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Notes
1 Unless otherwise indicated, all URLs in this article were accessed and verified on 2 May 2017. The author thanks JVP members who provided their insights on condition of anonymity, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments.
2 The party is popularly known and referred to, even in the English language press, in its Sinhala abbreviation, JVP, which is maintained in this article.
3 “Anura Kumara Dissanayake is new JVP leader”, Daily Mirror, 2 February 2014: http://www.dailymirror.lk/42454/anura-kumara-dissanayakeis-new-jvp-leader.
4 For a detailed evaluation of the specific skills and contributions of each of the JVP's present-day frontline leaders, written by an expatriate journalist and one-time JVP insider writing under a pseudonym, see Lanka News Web, 2015.
5 English version: http://www.jvpsrilanka.com/en/images/e_books/jvp-manifesto-2015-%20english.pdf.
6 AC's continued relevance has been evident, for example, in the 2015 budget debate, when the JVP's Bimal Rathnayake MP elucidated the JVP's economic policy approach, largely on the basis of the Accord of Conscience. Full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW4lX6LvdSI [Sinhlala].
7 JVP Special Convention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mGjNV0R7v8, #geSL2015 theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuyNoqz5-gc [Sinhala].
8 For a discussion of the lack of caste-related inclusion in present-day Marxist politics in India, see Jessie Citation2016.
9 In this article, I use “Ceylon” to refer to political events in Sri Lanka prior to 1972, the year in which the Republic of Sri Lanka was proclaimed.
10 On the socioeconomic and political backdrop in which the LSSP came to being, especially in relation to the Great Depression, see Jayawardena Citation1974. On the LSSP's overall impact on Sri Lankan politics, see Goonetilake (1975: 98–99).
11 Bandaranaike was among the earliest to foresee the advantages of communal politics. He learnt Sinhala only in his adult life, and he first advocated Sinhala ethno-centric political mobilisation in the mid-1930s, spearheading the creation of “Sinhala Maha Saba”, or Great Council of the Sinhalese, the membership of which subsequently formed the SLFP's core support base.
12 The Moscow and Peking wings of the Sri Lanka Communist Party (itself the result of a breakup within the LSSP in 1943) developed after the Sino-Soviet split of the early 1960s.
13 For a detailed account on the events leading to the creation of the party and its early years, see http://www.jvpsrilanka.com/english/about-us/brief-history/.
14 The Official estimate was a total of 1200 deaths, while unofficial estimates claim 4000–5000 deaths (Fernando Citation2013).
15 Present JVP leader Dissanayake vehemently denies any JVP links to the July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, also known as the Black July riots. The JVP accuses the Jayewardene administration of simultaneously rousing ethno-national hatred and using the resulting tense situation to ban the JVP, simply for the UNP's political advantage. This point was reiterated in the wake of a rise of anti-Muslim violence in 2012–2014 (Dissanayake Citation2014).
16 This figure is a government estimate, and estimates of human rights organisations are significantly higher.
17 The JVP contested the 2004 general election under the UPFA coalition banner, and won a record 39 seats. In the Colombo District, for instance, three JVP candidates topped the preferential votes. 2004 general election results: http://www.slelections.gov.lk/pdf/Preference2004GE.pdf.
18 This military offensive, which ended in May 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE and the assassination of its leadership, is also known as Eelam War IV. Post-war, JVP leaders have publicly affirmed that their positions on the war were devoid of adequate concern towards the plight of war-affected Tamil people, a point Anura Dissanayake reiterated in a July 2014 BBC interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSUIZ7rrxfU [Sinhala].
19 The FSP has so far been unsuccessful in electorally challenging the JVP. At the 2015 general election, it polled only 5000 votes island-wide. The foremost challenge the JVP faces from FSP is the latter's strong anti-JVP campaigns, especially on social media.
20 Gunasinghe's social media is limited to a personal Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/samanmalee.gunasinghe?fref=ts), which mostly includes reposts from pages of her party colleagues and party social media.
21 My translation of the original Sinhala statement. Relevant excerpt of the talk show [in Sinhala]: https://www.facebook.com/JVPJnathaHada/videos/vb.863232477038123/1064502973577738/?type=2&theater.
