The Aragalaya (Sinhala: අරගලය, lit. 'The Struggle') were a series of mass protests that began in March 2022 against the government of Sri Lanka. The government was heavily criticized for mismanaging the Sri Lankan economy, which led to a subsequent economic crisis involving severe inflation, daily blackouts, and a shortage of fuel, domestic gas, and other essential goods. The protesters' main demand was the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and key officials from the Rajapaksa family. Despite the involvement of several opposition parties, most protesters considered themselves to be apolitical, with many expressing discontent with the parliamentary opposition. Protesters chanted slogans such as "Go Home Gota", "Go Home Rajapaksas", and "Aragalayata Jaya Wewa" ("Victory to the struggle"). Most protests were organized by the general public, with youths playing a major part by carrying out protests at Galle Face Green.
The government reacted to the protests with authoritarian methods, such as declaring a state of emergency, allowing the military to arrest civilians, imposing curfews, and restricting access to social media. The government violated the law and the Sri Lankan constitution by attempting to suppress the protests. The Sri Lankan diaspora also began demonstrations against the suppression of basic human rights in the country. In April, the government's ban on social media was perceived to have backfired; hashtags such as #GoHomeGota, which is believed to have been coined by an activist called Pathum Kerner in December 2021, had begun trending on Twitter internationally. The government's ban was lifted later that day. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka condemned the government's actions and summoned officials responsible for the blocking and abuse of protesters.
On 3 April, all 26 members of the Second Gotabaya Rajapaksa cabinet resigned with the exception of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Critics said that the resignation was not valid as they did not follow constitutional protocol and several of the ministers who "resigned" were reinstated in different ministries the next day. Chief government whip Johnston Fernando insisted that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would not resign under any circumstances. The protests, however, led to the removal of officials and ministers, including members of the Rajapaksa family and their close associates, and to the appointment of more qualified and veteran officials and the creation of the Advisory Group on Multilateral Engagement and Debt Sustainability.
In July 2022, protesters occupied the President's House in Colombo, causing Rajapaksa to flee and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to announce his own willingness to resign. About a week later, on 20 July, Parliament elected Wickremesinghe as President. By November 2022, the protests had largely cooled off due to improvement in economic conditions. While the protests were mostly over, it was noted that it would take until 2026 for full economic recovery to be achieved.
Background
Sri Lanka had witnessed a sharp rise in foreign debt since 2010, reaching 42.6% of the country's GDP in 2019. By February 2022, the country had only $2.31 billion left in its reserves to repay around $4 billion of debt, including a $1 billion maturing international sovereign bond (ISB) in July. According to official data released by the Sri Lankan government, ISBs accounted for almost half of the country's external debt by the end of April 2022. The Asian Development Bank (13%), Japan (10%) and China (10%) were among the other major lenders.
Sri Lanka's economic crisis was further accelerated by global impacts including the global recession caused by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the food and energy shortage and price hike following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. An unsuccessful move to prohibit the use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides also contributed to a major decline in the yields of Sri Lanka's rice and tea industries, which are, respectively, a staple food and major international export. The drop in tea production from the fertilizer ban alone resulted in economic losses of around $425 million. The ban also contributed to a 20% drop in rice production within the first six months. As a result, Sri Lanka went from being self-sufficient in rice production to having to import rice at a cost of US$450 million.
By 2021, the foreign debt had risen to 101% of the nation's GDP. The incumbent Government of Sri Lanka under president Gotabaya Rajapaksa made continuous cascading policy errors that resulted in a severe economic crisis for Sri Lanka. These included significant tax cuts that affected fiscal policies, and reduced government revenue, which intensified the budget deficit as well as inflation. To cover government spending, the Central Bank began printing money in record amounts, ignoring the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) advice to increase interest rates and taxes while decreasing spending instead. The IMF warned that continued money printing would lead to an economic implosion.
Instead, the country pursued an economic policy that kept exports low and imports high, which depleted the country's foreign currency reserves. According to the government, Sri Lanka's tourist trade, a major source of foreign currency for the country, was affected by both the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of terrorist attacks in 2019 that scared off tourists.
With brothers Basil Rajapaksa as finance minister and Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister, the sense of nepotism and mismanagement deepened among critics. While members of the Rajapaksa family had previously been charged with corruption locally, authorities have failed to prove these charges in court. In 2021, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the Pandora Papers, which included information about Nirupama Rajapaksa, who had used offshore shell companies and trusts to secretly stash the family's wealth around the world. In 2022, as protests began growing in Sri Lanka, Jaliya Wickramasuriya, former Sri Lankan ambassador to the United States and Mexico, and a cousin of the Rajapaksa brothers, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for defrauding $332,027 from the Sri Lankan government during the purchase of a new embassy building in 2013. Government supporters and allies also began to blame the economic crisis on Basil Rajapaksa, who gained a reputation as "Mr. Ten Percent" due to his alleged commission from government contracts. Additionally, despite being the finance minister, he did not attend parliament sessions during the economic crisis. Udaya Gammanpila, the leader of the government-aligned Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, claimed that the party has no intention of re-electing a Rajapaksa, which would end of the nepotism that has plagued Sri Lankan politics.
Timeline
March
Initial protests began in early March with small candlelight vigils, including notable gatherings in Kohuwala led by activists like Vimukthi Dushantha. These protests quickly spread countrywide, amassing increasing numbers of attendees. As protests began to grow, government MPs refused to acknowledge them, fueling the rapid growth of unorganized, non-partisan demonstrations where hundreds of citizens would gather after work to voice their dissent.
On 15 March, tens of thousands of supporters of the largest opposition party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) led by Sajith Premadasa, carried out protests in front of the President's office, demanding that the President resign. On 30 March, Mahinda Rajapaksa's son Namal Rajapaksa arrived for the opening ceremony of a sports ground in Bandarawela. During the opening, locals blocked the road and demanded fuel. This resulted in Rajapaksa avoiding the area and the mayor opening the grounds instead.
On Thursday, 31 March, hundreds of protesters held a demonstration at Pangiriwatte Road, Mirihana, where the president's private residence was situated. The silent candlelight protest initially started at the Jubilee Post Junction, only a few hundred meters away from the President's private residence. Later, as more people gathered, protesters began marching towards his residence. Hundreds of people swarmed the President's house throughout the night, demanding his resignation. The protest was initially spontaneous and peaceful until the police attacked the protesters with tear gas and water cannons. Protesters then set fire to two military buses and a police jeep, threw stones at officers, and blocked Colombo's main highway by burning tires. The curfew imposed on Thursday night was lifted on Friday morning, but police and army reinforcements in the city increased. The protest was broadcast live by a private television channel but the broadcast was halted due to what journalists described as pressure from the government. Official sources said that Rajapaksa was not present in the house during the protest.
A statement from the president's office the next morning said, "Thursday night's protests are being led by extremist forces who are inviting the Arab Spring to destabilize the country." The Samagi Jana Balawegaya accused the government of sending loyalists to infiltrate and sabotage the protests by burning vehicles and initiating acts of violence. They also disputed the government's claims that the protesters were armed, as videos of the event did not show armed protesters. Nearly 50 people, including journalists, were injured and hospitalized during the protest, and 45 people were arrested. The day following the protest saw over 300 lawyers at the Mirihana police station volunteering to represent the arrested protesters pro bono.
April
On 1 April, Shashseendra Rajapaksa, nephew of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was forced to avoid a ceremony in Wellawaya due to protesters waving black flags. Chamara Sampath Dassanayake attended the ceremony in his place but had to change vehicles and flee due to protesters pelting him with eggs. The same day, the Samagi Vanitha Balawegaya, headed by the SJB politician and former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra, staged a march from Point Pedro in Jaffna in protest of the economic hardships faced by the public. During the protest, Hirunika was reportedly involved in a heated exchange with political activist Arun Siddharth. The situation in the area later became tense and police officers intervened.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka requested that political leaders save the country from becoming a failed state, while Gnanartha Pradeepaya, a Catholic weekly, blamed the situation on corruption, which had forced the country to borrow money to buy essential items. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith blamed the situation on political leaders and "us [sic] citizens who have allowed ourselves to be used by vested political and cultural interests in choosing the persons to whom we have entrusted the country and its destiny over all these years". The US citizens referred to in the statement were the President, who had to forfeit his dual citizenship to become the president, and his brother Basil Rajapaksa, the Finance Minister. The Cardinal also condemned the government's classification of protesters as "extremists" and "terrorists" as not being empathetic to the pain and fear of the people.
Declaration of state of emergency
On 1 April, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a nationwide public emergency. However, protests persisted as private bus drivers in Anuradhapura, carpenters in Moratuwa and fishermen in Galle joined demonstrations. A 36-hour island-wide curfew was imposed from 6:00 pm on 2 April until 6:00 am on 4 April. The move was intended to prevent or at least minimize new protests. The sudden announcement of a curfew resulted in panic buying, which created long lines of people outside supermarkets and pharmacies. Many began chanting anti-government slogans. People who came to work from distant areas were unable to return to their homes, forcing some to sleep on the streets.
Celebrities also joined in the condemnation of the government, with Roshan Mahanama accusing "incompetent power-hungry rulers" of creating an economic depression. Other Sri Lankan cricketers, including Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Arjuna Ranatunga, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath, Dhammika Prasad and Marvan Atapattu, also took to social media and online forums to express support of and advocate for the rights of the public during the crisis. Sanath Jayasuriya, Roshan Mahanama and Marvan Atapattu, all holding placards, were among those who physically attended protests. Hirunika Premachandra led a group of women in a march toward the residence of popular fortune teller Gnana Akka (Gnanakka) in Anuradhapura. Premachandra and the other women protested in front of Gnanakka's shrine, but police blocked them from entering it.
Thisara Anuruddha Bandara, the social media activist who was arrested by the police on 2 April and held in police custody in Modara before being brought before a court. He was deemed to be in violation of section 120 of the Penal Code, which forbids criminal conspiracy. A riot also broke out in front of the residence of Saman Lal Fernando, Mayor of Moratuwa, a Colombo suburb that lies under the administrative province of Sri Lanka. Angry protesters threw stones at Fernando's residence, demanding electricity.
On 3 April, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) announced that service providers had blocked social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube due to a request from the Ministry of Defence. Oshada Senanayake, the Chairman of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, tendered his resignation amidst the social media blackout, stating that he was standing by his ethos and principles. The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) requested that the TRCSL and service providers immediately restore all social media platforms, as it prevented them from informing consumers about impending power cuts as electricity has been declared an essential service. The social media blackout ended 15 hours after it had started.
Multiple protests in violation of the curfew were reported. Sajith Premadasa, Sarath Fonseka and Patali Champika Ranawaka led an SJB-affiliated protest in Colombo where they were blocked by the police. A protest led by the students of the University of Peradeniya in Kandy was dispersed after the police used water cannons and tear gas.
Cabinet resignation
On 3 April, several Rajapaksa cabinet ministers submitted their resignations. Those who resigned included Namal Rajapaksa, who had criticized the social media blackout. Two ministers from the Rajapaksa family, Chamal Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa, also resigned. The president was to announce the new cabinet the following day.