ABSTRACT
The organic and peaceful protests of the People (Aragalaya) in 2022 was a reaction to an ongoing crisis of political representation in constitutional institutions and of the semi-presidential system of constitutional governance in Sri Lanka. This was also an unexpected moment for re-democratization. Through these protests, people critiqued the national security discourse and economic inequality. They demanded a ‘system change.’ The questions of self-determination for Tamils and the right to equality for ethnic minorities, however, remained peripheral to the Aragalaya.