22 List of senior party officials: http://www.jvpsrilanka.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=371&Itemid=81.
23 Members of the new national SYU committee: [Sinhala] https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.976317245793925.1073741957.118022208290104&type=3.
24 On 11 December 2015, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe informed parliament that the Cabinet has approved giving 25 percent representation for female candidates at future local elections. While the shortcomings of this policy – which excludes parliamentary elections and will benefit only women from privileged backgrounds – are self-evident, the JVP's critique has failed to offer an inclusive alternative.
25 This section especially zooms in on WR and its chairperson. Given the close-knit nature of the JVP's organisational structure, WR and its chair's positions are broadly representative of the party's overall positions on gender issues.
26 Full speech: https://www.facebook.com/JVPItalia/videos/vb.726587577439285/912556882175686/?type=2&theater [Sinhala].
27 The JVP is the only party to actively campaign for the rights of Sri Lankans living and working abroad – especially in the Middle East, through Ethera Api (Ourselves Abroad) its organ devoted to Sri Lankan expatriate issues.
28 Source: conversation with senior JVP insider, November 2016.
29 This was evident in his public pronouncements in the aftermath of the gang rape and murder of S. Vithiya, a high school pupil in northern Sri Lanka in May 2015, a tragedy that sparked national outrage. A parliamentary speech (from 6 December 2015) in which Rathnayake makes a strong case for special Sexual Offence Courts, also highlighting the necessity of challenging sexism and misogyny across society is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Yrk-q5Zgk [in Sinhala].
30 “Extreme no to extremism”. Daily News, 10 December 2015: http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2015/12/10/features/extreme-no-extremism.
31 [Sinhala] Smalingika ayithivasikam apa piligatha ythuyi – Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna: [We must accept gay rights: JVP] http://bit.ly/2nKlGAP
32 Source: interaction with party insider, February 2016. Conversations with a number of active JVP youth revealed that the present-day JVP is at a crossroads on gender issues, with a progressive focus on equality on the one hand, and an inclination to cling to social conservatisms on the other.
33 Tamil plantation workers (also known as Malayaga Tamil) in central Sri Lanka are descendants of indentured labourers from South India that the British force-migrated to work in Ceylon's coffee and later tea plantations. As the Tamil polity struggled to obtain Sri Lankan citizenship to Malayaga Tamils in the late 1970s, the JVP vehemently opposed the move, calling for their forced repatriation (Anandalingam and Abraham Citation1986: 42).
34 Insights into such efforts can be gleaned from the writings of Lionel Bopagé, a Sri Lankan-Australian who took part in the 1971 insurrection, later became JVP General Secretary and quit over disagreements on the ethnic issue (Cooke Citation2013; Boyle Citation2013). Footage of a 1978 JVP rally in Jaffna attended by Wijeweera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsK_-sUSc6w [Sinhala].
35 On the JVP's contradictory politics regarding the ethnic question, see Jayawardena (1985: 84–90).
36 Widely quoted in academic writing on the JVP, two Sri Lankans, Chandraprema (Citation1991) and Gunaratna (Citation1990) share strongly anti-JVP and pro-establishment positions when analyzing the JVP. A major lacuna in existing research is that very few analysts who have written on the topic in English actually speak and write Sinhala, leading to inconsistencies in processes of translation and consequent misinterpretations
37 Dissanayake especially affirmed this position with a BBC interview in June 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSUIZ7rrxfU [Sinhala]. Exact statement: Sequence at 7:15–7:57. Related press report: http://archive.lankanewsweb.net/news/7824-jvp-leader-anura-kumara-dissanayake-returns-home-after-a-successful-uk-visit.
38 Photos and video of the ceremony: http://www.lankatruth.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9253:che-day-celebrated-in-jaffna&catid=87:other-stories
39 The JVP's organisational structure does not include steps that could facilitate dialogue and interaction, such as encouraging and assisting its overwhelmingly Sinhala rank and file with Tamil language skills.
40 See note 15.
41 “India's left will be back,” The Guardian, 23 May 2014: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/23/india-communists-bjp-neoliberalism-left.