Jayadeva Uyangoda is a political scientist and constitutional expert in Sri Lanka. He was a Senior Professor of Political Science at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. His research and publications have been mainly on Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, minority rights, conflict and peace processes, democratization and state reform in Sri Lanka.

He is currently working on a book on Buddhist Politics and Democratization in India and Sri Lanka. Since 2004, he has been the Sri Lanka Coordinator of Lokniti’s ‘State of Democracy in South Asia’ research project.

Uyangoda was the Rajni Kothari Chair Professor at CSDS from August 2016 till July 2017. He delivered the Rajni Kothari Lecture on ‘Modern Buddhisms and Democracy: Diverse Encounters in India and Sri Lanka’ on 7 April 2017 at CSDS.