Midweek Review

War as a way-of-Life

Published

4 years ago

2022/11/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

Helene Weigel Vera Tenschert

Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children:

by Laleen Jayamanne

“Like the war to nourish you?
Have to feed it something too.”
Mother Courage

Chaplin on Seeing Brecht’s Galileo

Charlie Chaplin had dinner with Brecht’s long-term musical collaborator Hans Eisler, after the premier of The Life of Galileo in 1947 in LA. The play was very well attended by leading artistes and intellectuals, some of whom worked for Hollywood at the time. It included German Jewish and gentile refugees from fascist Europe. Over dinner, Chaplin told Eisler that he would have liked a bit more ‘drama’ and that Brecht could have ‘mounted’ it differently. Eisler (who was familiar with Brecht’s radical work in Weimar Germany in the 20s), explained to him that Brecht never wanted to ‘mount’ things. American theatre critics from Variety and New York Times also complained that the production was ‘too flat and colourless.’ They thought the play was not theatrical enough, not ‘dramatic.’ In this piece, I will discuss the formal features of Brecht’s epic theatre (use of narration, scene construction, dialogue and acting), which Brecht thought was a form more suited to a scientific age of reason than the more emotional form of traditional dramatic theatre.

Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children; A Chronicle of the Thirty Year War, is a parable relevant to our moment of world history as well. It’s based on a character called ‘Courage, an Adventuress,’ in the 17th Century picaresque novel, Simplicissimus by Hans von Grimmelhausen. In Lanka it was first produced in English, in the 60s by Ernest MacIntyre, and, soon after in Sinhala as, Diriya Athi Mawa. Written in exile in 1939, the year Hitler invaded Poland, triggering the second World War, it was about another devastating war in Europe, the Thirty-Year Religious Wars (1618-1648), between the Catholics and the Protestants. Now we have yet another European war, between Ukraine and Russia, with no end in sight, which has already begun to affect global trade in essentials and much else. The flow of refugees and the scale of non-stop destruction of Ukraine by Russia is now broadcast daily on our TV screens creating a new ‘cold-war.’ The polarising American slogan for this war is ‘Democracy versus Autocracy.’ There is even talk of limited nuclear strikes but hardly any diplomatic solutions. Lanka also has had her own experience of a 30-year civil war whose wounds have not all healed because they remain unacknowledged.

Brecht’s 1949 production of the play in East Belin (with the nucleus which became the Berliner Ensemble in East Germany), within the Soviet Union, is celebrated in theatre history not only for the written play itself but also for the singular Epic staging and Epic acting of Helene Weigel as Mother Courage. She was an Austrian-Jewish actress and Brecht’s wife and also, according to him, a rare ‘epic actor.’ More of that later. The 1957 Berliner Ensemble production of it (after Brecht died in ‘56), again with Helene Weigel as Mother Courage, is on YouTube, now with English subtitles, an extraordinary chance for Lankan theatre folk to study her celebrated performance. It’s nearly four hours long and worth watching for people serious about studying, Epic Theatre, acting and staging.

The main set in the play is Mother Courage’s large wagon on wheels, ‘a cross between a military vehicle and a General Store’ servicing the different armies fighting in the Thirty-Year War, which decimated the population of Germany, destroying villages, towns and livestock. She follows the armies as they are her main source of income, she feeds on the war, so she needs it. It makes good business sense to her. Brecht hammers this point repeatedly. In the opening scene, the cart rolls on to the stage, drawn by her two sons, Eilif and Swiss-Cheese, because their horse has died. A revolving stage floor adds to the sense of dynamic curving movement of the large heavy wagon as it creeks and groans on to the stage with Mother Courage lounging on it, singing with her mute daughter seated beside her playing a Jewish harp. The rhythm of the song, the marching gait of the sons pulling the wagon, is robust, light-hearted even, despite the war. War for them is certainly a way of life, quite normalised.

Theatre for a New Scientific Age

In this piece, I want to build on the ideas developed in my three previous pieces on Brecht for The Island in two ways. First, by exploring Brecht’s idea of an ‘epic’ rather than a ‘dramatic’ structure, in his episodic scene construction and narration. Second, Brecht’s famously difficult idea of ‘epic acting’ will be explored by focusing on Helena Weigel’s celebrated performance as Mother Courage; she did not seek a response of empathy (identification and sympathy), from the audience. Instead, she performed in a manner that made her appear astonishing, strange though she was always believable as an efficient, robust petit-bourgeoise trader. Brecht’s carefully thought-out reasons for developing this mode of theatre will also be discussed.

Given that the European war lasted 30 years, Brecht presents its long duration by focusing on specific years without following a chronological progression. He calls the play a ‘chronicle of the thirty year war,’ so it jumps from 1626 to ‘29 for example, and ends the play in the middle of the war more than 10 years before it actually ceased. In this way, he is able to create a large number of episodic scenes whose duration varies wildly. Some even where the curtain opens and closes within minutes! So, he frees himself from chronological, causal, historical narration, and is able to build a freer sense of the relationship between one scene and another. This way, he can abstract events and produce his own views of that war without being tied to chronological history. This juxtaposition of scenes is what Brecht calls montage, using a film editing terminology. This freedom derived from its episodic structure is vital for the spectator who is invited to make the connections by learning to think in the theatre and not only just to feel with the characters. Mother Courage herself does not invite identification. she is neither heroic nor pathetic. She is dogged, living at all cost, unwittingly even at the expense of her three children. She is called ‘courage’ not because she is heroic, but because once she followed the army into dangerous territory because she had to sell a large stock of bread before it turned mouldy. Her business is with the army, regardless of which side it is, as long as she can sell her goods. Profit is the motif.

