{"id":243655,"date":"2025-10-01T14:24:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T08:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=243655"},"modified":"2025-10-07T14:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T09:19:06","slug":"digital-mobilisation-mannars-wind-power-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/digital-mobilisation-mannars-wind-power-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Mobilisation: Mannar\u2019s Wind Power Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jude Dinesh Koduthor<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"

Jude Dinesh Koduthor<\/p><\/div>\n

The ongoing grassroots protest against wind power plantations in Mannar, Sri Lanka, exemplifies the dynamic entanglement of new media, political communication, and environmental activism within the contemporary public sphere. This episode underscores how digital technologies and networked communication galvanize local resistance while reframing development debates in post-war societies (Castells, 2012; Chadwick, 2013).<\/p>\n

On 29 September 2025, Mannar witnessed a large-scale hartal and protest march, with thousands of residents shutting down the town in a powerful act of grassroots mobilisation against the government\u2019s wind power plantation initiative. The significance of today\u2019s event is amplified by its real-time organization and coverage through new media platforms, most notably Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram. In advance of the demonstration, organizers leveraged closed WhatsApp groups and rapidly shared Facebook posts to coordinate logistics, announce rally points, and issue urgent calls for solidarity across ethnic and religious divides. Police violence and protest planning were extensively documented by citizen journalists and then disseminated to the national sphere, including the capital, Colombo, where online communities and activists amplified Mannar\u2019s message and catalyzed broader support from politicians and civil society groups (Chadwick, 2013; Papacharissi, 2015). As Castells (2012) theorises, these digital networks create \u201cnetworked social movements\u201d that bridge local action and national discourse, reshaping political engagement in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The convergence of new media activism and offline protest demonstrates the dynamics of \u2018connective action,\u2019 as theorised by Bennett and Segerberg (2012), wherein digital platforms are not merely channels for rapid communication, but constitute infrastructures for collective identity and strategic action.<\/p>\n

Background: Contestations Over Land, Ecology, and Governance<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past two months, Mannar has been an epicentre for sustained mobilisation, with fishermen, farmers, youth, women, and religious leaders voicing their opposition. Protesters have cited threats to the island\u2019s unique ecology- such as disrupted water flows and compromised bird migration pathways, as well as the undermining of local livelihoods (Mongabay, 2025). This struggle unfolds within broader, post-war debates over land governance and autonomy, where justice and local agency remain deeply contested (Hoole, 2011).<\/p>\n

Political Communication and Digital Networks<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Recent scholarship highlights the affordances of digital media for contentious politics, facilitating connective action and counter-public narratives at unprecedented scale (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). In Mannar, platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp have become indispensable tools, not just for coordinating mass actions but for real-time documentation of events and amplifying marginalized voices. For example, user-generated videos of police confrontations circulate widely, prompting condemnation and intervention from human rights groups and politicians. Papacharissi (2015) describes these affective publics as \u201cexpressive engines\u201d that reframe what constitutes crisis or injustice, transforming private grievances into collective causes. As Papacharissi (2015) argues, digital storytelling is integral to the crafting and circulation of new frames, contesting dominant narratives and challenging hegemonic definitions of \u2018the public interest\u2019 in moments of conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social Movements and Environmental Justice Framing<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This movement is consistent with Castells\u2019 (2012) model of \u201cnetworked social movements,\u201d marked by decentralised leadership and multi-vocal claims. Mannar\u2019s activists, youth, women, and religious leaders have utilised livestreams and digital testimonies, projecting inclusive political identities rooted in environmental justice (Tamil Guardian, 2025). These efforts have been amplified by hashtags such as #SaveMannar and online petitions, embodying Chadwick\u2019s (2013) \u201chybrid media systems,\u201d where digital and legacy media compete to shape public agendas. The protest\u2019s digital amplification highlights Tufekci\u2019s (2017) assertion that new media can circumvent institutional gatekeepers and mobilise networked publics around shared visions of environmental and distributive justice.<\/p>\n

Pressure from digitally coordinated activism led to a temporary suspension of the Mannar project and intensified scrutiny of governmental decision-making (Sunday Times, 2025). These events illustrate how networked activism reshapes deliberative democracy in post-conflict societies facing contested development models.<\/p>\n

The Mannar protests, especially the mass mobilisation witnessed on 29 September 2025, offer compelling evidence that new media have evolved far beyond the status of passive communication tools. Instead, they constitute dynamic arenas for public contestation, grassroots organising, and political transformation within contemporary Sri Lanka. By amplifying the voices of marginalised communities and foregrounding demands for transparent, equitable development, Mannar\u2019s activists assume dual roles as both communicators and architects of social movement strategies. In so doing, they actively redefine the boundaries of citizenship, participation, and advocacy in the digital age (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012; Castells, 2012).<\/p>\n

Critically, the significance of these events extends well beyond the borders of Mannar. The current government must recognise that the failure to meaningfully engage with these grassroots grievances and digitally expressed criticisms risks fuelling broader regional unrest. As illustrated by the \u201cAragalaya\u201d protest movement of 2022, which began as small-scale demonstrations and rapidly escalated, through both physical gatherings and online platforms, into a nationwide movement that eventually led to substantial political change, underestimating the power of networked mobilisation is a profound mistake (Tufekci, 2017). The echoes of 2022 resonate in today\u2019s Mannar movement: issues dismissed as local or isolated can, through the connective capacities of new media, inspire other provinces and trigger a new cycle of mass protest.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n

Consequently, it is incumbent upon the current administration to demonstrate transparency, foster inclusive dialogue with affected communities, and commit to ethical development practices. If such steps are not taken, Sri Lanka may yet again witness the growth of a decentralised, networked protest wave capable of challenging the legitimacy and stability of the state itself. The ongoing events in Mannar serve as both a warning and an opportunity, a moment to move beyond crisis management toward participatory governance and justice in the digital era.<\/p>\n

In summary, the Mannar mobilisation reaffirms that digital networks catalyse new forms of citizenship and political expression. The events of 29 September 2025 show that when communities harness new media for environmental justice, they do not merely communicate dissent\u2014they actively reshape the possibilities for democratic governance in Sri Lanka.<\/i><\/p>\n

References<\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Bennett, W.L. & Segerberg, A. (2012). The logic of connective action. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), pp.739\u2013768.<\/li>\n
  • Castells, M. (2012). Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Polity.<\/li>\n
  • Chadwick, A. (2013). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n
  • Groundviews. (2025). The battle for Mannar\u2019s ecological and social future.<\/li>\n
  • Hoole, S.R.H. (2011). Democracy and Human Rights in Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n
  • Mongabay. (2025). Respite, for now, for bird migration hotspot at heart of Sri Lanka\u2019s wind power dispute.<\/li>\n
  • Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n
  • Tamil Guardian. (2025). Mannar residents protest wind turbine project; legal action underway.<\/li>\n
  • Tufekci, Z. (2017). Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. Yale University Press.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    *Jude Dinesh Koduthor, Senior Lecturer, Media Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Jaffna<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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