POLITY

Vol. 6 No. 3 & 4 (DOUBLE ISSUE)

ISSN 1391-822X

Rs. 100

THE WAY WE WERE

Jayadeva Uyangoda and Pradeep Peiris

04

SECULAR THOUGHTS
K.N. Panikkar

13

DAMBULLA MOSQUE CRISIS

Darini RajasinghamSenanayake

18

TO HAVE MORE WOMEN IN POLITICS

Rosy Senanayake

21

HARBOUR LIGHTS
Sarojini Jayawickrama

23

A COLONIAL CLERGYMAN IN SRI LANKA

Neville Weereratne

26

WRITING THAT CONQUERS

Anoma Pieris

29

BEYOND OLCOTT AND DHARMAPALA

Asoka de Zoysa

32

HANDY PERINBANAYAGAM AND THE JYC

Rajan Philips

35

M.G. MENDIS IN HIS HEYDAY

Kumari Jayawardena

37

DOCUMENTS: LOCAL DEMOCRACY

41

DENIAL OF TORTURE

47

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COMMENTARY
FROM GENEVA TO SANITY

he theme of Geneva continues to

dominate Sri Lankas current
political debate. The passing of a
resolution, sponsored by the US and
backed mostly by the Western
governments, calling on the government
of Sri Lanka to take early and concrete
steps towards implementing the
recommendations of the Lessons
Leaned and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC), is seen by the government and
most of the local media as a serious
political setback. It is indeed a political
setback
to
the
Rajapaksa
administration. Setbacks sometimes
compel governments to review policies,
adopt new and better ones, and be
pragmatic and accommodative. Two
months into the Geneva setback, it is
still too early for the UPFA to show signs
of such return to sanity.
In a way, Geneva is a metaphor for our
times in Sri Lanka. It encapsulates some
of the key challenges and contradictions
which the UPFA government headed by
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has
failed to confront in a politically
constructive way in the post-LTTE,
post-civil war phase of Sri Lankas
political change. It also highlights the
fact that Sri Lankas politics, as much
the economy of the country, is not
insulated from the global and regional
state system. If the government thinks
that the path of countrys political change
after the war victory in May 2009 is
exclusively defined by its constituent
parties and allies, the Geneva episodes

suggests otherwise. The world is

globalized not only economically, but
also politically as well. It is time for the
government to learn, at least belatedly,
that in a politically globalized world, the
insulatory and isolationist foreign policy
of the government, which is an
extension of the hyper-nationalist and
populist domestic policy, can only
receive setbacks and defeats.
At the crux of the Geneva debate was
a simple issue: is the UPFA government
ready to alter its domestic policies of
Sinhalese nationalism to return to a
policy of negotiated peace-building,
political reforms and democratization,
the main contours of which were
evolved in the mid-1990s and after. The
basic elements of this twin agenda
pursued by the PA and UNF
governments with varying degrees of
deviation, entailed the following: a
negotiated political settlement to the
ethnic conflict offering regional
autonomy beyond the existing 13 th
Amendment; continuation of economic
liberalization accompanied with political
liberalization; ethnic reconciliation
through a policy of multiculturalism; and
democratization with an emphasis on
human rights, media freedom and
political pluralism. These are
components of what some academics
call the agenda of liberal peace. In the
post-civil war context, two new
elements were introduced to this list.
They were post-war reconciliation, and
addressing issues of accountability on
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POLITY

allegations of grave human rights

violations during the last phases of the
war.
Meanwhile, it became quite clear that
the Government has not been in a mood
to incorporate any of these issues in its
post-war policy agenda. In fact, all of

POLITY
Vol. 6 No. 3 & 4 2012
Editors
Jayadeva Uyangoda
Kumari Jayawardena
Executive Editor and
Circulation Manager
Rasika Chandrasekera
Editorial Assistant
Chandrika Widanapathirana

POLITY
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Colombo 5, Sri Lanka
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Tel/Fax: 2586400
E-mail: ssa@eureka.lk
website: www.ssalanka.org

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2nd Proof - 22.06.2009

to make use of the narrow window of opportunity that the

US and its allies have offered after Geneva in April.

them were incongruous with the UPFA governments policy

and ideology. While defying the Western pressure to adopt a
strategy of liberal peace-building, the government went on
a political and diplomatic offensive against the West by
mobilizing domestic nationalist constituencies on a platform
of neo-patriotism and populism. The government has also
overestimated its capacity to influence the outcome of the
UNHRC by means of its close alliance with China and Russia,
and newly won friendships with some authoritarian regimes
in the African continent. Although the governments strategy
of polarizing the world in a West and-the rest-of-us framework
worked well in its domestic propaganda and mobilization, it
was hardly a prudent policy in dealing with a set of powerful
states who govern the world economy and the state system
at present. While the dust of the Geneva debacle is settling
down, the Rajapaksa administration seems to be quietly going
along with the US agenda and even the time-frame, proposed
in Geneva. As the media reports indicate, the Minister of
External Affairs briefed the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
in Washington DC on the governments own road map to
implementing the LLRC recommendations.

The developments surrounding the UNHRC in Geneva also

show how the ethnic conflict in Sri Lankas is slowly, and
clearly, being re-internationalized in a much more intense form
than earlier. One can even say that the governments failure
to offer a credible political solution to the conflict has
contributed to re-defining the conflict. In the post-LTTE era,
the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict has shifted out of Vanni and
Sri Lankas territorial borders. It now has a global presence
with shifting locations. The government has also, knowingly
or unknowingly, joined this new phase of civil war by other,
non-military, means. By refusing to seriously engage with
the TNA to find a negotiated political settlement, the
government is only making the new phase of the conflict
totally intractable.
Meanwhile, the Geneva debacle offers an opportunity for
the Rajapaksa administration to critically review its policies
towards the ethnic conflict, even though there are no signs
as yet that the government has begun to do so. If the public
squabbling among rival factions within the Ministry of External
Affairs is an indication, the blame game goes on quite intensely
within the regime as a whole. This blame game apart, the
President should realize that Sri Lankas political future is
closely intertwined with the way he handles the issues of
ethnic conflict and democracy in the post-civil war context.
No amount of rhetoric about a home-grown solution can keep
on postponing a political solution to the ethnic conflict. Its
constructive resolution along the lines of a solution that evolved
in the late 1980s and after, which are home grown enough, is
the most essential pre-condition for Sri Lankas future. p

Meeting Clinton and making a new set of promises will not

lessen the grave challenges that the UPFA government is
facing in the post-war context. If the government continues
to follow the tactic of promising much and doing nothing, the
credibility of the government will once again be seriously
damaged. That will re-open the space for a new stage of
external political intervention at the UNHRC and other global
arenas. The regime isolation will amount to state isolations
globally and that will seriously ruin the governments chances

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THE WAY WE WERE

Politics of Sri Lanka 2011
Part I
Jayadeva Uyangoda and Pradeep Peiris

of the UPFA coalition. The basic postulates of this approach

appear to be the following:

ajor political developments in Sri Lanka continued to

be shaped by a context in which all the political actors
in the country have been preoccupied with issues of transition
from the protracted civil war which ended in May 2009. This
was also the context in which Sri Lankas external relations
as well as actions of external actors towards Sri Lanka
occurred.

(i) Sri Lanka does not have an ethnic conflict as such. What
existed during the past three decades has been a terrorist
problem. The terrorist challenge to the state, led by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has been militarily
defeated. In case the terrorist threat re-emerges, the
government should maintain its capacity to quash such threats
immediately by military means.

There were also other significant political developments that

were not directly related to themes of post-civil war transition.
Developments within political parties, local government
elections, government-opposition relations, human rights and
media freedom are key themes among them.

(ii) Since there is no ethnic conflict with political dimensions,

there is no need for a political solution for devolution or powersharing. The attention of the government should be focused
not on finding a political solution to a non-existing ethnic
conflict, but on rehabilitation and resettlement tasks, along
with economic development.

The events in 2011 also demonstrated that Sri Lankas ethnic

conflict was far from over, although the civil war ended in
May 2009. The conflict has assumed a new shape and
character. It takes place in the domestic political arena as
well as internationally.

(iii) The Tamil people do have grievances. They primarily

emanate from two sources. These are: (a) uneven regional
development to which the Northern and Eastern provinces
have been subjected since independence, and (b)
consequences of the war during the past three decades. The
priority of the government should be to address economic
and infrastructure development.

Regime Consolidation
ne of the key priorities of President Rajapaksa in 2010
was the consolidation of his position as the countrys
president and the stabilization of his coalition regime. The
winning of the presidential and parliamentary elections, held
in January and April 2010, respectively, enabled him to achieve
a considerable measure of regime stability. Although the
president had expected a two-thirds majority victory at the
parliamentary election, the United Peoples Freedom Alliance
(UPFA) obtained 144 seats in the 225-member Parliament,
six seats short of the target. In August 2010 President
Rajapaksa succeeded in persuading the Sri Lanka Muslim
Congress (SLMC) with eight MPs to join the UPFA coalition
government. This assured Rajapakse a two-thirds majority
in Parliament. No government in Sri Lanka after 1989 had
managed to obtain such overwhelming legislative power.

(iv) The task of national integration and nation-building need

to be achieved through economic integration of the North
and East with the rest of the country. Economic integration,
and not devolution, is the essential precondition for post-civil
war national integration in Sri Lanka.
This new approach of the government to the conflict has
produced critical responses as well. They have emerged from
local and international civil society groups and in a subdued
manner from India as well as western countries. The
governments assumption that the Sri Lankan conflict has
come to an end with the military defeat of the LTTE is not
shared by critics. Their assertion is that although the military
phase of the conflict is over, the conflict continues to exist
and therefore it now requires a political solution. Critics also
say that if a political solution is not advanced by the
government, the ethnic conflict is very likely to become
exacerbated, even in the absence of the LTTE.

Government Policy towards the Ethnic Conflict

he Sri Lankan governments policy towards the
management of ethnic relations in the post-civil war
context has been defined by a specific approach which,
although not clearly stated, is discernible from its policies as
well as broad ideological perspectives shared by key actors

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2nd Proof - 22.06.2009

councils, the governments position presupposed a framework

of Thirteenth Amendment Minus. The latter suggested
devolution without land and police powers to provincial
councils. The inability of the government and the TNA to
find common ground on post-civil war political reforms to
address the core issues of the ethnic conflict suggested that
the issue was likely to remain unresolved in 2012 as well.

Search for a Political Solution

lthough the government does not seem to think it
necessary to implement a political solution to the ethnic
conflict, it has been engaging in discussions with the Tamil
National Alliance (TNA) on the theme of a political solution,
primarily in response to international pressure. This pressure
for government-TNA talks for a negotiated political solution
has emanated from the USA, India, the EU countries, Canada
and to a limited degree Japan. This process of dialogue began
in 2010 and continued through 2011. In 2010 the government
appointed a committee to maintain the dialogue process.
However, the government-TNA dialogue did not produce any
concrete outcome in 2011.

Why was the UPFA government reluctant to concede the

TNA demand for the Thirteenth Amendment Plus and expect
the TNA to negotiate for a minimalist political solution? Why
did the TNA insist on the Thirteenth Amendment Plus? The
UPFA governments vision of a political solution to the ethnic
conflict has been shaped by a number of factors. First, the
UPFA coalitions core political ideology, as evolved during
the war against the LTTE between 2006 and 2009, did not
acknowledge the existence of an ethnic conflict warranting
a political solution as such. Second, the way in which the civil
war ended in May 2009, with unilateral military victory to the
state, led to a condition of victors peace. Third, Sri Lankas
political transformation during the past few decades has been
in the direction of centralization of state power, rather than
decentralization and sharing of state power.

The lack of clarity on the governments position on a political

solution and the deep mistrust between the UPFA government
and the TNA are two factors that have led to the protraction
of the dialogue with no concrete outcome. The government
from time to time indicated that its framework of a political
solution did not include land and police powers to be devolved
to provincial councils, whereas the TNA wanted the
government to grant the Northern Province police powers
besides the right to manage land and forest reservations
(Sunday Times, 27 March 2011). Although police powers
have already been devolved to the provinces under the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution, no government has
implemented that provision. Under the 13th Amendment,
provincial councils have limited powers over land and there,
too, the constitutional provision has not been put into effect.
The governments reluctance to fully implement the provisions
relating to land and police powers under the Constitution
emanate from the argument that this would encourage
secession and thereby constitute a threat to the unity and
sovereignty of the state. President Rajapaksa has also
described the TNAs insistence on land and police powers as
demands which the LTTE has been asking for (Sunday
Times, 27 May 2011). President Rajapaksa has not indicated
any enthusiasm about expanding devolution. Informal
comments that the newspapers have occasionally reported
about President Rajapaksas negative assessment of
devolution suggested that he was more inclined towards
centralization rather than power-sharing.

Meanwhile, the TNAs position on a political solution emanates

from its ideological as well as political inheritance. Ideologically
as well as politically, the TNA represents the political
aspirations of the Tamil nation which, as the TNA believes,
deserves regional autonomy within a federal framework. Even
during the LTTEs secessionist war, the TNA, and its
predecessor the TULF, stood for a federalist alternative to
both the unitary Sri Lankan state and a separate Tamil state.
Coming down on its regional autonomy demand is not easy
for the TNA against the backdrop of a protracted struggle
for federalism. More importantly, the TNA is the only ethnic
minority party at present to resist the UPFA governments
strategy for political cooperation and cooptation.
A key factor that has shaped the UPFA governments
reluctance to work on a political solution with greater regional
autonomy is the absence of the LTTE. The governments
thinking seems to be that devolution and the 13th Amendment
were necessitated in the context where the threat of armed
insurgency for secession was present. Once that threat is
removed, political conditions in the country have also changed;
and the need for devolution is not relevant as it used to be
during the civil war.

Thus, during 2011 the debate on devolution and a political

solution to the ethnic conflict clearly indicated the continuing
polarization of positions between the government and the
TNA. While the TNA put forward its reform agenda of the
Thirteenth Amendment Plus, implying greater regional
autonomy going beyond the power of existing provincial

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Ethnic Relations
he minimalist policy framework of the UPFA government
towards the ethnic conflict, as briefly outlined above, has
been in existence since 2009. Indeed, it has had broad
implications for the governments relations with all ethnic
minorities as well Tamil, Muslim and Up-Country Tamil. A
key implication is the governments policy emphasis on
involving minority political parties in the economic and
infrastructure development initiatives launched in the Northern
and Eastern provinces. This has had a political framework
defined by the government for the minority parties. In that
framework, the minority political parties should join the
government coalition, accept Cabinet positions and offer their
support for the stability of the UPFA government. All Tamil
and Muslim political parties with the exception of the Tamil
National Alliance have accepted this position. The Sri Lanka
Muslim Congress, which had earlier aligned itself with the
opposition UNP, also joined the UPFA coalition in August
2010, accepting the perspective of de-emphasizing political
rights of the minorities.

The TNA, which has not accepted, and is even resisting, the
UPFA governments post-civil war agenda of development
over devolution, also appears to be quite aware of the
weakened bargaining position of minority parties. The TNA
addresses this challenge in its engagement with the UPFA
government by means of mobilizing international support for
its own agenda. It also mobilizes international pressure on
the government to initiate action for reconciliation and for a
political solution based on devolution. Accountability
concerning alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian
law during the last stages of the war is also an issue with
which the TNA has been concerned. This has prompted some
critics to say that the TNAs agenda has been influenced by
western governments and the pro-LTTE diaspora, and not
by the actual needs of the Tamil people on the ground.
As became clear in 2011 as well, the TNAs political agenda
seems to rest on two main strategic components. They are:
(a) continuation of the project of regional autonomy for Tamils
despite the demise of the LTTE, and (b) sustaining the
argument for the priority of a devolution-based political
solution while countering the governments strategy of
coopting minority parties and political leaders to the regime
agenda.

These developments reflect the new ways along which ethnic

relations in Sri Lankan politics have been changing since the
end of the war between the state and the LTTE. Earlier, the
war and the presence of the LTTE as a threat to the state
constituted two important factors in Sri Lankas political
balance of forces between the state and ethnic minorities. It
had also characterized the bargaining power which the ethnic
minority parties exercised vis--vis the government as well
as the UNP and the PA, the two main political parties. The
ending of the war has altered this specific equilibrium in favour
of the government. Leaders of most minority parties appear
to be conscious of the new situation in which their bargaining
power is weak. In their new politics of pragmatism, priority
is given to what they see as developmental rights over
political rights. According to the new politics of pragmatism
adopted by the minority parties, the best way to work towards
fulfilling development rights of their communities is to
collaborate with the ruling coalition. These parties also need
access to public office and resources to maintain their
clientelist politics. This to a great degree explains why the
SLMC left its alliance with the opposition UNP and joined
the UPFA government. It also explains why the minority
parties, except the TNA, are not keenly interested in their
demands for more devolution. Instead of renewing the
demand for a political solution and enhanced devolution, all
ethnic minority parties, except the TNA, have come to accept
the UPFA governments agenda of the priority of economic
development over devolution.

There has also developed a significant confidence gap

between the UPFA government and the TNA, despite a
number of meetings the two sides had in 2011. The
governments basic attitude to the TNA appears to be one of
mistrust. This mistrust emanates from the governments view
that the TNA was sticking to an extreme position on devolution
with which the UPFA had repeatedly disagreed. The
government also appears to think that by advancing an
extreme position on devolution, the TNA acts as a proxy of
India and the West. Meanwhile, the TNA seems to believe
that the UPFA government has not been particularly serious
about either reconciliation or devolution and therefore is
merely engaged in an exercise of prevarication.
Resettlement and Normalization in the North
he acceleration of resettlement of those displaced due
to war has been a major policy challenge to the
government throughout 2011. Initially, donors and civil society
organizations expressed concern that the overall normalization
process had been slow. However, with the assistance of UN
agencies and with international support, the government took
measures to expedite the resettlement of Tamil civilians,
particularly those living in camps. According to UN sources,

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national security and special development projects. The ad

hoc High Security Zones in Thirumurigandi, Shanthapuram
and Indupuram, covering the districts of Mullaitivu and
Killinochchi, have also contributed to this problem. The people
originally from these areas continue to live in camps as they
cannot return (Sumanthiran: 2011).

the resettlement programme initiated by the government has

accommodated the return of 421,056 civilians (126,524
families) to their homes and communities by the end of 2011
(UNOCHA: Nov-Dec, 2011). The government claims that
95% of the IDPs displaced from the Vanni during the last
two years of the war have been resettled. (Fonseka and
Raheem: 2011, 64). The UN and donors welcomed this
initiative of the government. However, there are still issues
remaining with regard to the resettlement of IDPs.

With regard to normalization, militarization is a key obstacle

in the North and East. While militarization has increased with
regard to security, it has also been incorporated into civilian
life. Due to the increasing presence of the armed forces in
the North, the civilian-military ratio has been dramatically
increased in favour of the military. The armed forces continue
to occupy land belonging to the Tamil people. It is estimated
that there is one member of the armed forces for
approximately one civilian in the North (Sumanthiran: 2011).
The military has also begun to get increasingly involved in
economic activities in the North by running shops for
example, barbershops, grocery shops, restaurants, hotels and
vegetable shops. The government appears to think that the
militarys involvement in civilian life is an essential part of its
campaign for winning the hearts and minds of the Tamil people
in the North. From the point of view of demilitarization and
normalization, it has negative consequences. The
governments preoccupation with security considerations in
the North has also led to some actions which people in the
North see as an undue intrusion of the military into their private
lives. For example, there have been many instances when
people had to obtain the permission of the military to receive
guests and to have family functions. The blurring of the lines
between civilian and military functions of the administration
in the North and East is a continuing challenge for
normalization which requires gradual demilitarization. Still,
governors of these two provinces are ex-military officials.
The governments lack of understanding of the importance
of demilitarization to normalization continues to deepen the
Tamil peoples sense of alienation from the Sri Lankan state.

Returning itself, is a challenge for the IDPs, as they have to

rebuild their lives, in most instances from scratch. Members
of the Muslim community who have returned to their old
villagers after nearly two decades are specifically facing this
challenge. In many other instances, IDPs are not permitted
to return to their own homes and land, even though they are
allowed back to the old village or the divisional secretariat
(DS) division. Thus, relocation has created new challenges
of normalization to those returned IDPs. Those people who
do not have IDP status as a result of deregistration still remain
practically displaced. As of 31 October 2011, there were at
least 1,114 IDPs (311 families) living in transit situations and
34,671 (12,138 families) with host families (UNOCHA Report
37, 2011). At the end of November 2011, 6,732 IDPs (2,044
families) remained in camps awaiting return to their areas of
origin (UNOCHA, November-December 2011). The ones
who have retuned are also facing issues concerning the lack
of basic facilities such as housing, sanitation, education and
health care. Kokkilai in the Mullaitivu District, and
Krishnapuram and Vinayakapuram in the Killinochchi District,
are examples (Sumanthiran: 2011).
Other than the IDPs, there is also a community of refugees
living abroad. According to UNHCR statistics, there are at
least 141,074 officially registered refugees from Sri Lanka
who are living abroad. Despite the availability of programmes
to accommodate the return of refugees, the number of
returnees has been low in 2011, only 1,680. The main challenge
in this regard remains the lack of confidence among the
refugees to return to Sri Lanka, due to feelings of political
uncertainty, potential economic hardship and insecurity
(Fonseka and Raheem: 2011).

External Relations and Controversies

he year 2011 demonstrated once again the continuation
of the shift in foreign relations that the UPFA government
under President Mahinda Rajapaksa inaugurated during the
last phase of the war against the LTTE. In 2009 and 2010,
there were clear signs of Sri Lankas foreign policy taking a
new turn towards closer relationships with China and Russia
in a context of growing tension in the relationships with the
US, EU, other western countries and the UN. The main
reason for tension with the West and the UN was the Sri
Lankan governments unwillingness to respond to their
insistence that the government should begin a post-war

The land policy undertaken by the government has become

central to most problems related to the return of civilians and
their resettlement. Access to land is crucial to secured
livelihood. The issuing of the Land Commission Departments
circular no. 2011/04 on 22 July 2011 aggravated the land
problem of the returnees. This circular temporarily suspended
the distribution of land in the North and the East, except for
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2nd Proof - 22.06.2009

reconciliation process as understood and outlined by them.

The Sri Lankan government was particularly unhappy with
two points that were emphasized by the UN secretary general
and western governments. They were: (a) setting up a
credible domestic mechanism to investigate the allegations
of war crimes during the last phase of the war as a step
towards reconciliation, and (b) taking political measures to
resolve the ethnic conflict politically through devolution and
power-sharing.

Channel 4 Video Documentary

he controversy on the alleged war crimes took a
particularly intense turn when a British TV channel,
Channel 4, released on 14 June 2011 a video documentary
entitled The Killing Fields. The Channel 4 documentary
emerged against a backdrop of an intense controversy caused
by a report submitted to the UN secretary-general in 2010
by an advisory panel.

While releasing the film, Channel 4 claimed that the film

featured devastating new evidence of alleged war crimes
in Sri Lanka. The film was screened in several world capitals
and at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva when the
UNHRC session was underway. The film soon became a
medium through which western governments and human
rights organizations put pressure on the Sri Lankan
government to prove their point that there had been credible
and serious allegations of war crimes that warranted a
domestic or international inquiry. The UN Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof
Heyns, was reported to have said, after viewing The Killing
Fields that the documentary contained footage that was
evidence of definitive war crimes (Sunday Times, 19 June
2011).

Regarding a third point on which the West and UN insisted,

the government seemed to be in agreement. This concerned
the immediate resettlement of displaced Tamil civilians and
their rehabilitation, along with a programme of economic and
infrastructural development in the North and East. The
government in fact worked in close cooperation with UN
agencies and western governments on rehabilitation and
resettlement programmes.
The UN Panel Report
major political issue that remained intensely controversial
throughout 2011 was the report by the UN panel
submitted on 12 April and released a few days later. The UN
panel was appointed by Secretary General Ban-ki Moon to
examine modalities, applicable international standards and
comparative experience with regard to accountability
processes. The three-member panel was also asked to
consider the nature and scope of any alleged violations of
international humanitarian and human rights law during the
final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka. The secretarygeneral claimed that the appointment of the panel followed
the joint statement made by him and President Rajapaksa
after the secretary-general visited Sri Lanka shortly after
the end of the war in May 2009.

The governments response was that the film was totally

biased against the Sri Lankan government, and based on
dubious material that could not be verified. Technical experts
consulted by the government even determined that some of
the footage of the documentary was not genuine. Channel 4
stood by its claim to authenticity of the footage. The
government in turn produced its own video film entitled Lies
Agreed Upon? and screened it in foreign capitals.
Regarding the agenda for reconciliation and a political solution,
the governments position has been that: (a) there were no
war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military during the
war, and (b) the political solution was not actually necessary
while the governments commitment was to a home grown
solution, as opposed to an externally inspired solution. The
Sri Lankan government appeared to be particularly unhappy
with the insistence by western governments that there should
be a credible domestic inquiry into allegations of war crimes,
as proposed in the UN panel report. Occasionally, the
government also hinted at the possibility of a western plan
for direct intervention in Sri Lanka for a regime change on
the pretext of war crimes investigations. Consolidating
economic and political relations with China and Russia, two
members states of the UN Security Council, became a foreign
policy priority for the government in 2011.

The panel reported that there were a number of allegations

of serious violations of international humanitarian and human
rights law committed by both the LTTE and the government
of Sri Lanka, some of which could amount to war crimes
and crimes against humanity. The panel also recommended
that the government of Sri Lanka should respond to the
serious allegations by initiating an effective accountability
process beginning with genuine investigations.
The response of the Sri Lankan government was total
rejection of the panel report. The government asserted that
the report was fundamentally flawed and based on biased
material without any verification. The government also took
the position that the reports recommendations amounted to
undue interference with the sovereignty of Sri Lanka by the
UN.
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Thus, 2011 is the year in which the issue of war crimes

investigations dominated Sri Lankas domestic political debate
as well as the Rajapaksa administrations foreign relations.
While aggressively and assertively campaigning against
western and UN insistence on investigations on alleged war
crimes, and steering the countrys foreign policy along a new
Beijing-Moscow axis, the government also made use of the
threat of war crimes investigations in its propaganda to
bolster public support. During the local government elections
campaign in June 2011, President Rajapaksa repeatedly
brought up this issue, to portray himself, his government and
the armed forces as targets and victims of western and
colonial hostility.

would lead to Indias losing its own sphere of influence. China

provided more military assistance to Sri Lanka than India
during the war against the LTTE. China has also emerged as
the major source of economic backing to the Sri Lankan
government, investing particularly in port and infrastructure
development, and cooperating in defence matters.
Cultivating closer economic and political ties with China and
Russia is crucial for the Rajapaksa administrations domestic
and foreign policy agendas. The government needs their
backing at the UN, particulary in the Security Council, in
case the West initiates a process of war crimes investigation.
Closer economic ties with the two countries have assumed a
new significance in the context of the governments tense
relations with the US and EU countries. Earlier, Sri Lanka
lost concessionary access to the EU market when the GSP
Plus facility was suspended in July 2010. The government
has also been unhappy with the political conditionalities
attached to western economic assistance. The EU conditions
on the improvement of Sri Lankas domestic human rights
and labour standards were clearly seen by the government
as an arbitrary, political interference. China, Russia and even
Japan follow a policy of closer economic relations with Sri
Lanka, with no overtly political conditions a imposed.

Relations with India and China

anaging relations with India has been a particularly
complex task for the Rajapaksa administration in 2011
as well. The complexity arose from two sources. The first is
the Indian governments insistence that the Sri Lankan
government should implement, without delay, a political
solution to the ethnic conflict through a dialogue with the
TNA. The second was the growing closeness of Sri Lanka
with China, particularly in the aftermath of the war. With
regard to the Indian governments emphasis on a political
solution, the Rajapaksa governments wavering commitment
to a political solution based on devolution had led to some
concerns in Tamil Nadu as well as New Delhi. As a sponsor
of the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution in 1987, the
Indian government continued to hold the view that devolution
as laid down in the 13th Amendment should constitute the
base for a post-conflict settlement process. The Indian
governments enthusiasm for a devolution-based political
solution was not totally shared by the government of President
Rajapaksa. President Rajapaksa appears to view the 13th
Amendment as being an externally imposed and, therefore,
unacceptable solution to Sri Lankas homemade conflict. He
has also indicated that the 13th Amendment offers too much
power to provincial councils.

Reconciliation
he issue of post-war reconciliation has repeatedly
surfaced in 2011 in Sri Lankas domestic politics as well
as in foreign relations. The UPFA governments strategy has
been to shield itself from western pressure for war crimes
inquiries by insisting that the government prefers a homegrown process of reconciliation. While launching a domestic
and international campaign to question, critique and
delegitimize the UN panel report, which had suggested an
international process of inquiry, the government insisted that
it had already initiated a domestic process for investigation
and reconciliation through the Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The LLRC was
appointed by President Rajapaksa on 19 May 2010 with a
broad mandate to inquire into the following matters that may
have taken place during the period between 21 February 2002
and 19 May 2009:

The China factor in Indo-Lanka relations has geopolitical

implications. Apart from India-China rivalry that goes back
to the 1960s, Chinas aggressive pursuit of its presence in
the South Asian region has posed new challenges to India,
which has viewed South Asia as well as the Indian Ocean as
its legitimate sphere of presence and influence. China has
also been backing Pakistan, Indias rival in South Asia. Closer
cooperation with Nepal and Bangladesh has also enabled
China to emerge as an influential extraregional actor in South
Asia. The concern in India is built around the apprehension
that Chinas economic and political presence in South Asia

The facts and circumstances that led to the failure of the

ceasefire agreement operationalized on 21 February 2002
and the sequence of events that followed thereafter up to 19
May 2009;
Whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly
bears responsibility in this regard;

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2nd Proof - 22.06.2009

The lessons to be learned from those events and their

between Tamil citizens and administrative agencies. On socioeconomic and livelihood issues, the recommendation was to
encourage the free movement of persons on the A9 road
and greater coordination between military and civilian officials
for normalization of civil administration.

attendant concerns, in order to ensure that there will be no

recurrence;
The methodology whereby restitution to any person affected
by those events or their dependants or their heirs can be
effected;
The institutional administrative and legislative measures that
need to be taken in order to prevent any recurrence of such
concerns in the future, and to promote further national unity
and the reconciliation among all communities, and to make
any such other recommendations with reference to any of
the matters that have been inquired into under the terms of
the warrant.

The government appointed the Inter-Agency Advisory

Committee to implement the recommendations. However,
even in 2011, the progress of the implementation of the
recommendation has been slow.
This provided a backdrop for a new debate in 2011 about the
role of the LLRC in the reconciliation process. Western
governments and international human rights organizations
began to suggest that the final report of the LLRC should
address the allegation of war crimes. Some critics expressed
serious doubt about the role of the LLRC, even though the
government described the LLRC as a credible, domestic
accountability mechanism, capable of delivering justice and
promoting reconciliation. For example, Amnesty International
in a statement issued on 7 September 2011 stated that the
LLRC, in reality, was flawed at every level: in mandate,
composition and practice and called for an international,
independent investigation into allegations of war crimes. The
government, while dismissing these criticisms as premature
and unwarranted, proposed to its critics to wait for the LLRCs
final report. In fact, when the LLRCs final report was
submitted to the president on 15 November 2011, there were
also domestic and international expectations that it would
prove its critics wrong.