Brecht’s theatrical theory is superbly edited in Brecht on Theatre by John Willet and is highly readable, enjoyable and useful for understanding 20th Century radical European political epic theatre. Brecht provided the following model, laying out the ‘changes of emphasis as between dramatic and epic theatre.’ They are not opposites but it’s a matter of what needs to be emphasised to create a rational spectator who can evaluate what’s being presented without being emotionally swayed. This does not mean there is no feeling in the play. But rather, that reason and understanding are emphasised, paramount. (See table)

Brecht thought very highly of Charles Laughton’s performance of Galileo Galilei. He has written admiringly of Laughton’s work ethic and the way he understood the aesthetic of the play and performed the role in an ‘epic’, rather than in a purely ‘dramatic,’ that is to say, emotional, empathetic manner. This new element is probably what Chaplin and the American theatre critics didn’t appreciate. Joseph Losey, who directed the play with close input from Brecht, had plans to make a film of it, but because of the communist scare Laughton had backed out. Losey did make the film much later, but with the dramatic actor Topol, who played the lead role in the musical Fidler on the Roof. For students of theatre, it would be very instructive to study his highly emotional film version of presenting Galileo (which is on YouTube), and then read Brecht’s ideas on a cooler, more ‘distanced’ mode of performance which he says Laughton provided, which he named ‘epic acting’.

Helena Weigel as Epic Actress

Similarly, here’s Brecht describing Weigel as a rare, exemplary epic actress in her role as Jocasta’s maid in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.

“… she announced the death of her mistress by calling out her ‘dead, dead, Jocasta has died,’ without any sorrow but so firmly and definitely that the bare facts of her mistress’s death carried more weight at that precise moment than could have been generated by any grief of her own. She did not abandon her voice to horror, but perhaps her face, for she used white make-up to show the impact which a death makes on all who are present at it.”

He says that Weigel as Jocasta’s maid didn’t mix up her own emotions and try to make the spectator ‘punch drunk with feeling.’ But rather, her cold delivery left room for the spectator to understand the magnitude of the action of suicide, as a moral decision. The suicide of the queen Mother (who had unwittingly committed incest with her own son, Oedipus, after she had unknowingly married him), was not made into an occasion for new sensations.

Brecht again on what epic acting should be:

“Witty. Ceremonious. Ritual. Spectator and actor ought not to approach one another but to move apart. Each ought to move away from himself. Otherwise, the element of terror necessary to all recognition is lacking.”

Mother Courage’s Silent Scream

In theatre studies, Helena Weigel’s ‘silent scream’ is legendary, a part of her epic performance. As she lives off of the war, she considers peace bad for her business. And in the play when someone exclaims, ‘peace has broken out!’ Mother Courage is upset because she had just stocked up on new supplies and says it will now go to waste. This is epic dialogue, it makes one pause.

When Mother Courage realises that her son’s death (off-stage), is imminent she stands up saying:” I think I bargained for too long,’ and slowly sits down on a stool. Her body is tense. And as she hears the volley of bullets executing her son, her body shudders, arching back as though she was shot, her mouth opening wide into a snarl, letting out a silent scream. The gesture is so fleeting that we can miss it. But this silent cry carries huge weight. We still hear its reverberations. But it doesn’t make us empathise with Mother Courage, rather, we see her in all her animal drive to survive at all cost. But at that very moment when like an animal she instinctively bares her teeth to scream, she stifles the cry as only a human animal could. The silent-scream is a complex epic gesture. It encodes her contradictory life of sustaining her family by living off of war.

Because of her wheeling and dealing and haggling after a good bargain, each of her children dies. Brecht shows clearly the link between her decision to carry out a business deal and the loss of each of her children. When she is shown Swiss Cheese’s corpse, she is not able to even acknowledge that it is her son, as doing so would compromise her and Katrina. So, his body is thrown into a mass grave and Mother Courage turns her face away from us as the curtain falls in silence.

It is not that we don’t feel any emotion but rather we also feel the moment in all its inarticulate horror; we observe the phenomenon of this woman, her instinctual drive to survive at all cost. Once all her children are dead, she straps herself on to the wagon and slowly hunching down like a very old woman, drags it along alone, doggedly following the army as she has always done. She doesn’t learn anything, but it’s we who do. It’s not that we don’t feel, we do feel an immense sense of desolation for this myopic and hugely energetic woman who still lives off of the war, the end of which is a generation away. Meanwhile, Germany is laid waste. In 1939, Brecht looked back at history to understand the emerging catastrophe in Europe. He directed the play in East Berlin in ’49, where the rubble of WW2 was not all cleared. This play feels so current now for Europe deeply enmeshed in an unwinnable, seemingly endless war which has global repercussions.

