By Sadanand Dhume
May 12, 2022 6:37 pm ET



A combination of Covid, energy price hikes and government-mandated organic farming brought a popular tourist spot to the brink of chaos.

Sri Lanka is back in the news—for all the wrong reasons. On Monday besieged Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned after weeks of protests, amid a cratering economy and violent clashes between government supporters and antigovernment protesters in the capital, Colombo.

At least eight people have died in the violence, and some 200 were injured. Rampaging mobs torched more than 50 houses, including the ancestral home of the Rajapaksa clan, a family that has dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades. Rioters have set up roadblocks on the way to the airport to prevent politicians from fleeing the country.