Sri Lanka must celebrate Republic Day, as India does
by Prof. Tissa Vitarana May 22nd should be one of the most important days to be commemorated in the history of Sri Lanka. It is the day in 1972 on which we became a Republic, a completely independent sovereign nation. But why is it, that unlike India which has done so since 1951, we do not celebrate Republic Day? Like Sri Lanka, India also celebrates Independence Day, but on a separate day each year with equal pomp and splendour. After nearly 450 years of being a colony under the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally the British, (roughly 150 years each), formal independence was received from the...