Brecht was against tragedy which he called Aristotelian drama with its famous tragic heroes and their profound ethical epiphanies when facing cruel Destiny. Instead, he formulated his theory of modern epic theatre for a scientific age of reason, so that an audience would learn to observe characters as epic constructs and historical events in microcosm, and learn from them. He wanted the audience to understand the world through the way in which epic characters interacted in episodic scenes. He used either a chorus or projected intertitles to create an epic narration to narrate complex historical forces which simply couldn’t be dramatized by individual characters alone. Within such a rich epic structure the spectator learns in a relaxed way, how to balance emotions with understanding. The emotion that Brecht was especially suspicious of in theatre was empathy, which is an Aristotelian value. Brecht believed that by emotionally identifying with characters in an empathetic manner we lose our capacity to evaluate their behaviour. What he wanted was a process he called ‘distanciation,’ so that we don’t simply cry and say, ‘Aiyo, ane- Amme!’ and go home wiping a tear or two. He wanted a theatre fit for the modern scientific age, providing spectators with a greater understanding of political forces at play in normalising war within capitalism. Religion is the ritualised camouflage for gaining territorial political power, in the play.

So, soon after Mother Courage lets out her silent scream the stage is blacked-out for about eight seconds. When it opens for the next episode in full bright light, Mother Courage is still seated on the stool but there is no carry-over from the previous episode. As a cunning business woman, she is facing another moment of survival with quick-wittedness mixed with acute pain. Weigel’s Mother Courage is not played as a sentimental maternal figure or the ‘eternal sorrowful mother.’ She is not part of ‘the little people’ helplessly caught in the cross-fire, say like the poor peasants who appear in the play. But rather, she actively feeds off of the war as a petite bourgeois trader. This class-analysis is important for Brecht, who read Marx as a young student and continued his research into the history of capitalism and socialist politics as a playwright.

Joe Abyewickrama; A Lankan Epic Actor?

Prasanna Withanage in his Purhanda Kaluwara (Darkness at Fullmoon), brilliantly created the character of Wannihamy, as the blind father of a dead soldier. Joe Abyewickrama played this role in an epic mode. He didn’t cry out when his son’s sealed-coffin was brought home to his hut unlike his daughter. He was stoic like Mother Courage when her son’s body was brought in for her to identify. Wannihami, in his unique situation simply listened carefully to all the sounds and through his quality of attention, we too were given a glimpse of the terrible cost of the civil war on an impoverished Sinhala family and much more. Joe didn’t play for empathy, his restraint, enhanced by his blindness (a form of Brechtian distanciation), showed us and taught us in an unusual way about the terror of the civil war and of state terror, which Sinhala folk are belatedly experiencing now, not for the first time of course, in the South also. The sealed coffin, solemnly draped in the Lion flag, did not hold the corpse of the ‘Rana-viru’ or ‘tragic-hero’ son, but a banana trunk. The hero’s coffin, too big for the little hut, provides food for thought.

Similarly, Brecht’s play continues to nourish our thinking as we experience unending wars and State terror. Brecht and Weigel and Joe offer Lankan playwrights and filmmakers very rich resources to learn from, to make theatre and film that speaks to Lanka’s complex history and contemporary ongoing struggles, so that we might learn and understand in an enjoyable way. Brecht (always full of surprises) says theatre must be entertaining and should be performed in a relaxed manner. Go figure! Look at the many photographs and the ’57 production itself by the Berliner Ensemble now online.

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Midweek Review

From regime change project to ‘Know BJP’ initiative

Published

2 days ago

2026/10/7

Sahan Weerasooriya

Tilvin Silva meets Dr. Jaishankar in New Delhi recently

In the run-up to the 2015 Presidential election, a Chinese submarine visit, in 2014, caused major media fury. Indian media alleged the vessel was nuclear powered. In spite of Sri Lanka repeatedly assuring that it was not and New Delhi was always informed in advance of Chinese submarine visits, the Modi government, however, resorted to action detrimental to the Rajapaksas ahead of the presidential poll.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

One of the busiest Indian politicians, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, recently received JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva, in New Delhi. It was Jaishankar’s second meeting with Silva, in New Delhi, this year. They first met in February.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) invited the JVP General Secretary as it sought to enhance direct relations with the once morbidly anti-Indian so-called Marxist party in line with the overall Indian strategy. The five-day visit (27 Sept. to 01 Oct.) perhaps underscores the deterioration of other political parties represented in Parliament and outside. The media reported the invitation was extended under the ‘KNOW BJP’ initiative intended to familiarise the international community with the history of the party.

Among those who met Silva were BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh, National President of the BJP Mahila Morcha (Women’s Wing) Roopkumari Choudhary, BJP Youth Wing representatives Vineet Vats Tyagi and Bhakti Sharma. Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms. Rekha Gupta, as well as Delhi State Education Minister Ashish Sood. Silva also met Delhi BJP President Harsh Malhotra.

Welcoming the JVP delegation at the BJP’s Delhi Office, newly appointed Delhi BJP co-incharge and former Surat MP Darshana Jardosh, who took charge at the party office recently, said in a Facebook post: “India and Sri Lanka share a timeless bond rooted in civilisation, culture and faith. Under the visionary leadership and sustained efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India-Sri Lanka relations have gained renewed momentum, with stronger cooperation in development, healthcare, energy, connectivity and people-to-people ties. Such meaningful exchanges strengthen mutual understanding and reaffirm our shared commitment to democracy, development, public welfare and a stronger neighbourhood.”

