Crisis and Revolt in Sri Lanka: Theorizing a Horizon of Possibilities Amid the Unravelling of the Global Order

Abstract

The popular uprising in Sri Lanka on July 9th, 2022, led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country. It represented a stunning culmination of a wave of protests during the recent past. The proximate cause of the uprising was the worst economic crisis that Sri Lanka had experienced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The breakdown was long in the making since the island nation became the first country in South Asia to take the neoliberal turn in the late 1970s. The dramatic collapse was catalyzed by a sovereign debt crisis with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, like all great revolts, it has led to a counter revolution by the ruling class, including the reconfiguration of the old regime.

We examine the tremendous consequences of recent events, both in terms of Sri Lanka's long history of struggles involving working people and the global unravelling underway. We explore whether Sri Lanka is a harbinger of more global political economic changes to come. The process includes the possibility of systemic resistance to financialization in the scores of countries in the Global South experiencing tremendous debt distress. In this regard, we ask whether Sri Lanka's revolt could yet become a revolution. To frame the potential implications, we turn to a deeper interrogation of classic Marxist theories and concepts.

Citation

Gunawardena, D. and Kadirgamar, A. (2023), "Crisis and Revolt in Sri Lanka: Theorizing a Horizon of Possibilities Amid the Unravelling of the Global Order", Plys, K., Priyansh and Goonewardena, K. (Ed.) Marxist Thought in South Asia (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 40), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 121-151. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920230000040008