Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)
Genre: History / Political Science / Memoir / Sri Lankan Non‑Fiction

Book Review:
The Vavuniya Diaries by Neville Jayaweera – Government Agent of Vavuniya (1970-1973) – offers a first-hand account of the first JVP uprising in 1971. For four months from April to August 1971, an unprecedented political drama unfolded in Vavuniya, kept hidden from the public for over 40 years. Jayaweera, as head of the state sector, had a ringside seat as both spectator and manager. The book tells the story of the incipient beginnings of class war, noting that Marxist parties organized the urban working class but forgot to harness the peasantry. The JVP launched the first attempt to advance the class war by organizing peasants. Essential reading for historians and those interested in Sri Lanka's revolutionary politics.