A young Sri Lankan scholar explores the past

Last year, the Open Society Foundations (OSF) launched the Seven Cities Fellowship, focusing on public intellectuals from seven countries: Argentina, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Tanzania.

- By UDITHA DEVAPRIYA

Exploring Ridi Vihare, 2023

In March 2025, the OSF unveiled its first cohort of Fellows. Among them were filmmakers, novelists, anthropologists, and artists. Among them was a law student from Sri Lanka, Uthpala Wijesuriya.

Uthpala is an interesting character. The best way to describe him would be that he is a boy of many talents and ideas. He happens to be a friend of mine. I first came across him at the height of Covid-19 in 2020. It has been six years since then. I have spent much of that time seeing him grow into a thinker whose ideas lie far, far ahead of his peers.

His project, details of which he has already divulged to the local press already, delves into how history is reconstructed to suit the thinking of a specific period. It focuses on five historical sites in two provinces in Sri Lanka and uses them as a basis for unearthing a different history, or historiography. Among other things, I think the project will provoke us into questioning how our past is taught, at school and outside.

A Traditional Upbringing

Part of what makes the project resonate so much is the story of its author. In Sri Lanka, a country steeped in a social democratic system and comprehensive public infrastructure, extending to education, healthcare, and social welfare, young people chart unique and interesting journeys of self-discovery through schools and universities. Uthpala’s journey is no different. Ultimately, it is what helped shape his project.

Although much of his education was in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, where the country’s leading businesses and institutions are based, Uthpala was raised hundreds of miles away, in Kurunegala, in the north-western province. His parents were public servants: his father was a public health inspector and his mother a nurse.