Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Libraries Sri Lanka History'

This thesis argues that to better understand student learning in undergraduate education, it is useful to focus not only on how students are affected by the context of learning but also how they act on the context to achieve their own valued outcomes. The thesis specifically explored the question of ‘how do students regulate their learning in relation to the contextual demands and their own valued outcomes?’ This longitudinal qualitative study has focused on a group of undergraduates following a four year degree course in Psychology in a Sri Lankan university. I have used an analytical framework informed by Engeström’s version of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) for data analysis. Accordingly, I have conceptualised student learning in the undergraduate course as a network of activity systems that weaves together people and cultural tools to transform the collective purpose of learning. It emerged in the analysis of the activity system that students’ learning is affected mainly by tensions or dilemmas arising from the collective purpose and the institutional assessment practices. The collaborative attempt to change the purpose and the context of learning by students’ and their lecturers has mutually transformed both the collective purpose (object) and the students’ identities and increased their action possibilities. This dialectical process is mediated by the cultural tools which included curriculum, teaching and assessment as well as social relationships. In the analysis of individual differences in achieving expansive learning there emerged five interacting factors which included; a student’s past history of education; goal setting; motivation for transforming identity; mobilising resources and views on the object and tools used on the course. These factors do not operate in isolation and they interact within an individual’s socio-cultural context of learning, which simultaneously operates with the collaborative activity of student learning in the undergraduate course. The above findings are synthesised into a model for understanding student learning in undergraduate education and the implications for policy, practice and further research are presented at the end of the thesis. The thesis also addresses the issue of striking a balance between enhancing employability skills and providing a broad higher education based on liberal values. This arises directly from my research and is a part of current academic debates within higher education. It is argued that conceptualising student learning in undergraduate education as a dialectical change process of identity transformation of students, which is mediated by social relationships and cultural tools, may be helpful in resolving this issue. The thesis also suggests ways to conceptualise student learning in undergraduate courses, as a network of activity systems, which weaves together people and cultural tools to transform the collective purpose of learning. Such an approach can transform students’ identities and increase their possibilities for actions in intellectual, cultural, economic, social and moral spheres of life.

The purpose of the present research was to provide ideas for positive stress management in the orchestra world to help achieve high-level performances. The author developed the Orchestral Performance and Stress Survey and distributed it to 230 musicians of three orchestras that comprised full-time and part-time professional as well as community orchestra musicians. The survey sought to identify stress-causing and performance-enhancing factors in the orchestra environment. Questions on the musicians' background allowed for comparisons to identify groups with particular needs. Results show that musical training often does not include stress management training. Playing-related injuries are common. Two-thirds of full-time musicians who responded have suffered injuries that forced them to stop playing for more than one week. On average, musicians reported that stress neither detracts from, nor enhances performances. The most stressful concert types were classical concerts. Highly critical audiences are the most stressful.
School of Music

