Kaushalya Ariyarathne | University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Kaushalya Ariyarathne

Routledge eBooks, Jul 9, 2024

Rutledge Handbook on Contemporary Sri Lanka, 2024

This chapter has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities

This article is based on a case study of (the pseudonymous) Karu Māmā’s life as a gurunnānse, his... more This article is based on a case study of (the pseudonymous) Karu Māmā’s life as a gurunnānse, his community, his practices and ultimately the negotiation of his identity as a transgender person within his community. To be more precise, it explores the lives of Karu Māmā and his transgender/nachchi (a local term used by a particular transgender group in Sri Lanka) daughters around the little Pattini shrine in his house and the annual gammaduwa ritual he performs as goddess Pattini. This ritual, I argue, is a unique illustration of his transgender and embodied performativity. It reminds us of the fact that we need to revisit and rewrite certain established discourses on transgenderism in Sri Lanka. Karu Māmā, who grew up with heteronormative, Sinhala-Buddhist discourses on birth, rebirth, family, notions of good and bad, as well as perspectives of gender, counters those dominant ideologies through his practices around his Pattini shrine and associated rituals. Moreover, I argue that t...

WORKING HOURS: EXPLORING GENDER DIMENSIONS OF UNPAID CARE WORK IN SRI LANKA, 2023

In this paper, the authors probed a primary research question from participants: What do narrativ... more In this paper, the authors probed a primary research question from participants: What do narratives by the selected participants in Sri Lanka reveal about the relationship between transgender identities and the division of household labour? As a sub-question, we also inquired how their transition process and their self-perceptions about gender have influenced in dividing unpaid household labour between partners. Based on the assumption that transgender persons hold more fluid and flexible ideas about gender identity, gender roles, and sexual orientation, we tried to explore how this fluidity has persuaded the division of household labour among the selected families.

Polity, 2023

In this paper, I will discuss certain aspects of transgender subjectivities, bodies, and State in... more In this paper, I will discuss certain aspects of transgender subjectivities, bodies, and State interventions on gender identities, based on selected transgender persons’ testimonies who obtained a GRC, statements from selected doctors, and my own experience in the field. I analyse the process of sex reassignment surgeries in Sri Lanka, which are facilitated by the MoH, along with the process of obtaining a GRC. On the one hand, it is important to record the developments – especially in the medical, health, and legal sectors – that have resulted from emerging discourses on LGBTIQ+ communities in post-war Sri Lanka. On the other, it is also vital to read critically the impact of medical health interventions against a backdrop of many misconceptions and limited scholarly work on transgender communities in contemporary Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Journal of Humanities, 2022

This article is based on a case study of Karu Māmā’s life as a gurunnānse, his community, his pr... more This article is based on a case study of Karu Māmā’s life as a gurunnānse, his community, his practices and ultimately the negotiation of his identity as a transgender person within his community. To be more precise, it explores the lives of Karu Māmā and his transgender/nachchi daughters around the little Pattini shrine in his house and the annual gammaduwa ritual he performs as goddess Pattini. This ritual, I argue, is a unique illustration of his transgender and embodied performativity. It reminds us of the fact that we need to revisit and rewrite certain established discourses on transgenderism in Sri Lanka. Karu Māmā, who grew up with heteronormative, Sinhala-Buddhist discourses on birth, rebirth, family, notions of good and bad, as well as perspectives of gender, counters those dominant ideologies through his practices around his Pattini shrine and associated rituals. Moreover, I argue that this case study challenges the divisions that exist between genders, social classes, and castes around the Pattini ritual and narrates new interpretations. On the one hand, the rituals and practices associated with the Pattini dēvālaya in Daluwatte make a significant contribution to transgender identity negotiation. On the other hand, through well-known discourses of traditions, practices, rituals, and worshipping, this offers us new insights into motherhood, femininity, sexuality, and gender in contemporary Sri Lanka.
Key Words: Motherhood, Pattini, Ritual, Transgender, nachchi

Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Feb 1, 2019

We are living in turbulent political times. While social struggles for equality, rights and justi... more We are living in turbulent political times. While social struggles for equality, rights and justice have had a positive impact on our world, we face new challenges and many of our old problems remain unsolved. Democracy is in crisis across the globe and the decolonial project remains as urgent and incomplete as ever. What has become clear is that we cannot rely on existing frameworks, institutions and elites to come up with the solutions. We need to think differently, creatively and boldly. We need to cultivate new forms of collective action and new forms of solidarity across division. And we need to develop new intellectual and practical tools to help us build the sort of world we all want to live in. These three essays are a humble offering towards this aim. They form the first in a series aimed at reinvigorating critical and engaged debate about both the theory and praxis of progressive politics. This booklet is produced as part of the ‘Building New Social Imaginaries Project’ funded by the UK AHRC and run by Dr Kiran Grewal, Goldsmiths College University of London and Dr Sivagnanam Jeyasankar, Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The essays are the joint work of Dr Kiran Grewal, Ms Kaushalya Ariyarathne and Ms Hasanah Cegu Isadeen. We thank the Law and Society Trust, Colombo, our civil society partner for administrative support provided towards the project.

Masculinities Journal of Culture and Society, 2021

This article is a part of a broader study titled 'transgender identities in contemporary Sri Lank... more This article is a part of a broader study titled 'transgender identities in contemporary Sri Lanka'. It attempts to identify a framework based on contemporary Sri Lankan trans men's lived experiences, to analyse and interpret gender, embodiment, social relationships and identities. The article discusses how socially