Jani De Silva

I started out with a first degree in Political Science, specializing on the State. Why? Seemed like a good idea at the time. Sri Lanka was then embroiled in a messy ethnic war and issues like the imperatives of centra-lization in S Asia, problems of devolving power etc were the hot topics and I joined the bandwagon. After publishing my dissertation, I decided I was BORED with the State and wanted to work with real people. Also, by this point the Sri Lankan govt had just crushed a bloody uprising in the Sinhala-speaking areas and the anti-Tamil war in the North & East had grown even bloodier. Issues like collective violence and the rise of cultures of terror became relevant. I moved on to anthropology which I felt offered more scope for exploring these issues, and I haven't looked back since, really. Finally, in the late-1990s I became preoccupied with the effects of the globalization which swept across South Asia on all these issues.