Tsunamis are low amplitude, large wavelength waves that can significantly impact coastal regions. Although their destructive impacts are clear from recent events, the frequency with which tsunamis occur is less well constrained. To better understand the tsunami history and coastal impacts in Sri Lanka, this study compares sediments deposited by the December 26, 2004, tsunami to older lagoon sediments in search of evidence for paleotsunami deposits. Results from this study illustrate that the coastal lagoons in Sri Lanka preserve tsunami deposits and can provide the first steps towards constraining the paleotsunami history of the Indian Ocean. Because Sri Lanka is a far field location relative to the Sumatra-Andaman subduction zone, the preserved tsunami deposits are likely mega-tsunami events similar in size and destruction to the December 26, 2004, tsunami. The December 26, 2004, M 9.1?9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake generated a massive tsunami that propagated throughout the Indian Ocean, causing extreme coastal inundation and destruction. The southeastern coastline of Sri Lanka was impacted by the 2004 tsunami where between one and three waves inundated coastal villages, lagoons, and lowlands, killing more than 35,000 people. Karagan Lagoon, located on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka, was impacted by two waves from this tsunami. Although the lagoon commonly is dominated by organic-rich, siliciclastic clays, silts, and fine sands, the 2004 tsunami deposited a distinct layer of coarse quartz-dominated sand between 1 and 22 cm thick. The base of the 2004 deposit is sharp and erosional and some layers feature faint subparallel laminations. The 2004 tsunami deposit is generally continuous, fines landward, and is confined to the eastern portion of Karagan Lagoon, in the direction from which the tsunami arrived. Sri Lankan lore, in conjunction with reconstructed historical earthquake data, suggests that other tsunamis likely affected Sri Lanka in the past. To test this, twenty-two 1?4 m sediment cores were collected from Karagan Lagoon, providing key information for unraveling the pre-2004 tsunami history of southeastern Sri Lanka. At depth, sixteen cores from Karagan Lagoon contain as many as ten distinct sand layers, including the deposit from the 2004 tsunami. These cores feature siliciclastic clays, silts, and fine sands that dominate the background lagoonal sedimentation that are punctuated by coarse sand layers. These sand-rich layers feature sharp, erosional bases, coarsen and fine upwards, vary in thickness from 1 to 22 cm, and include varying percentages of fine to very coarse sand, with a low-abundance of silt and clay. In the best constrained interval, three coarse sand layers include composition, grain size, grading, and sedimentary structures similar to the sediments deposited by the December 26, 2004, tsunami. The layers are identified in five of the twenty-two cores, although the thicknesses vary. Six additional less well constrained sand layers are present in four of the twenty-two cores. Cores located closer to the lagoon mouth and the eastern coastline (the direction from which the 2004 tsunami arrived) contain more sand layers than cores farther away from the tsunami wave entry point. On the basis of their sedimentary structures, geometry, and extent, these sandy layers are interpreted to represent paleotsunami deposits. AMS radiocarbon dating was used to date the bulk organic sediment from above, between, and below the ten paleotsunami layers in sediment cores from Karagan Lagoon to constrain the timing of events in southeastern Sri Lanka. Material from within the deposit was not dated because it was likely transported from various sources during the event and thus does not represent the age of the tsunami. AMS radiocarbon dates from above and below the paleotsunami layers were calibrated from radiocarbon years before present to calendar years before present (Cal YBP) using OxCal v. 4.0 (Bronk Ramsey, 1995; Bronk Ramsey, 2001) with calibration curve IntCal04 (Reimer et al., 2004). The constraining time intervals of tsunami deposits II?VI were averaged to yield deposits of ages 226, 1641, 4198, 4457, 4924 Cal YBP. Tsunamis VII?X only had sediment dated immediately below the deposit and therefore were deposited prior to 6249, 6455, 6665, and 6840 Cal YBP. In total, ten tsunami deposits, including the 2004 event, are preserved in Karagan Lagoon on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka. The Karagan Lagoon paleotsunami deposits provide constraints on the recurrence interval of tsunamis similar in magnitude to the 2004 event. The uppermost paleotsunami units were deposited 226, 1641, 4198, 4457, and 4924 Cal YBP, based on AMS radiocarbon dating. Thus, including the 2004 event, six tsunamis affected Karagan Lagoon in the past 5500 years, yielding a recurrence interval of approximately 916 years. Three of the six events, however, occur between ~4000 and 5500 years yielding a recurrence interval of approximately 500 years for this 1500 year period. Four additional older paleotsunami deposits occur in the deeper sections of the cores and were deposited prior to 6249, 6455, 6665, and 6840 Cal YBP, yielding a recurrence interval of approximately 200 years for this time period. Assuming that Karagan Lagoon contains a complete record of tsunami events, the recurrence of tsunamis similar in magnitude to the December 26, 2004, event can occur as often as 200 years. This ?recurrence interval? is illustrated by our data for the time period with increased tsunami activity from ~4000 to 7000 Cal YBP. Tsunamis may potentially affect Sri Lanka at relatively high frequency during certain time intervals though the overall recurrence pattern of these events displays a highly irregular distribution. This extreme variability needs to be taken into consideration when such events are related to earthquake recurrence intervals. Prior to the December 26, 2004, tsunami, paleotsunami deposits in the Indian Ocean were largely unstudied and consequently, Holocene tsunami chronology was incompletely understood for the Indian Ocean. The results from this study represents the first geologic evidence of paleotsunami deposits in Sri Lanka generated by tsunamis during the past 7000 years. The identification of these paleotsunami deposits illustrates that the 2004 tsunami was not a ?one-time event,? but in fact has ancient counterparts.

The proposed study is to examine the contribution made by John D'Oyly, a British Civil Servant, to the British acquisition and control of the whole of Ceylon. It is also aimed to examine the history of this period (between 1805-1818) in Ceylon as a part of British colonial expansion in South Asia focusing on the policy of infiltration which was used by the British as a method of expanding and consolidating their power and influence. In The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, published in 1996, P.J. Marshall submitted that the British had become a major political force on the south east coast of the Indian subcontinent, and had become the real rulers of the wealthy province of Bengal by the end of the eighteenth century. He further submits that the success of the British was mainly due to their ability to infiltrate into the internal politics of local states and kingdoms, and thereby dominate some of these political entities rather than overcome and destroy them by the use of military force. This process of infiltration will be examined in detail in the study of British relations with the Kandyan Kingdom, which was situated in the centre of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and was the only local kingdom then in existence as an independent political entity. The primary documents to be studied are those that relate to the British relations with the Kandyan Kingdom between 1805 and 1818, which covers the career of John D'Oyly as a civil servant working in Ceylon. He was the principal figure used by the British in their dealings with the Kandyan Kingdom, due mainly to his proficiency in the Sinhalese language and his knowledge of the customs and manners of the local people. His official diary, covering between the periods of 1810 and 1815, is one of the major sources of this study, examining the methods of infiltration. What is attempted in this Thesis is to examine this new theoretical approach of infiltration (submitted by P.J. Marshall) to the history of British relations with the Kandyan Kingdom between the periods of 1805 to 1818. This study is associated therefore with giving a new dimension to D'Oyly's work as a civil servant, and also to give a deeper reason for British expansion in Ceylon (as much as in Asia) in the context of the broader British strategic objectives. It strives to give a new meaning to the primary documents available in studying British Kandyan relations, as a part of the successful political expansion of the British in India and Asia.

This study examines the management patterns of public records in Sri Lanka and their impact on administration during the period 1802 to 1990. This covers the period of British colonial administration and four decades of the post independence era. The study shows that during British colonial administration the administrators did not have an adequate understanding of the necessity of developing a proper record-keeping system to support the efficiency of the administration. The failure of repeated attempts at improving the management of current records testifies to the shortfalls entrenched in the system such as the inadequacy of suitable training for the subordinate staff and the lack of attention to the semi-current phase of records. These were not properly detected by the authorities even up to the date of independence. A significant drawback of the system was that its scope was not extended to cover the entire life cycle of the records. It was assumed that semi-current and non-current records would not be useful to the administration. This situation led to the accumulation of records in the creating agencies which in turn caused long term problems in terms of retrieval and dissemination of information. The necessity of an archives was recognised in the beginning of the twentieth century. However, once established the aim of the Archives was to retain records of the Dutch administration for current administrative requirements. Therefore, the records of the British colonial administration were not transferred to the Archives until the last decade of the colonial rule. Even after independence the Archives staff were primarily concerned with the appraisal, accessioning and disposal of non-current records; insufficient attention was paid to semi-current records. The lack of trained professionals, inadequate funding and narrowly defined work programmes hindered the development of a comprehensive archives. Since independence, changes in the country's major political, constitutional, social and administrative systems have not been paralleled by the development of systems to manage public records. An examination of the record-keeping practices in the public administration has revealed the fact that the bureaucrats have not yet grasped the necessity of proper management of records and their immediate contribution to the efficiency of the administration. They have still not considered the consequence of the lack of an integrated policy for the management of records. The study concludes by stressing the necessity for new legislation, the creation of a separate record service, reorganisation of the Archives and training for public administration personnel. It is suggested that records managers be recruited to the public administration in order to bridge the prevailing gap between the archivists and the administrators. They should be trained and placed at the public institutions as officers responsible for managing records at the current and semi-current phases. On the whole, it is argued that improvement in all phases of the life cycle of records is vital for the efficiency of the public administration and for the advancement of the country.

This research focuses on the role of Buddhism in the changing lives of rural women in Sri Lanka since Independence from the British in 1948 up to the present time. In this thesis I pose two questions: firstly, how important is Buddhism in the everyday lives of rural women and secondly, what impact has changes in Buddhism since Independence had upon laywomen and renunciants. I have chosen the rural village Athale, in the dry zone of southeast Sri Lanka as my area of investigation. The history of the village dates back to the times of the great hero King Dutugemunu (I61-137BCE) and it is part of a complex of villages that form a socioeconomic unit. This research investigates the lives of the rural women who belong to this village and whose religious background is Sinhalese Theravada Buddhism, a way of life embedded in their culture. The thesis examines cultural, political, educational and religious changes since Independence, especially changes in Buddhism. The socioeconomic problems of contemporary Sri Lanka resulted in the changes adapted to the spirit religion. The meditative tradition of Buddhism still flourishes under lay as well as the renunciants, in Sri Lanka. Fieldwork in Sri Lanka took place in December 1997- February 1998 and in July 2000- September 2000. The Non Government Organisations have been active in the village since 1988. The data collection method used for this research was qualitative: personal interviews, participant observation, direct observation, informal conversations and surveys were used to gather personal and demographic details and how women practise Buddhism. The findings indicate that women have incorporated different methods of practising Buddhism to suit their needs at a particular time of their lives.

Political violence in Sri Lanka is not a unique phenomenon. It is a prevalent tendency in many countries of the Third World. Sri Lanka, since 1971, has experienced a sharp escalation of political violence which renders it suitable as a case study of insurgency and guerrilla warfare in developing countries. The author's major thrust is a comparative review the causes, patterns, and implications of the leftwing Insurrection of 1971 and the Tamil guerrilla warfare up to the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in June 1987. This thesis highlights the salient socio-economic and political factors, underscoring the view that ethnicity is the impetus behind the continuing turmoil in Sri Lankan society. The author's main hypotheses are that the Insurrection of 1971 as well as the subsequent Tamil guerrilla warfare were pre-planned and well-organised, and that the politically violent organisations in Sri Lanka were mainly a result of the emergence of new social forces which came about due to socio-economic and political transformations. The analysis begins with a review of the theories of political violence. Of these theories Huntington's theory of modernisation relates more closely to the origin of the political violence movement in Sri Lanka. The awakening of the earliest guerrilla group, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (J. V. P. ), in 1971 lay deeply rooted in socio-economic and political factors. The emergence of the Tamil guerrilla organisations stemmed from the long-standing competition between the Sinhala majority and the minority Tamils for limited socio-economic resources and exclusive political powers. The study shows that the socio-economic background of the leaders and members were diverse and often paradoxical, if not at odds to the groups' goals. The ethno-nationalist ideologies, strategies and tactics of the guerrilla organisations, instiled group consciousness and goaded otherwise ordinary citizens to commit political violence. The pattern of political violence in Sri Lanka was a highly emotive expression of anti-establishment and secessionist convictions on the part of the guerrillas. Finally, the study proposes politico-economic reforms rather than military options to cope with the problem of political violence in Sri Lanka.

