Histories of foreign aid are often told through the perspectives of aid donors. There have been fewer histories drawing on recipient voices. Taking Sri Lanka as the case study, this paper examines how foreign assistance was received during a period of severe hardships during the 1950s and 1960s, including food insecurity, environmental catastrophe, and economic downturns. The paper suggests that foreign assistance to Sri Lanka has always been tied to the motivations of donor governments and multilateral organizations. At the same time, the impacts of foreign assistance through recipient voices reveal new understandings about global and local developments such as Indian Ocean geopolitics, inter-ethnic relations, and connections between people and the environment. This paper will present preliminary findings on this topic based on current research.
Dr Niro Kandasamy is a historian in the School of Humanities at the University of Sydney. She researches historical dimensions of war, aid, and refugee resettlement with a geographical focus on South Asia. She has held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford, York University, and is currently on a US Fulbright scholarship in the Asian Studies Program and the Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at Georgetown University.
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