The JVP delegation consisted of its General Secretary Tilvin Silva, Central Committee member Chandrika Adikari, lawmaker Aboobucker Athambawa, District Committee member Kabilan Suntharamoorthy and International Department member Kalpana Madhubhashini.

There hadn’t been any previous instance of a General Secretary of a Sri Lankan political party receiving an invitation from the BJP, leading to a meeting with the External Affairs Minister. The BJP/the Government of India wouldn’t have arranged the latest visit unless the powers that be felt the pivotal importance of consolidating ties with the JVP that once waged a bloody insurrection against the deployment of Indian armed forces in Northern and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka (1987 July to March 1990).

Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of BJP’s Foreign Affairs Department, declared that the visit was meant to strengthen BJP–JVP engagement, facilitate the exchange of organisational experiences and further deepen ties between the two political parties.

In late January, 2024, in the run-up to the Presidential election, India made it clear its position regarding the crucial national election when it invited JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, MP, to New Delhi. Dissanayake’s delegation included MP and JVP propaganda secretary Vijitha Herath, NPP secretary Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe and Professor Anil Jayantha.

The five-day visit, in early Feb. 2024, signalled that New Delhi anticipated Dissanayake’s victory at the Presidential election and was confident of JVP triumph at the parliamentary election. Dissanayake received a mega boost, thanks to his unprecedented meeting with Dr. S. Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. In a way, the high-level opportunities, granted by New Delhi, strengthened Dissanayake’s position and may have influenced the voters, living in predominantly Tamil speaking regions.

Having bagged the Presidency in Sept. 2024, the JVP swept the parliamentary polls. The New Delhi’s intervention may have undermined the main Tamil political party, namely the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), one-time LTTE’s cat’s paw. The JVP scored an extraordinary victory in the Northern and Eastern provinces where it bagged 12 seats (Jaffna 3, Vanni 2, Trincomalee 2, Digamadulla 4 and Batticaloa 1). The ITAK was reduced to just eight seats, their worst performance since the eradication of the LTTE, in May, 2009.

Post Easter Sunday developments

Having failed to achieve its long standing political objectives, the JVP, in mid-2019, founded National People’s Power, aka Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB).

JVP leader Dissanayake received the leadership of the newly formed political alliance. Tilvin Silva remained the JVP General Secretary, whereas Dr. Abeysinghe, renowned epidemiologist was named the General Secretary of the NPP. While the JVP General Secretary remained outside the parliamentary group, Dr. Abeysinghe successfully contested the Nov. 2024 parliamentary polls. He represents the Kalutara district.

In spite of the JVP/NPP expressing confidence of sharp increase in public support for the candidature of Dissanayake at the Nov. 2019 presidential election, he couldn’t poll half a million votes. Dissanayake managed just 418,553 votes (3.16%) and ended up a distant third.

SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who hadn’t at least bothered to take SLPP membership, comfortably won the election. The wartime Defence Secretary polled 6,924,255 votes (52.25%) while Sajith Premadasa, who contested under the ‘Swan’ symbol of the New Democratic Front (NDF) obtained 5,564,239 votes (41.99%).

The 2019 Easter Sunday suicide attacks, launched by the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ), created an environment that facilitated Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory. Now, the crux of the matter is whether the NTJ, formed in Kattandudy by Mohamed Zahran Hashim, in 2014, carried out near simultaneous suicide attacks to help Gotabaya Rajapaksa, though well tarnished among average Muslims as being anti-Islam, to win the presidency.

The ongoing CID investigation focused on the British Channel 4 claim, aired in Sept. 2023, regarding Easter Sunday carnage, is all about that still unsubstantiated allegation. The CID arrested the former head of Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI/2012-2016) and ex-State Intelligence Service (SIS/2019 to 2024) Maj. Gen (retd) Suresh Sallay in February, this year, in connection with this investigation. He is held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on allegations ironically levelled by a fugitive from Sri Lankan law.

The current status of JVP/NPP relations have to be examined, taking into consideration the declaration made by the then MP Nalinda Jayathissa, who served as a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), that inquired into the Easter Sunday massacre. Jayathissa alleged that India was behind the Easter Sunday carnage. The uncorroborated allegation was made in February 2021, just two months short of two years, after the attacks. However, he denied saying so in August 2025, nearly a year after the Presidential election and in the wake of India and Sri Lanka entering into seven Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs), including one on defence.

The seven MoUs, signed in Colombo, in early April 2025, underscored the trajectory of the Indian strategy. Signing of an MoU on defence hadn’t been publicly mentioned, even during the presidency of Ranil Wickremesinghe (2022 July-2024 Sept.) though the UNP leader sought to further enhance relations with Premier Narendra Modi’s India. Therefore, the signing of the MoU on defence, in April 2025, and the rapid acquisition of the Colombo Dockyard Limited by India’s state-run Mazagon Dockyard Shipbuilders Ltd., couple of weeks later, jolted the country.

In fact, Premier Modi gave the first indication of the impending defence MoU when President Dissanayake visited New Delhi, in Dec. 2024. It was Dissanayake’s first official visit. Although the joint communiqué, issued from New Delhi at the conclusion of the visit, had been silent on the agreement on defence MoU, a translation of Premier Modi’s speech revealed the truth.

In early September, this year, India and Sri Lanka signed three more MoUs, including one that dealt with six L70 air defence systems, operated by the Air Force. Those guns had been acquired during the war against the LTTE to meet the threat posed by small fixed wing aircraft, then possessed by the once fledgling Tiger air force.

Transformation of JVP

The late Somawansa Amarasinghe, in late Nov. 2001, during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s tenure as the President, disclosed notable change in its position, vis-a-vis India. Having returned from Europe, following a 12 -year self-imposed exile, Rohana Wijeweera’s successor had no qualms in declaring that India saved his life. That declaration was made at his first public rally in Kalutara.

Although the sole surviving member of the original JVP politburo, Amarasinghe, fled the country in Feb. 1990, there hadn’t been at least a reference to possible Indian involvement in the rescue operation. Did Amarasinghe, for some mysterious reason, understate the Indian involvement?

The writer sought an opportunity to seek clarification from Amarasinghe regarding his escape from government forces and death squads hunting for prominent JVPers, even after the execution of Rohana Wijeweera. Amarasinghe politely declined to discuss what he said at the Kalutara rally, in Nov. 2001.

During the second violent rebellion, from 1986 to 1989, Rohana Wijeweera, Upatissa Gamanayake, Sumith Athukorala, D.M. Ananda, Saman Piyasiri Fernando, Piyadasa Ranasinghe, H.B. Herath, Gunaratne Wanasinghe, R.B. Wimalaratne, Somawansa Amarasinghe, Shantha Bandara, Nandatilaka Galappaththi and Lalith Wijeratne, functioned as politburo members.

Some speculate that New Delhi may not have been directly involved in Amarasinghe’s rescue but allowed him to stay there until he found a way out of India. At the height of the insurgency, Somawansa got his wife Malani and son Isuru to leave the country and he later joined them.

What made India facilitate Amarasinghe’s escape or turn a blind eye to his presence there? Whatever happened back in the late 80s may have a significant impact on the developments today. Maybe not. But, the way the JVP transformed itself from a rabid anti-India position to establish partnership is not a mystery. The JVP opposed all projects initiated by previous governments and sabotaged each and every one of them. There cannot be a better example than the JVP-led protests against the 2019 tripartite agreement involving Sri Lanka, India and Japan. President Gotabaya Rajapakasa couldn’t go ahead with the Easter Container Terminal (ECT) project. Faced with non-stop protests, President Rajapaksa was compelled to rescind the agreement.

India protested the move. IHC in Colombo emphasised that “all sides should abide by the existing understandings and commitment” in timely implementation of the agreement, signed in 2019.

Sri Lanka offered India and Japan an opportunity to develop the port’s West Container terminal as a reconciliation move. But Japan pulled out of that partnership.

Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka Ports Authority) finalised the agreement with Adani Ports and SEZ, John Keells Holdings on Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT) in late Sept. 2021. Amidst an unprecedented economic crisis that led to President Gotabaya’s Rajapakasa’s ouster, in July 2022, blamed on a political campaign alleged to have been backed by the US and India, the work on CWIT made rapid progress. If anyone suspected the JVP-led NPP’s sudden about-face intentions as they always opposed anything and everything Indian in the past, the change of government in Sept. 2024 cleared the way for an all-out effort to bring CWIT work to a successful conclusion.

CWIT formally launched operations in the first week of April 2025 in the immediate aftermath of the two countries finalising seven MoUs, including one on defence.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa meets Ajit Doval in late Nov. 2019, in New Delhi. It was Rajapaksa’s first meeting with Doval after Rajapaksa became the President .

New approach

Prime Minister Dr. Harirni Amarasuriya joined Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha at the recent commissioning of Phase 2 of CWIT project. Declaring that the two million TEU mark has been crossed, in record time, Jha declared: “Let us remember what the Colombo West International Terminal is. A flagship deep-water container terminal. Built by a partnership of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, John Keells Holdings, and Adani Ports and SEZ. An investment of approximately 750 million US dollars, it is one of the most significant infrastructure investments in Sri Lanka’s maritime sector in recent years.”

Much to the surprise of utterly disorganised and inept political parties in parliamentary opposition and outside, the Dissanayake’s government has indicated that the incumbent administration intends to go along with the US and India. Those who feared to finalise agreements with the US and India, in the past, and often succumbed to JVP inspired trade union pressure, respond with disbelief as the US and India advance their agenda, without the usual resistance from the JVP, with it turning into an ardent admirer of India.

The government has conveniently forgotten the moratorium on visits by foreign research vessels declared by President Ranil Wickremesinghe for the year 2024. That declaration made at the behest of India and US to prevent Chinese research vessels from entering Sri Lankan waters remain in force though the government promised to review Wickremesinghe’s decision. The moratorium on research vessels visits seems to be permanent and no political party, represented in Parliament, is likely to raise it.

The sinking of an unarmed Iranian frigate off the southern coast in the first week of March this year, just outside Sri Lankan territorial waters and in India’s backyard, and subsequent Indian accusations of Chinese military presence at Hambantota, highlighted the crisis hapless Sri Lanka is in. The ongoing controversy over the US warning Sri Lanka of dire consequences if supplies were made available to Iranian vessels stranded off the country’s south western coast.

The JVP/NPP administration appears to be in a dilemma as Sri Lanka cannot forget critical support provided by Iran, especially during Eelam War IV. Former Sri Lankan Ambassador in Tehran, M.M. Zuhair, recalled how the Iranian government swiftly and decisively provided assistance amidst western efforts to jeopardise the military campaign by undermining the national economy.

As the war entered a crucial stage, the government found itself in an extremely difficult situation. Following talks at the highest level, Iran provided Sri Lanka with an interest-free and concessionary oil credit facility worth $1.05 billion to help obtain crude oil requirements, President’s Counsel Zuhair said.

If not for the rolling credit line easing severe foreign exchange pressures, the Rajapakasa government could have faced an insurmountable challenge, the former diplomat said, adding that unfortunately those in decision-making positions now have forgotten the past.

The change in Sri Lanka’s trajectory began with the advent of the treacherous Yahapalana administration. Under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe leadership, Sri Lanka betrayed the war-winning military at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, in Oct. 2015. It would be pertinent to mention that the BJP came into power in the year before securing what the media called a historic absolute majority at the Indian parliamentary polls. Since then the BJP developed its strategy vis-a-vis Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is beneficiary of a spate of Indian funded projects implemented over a period of time. Having once launched an insurrection in the aftermath of the Indian Army deployment here, in 1987, and opposed what it called Indian expansionism here, the JVP is now the beneficiary of India funded projects, not only in the Northern and Eastern provinces, but other provinces as well. One of the most important projects of them all was the flagship housing programme meant to construct 60,000 units. Launched after the end of war, in 2009, the project covered the Central and Uva provinces. While continuing the housing project, etc., launched previously, the BJP advanced a comprehensive strategy meant to ensure Colombo remained within New Delhi’s sphere of influence.

Hope you haven’t forgotten how Doval, in 2014, demanded Sri Lanka halt major Chinese projects, including USD 1.4 bn Colombo Port City project and take back China managed Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) that was in operation since July 2013. Sometime after Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the 2015 presidential election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa revealed how Dorval twice demanded the cancellation of Chinese projects and CICT take over. Sri Lanka’s refusal to heed Indian warnings resulted in them backing turncoat Maithripala Sirisena’s candidature at the 2015 presidential election. The rest is history.

Midweek Review

Iranian tankers and navigating with a moral compass

Published

2 days ago

2026/10/7

Sahan Weerasooriya

A hand-out photo from the Indonesia Maritime Security Agency shows an Iranian tanker (right) transferring oil to a Cameroon-flagged ship at sea.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea:

by Sasanka Perera
(The writer is on X as @sasmester)

According to news reports, about 19 Iranian tankers are berthed approximately 15 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southwestern and western coasts since August 2026. They are void of their cargoes of crude oil, having offloaded them to other tankers destined mostly to Chinese refineries. Seas off Sri Lanka’s maritime boarders are not the only concentration of such inactive Iranian ships with their crews. Malaysian and Indonesian waters and just beyond also have concentrations of Iranian tankers. Sri Lankan authorities have maintained that these vessels are positioned just outside the country’s 12-nautical-mile territorial waters, indicating that local authorities have limited direct jurisdiction over them. While this is legally correct, the potential consequences of these ships being in such close proximity to our waters cannot be ignored.

The current situation has come about because of unilateral secondary sanctions imposed by the United States targeting Iranian shipping around the world. Effectively, secondary sanctions are punitive measures imposed by a powerful country, in this case, the United States, against foreign individuals and entities that do business with a primary target country already under a first-tier embargo or trade ban. In this case, this primary country is Iran. This means, the provision of supplies or services to Iranian vessels by Sri Lankan companies or the government would run afoul of the unilateral US sanctions. At present, these ships are said to be low on fuel, and sustenance such as water and food. So, the underlying question is, should Sri Lanka and the world let the Iranians starve just beyond our waters for fear of US sanctions which are immoral and unethical — if not illegal at least in terms of their own laws.

Since initial local reports suggested that the US had warned Sri Lanka that they would impose sanctions on our country if its authorities provided supplies or services to Iranian ships, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry issued a press clarification saying, that the US has issued secondary sanctions as part of ‘their own common policy perspective’ which applies ‘globally and do not target only SL or any specific country.’ This is correct and common sense. But what does it mean to our country, which is caught in the middle of the illegal war the US and Israel are waging against Iran? Being neutral is one matter. But do we allow our moral compass to be compromised and allow people to starve because of our fear of these sanctions. Let me remind, notwithstanding the burden of human rights violations on the part of the state, we are a country that showed mercy to LTTE leaders when they needed medical treatment in Colombo. We also sent shipments of food, medicine, and relief items to trapped civilians in LTTE-controlled areas knowing fully well that these were being intercepted and seized by the LTTE, which would sustain its campaign against the country. There is little doubt we will suffer greatly if we opt to help the stranded Iranian seamen. But Sri Lanka has been in this situation before when the US destroyed an Iranian ship close to our waters. The Sri Lankan government took the decision to provide humanitarian assistance to the crew of another Iranian ship at the same time in early March 2026, and rightly so. At the time, the government took recourse in international obligations operative in humanitarian conditions in general and the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in particular.

