September 2025

Nepal in Flames: The Shadow War Between Washington and Beijing

Nepal in Flames: The Shadow War Between Washington and Beijing

The defiant yet turbulent “Gen Z” protests that toppled Nepal’s government last week demand an analysis that goes beyond the surface narrative of a spontaneous youth uprising. While Gen Z undoubtedly played a leading role, the parallels with Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya in 2022 and Bangladesh’s student-led movement in 2024 are striking. Yet sources inside Nepal—including journalists and close contacts of mine—insist the story runs deeper. They argue the upheaval was not merely an outburst of youthful d
Editorial September 2025
Kaniyan Pungundran

Kaniyan Pungundran
Neelan Unsilenced : The Life and Death of a Pluralist in a Divided Sri Lanka
Neelan Unsilenced : The Life and Death of a Pluralist in a Divided Sri Lanka

Neelan Unsilenced : The Life and Death of a Pluralist in a Divided Sri Lanka

“The way for emancipation  is to renounce language pride, national pride, religious pride, and caste pride.” – Periyar. Neelan Tiruchelvam – Unsilenced Directed by peace activist and filmmaker Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Unsilenced revisits the life and assassination of one of Sri Lanka’s most courageous liberal thinkers. The documentary traces Neelan’s relentless commitment to pluralism, constitutional reform, and democratic values at a time when both state repression and militant authoritariani
Article September 2025
Chinniah Rajeshkumar (Ragavan)

Chinniah Rajeshkumar (Ragavan)
Dreaming to Fly in the Wrong Land, with the Wrong Ethnicity: An Exclusive Interview with Deluxion Mohan
Dreaming to Fly in the Wrong Land, with the Wrong Ethnicity: An Exclusive Interview with Deluxion Mohan

Dreaming to Fly in the Wrong Land, with the Wrong Ethnicity: An Exclusive Interview with Deluxion Mohan

Imagine a prodigy: blessed with immense talent, relentless hard work, and unshakable grit. He sets out to build an aircraft—perhaps the first of its kind in the country. Not with imported technology or expensive gadgets, but using only the raw materials at hand. Motorbike engines, makeshift components, and pure ingenuity. Against all odds, he was on the verge of success. In most countries, such brilliance would have been celebrated. He would have been hailed, encouraged, and supported. The gove
Interview September 2025
Our Special Correspondent

Our Special Correspondent
When the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case Almost Pulled Me In
One of the last photographs of Rajiv Gandhi, taken moments before his assassination by Hari Babu. Behind the girl in the white shirt stands Dhanu, the suicide bomber.

When the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case Almost Pulled Me In

May 21, 1991, was one of the busiest and most sensation-filled days in my journalistic career. That night, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi died a horrific death when a suicide bomber blew him up at an election rally near Chennai. The news excitement dragged on for days as Indian investigators began to piece together the numerous fragments of the jigsaw puzzle to get to the bottom of who had ordered the high-profile assassination of a member of the Gandhi-Nehru family. I was in the AF
Guest Column September 2025
M.R. Narayan Swamy

M.R. Narayan Swamy
Ranil on Nepal: Buddha’s Teachings Abroad, Forgotten at Home
Ranil on Nepal: Buddha’s Teachings Abroad, Forgotten at Home

Ranil on Nepal: Buddha’s Teachings Abroad, Forgotten at Home

Sri Lanka’s former President Ranil Wickremesinghe issued a strongly worded statement this week on the unfolding crisis in Nepal. He condemned the police shootings in Kathmandu, the killing of the former Prime Minister’s wife, and the burning of Parliament and court buildings by Gen-Z protestors. He also warned of the role of American-owned social media platforms like Google and Facebook in destabilizing governments. Most strikingly, Wickremesinghe ended his statement by invoking the Buddha: “N
Opinion September 2025
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Blood, Spice, and St George’s Cross
Blood, Spice, and St George’s Cross

Blood, Spice, and St George’s Cross

There’s a smell to fear when it stalks a neighbourhood. It isn’t always gunpowder or petrol bombs. Sometimes it’s vinegar-soaked chips from the corner chippy, gone cold in a greasy paper bag carried by men who march with the St George’s Cross. A flag that, to some, means football and cheap lager; to others, a symbol that says: you don’t belong here. The red cross on white cloth has always carried more than patriotic cheer. Its origins lie in the Crusades of the twelfth century, when European ar
Opinion September 2025
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
No Divides in Our DNA: Dr. Maanasa Raghavan on Sri Lanka’s Shared Ancestry
Dr. Maanasa Raghavan

No Divides in Our DNA: Dr. Maanasa Raghavan on Sri Lanka’s Shared Ancestry

A recent study on Sri Lankan populations, published in Current Biology (June 2025), goes beyond science: it challenges long-held assumptions about population origins and rewrites our understanding of Sri Lankan genetic history. Dr. Maanasa Raghavan led this research alongside Dr. Niraj Rai of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences and Dr. Ruwandi Ranasinghe of the University of Colombo. Dr. Maanasa Raghavan is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Human Genetics at the University of C
Interview September 2025
Our Reporter

Our Reporter
Sri Lanka’s Darkest Night: The Sathurukondan Massacre Still Awaits Accountability
Sri Lanka’s Darkest Night: The Sathurukondan Massacre Still Awaits Accountability

Sri Lanka’s Darkest Night: The Sathurukondan Massacre Still Awaits Accountability

On the 35th anniversary of one of Sri Lanka’s most horrific wartime atrocities against Tamils—where 42 children under the age of ten, including five infants less than a year old, were among the victims—justice remains elusive. The Sathurukondan massacre of September 9, 1990, claimed the lives of 184 Tamil civilians, yet three and a half decades later, accountability has still not been achieved. Marking the anniversary, families of victims and civil society leaders filed a fresh complaint demand
Article September 2025
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor