Dhanuka Bandara

Dhanuka Bandara is a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and English at the University of Jaffna. He is also a theatre practitioner and cultural critic.

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Dhanuka Bandara

A student stands before a school mural in Colombo. Sri Lanka’s system of free education endures, but its founding democratic and ethical vision remains only partially realised.

The battle for the ideals of free education in Sri Lanka

Dhanuka Bandara

08 Apr 2026

A shrine of Ravan at the Munneswaram temple in north-western Sri Lanka. While Jayewardene establishes her work as antithetical to the Sinhala Buddhist appropriation of Ravan, it is broadly nationalist in its tangible utopianism and yearning for a bygone golden age.

Where does Ravan fit in Sri Lanka’s imagined past?

Dhanuka Bandara

27 Dec 2024

The Sri Lankan president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, at the Galle Literary Festival 2024. Such highly curated and exclusive events stand in stark contrast to the ground reality of most Sri Lankans, who are still grappling with the ongoing economic crisis. Photo courtesy: Malaka MP Photography / Galle Literary Festival

State patronage and geopolitics are strange bedfellows for Sri Lanka’s literary and art festivals

Dhanuka Bandara

04 Apr 2024

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