I purchased 'Islanded' by SS from SLbooks.lk in 2024 August online.
But I didn't read the book until 2025 January, when I participated in an event at the Colombo Public Library under the Ceylon Literary and Arts Festival 2025 events series.
I made a short note on the participation in the event, and it is as follows.
Islanded and connected - Sujit Sivasundaram (SS), Shamara Wettamuni (SW), and in conversation with Judith Perera (JP)
The following topics were considered for discussion, which are numbered, and I have pinpointed the main subtopics discussed.
(01) Identity
SS
Gender, Nationalism
Slippery concept?
Collective identity - religious, cultural, monarchic, imperialistic,
Identity of the Sri Lankan kingship - Nayakkar ( not Sinhalese)
SW
Shifting identities
Religious revival mid 19th century
Henry Steel Olcott / Blavatsky - Buddhism
(02) Migration and globalization
SS
City of Colombo - one of the largest ports in the world
If you are going to Australia, you have to go through Sri Lanka after coming through the Suez Canal.
Egypt
The emergence of identity was in the 19th and early 20th centuries
Ideology
Structure of capitalism
(03) Marginalized communities
SW
Rewriting the life of slavery
Africans and Indian Tamils in the upcountry
SS
History never ends.
Waves across the South - 18th and 19th century Indian Ocean
- gender structures
American and French Revolution
Australian Sri Lankan literature
(04) State of history education
SW
Not in a good state
One-dimensional Sinhala Buddhist nationalism
SS
UK
Brexit, many prime ministers
Culture wars
At Cambridge University, the syllabus is changed drastically
Archeologists collaboration
The value of history is a navigation of the present with cultural identity
(05) Questions from the audience
Mahawamsa bloodshed
SW
Criticisms of the Mahawamsa with an open mind
SS
Colonial orientalists make the Mahawamsa is a canonical text
Palm leaf literature
(06) Role of academic historian
Reality is a struggle in history
After that discussion, I was able to get the book signed by the author, as shown in the image shared above.
Prof. Sujit’s Islanded is a very contemporary work that analyzes historical texts related to Sri Lanka in a more modern way, deviating from nationalism and focusing on power dynamics, trade, orientalism, literature, and more. How we were molded in the 19th century is revealed in this book, opening the minds of Sri Lankans to many new paradigms. When you keep on reading, it is evident that the British took a more lenient colonialism towards Sri Lanka.
Who we are as Sri Lankans after 1815 and who we were before 1815 are analyzed, from elites to ordinary folk, in a very academic way, drawing on many historical texts.
If you are a half-backed history nerd like me, many historical figures from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries pop up in this book, and also many famous historical books from classic, pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial, and contemporary books are referenced, making this book filled with trivia and opinions from the author as well.
SS is a great narrative historian picking on many useful topics of the nineteenth century and making it readable, like telling a story to the reader with his opinions and academic trivia as well. This is a very impactful way of identifying the Sri Lankan history of the 18th-century colonization project.
As 21st-century dwellers who now have foreign fast food franchises all over Sri Lanka and globalization at its peak, with internet and westernization as a history nerd, this book traverses into a very serious period of time in the world where everything began. The inception of globalization and Sri Lanka’s role in it can be understood through a historians Lense, which is the value of this book. As an ardent fan of the city of Kandy and also as a business management student, the history of Sri Lanka when we bowed down to the British powers and the story behind it in a more academic historical perspective is very valuable.
The reading of this book was dragged due to its heavy content, but Ditwa cyclone gave me time to read it. During these somber times, reading history makes you gloomier. But I really needed to read it since it was required to be finished with a very long and impactful literary review, because I attended the Ceylon literary and arts festival of 2025.
Beyond the Sri Lankan Sinhalese nationalism propaganda and my exposure in the Sri Lankan free education system related to Sri Lankan history, Islanded by Prof. SS reveals to us the Protestant Buddhism creation and many power dynamics during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries from a different angle, which is something new to a layman or a student of history.
Orientalism and its impact, and how it was used to govern Sri Lanka, are discussed in this book.
History is boring because it is not dynamic like the present or the future. There are a lot of bounds that follow up from the past that keep Sri Lankans locked in a framework, which makes you hate the island. So this is a must-read to identify what happened to us since the beginning of Sri Lankan history. This gives me the duality of the 1984 novel by George Orwell.
The flexibility and leniency the British showed to Sri Lanka during the colonization project are very much evident when reading this historical fiction book.
As a person who reads for relaxation against the real life failures 'Islanded' was an intimidating read. It was long, biased toward the British, and alienating. But it was knowledgeable. As a person who achieved less academic success, this was a hectic endeavor, making me go through 200-year-old colonization legends that an unmarried failure like me would only read. Otherwise, for a layman of history, this is heavy stuff and very boring.
Some of my personal Kandy experiences are shared below.
Helga's folly anti hotel residence
Taj Samudra Colombo - Kandy painting
