Power and Social Theory, he often contributes to the DailyFT in Sri Lanka and Economic and Political Weekly in India. His research interests include agrarian studies, labor movements, development studies, geopolitics, and political economy. He can be reached at devaka.gunawardena@gmail.com.

State Power after the Great Revolt: Sri Lanka in an Age of Upheaval

My project examines the major shifts that have occurred in Sri Lanka’s polity since the great revolt of 9th July 2022 that ousted the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The significance of the revolt must be understood in the context of its subsequent repression. The resulting tendency has been towards implementation of an International Monetary Fund (IMF)-led solution to Sri Lanka’s underlying economic crisis, which triggered the initial wave of resistance to Rajapaksa rule. The resulting austerity, however, creates social and class tensions. These anticipate the possibility of a more dramatic transformation of relations between State and society, either in an inegalitarian or redistributive direction. Drawing from comparative work on (counter)revolution by critical scholars such as Arno Mayer and Enzo Traverso, I ask whether the political trajectory in Sri Lanka will lead to an eventual shift in the country’s economic paradigm as well.