The owl of Minerva takes flight at dusk and we are in the blazing noontide. – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) The author is a Sri Lankan expatriate who completed his primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka. He was guided and directed by his father, a Senior Master at the Royal College of Colombo and later Controller of Examinations. The author brings his experience in Sri Lanka into the preparation of this portfolio. Material written in English for this topic was limited. Further, during the government of President Premadasa (1973–1986), all publications concerning education in Sri Lanka were suppressed. In addition, publications were scarce during the civil war (1983–2008). This portfolio was written to emphasise the importance of English for Sri Lankans and to accept it as the lynchpin for globalisation of education in Sri Lanka: it will see them participate in global knowledge, progress and achieve prosperity as a result. The portfolio explains that as a British colony, only a chosen few in Sri Lanka were privileged to be educated in English – who as a consequence of which found employment in government and the private sector. The rest who were educated in the local languages either sought low-skilled employment or were unemployed, creating a widening socio-economic gap amongst Sri Lankans. Towards the end of British rule in Sri Lanka, legislation was passed to provide free education for all Sri Lankans with a view to creating equal opportunities. This was followed by legislation replacing English with local languages as mediums of instruction in education. Shortly afterwards, English became a non-compulsory second language. In a span of almost fifty years, competency in English was lost in Sri Lankan society. A great majority of Sri Lankans could neither write nor speak English, except for a few who were educated in fee-levying private schools and overseas. Lack of competency in English made it impossible for Sri Lankans to participate in global knowledge. This in turn hindered their opportunity to participate in the progress of modern education, science and technology. In addition, those who lacked competency in English were prevented from obtaining better employment in banks and foreign commercial enterprises, and also from lucrative overseas customer call-centres. Sri Lankans realised in hindsight the costly mistake of abandoning English as a result of nationalistic fervour and shortsighted political expediency. After a lapse of almost fifty years, the current reintroduction of English into the education system has become a daunting task, particularly because of the lack of competent English teachers and the scarcity of funds. This was further exacerbated by over thirty years of civil war in Sri Lanka. There was a strong view held by politicians, educationists and Sri Lankans with strong nationalistic beliefs that English was a symbol of Anglo-American imperialism, which made them resist its reintroduction. Unfounded fears of imperialism and shortsighted political and nationalist policies have made Sri Lankans realise that English is not a symbol of Anglo-American imperialism but a multinational tool available to everyone who needs to participate in global knowledge. English is without doubt the lynchpin of globalisation in Sri Lanka.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how local and foreign newspapers used the war journalism and peace journalism frames when covering the Sri Lankan civil war, and to uncover subframes specific to the conflict. The first part of the thesis provides an in- depth literature review that addresses the history of the conflict and media freedom in Sri Lanka. The newspaper articles for the textual analysis were selected from mainstream Sri Lankan and U.S newspapers: the Daily News (a state sponsored newspaper) and Daily Mirror from Sri Lanka, and the New York Times and Washington Post from the U.S. A total of 185 articles were analyzed and categorized into war journalism and peace journalism. Next, subframes specific to the Sri Lankan conflict were identified. The overall coverage is dominated by the peace journalism frame, and the strongest war journalism frame is visible in local newspaper articles. Furthermore, two subframes specific to the Sri Lanka conflict were identified: war justification subframe and humanitarian crisis subframe. In conclusion, the study reveals that in the selected newspapers, the peace journalism frame dominated the coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war. All in all, while adding to the growing scholarship of media framing in international conflicts, the study will benefit newspaper editors and decision-makers by providing textual analysis of content produced from the coverage of war and conflict during a dangerous time period for both journalists and the victims of war.

This thesis describes and interprets furniture produced in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) between c. 1800 and 1900 as part of a cultural 'dialogue' of everyday objects between Europe and Asia. By synthesizing the research methods of furniture history and material culture, the present work examines Ceylonese furniture within the context of the society in which it was produced and used. For the first time, the range of furniture produced on the island during the nineteenth century is categorized and defining characteristics of such furniture are outlined. In addition, and again for the first time, consumption of furniture in Ceylon during this period is examined and the place of these artefacts within the production of Western cultural practices is explained. Specifically, this thesis also contributes to an understanding of the history of Ceylon by interpreting the acquisition and use of western-style furniture by the indigenous social elite as part of the production of anglicized life-styles on the island. The present work contributes to debates centred on colonialism and culture by historicizing and localizing the furniture of the island. Such furniture, it is argued, in addition to its use value, reproduced European refinement and civility in the domestic interiors of Ceylon; in this way furniture, despite its quotidian nature, is taken to be expressive and constitutive of the colonial relationship between the British and Ceylonese. Through analysis of archival data, examination of the furniture itself and interpretation of the communicative capacities of these artefacts, explanation of the empirical and symbolic is combined in a new understanding of a substantial, but overlooked, part of the object-world of nineteenth century Ceylon. Through the process of developing and using a new conceptual framework for the interpretation of colonial furniture produced in Asia, a contribution is made to the study of furniture history and, more specifically, items of furniture from Ceylon are interpreted as materializations of human behaviour and constitutive elements in the production of culture.

