Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi: The Story of a Generation Whose Sacrifice Shaped a New Political Era
A new book brings the forgotten human stories of Sri Lanka’s 1987–1989 JVP uprising before a new generation
There are periods in a nation's history that cannot be understood merely through official documents, political speeches or the records of governments.
Sri Lanka's violent period of 1987–1989 is one such chapter.
For decades, the events of that era have been remembered primarily through the language of terrorism, counter-insurgency, disappearances, executions and political violence. Thousands of young people disappeared or died, while families were left searching for answers that in many cases never came.
Now, a new book seeks to revisit that history through the lives of the young men and women who entered the underground struggle.
“Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi” (Noniimi Aragalayaka Mathaka – Pathi), written by veteran activist and author Gamini Muthukumarana, tells the story of Yustus Deepthi Chandra Fernando, known among his comrades as Pathi, while placing his life within the wider history of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) armed uprising of 1987–1989.
The book is not simply a biography.
It is an attempt to recover the personal stories behind a generation whose political experiences and sacrifices have often been reduced to statistics and labels.
Who was Pathi?
At the centre of the book is Yustus Deepthi Chandra Fernando.
To his comrades, he was Pathi or Deepti.
Muthukumarana presents him as a young revolutionary driven by a belief in social justice and a profound dissatisfaction with the political and social conditions surrounding him.
His story is ultimately the story of a generation.
Many young Sri Lankans of that period entered politics believing that the existing political system had failed to deliver equality, justice and economic opportunity. Some chose parliamentary politics. Others became involved in underground political activity. Many ultimately paid for their political convictions with their lives.
Pathi was among those who did not survive.
His story therefore becomes a window through which the reader can examine the hopes, fears, convictions and contradictions of an entire generation.
Beyond the official narrative
One of the central arguments of Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi is that history should not be written exclusively from the perspective of those who exercised state power.
The author asks readers to consider another question:
What happens when the people who lost their lives in a political struggle are allowed to tell their story?
Muthukumarana seeks to bring forward the human dimension of the conflict.
Rather than treating the participants simply as names in security reports, the book describes them as students, workers, activists, friends, brothers, sisters and political idealists who believed that they were fighting for a different Sri Lanka.
That does not erase the violence committed during the uprising, nor does it remove the suffering experienced by victims of political violence.
Instead, it asks whether Sri Lanka can examine the period honestly enough to understand why thousands of young people became involved in such a destructive conflict.
A generation of forgotten names
Pathi's story does not stand alone.
The book introduces readers to a number of other figures associated with the underground movement, including Saman Piyasiri Fernando, Ragama Some, Meerigama Chandare, Ranjitham Gunaratnam, Mahawaththage Bandula Lakshman, known as Kalu Malli, and Wanawasala Mahinda Jayawardena.
It also recalls Iresha Polgampola, known as Sister Deepani, whose story represents the participation and sacrifice of women in the political struggle.
The book further discusses military personnel who, according to the author's account, became involved in or supported the movement, including Air Force Sergeant Kaduwela Siripala and Army Corporal Kumudu Kusum.
Another figure highlighted is Y.G. Premaratne, known as Colombo Jagoda, who dedicated much of his youth to revolutionary politics.
These stories collectively create something larger than a single biography.
They provide a portrait of a political generation.
The question of 1983
Perhaps the most controversial historical question explored by the book concerns the circumstances that pushed the JVP towards armed struggle.
The author challenges the conventional narrative that the JVP simply and voluntarily abandoned democratic politics and chose violence.
Following the JVP's return to open politics after 1977, the movement participated in electoral and constitutional political activity.
Then came Black July in 1983, one of the darkest episodes in Sri Lanka's post-independence history.
The government subsequently banned the JVP, while its leaders were forced underground.
Muthukumarana argues that the banning of the organisation and the subsequent state repression were crucial factors in the movement's transformation into an armed underground organisation.
This interpretation remains part of a wider and contested historical debate. The violence of the period cannot be attributed to one actor alone, and the JVP itself subsequently engaged in serious violence against civilians, political opponents and state personnel.
Understanding that history therefore requires confronting both state violence and insurgent violence.
That is precisely why books such as this can contribute to an important national conversation.
When politics became a matter of life and death
The late 1980s were a period in which political disagreement in Sri Lanka could become fatal.
Young people disappeared.
