Teaching Resources

• The Guardian
• Frontline (India's National Magazine)

• Conversation with Women's Prize
• History Through Fiction
• Book Fight Podcast
• Gratiaen Pods

• American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies
• Character Guide and Book Club Questions

• Harvard International Review
• "Sri Lanka's War Is Long Over, But Reconciliation Remains Elusive"

• V. V. Ganeshananthan's Website
• "K Becomes K," short story tied to novel: Access through COD Library

Historic Time Period Recommendations

de Silva, K. M. A History of Sri Lanka. Penguin (Educa Books), 2005.
The history of Sri Lanka from the earliest times to the present. This book provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Sri Lanka’s development – from a classical Buddhist society and irrigation economy, to its emergence as a tropical colony producing some of the world’s most important cash crops, such as cinnamon, tea, rubber, and coconut, and finally as an Asian democracy. It is a study of the political vicissitudes of Sri Lanka’s ancient civilization and the successive phases of Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial rule. The unfortunate consequences of becoming a center of ethnic tension and Sri Lanka’s long-standing relationship with India are also discussed.

Peebles, Patrick. The History of Sri Lanka. Greenwood Press, 2006.
Sri Lanka – an island nation located in the Indian Ocean – has a population of approximately 23 million. Despite its diminutive size, however, Sri Lanka has a long and complex history. The diversity of its people has led to ethnic, religious, and political conflicts that continue to exist. Peebles describes the experiences of the country, from its earliest settlers, to civil war, to its current state, allowing readers to better understand this often misunderstood country. With an emphasis on the 20th century, chapters discuss the economy, religion, culture, and government of Sri Lanka.

Ethnic Conflic Recommendations

Davis, Christina P. The Struggle for a Multilingual Future: Youth and Education in Sri Lanka. Oxford UP, 2020.
Examines the tension between ethnic conflict and multilingual education policy in the linguistic and social practices of Sri Lanka minority youth. Facing a legacy of post-independence language and education policies that were among the complex causes of the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009), the government has recently sought to promote interethnic integration through trilingual language policies in Sinhala, Tamil, and English in state schools.

Integrating ethnographic and linguistic research in and around two schools during the last phase of the war, Davis’s research shows how, despite the intention of the reforms, practices on the ground reinforce language-based models of ethnicity and sustain ethnic divisions and power inequalities. By engaging with the actual experiences of Tamil and Muslim youth, Davis demonstrates the difficulties of using language policy to ameliorate ethnic conflict if it does not also address how that conflict is produced and reproduced in everyday talk.

DeVotta, Neil. Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Stanford UP, 2004.
In the mid-1950s, Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese politicians began outbidding one another on who could provide the greatest advantages for their community, using the Sinhala language as their instrument. The appeal to Sinhalese linguistic nationalism precipitated a situation in which the movement to replace English as the country’s official language with Sinhala and Tamil (the language of Sri Lanka’s principal minority) was abandoned and Sinhala alone became the official language in 1956. The Tamils’ subsequent protests led to anti-Tamil riots and institutional decay, which meant that supposedly representative agencies of government catered to Sinhalese preferences and blatantly disregarded minority interests. This in thrn led to the Tamil’s mobilizing, first politically then militarily, and by the mid-1970s, Tamil youth were bent on creating a separate state.

Dharmadasa, K. N. O. Language, Religion, and Ethnic Assertiveness: The Growth of Sinhalese Nationalism in Sri Lanka. Univeristy of Michigan Press, 1992.
Explores the relationship of Sinhalese nationalism to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, paying particular attention to the Sinhala language and how it relates to Sinhalese national identity. The victory of the “Sinhala only” proposition that won in the general election of 1956 started the antagonism between the Sinhalese and the Tamils that persists to this day. Dharmadasa delineates some of the peculiar features of the linkage between state, religion, and ethnicity in traditional Sinhalese society, providing insight into a tragic conflict that has a long and turbulent history.

McGilvray, Dennis. Crucible of Conflict: Tamil and Muslim Society on the East Coast of Sri Lanka. Duke University Press, 2008.
An ethnographic and historical study of Hindu castes, matrilineal family structure, popular religious traditions, and ethnic conflict. Since the bitter guerrilla war for an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka broke out in 1983, the easternmost region of the island has emerged as a strategic site of conflict. Any long-term resolution of the ethnic conflict must accommodate this region, in which Sinhalese Buddhists, Tamil Hindus, and Tamil-speaking Muslims are each a significant share of the population. 

Spencer, Jonathan, ed. Sri Lanka: History and the Roots of Conflict. Routledge, 1990.
This edited volume challenges the myth that the island’s civil war was an inevitable clash of ancient animosities. Instead, it investigates how modern ethnic identities were constructed during and after the colonial era.

Tambiah, S.J. Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Tambiah demonstrates that the country’s violent ethnic conflict stemmed from modern societal stresses – like unequal resource distribution, linguistic policies, and political authoritarianism – rather than age-old religious or racial hatreds.

Tambiah, S.J. Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka. University of Chicago Press, 1992.
This volume seeks to answer the question of how the Buddhist monks in today’s Sri Lanka – given Buddhism’s traditionally non-violent philosophy – are able to participate in the fierce political violence of the Sinhalese against the Tamils.

Civil War Recommendations

Ondaatje, Michael. Anil’s Ghost. McClelland & Stewart, 2000.
Novel set in civil war-torn Sri Lanka, following forensic anthropologist Anil Tissera as she investigates political murders, uncovering a mystery surrounding a skeleton nicknamed “Sailor” and exploring themes of identity, trauma, and cultural heritage.