In many ways, the present situation indicates the obvious contradictions across public international law, UNCLOS, the law of neutrality, and the conflict between unilateral jurisdiction versus state sovereignty. It also exposes the moral and ethical obligation of a country in the midst of the immorality and evil exercised by far more powerful nations and many others who have lost their moral and ethical consciousness.

Most serious international legal scholars and multilateral bodies (including the UN) maintain that unilateral secondary sanctions such as those declared by the US — lacking UN Security Council authorisation — violate international law. Because secondary sanctions threaten nations’ access to the global U.S. financial system, and therefore work better than traditional military enforcement, third states like Sri Lanka face a state of economic coercion. This makes de facto compliance necessary even when de jure international law regards the sanctions as overreach.

Providing ship-to-ship transfers, provisions, or repairs to vessels stationed outside a country’s territorial waters falls under standard maritime commercial freedom. Threatening a state for permitting its private companies or state entities to render essential and life-saving services outside territorial waters interferes with high-seas freedoms (UNCLOS Article 87). This is the situation Sri Lanka currently finds itself in. The problem with U.S. secondary sanctions is that they attempt to dictate how Sri Lanka exercises or refrains from exercising this sovereign prerogative. Our government needs to resist this shameless bullying.

If these vessels run out of drinking water and food as is likely to happen soon, offering the ship crews Permissible Humanitarian Assistance is a matter of offering distress relief. Under Hague XIII and customary law, neutral states, like Sri Lanka in this case, are permitted, and more importantly, morally bound to render essential humanitarian assistance, such as food, medical aid, or emergency repairs necessary to ensure seaworthiness, to vessels in distress. For its own convenience and lack of moral values, the U.S. government’s secondary sanctions typically make little distinction between commercial logistics, fuel supply, and basic humanitarian assistance.

On 4 October 2026, the Minister of Foreign Affairs made clear in public that Sri Lanka will make ‘all our decisions while protecting our sovereignty and identity’ and ‘if there is a need arising from humanitarian considerations, we will make the necessary intervention.’ Theoretically, this is the correct position notwithstanding it is a difficult position for a small country like Sri Lanka to put into practice. But from a moral high ground, it is always possible. I assume this is why the minister referred to the earlier incident involving an Iranian ship when he noted that ‘Sri Lanka is providing the vessel’s 13 crew members with the necessary food, accommodation and security while ensuring that the vessel remains safely maintained’. More importantly, he also noted that ‘Sri Lanka always acts in accordance with international maritime law.’ This is a position we must maintain whatever the pressure.

Threatening secondary sanctions against services rendered to stranded or distressed ships directly clashes with a neutral state’s obligation to protect human life at sea under the SOLAS Convention (Safety of Life at Sea) and SAR Convention (Search and Rescue). As far as I understand, from an international law standpoint, U.S. threats of secondary sanctions over Sri Lankan services to Iranian vessels represent such violations and an extraterritorial assertion of domestic authority that lacks a multilateral mandate (such as a resolution in the almost dysfunctional UN Security Council).

From a foreign policy perspective, we should have already begun negotiations with counties like Malaysia and Indonesia (in whose extended backyards many of these ships transferred their oil to other tankers) and China (to whose refineries much of this oil went and which paid for these cargoes) to ascertain how the lives of these sailors can be saved. After all, the cargoes did not come to us, and its transshipment was not facilitated by us. This is not about the maintenance of these vessels themselves or helping in their reintegration into the so called ‘shadow fleet of Iran.’ Here, our neutrality must be underlined. This is simply about human life. Have we thought of approaching the above countries to ascertain if they would help in finances to feed the Iranian sailors if our country decides to bring them ashore for humanitarian assistance and to build a coalition for such contingencies within applicable international conventions?

While international law grants Sri Lanka the clear sovereign right to manage services in its territory and EEZ, and mandates distress relief under maritime safety conventions, the practical reality of financial enforcement mechanisms forces us to weigh legal rights under UNCLOS and public international law against the immediate economic costs of U.S. financial isolation. This is why our engagements with countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and China, to mention only four nations, are essential and should have already begun.

Midweek Review

Faith, mythology, rituals, and Buddhism – A response

Published

2 days ago

2026/10/7

Sahan Weerasooriya

by Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga PhD, DSc, DLitt

Prof. Sasanka Perera’s important article dealing with the vital subject of discipline of Buddhist monks published in the Midweek Review of The Island on 23 Sept., 2026 needs a response with regard to its reference to faith, mythology and rituals. He says, “One must concede that it is mythology and rituals that hold any core set of philosophical ideas such as the dhamma together as a religion. It is through these practices that religion as a matter of faith emerges from abstract ideas. This is common to any religion. It is through these practices that Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism or Islam become religion”. First, it may not be correct to say that it is mythology and rituals that hold together the core set of philosophical concepts of Buddhism. Second, it may not be correct to infer that Buddhism has emerged as a matter of faith through the practices of rituals. Further, it is not through practice of rituals that Buddhism becomes a religion.

First of all, we must determine what constitutes the core philosophy of Buddhism and find out to what extent it depends on mythology. We must also examine the origin of rituals in Buddhism to see whether or not the dhamma could exist without rituals. Then, we must look at the nature of faith and its role in Buddhism.