The thesis is a study of Ceylon's only hill-station, Nuwara Eliya. Nuwara Eliya was established in 1829 as a military sanitarium and gradually assumed the role of a seasonal resort in the second half of the century. Located at 6,280 feet elevation in the temperate hill region, Nuwara Eliya came to have an important role in the social and recreational life of the British in Ceylon. The landscape resembled that of the English countryside, which inspired the British to shape the landscape in the image of their homeland. This thesis explores the sentimental attachment that British expatriates formed for Nuwara Eliya. Based on evidence from the nineteenth century writings of expatriates arid travellers who visited the hill-station, it suggests that the Romanticism prevalent during the period had a significant influence on the manner in which expatriates perceived and interpreted the landscape of Nuwara Eliya. Romanticism alone did not account for the emergence of Nuwara Eliya as an English village. It argues that romanticism, in conjunction with the following factors, contributed to the development of the English landscape of the Nuwara Eliya. The hill-station provided an accessible locale with a temperate climate and vegetation that offered an alternative to the heat of the lowlands. The British possessed a set of ethno-medical beliefs which held that such an environment was the one to which Europeans were best suited. In addition, the recreational preferences of the British and the specific recreational and social needs of the expatriate community contributed to the development of the recreational infrastructure of Nuwara Eliya. The development of the plantation economy was a further prerequisite for the growth of the hill-station. Perhaps the most important consideration, though, was the longing British expatriates experienced for their homeland which made them desire a viable substitute for England. The study was conducted through a survey of nineteenth century travel writings of individuals who visited or resided at Nuwara Eliya. A content analysis was performed on the travel literature to determine the attributes of Nuwara Eliya that were noted in the writings and which indicated the expatriate's and traveller's perceptions of the hill-station. Subsequent to the literature analysis, fieldwork was undertaken in Sri Lanka for a three month period in 1987. Archival research, conducted at the National Archives, Colombo, involved an examination of the diaries of the Assistant Government Agent of the Nuwara Eliya District, as well as nineteenth century English-language newspapers to assess the role of the hill-station in the social life of colonial. Ceylon. Fieldwork also entailed a period of time at Nuwara Eliya to compile photographic evidence and to permit observation of the landscape and the built environment.
Arts, Faculty of
Geography, Department of
Graduate

This thesis aims to expand scholarship on civil society and peace-building through exploration of civil society’s experiences, perspectives, and practices in relation to the politics of peace-building and human (in)security in instances of victor’s peace, using post-war Sri Lanka as case study. It adopts Human Security as an analytical approach calling attention to insecurities operating on and through Sri Lankans but also the nature of power dynamics underlying these insecurities based on the subjective and political nature of ‘peace’ itself. The thesis contributes conceptually and empirically to knowledge of the operation of victor’s peace and its implications for civil society in peace-building. This thesis’s central contention is that acts of securitization and governmentality carried out by Sri Lanka’s central governmental elite within and enabled by the victor’s peace have constricted spaces for civil society to articulate alternatives or engage in critical dialogue within the political process fostered under the victor’s peace. This study, thus, questions romanticized notions of the potentiality of ‘local’ resistances to shift structural inequalities and power asymmetries in victor’s peace. At a disciplinary level, the thesis also deepens knowledge, first, on civil society as complex and contested sphere. It argues that to conceptualize civil society as homogenous or inherently altruistic risks drastically oversimplifying its highly diffuse nature and politics within the sector in which certain actors may benefit within the victor’s peace and engage in ‘peace’-building activities in order to both capitalise on those benefits and sustain the victor’s peace. Second, the thesis addresses the nexus between civil society and peace-building, and specifically the politics of peace-building, in the victor’s peace. In not being constrained by negotiated peace settlement it asserts that, as in Sri Lanka, instances of victor’s peace can quickly transition into repressive environments. Here it is unlikely that civil society, despite innovative methods of exercising agency, can significantly alter the trajectories of the ‘peace’, and further that those civil society actors that support the victor’s peace may seek to exploit the benefits they gain from it at the expense of the human security of others. Finally, the thesis asserts that, ultimately, Human Security’s utility may lie not as political agenda that validates external intervention based on a ‘responsibility’ to intervene, but as a conceptual framework for developing deeper understandings of the nature of (in)security and factors driving (in)security at multiple levels of analysis within different articulations or ‘types’ of peace.

