europeus

People feel that they are curtailed in their possible developments in a variety of directions and they create an imaginary of transcending these limitations and that is what the place of hope could have been. Now I think there is in some sense an end of hope if by hope we understand something which is transcending all possible human conditions in terms of the fulfillment of a perfect state of liberation, emancipation etc. But, on the other hand, there is a proliferation of new hopes, new demands, and these demands can be put together to create some kind of more cessable social imaginary. This is not to say that our expectations are any less than in the past, but that at any moment in time we have to construct partial social imaginaries of transformation that can push emancipatory politics in many directions. But we no longer have these eschatological notions of hope yet hope is something which is very much populating our dreams, present in our struggles and so on.”

Ernesto Laclau


Independence day, many question what one can put to his/her pen on our ritualistic celebration of the independence day. Symbolically celebrated with all the political vanity at Galle Face and formally celebrated in few governmental agencies. What does the common man feel about it? Oh great its just a holiday where we can take some rest, or if the day falls on a Friday or Monday it will be the coolest retreat one can get. This was a rapidly deployed probe to scan the un-conscience of the Sri Lankan mind. Irrespective of whether it’s a serious study on the attitudes of Sri Lankans to February 4th the above will be the general response. The trouble is that as a nation we have lost control predominantly the ideological attachment to the most significant day of our time. The painfully silent, as some critiques say lame national movement in Sri Lanka has never given any meaning to the independence day that we celebrate today.. Few Sri Lankans passionately celebrate the Independence Day Vis a Vis there neighbors India. India fought a significant liberation struggle against the colonial rule and the essence of the Independence day is a spiritual presence. The writer is not concerned about focusing on the historical significance of this event. But for a country which is desperately struggling to forge an alliance of diverse cultures and simultaneously arrest the state from withering away from fault lines appearing among all ethnicities and religious groups, 4th of February is a date to be repositioned as a day of national integration and the day we struggle against all our internal foes.