The core philosophy of Buddhism is empirical in nature, which means it is based on, or derived from, observation, experiment, or sensory experience and it has nothing to do with mythology. The word “Ehipassiko” that prominently appears in Prof. Perera’s article cannot have any relevance in Buddhism if it depends on mythology to be held together. “Ehipassiko” is not applicable to religions based on mythology. The Buddha requested everybody interested to “come and see for yourself” because it could be known by experience. Same could be said about the discourse to the Kalamas, which Prof. Sasanka Perera has quoted. Theistic religions that are based on mythology cannot be examined by such means.

Prince Siddharta, before he attained Nibbana, experienced “Dukha” or suffering and “Anicca” or impermanence in his surroundings and found that such an existence cannot have a permanent self, (“Anatta”). Thus, the three signs of existence “Anicca, Dukha, Anatta” are empirical in origin and they form the core philosophy of Buddhism on which the doctrine is based. The “Four Noble Truths” are developed on this basis, and these also have no mythology whatsoever.

Prince Siddharta realised the fallacy of the Vedic thesis and rejected it entirely when he composed the three signs. Therefore Prof. Perera’s theory that “it is through these practices that religion as a matter of faith emerge from abstract ideas” does not hold where Buddhism is concerned. Buddhism is neither a “matter of faith” nor did it emerge from abstract ideas.

The fourth Noble Truth has no myth basis and is not dependent on blind faith or rituals. It is the path to the final goal in Buddhism; that is freedom from suffering. It is entirely based on morals which is central to Buddhism. Three factors in the Arya Astanghika Marga, deal with morals that prepare the mind for the final stages, “Sati” and “Samadhi”. These three factors which are concerned with right speech, right action and right livelihood, do not involve the practice of rituals. Unlike in theistic religions Buddhism does not require rituals in the practice of morals. None of the other factors in the Arya Astanghika Marga prescribe rituals. Therefore, one wonders, if the path to the final goal does not need rituals, where else could they be required to be of any significance.

“Nowhere else” is the obvious answer. What Buddhists have to do instead, is to live by the five precepts, eight precepts or ten precepts, or practice the Arya Astanghika Marga as far as possible, none of which have rituals. In such practice even if one does not reach the ideal, one would be immensely benefitted including peace of mind and satisfactory existence without too much suffering. This could be attained without the practice of rituals.

The Buddha rejected the practice of rituals in Sámaññaphala Sutta of the Dìgha Nikáya, where he declares all blessing rites and rituals as animal sciences (tiraccháanavijjá). Such was the attitude of the Buddha towards rituals. Ven. Kekirawe Sudassana was abiding by the Buddha’s word when he made the bold and correct statement that rituals were unnecessary in the practice of Buddhism. Ven. Sudassana should not be penalised for attempting to reject rituals.

Early Buddhism there was no mention of rituals. The four major Nikayas, Digha, Majjima, Anguttara and Samyutta comprise Early Buddhism. These were the only Nikayas in the Sutra Pitaka that were assigned to the Bhanaka monks to be preserved by the oral tradition, at the First Buddhist Council held three months after the Parinirvana of the Buddha and therefore considered to be closest to Buddha’s preaching. At the Third Buddhist Council held under the auspices of King Asoka, Ven. Moggalliputtatissa cleansed the Dhamma of all impurities that had crept into it and this was the Dhamma that was brought to Sri Lanka in the 3^rd Century BCE. This Dhamma did not advocate the practice of rituals to the Sri Lankan community and there was no rituals in the country until the 5^th Century CE.

It was Ven. Buddhagosa in the 5^th Century CE, who probably had come under the influence of Mahayana when he was in South India on his way to Sri Lanka, who in his translations of the commentaries introduced dividend carrying rituals.

Sri Lankan monks came to accept the practice of rituals as a necessary method to attain Nibbana. Eminent Buddhist scholar Prof M. M. J. Marasinghe says: “The hard work of Buddhagosa and the Mahavihara fraternity culminated in the formulation of a new ritual structure with attractive advantages to keep both the lay followers and the members of the Sanga happy and content As a result, when we pass from the canonical Pali texts to the Pali commentaries we come into a totally new teaching different from the original” (Beyond Ritualistic Realm, 2018).

In Buddhism, faith is quite different. There has to be faith in the path that will finally lead to the goal, for otherwise there may not be total commitment. However, love and devotion to the Buddha is not required. This is understandable as the final goal, Nibbana, is development of wisdom (“paññâ”) for which there is no need for the personal involvement of the Buddha.

Though not conclusively proved, there seems to be new evidence in neuroscience that points to the possibility of consciousness emitting out of the body. Further, recent advances in theoretical physics show that matter could be converted to energy and energy to matter. If stream of consciousness is a stream of energy, it being integrated into matter is not difficult to accept. Man is nothing but a conglomerate of energy. In such a system, continuity of consciousness in a samsaric cycle may not be implausible.

However, Ven. Sudassana may be correct in saying that belief in karma and rebirth may not be essential for the practice of Buddhist morals. One may practice five, eight or ten precepts or even Arya Astanghika Marga without feeling compelled to believe in karma and rebirth.

Without saying there is absolutely no presence of faith, mythology or rituals in Buddhism, which are in fact later intrusions, it could unequivocally be stated that neither mythology, faith nor rituals played a role in the origin of early Buddhism and nor are they needed to hold together the core philosophy of Buddhism as a religion. They are not necessary to practice Buddhism and be benefitted by it.