18 Facts About Rajiva Wijesinha

Rajiva Wijesinha, MA, DPhil was born on 16 May 1954 and is a Sri Lankan writer in English, distinguished for his political analysis as well as creative and critical work.

Rajiva Wijesinha belongs to the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka, and has served as its President and leader, and as a Vice-President of Liberal International.

Rajiva Wijesinha is currently Chair of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and was re-elected leader of the Liberal Party Sri Lanka on the proposal of the previous leader following the Liberal Party Annual Congress of 2011.

Rajiva Wijesinha has travelled widely, including as a visiting professor on the Semester at Sea Programme of the University of Pittsburgh, and has published Beyond the First Circle: Travels in the Second and Third Worlds.

Rajiva Wijesinha schooled at S Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia, and won an Open Exhibition in Classics to University College, Oxford when he was 16.

Rajiva Wijesinha taught briefly at the University of Peradeniya before resigning in protest against the increasing authoritarianism of the government of President Junius Richard Jayewardene.

Rajiva Wijesinha then worked for the British Council in Colombo as its Cultural Affairs Officer before rejoining the University system to initiate English degree programmes for students from backgrounds that had limited English in school.

Rajiva Wijesinha was responsible for the islandwide pre-University General English Language Training programme, as well as General English programmes at the Affiliated University Colleges established in 1992 to introduce employment oriented courses into the tertiary education system.

Rajiva Wijesinha was Academic Consultant to the Sri Lanka Military Academy when it began degree programmes for Officer Cadets.

Rajiva Wijesinha has served as chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the National Institute of Education, and has been a member of the National Education Commission and of the Board of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies.

Rajiva Wijesinha became President of the Liberal Party of Sri Lanka when it was established in 1987 and, though more comfortable as an analyst rather than a politician, he took over as Leader of the Party after Dr Amaratunga's death in 1996.

Rajiva Wijesinha was the Presidential candidate of the party in 1999, and came 6th out of 15 candidates, defeating several former parliamentarians.

Rajiva Wijesinha was instrumental in promoting English Language writing in Sri Lanka, and initiated the English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka while he was at the British Council which aided and administered the EWC at its inception.

Rajiva Wijesinha had earlier edited the New Lankan Review, which provided space for Sri Lankan writers in English when the genre was regaining acceptance, and he served on the Editorial Board of the EWC for over a decade.

Rajiva Wijesinha has edited several collections of poetry and short stories by Sri Lankan writers in English, most recently Bridging Connections, an Anthology of Stories which contains translations from Sinhala and Tamil and was published by the National Book Trust of India in 2007.

Rajiva Wijesinha was the first Sri Lankan writer resident in the county whose works have been translated into a European language.

Rajiva Wijesinha worked on this last novel, which is based on the kidnapping and murder of the poet and journalist Richard de Zoysa, as a resident at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center and at the Center for Writers at Hawthornden Castle.

Prof Wijesinha served for several years on the editorial board of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature.