evidence: In some respects, the Aragalaya could be said to have surpassed the Great Hartal. It sustained its momentum and even grew in number between March and July 2022. It forced the incumbent president — who had been elected twenty months earlier with more than 52 percent of the popular vote (and the support of the LSSP and the Communist Party) — to twice flee from his home, and later the country, before resigning. The former ruling family had to hide from the wrath of the people. The Aragalaya was contemptuous not only of the executive but also of a parliament constituted two years before with a crushing majority for the president’s party. It made politicians fear the masses, instead of the other way about. Its radical wing posed the demand of "system change." [...] While there was trade union contribution, including a general strike on April 28 and hartal on May 6, 2022, the working class was largely passive in workplaces and missing as "a class for itself" in the people’s movement. The Aragalaya was a glorious rebellion of the discontented, but baulked at rejecting in toto the existing edifice of the economy and the state. Its outcome illuminated the weakness of the contemporary Sri Lankan left and the timidity of its politics.