Bodies were discovered.
Families were destroyed.
Political activists were hunted.
Security forces and armed groups became involved in a cycle of violence that devastated communities across the country.
Behind every statistic was a human being.
Behind every disappeared person was a family.
Behind every political killing was a life that would never be lived.
Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi attempts to restore those individual human stories to the historical record.
From the JVP of the 1980s to the NPP of today
The book acquires particular significance in today's Sri Lanka.
The political movement that emerged from the JVP tradition has undergone profound transformation over the decades.
The National People's Power (NPP), led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, emerged as the governing political force following the 2024 elections.
That transformation raises a fascinating historical question.
What happened between the underground revolutionary movement of the late 1980s and the political movement that eventually entered government through the ballot box?
The answer is neither simple nor linear.
The JVP of the late 1980s was an armed revolutionary organisation operating underground.
Today's NPP operates through electoral democracy, Parliament and the institutions of the state.
Between those two points lies decades of political change, organisational transformation, ideological adjustment and electoral engagement.
For supporters of the movement, the sacrifices of earlier generations are part of the historical journey that ultimately brought their political project into government.
For critics, the violence of the 1980s remains an essential part of that history.
Both dimensions need to be examined if Sri Lanka is to understand its modern political evolution.
Did their struggle end with their deaths?
This is perhaps the most powerful question raised by the book's title.
The struggle was “unfinished” because the people who participated in it did not live to see the political future they imagined.
Pathi died before witnessing the Sri Lanka of 2024.
He did not see the NPP enter government.
He did not see Anura Kumara Dissanayake become President.
He did not witness a generation that once operated underground attempting to govern through democratic institutions.
Whether today's political system represents the fulfilment of the dreams of those who died in the 1980s is ultimately a matter for readers and historians to debate.
But there is an undeniable historical connection between generations of political activism.
The young people who sacrificed their lives could not know what Sri Lanka would become decades later.
A book for a new generation
For younger Sri Lankans, the late 1980s can seem like a distant world.
Many were not born when the violence occurred.
They did not experience the fear, disappearances, political killings or uncertainty that defined those years.
Yet the political consequences of that era continue to influence Sri Lanka.
Understanding it is therefore not merely an exercise in remembering the past.
It is necessary for understanding the present.
Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi provides an opportunity to examine the period through the experiences of people who lived inside the movement.
It asks readers to look beyond political slogans and examine the human beings behind them.
Remembering without forgetting the victims
There is also an important responsibility when revisiting a violent period.
Remembering one group of victims must not mean forgetting another.
The history of 1987–1989 includes young JVP members who were killed or disappeared, but it also includes civilians, political opponents, government officials, security personnel and others who lost their lives.
A mature national history must have room for all those stories.
The value of Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi therefore lies not simply in whether every interpretation in the book is accepted.
Its importance is that it opens another door into a period that still carries enormous emotional and political weight.
An unfinished conversation
The title Memories of an Unfinished Struggle is therefore appropriate.
The struggle may have ended for Pathi and many of his comrades with their deaths.
But the historical questions surrounding their generation remain.
Why did so many educated and politically active young people choose revolutionary politics?
Why did democratic political space collapse?
How did state repression and insurgent violence feed each other?
What lessons did the surviving political movement learn?
And how did a movement once associated with armed insurrection eventually become part of Sri Lanka's electoral democratic system?
These are questions that deserve serious historical investigation rather than slogans.
Gamini Muthukumarana's “Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi” invites Sri Lankan readers to enter that difficult history through the life of one young man.
Pathi did not live to see the political consequences of the struggle to which he devoted his life.
But today, more than three decades after his death, the political tradition with which he was associated occupies the highest levels of Sri Lanka's democratic government.
Whether that represents the fulfilment of his generation's dream, a transformation of that dream, or something entirely different will remain a matter for history to judge.
What cannot be disputed is that their story is part of Sri Lanka's story.
And perhaps the first step towards understanding a country's future is having the courage to remember all of its past.
The Book
Memories of an Unfinished Struggle – Pathi
- Noniimi Aragalayaka Mathaka – Pathi*
Author: Gamini Muthukumarana
Publisher: Sooriya Publishers
Available from:
Sooriya Publishers
No. 114, S. Mahinda Himimi Mawatha,
Maradana, Colombo 10, Sri Lanka.
Telephone: +94 112 693 607