K. M. de Silva

De Silva was born on 31 December 1931.[1] He was educated at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya from where he received a BA degree in history.[1] He later received a Ph.D from the University of London for his research into the social policy of missionary organisations in the mid-19th century.[1]

De Silva is married to Chandra and they have a son Rajiv (Ravi).[2]

After graduation de Silva started teaching at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya.[1] He was made chair of Sri Lanka history at the university in 1969.[1] He held this position until 1995.

De Silva was awarded a D.Litt degree by the University of London in 1991.[1] He founded International Centre for Ethnic Studies in 1982 and served as its chairman and executive-director.[1][3] He was awarded the 2002 Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in the academic category.[4][5] De Silva was awarded the Deshamanya title in the 2017 Sri Lankan national honours.[6][7] He was appointed Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in May 2017.

De Silva has written/edited numerous books during his long career.[8]

• History of Ceylon: Volume I Part 1 (1959, Ceylon University Press)
• History of Ceylon: Volume I Part 2 From the Earliest Times to 1505 (1960, Ceylon University Press)
• Social Policy and Missionary Organizations in Ceylon 1840-1855 (1965, Longmans, Green & Co.)
• History of Ceylon: Volume III From the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century to 1948 (1973, University of Ceylon, editor)
• A History of Sri Lanka (1981, University of California Press)
• Managing Ethnic Tensions in Multi-Ethnic Societies: Sri Lanka, 1880-1985 (1986, University Press of America,)
• Religion, Nationalism, and the State in Modern Sri Lanka (1986, University of South Florida)
• Internationalization of Ethnic Conflict (1991, Pinter, co-author Ronald James May)
• Peace Accords and Ethnic Conflict (1993, Pinter, co-author S. W. R. De A. Samarasinghe)
• J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka: a Political Biography (1994, University of Hawaii Press, co-author William Howard Wriggins)
• J. R. Jayewardene of Sri Lanka: 1906-1956 (1994, University of Hawaii Press, co-author William Howard Wriggins)
• Regional powers and small state security: India and Sri Lanka, 1977-1990 (1995, Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
• Reaping the Whirlwind: Ethnic Conflict, Ethnic Politics in Sri Lanka (1998, Penguin)
• Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE (2012, Penguin)
• Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies in South and Southeast Asia: The Politics Behind Religious Rivalries (2015, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka, editor)
• The Making of a Historian: A Memoir (2017)
• The Island Story: A Short History of Sri Lanka (2017)