Sivanandan, A. When Memory Dies. Arcadia Books, 1997.
Historical fiction novel chronicling three generations of a Sri Lankan Tamil family from 1920-1980s, exploring how colonialism and ethnic conflict devastate their lives and country.

Citizen Movements Recommendations

Chungara, Domitila. Let Me Speak! Monthly Review Press, 1978.
The autobiography of a miner’s wife in Bolivia who became a major leader of the miners’ movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. She became famous when she was invited to speak at a feminist conference and gave a militant, working class perspective. 

Gorkym Maxim. The Mother. Book Jungle, 1906.
Referenced repeatedly in Brotherless Night, a classic of Russian revolutionary labor movement in the period before the 1905 revolution (which preceded the 1917 revolution).

Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. One World, 1992.
This needs no introduction. Obviously very different context, but quite good. Have to throw in one US example, no? 

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Lowland. Vintage, 2014.
A multigenerational novel (a big part of which is in the US) which shows the Naxalite movement in India and also touches on the movement against the war in Vietnam and other US social movements. It also revolves around the separation of brothers who make different choices for their lives.

Ousamane, Sembene. God's Bits of Wood. Pearson, 1995.
A classic novel of the anti-colonial social movements of the post WWII period. It is based on the true story of the role of women in a railway strike against French colonial authorities that was a major step on the road to the independence of the countries of French West Africa.

Citizen Movements Recommendations

Tarrow, S. Power in movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Tarrow provides one of the foundational theoretical frameworks for understanding social movements, emphasizing the interaction between political opportunities, mobilizing structures, and collective action frames. The book argues that social movements emerge and evolve within changing political contexts rather than solely through grievances or organizational resources. Tarrow also develops the concept of "contentious politics," demonstrating how protest cycles spread across societies and influence institutional change.

Tilly, C. From Mobilization to Revolution. McGraw-Hill, 1978.
Tilly presents a classic resource mobilization perspective on collective action, arguing that revolutions and social movements are shaped by organizational capacity, access to resources, and shifting relationships between challengers and authorities. Rather than viewing protest as irrational or spontaneous, Tilly explains collective action as a strategic process influenced by political structures and changing opportunities. He introduces concepts such as repertoires of contention and analyzes how groups organize to challenge existing power structures. Although published in 1978, this work remains highly influential in political sociology and social movement studies, serving as a theoretical foundation for later scholarship on contentious politics.

Traugott, M., Ed. Repertoires and cycles of collective action. Duke University Press, 1995.
This edited volume expands on Charles Tilly's concept of repertoires of contention by examining how protest tactics develop, spread, and change over time. Through historical case studies from different countries and periods, the contributors explore how social movements adapt their strategies in response to political circumstances and previous waves of activism.

Dear Educator, 

Thank you for considering integrating Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan into your classroom as part of the College of DuPage’s 2026-2027 Great Read Series! 

This will be my first year linking my dual credit and Transitional English classes to the Great Read Series. After attending the program launch, I asked Dr. Ortega if I could share some of my linked assignments on the Great Read Series site. When I created these assignments, I tried to consider the different constraints high school teachers might encounter with linking Brotherless Night. 

It is not easy including a new text into the classroom. Every school district places unique constraints on new curricular materials and activities. Some might be able to purchase a copy of Brotherless Night and have time for an extended novel study whereas others will not have access to the book and might have limited time to devote to a linked task. Wherever your class falls on this spectrum, I hope some part of any of these assignments can help you link your class to the Great Read Series. Please adapt these assignments as needed for your courses.

Assignment 1: Why I Write — (Limited reading of Brotherless Night)

Inspired by one of my favorite passages of the book, this prompt asks students to reflect and write about their own experiences as writers, including describing previous challenges they’ve experienced with writing as Sashi does in the passage cited on the document. When I developed this project, I borrowed some elements from John Warner’s “Who are you as a Writer” assignment found in The Writer’s Practice and considered the different “Why I Write” essays by George Orwell and Joan Didion. I plan to use this project as the first assignment in my transitional English course, but it could also work for dual credit courses as a way for students to introduce themselves as writers. 

Assignment 2: Discourse Communities — (Moderate reading of Brotherless Night)

This project would require the reading of Chapter 5, “What the Women Said.”  While the chapter could be read in isolation, the preceding chapters provide important context for the events of the chapter. Unlike the “Why I Write” project, which is a personal essay, this assignment is an expository task where students apply their understanding of discourse communities to analyze the Mothers’ Front, a movement composed of Tamil women protesting the mass detainment of Tamil men by the Sri Lankan government. I created this assignment with my district’s dual credit course in mind, and I see it as a way to assess the students’ knowledge of discourse communities, which aligns with English 1101’s second standard: “analyze rhetorical situations as they relate to discourse communities.” 

Assignment 3: Recruitment and Belonging (Complete reading of Brotherless Night)

Like Assignment 2, this project aligns with English 1101’s second standard: “analyze rhetorical situations as they relate to discourse communities;” however, this project stresses the rhetorical act of recruiting new members into a group rather than analyzing the traits of a single discourse community. I attempted to create a literary and rhetorical analysis with this project. Students need to understand Sashi’s character before developing a rhetorical analysis explaining how a discourse community persuades her to join their respective group. I plan on using this assignment as a final project for my first semester dual credit course. 

Please refer to the other COD Great Read Series Resources on this website for further reading. I hope these assignments will help you link your classroom and engage students with the Great Read Series events throughout the year, which culminates with V.V. Ganeshananthan’s visit to COD March 1, 2027. 

Best, 

Ryan Smith
Naperville North High School 
rlsmith@naperville203.org