The primary objective of this thesis is to analyse the relationship between money and the macro-economy in Sri Lanka between 1977 and 1985, in order to identify the paths through which monetary policy impulses are transmitted over this period. In doing so, - we also hope to highlight the use of macro-simulation as a tool for the analysis of the monetary transmission mechanism and to emphasise the importance of formulating monetary policy within an explicit monetary control framework. This is especially important in Sri Lanka since monetary policy has been a key instrument of demand management since 1977 and historically there has been a noticeable absence of an explicit monetary control framework. Empirical research on the monetary transmission mechanism has been very limited as far as developing countries are concerned. An exception here is the SEACEN (1981) study which simulates the effects of monetary shocks on a number of South East Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, using a flexible monetarist approach. Our research is based upon a revision of the specification of this model for Sri Lanka and a more comprehensive disaggregation of the monetary transmission channels. Our empirical model produces statistical results which are generally acceptable and conform to a Priori expectations. This model is then simulated dynamically, both, to validate the equations in the context of a complete model and to quantify the impact of alternative policy scenarios relating to the monetary transmission mechanism in Sri Lanka. We believe that our results will help to shed light on the nature of the monetary transmission mechanism in developing countries as well as provide the basis for an on-going analysis of monetary management in Sri Lanka.

This research presents the role and characteristics of vocal improvisation in Sinhala folk music, the music of Sri Lanka. This study examines the vocal nuances and expressions of Sinhala folk and identifies the idiosyncratic nature of vocal improvisation and how it is applied in Sinhala folk music. Considered a dying art form by practitioners, scholars, nationals and expats interviewed during this research, Sinhala folk music is scarcely practiced yet holds the key to the nation's musical identity. This study investigates the philosophical and social influences on Sinhala folk music in a historical sense and observes its purposes and practices. The research presents an analysis of a traditional folk song Nelum Gee with respect to specific vocal improvisation and expressive techniques. The introduction gives an account of my Sri Lankan and Western cultural heritages by detailing my ancestry, migration and educational experiences which continue to inform the music making practices I am currently exploring and engaging in. Chapter 1 highlights various definitions of improvisation in several styles of music including Sinhala folk and the diverse applications of vocal improvisation that include but are not limited to ornamentation of melodies, rhythmic displacement and phrasing, scats singing and free improvisation. Chapter 2 travels through the influence of Theravada Buddhism on Sinhala folk music and its conservative outlook on the arts, the acceptance and application of drumming in various contexts and accompanying instrumentation used in Sinhala folk. Chapter 3 observes the disbanded social ranking of the Sinhalese caste system with a particular focus on the Berava caste from which traditional dancers and singers originated from. Chapter 4 addresses specific vocal nuances observed in Sinhala folk music in reference to improvisation techniques, vocal delivery styles and intonation. It also looks at Buddhist chanting styles and the application of chanting styles to contemporary music. Comparisons are drawn between Hindustani, Canartic and Sinhalese singing styles. Chapter 5 presents an overview of Sinhala folk music singing styles and contains personally transcribed and analysed examples of each category. Chapter 6 provides an in depth analysis of two transcribed excerpts from two recordings of traditional Sinhala folk song Nelum Gee. One is a studio recording and the other is a personally recorded live version of the same song, both interpreted by Sinhala folk music artist Chandrakanthi Shilpadhipathi. The excerpts have been personally transcribed and critically analysed in relation to significant contemporary vocal improvisation techniques such as rhythmic placement, melodic ornamentation, expression techniques and syllabic ornamentation techniques. The findings have been documented in music notation and various tables. The conclusion addresses the reasons Sinhala folk music is considered a dying art and the current attempts at preservation. The conclusion also presents the successes and difficulties experienced in fusing elements of Sinhala folk into Western compositions.

