The Anti-Imperialist Marxisms of SBD de Silva and GVS de Silva

Abstract

This chapter offers an introduction to two leading Sri Lankan Marxist political economists, S. B. D. de Silva and G. V. S. de Silva. By surveying their most influential writings – the 645-page book The Political Economy of Underdevelopment by S. B. D. de Silva and the pungent essays ‘Heretical Thoughts' and ‘Social Change’ by G. V. S. de Silva – -it traces the distinctive and provocative qualities of these two thinkers, especially concerning problems of development and underdevelopment. In doing so, it is argued that S. B. D. de Silva is best understood as a leading anti-imperialist political economist alongside Samir Amin, Immanuel Wallerstein and Giovanni Arrighi, distinguished by a classical Marxist focus on class struggle and relations of production in his narration of the ‘colonial mode of production’ in Sri Lanka. As for G. V. S. de Silva's erudite reflections on the trajectories of transition to capitalism and socialism as well as the prospects of social and economic development in countries emerging from pre-capitalist social formations in the wake of colonization, his remarkable attention to spatial questions at multiple scales – between country and city, colony and metropole – receives special attention. The conclusion underlines the sustained relevance of both de Silvas to making sense of the origins of the present crisis in Sri Lanka.

Citation

Goonewardena, K. (2023), "The Anti-Imperialist Marxisms of SBD de Silva and GVS de Silva", Plys, K., Priyansh and Goonewardena, K. (Ed.) Marxist Thought in South Asia (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 40), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 19-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920230000040003