How a band of activists helped bring down Sri Lanka’s government | World News,The Indian Express
In interviews, veterans of those small meetings described how they agreed on a multi-pronged campaign to inject new life into the movement widely known as "Aragalaya", or "struggle" in Sinhala.
In June, a few dozen activists started meeting regularly at a seaside tented camp in Colombo for hours-long sessions to think up ways to revive Sri Lanka’s flagging protest movement.
The group, which included a Catholic priest, a digital strategist and a popular playwright, succeeded beyond their wildest hopes.
Within weeks, hundreds of thousands of people descended on Colombo. After initially clashing with police, protesters occupied key government buildings and residences, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his prime minister to promise to step down.
“I’m still trying to process it,” said Chameera Dedduwage, a digital strategist at a major advertising firm who became part of the team that helped organise the uprising.
“It was 50 per cent premeditation and coordination, another 30 per cent willingness of the people and 20 per cent luck.”
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