Customer satisfaction, from the service quality perspective, has emerged as a new modus operandi for assessing customers’ perceptions and/or expectations of services in order to re-orient and regulate existing services. University library administrators in Sri Lanka, realising the necessity of complying with customer perception of high quality service, have begun to search for alternative ways to satisfy their clientele on the basis of service quality. This study therefore aims to meet this need by developing a model to assess the extent to which service quality indicators and other explanatory attributes may be used to predict customer satisfaction, from a service quality perspective. The research process used in the study was the “onion model,” which involved a combination of positivist and phenomenological inquiries that led to the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches in line with the purpose of the study, which was exploratory in nature and searched for causality. The design of the study involved two main stages: the exploratory stage and the main stage. In the exploratory stage, attributes and domain identification of service quality was carried out with a sample of 262 subjects. Based upon the exploratory study, four provisional models were constructed and tested in the main study, using a sample of 1840 subjects. The model based on the performance-only paradigm and the linearity assumption between the constructs was found to be the best parsimony model that provided for enhanced predictive performance, calibration and potential insight into attributes and domain relevance. Regarding overall satisfaction, responsiveness, supportiveness, building environment, collection and access, furniture and facilities, technology and service delivery as quality domains, involvement with the service, and knowledge of the customers as situational attributes and age, member category, university and gender as socio-demographic attributes were found to be significant. The final model may be used to design a simple measurement or monitoring process of library performance, and it may also be a useful tool for diagnosing service quality locally. This research further provides a keystone for other studies and may also stimulate the momentum of current research on service quality and/or customer satisfaction
Information Science
D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

For over three decades, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought a gruesome war for independent statehood against the majoritarian Sinhalese Government of Sri Lanka. While confronting the Tigers on the battleground, the government also pursued a legal war against the LTTE by enacting its counter-terrorism laws. These laws permitted indefinite detention and the use of confessions as sole evidence. Armed with these laws, the Sinhalese Government boasted the prosecution of thousands of Tamil Tigers on the basis of their confessions. The Tigers countered by protecting their secrets through the adoption of their suicide strategy - consuming cyanide capsules to prevent being captured alive. Examining the conflicting official narratives from both sides of the war, this research explores the confessions of Tamil Tigers within the broader discourses of terrorism and counter-terrorism. The thesis positions the counter-terrorism regime of Sri Lanka as a postcolonial instance of the 'state of exception' (as theorised by Giorgio Agamben) in order to grasp the broader causes and consequences of such extraordinary measures. In doing so, it takes the wider aspects of the conflict into account and explores its historical, political, military and cultural ramifications. The research questions I examine in this process are: What attributes of the Tigers' military subculture support or dispute the fact that Tigers have confessed en masse? Can the authenticity of these confessions be determined by linguistic and narrative analysis methods? How have the state's agents enforced the counter-terrorism measures among the suspect population, and how do such measures impact on individual suspects? What are the possibilities and limits of a fair hearing for Tigers from the judiciary in Sri Lanka? Recognising the polysemic aspects of the law, truth and justice, the thesis probes the narratives of the two key players in this conflict - the terrorist and the state - within an interdisciplinary context, encompassing multiple fields: jurisprudence, human rights, criminology, history, ethnic studies, terrorism studies and narrative analysis. In sum, the scope of this thesis goes beyond legalistic analysis and encompasses a range of themes: the hegemonic authority of the state, the martyrdom of the terrorist, the linguistic elements of evidence, the discipline and the punishment of the enemy, and the administration of justice.