The government also argued that since the LLRC was the
beginning of a domestic process, the international actors
should allow this process to function before calling for any
international inquiry. However, critics of the governments
approach have found the LLRC process both inadequate and
faulty. For example, the New York-based Human Rights
Watch, which has been monitoring Sri Lankas political and
human rights issues, commented in its report on Sri Lanka in
2010 that the LLRCs mandate did not explicitly require it
to investigate alleged war crimes during the conflict, nor has
the LLRC shown any apparent interest in investigating such
allegations in its hearings to date (Human Rights Watch:2011)
LLRC Interim Report
he LLRC, having heard public evidence, submitted an
interim report in August 2010 making recommendations
to the government in five areas, namely, (i) detention, (ii)
land issues, (iii) law and order, (iv) administration and language
issues, and (v) socio-economic and livelihood issues. With
regard to detention, the interim report proposed the creation
of a special mechanism to examine the cases of Tamils
held as LTTE suspects and recommend an appropriate course
of action on each case. The report also proposed to set up a
special unit at the Ministry of Justice to publish the list of
names of persons in detention and to prevent the arbitrary
arrest of those released. On land issues, the commission
wanted the government to issue a clear policy statement that
private land would not be taken over by the state for
resettlement purposes. On the question of law and order in
the North and East, arising out of the presence of armed
groups engaged in extortion, abduction and other criminal
activities, the recommendation was to initiate measures
necessary to disarm such armed groups. On administration
and language issues, the interim report recommended taking
steps to provide interpreters to facilitate communication

The key recommendations of the LLRC, made in its final

report, can be summarized under four thematic headings, as
follows:
i. Investigations: (a) The report recommended further
investigation of some incidents that caused death or injury to
civilians to determine the possible involvement of security
forces, (b) investigations into specific allegations of
disappearance after surrender or arrest, (c) appointment of
a special commissioner to inquire into allegations of
disappearance, (d) inquiry into alleged incidents of serious
violations of human rights, including the killing of 4 students
in Trincomalee in 2006 and of 17 aid workers in Muthur, and
(e) an independent investigation into the Channel 4 video.
ii. Improving the Human Rights Situation: Other than
the above proposed investigations, the LLRC recommended
the appointment of an independent advisory committee to
monitor and examine detention and arrest of persons under
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any regulations made under the Public Security Ordinance

or the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The LLRC did
not recommend the repeal of either the emergency laws or
the PTA. Other recommendations to improve the human rights
situation were: (a) framing domestic legislation to specifically
criminalize enforced or involuntary disappearances, (b)
preparing a centralized and comprehensive database
containing a list of detainees and make the list available to
their next of kin, and (c) disarming of all illegal armed groups.

Sambanthan, the TNA leader, described the LLRC report as

having categorically fail[ed] to effectively and meaningfully
deal with issues of accountability(The Hindu,19 Dec, 2007)
(The Hindu, 19, December, 2011) The TNAs response was
specifically critical of the reports finding that the government
security forces had given the highest priority to the protection
of civilians in their offensive against the LTTE. The report
also concluded that the security forces had not deliberately
targeted civilians in the No-Fire Zones during the last phase
of the war. This finding went against the assertions made in
the UN panel report as well as the position taken by the
TNA and international human rights organizations. The TNA
renewed its call for a full investigation of the allegations of
war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both
the Tamil Tigers and the government forces.

iii.Resettlement and Normalization of Civilian Life: (a)

granting legal ownership of land to those who have been
resettled, (b) creation of increased employment opportunities
to those in the former conflict-affected areas, (c) non-use of
the land policy of the governments as an instrument to effect
changes in the demographic pattern of a given province, (d)
setting up a National Land Commission (NLC) in order to
propose appropriate future national land policy guidelines, (e)
providing compensatory relief for persons affected by the
conflict (including ex-LTTE combatants and next of kin), and
(f) phasing out the involvement of security forces in civilian
activities in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

The initial reactions from western countries were somewhat

cautious, but skeptical. Lady Catherine Ashton, the EUs High
Representative for Foreign Affairs, in a statement issued on
16 December 2011, expressed the hope that the report would
contribute to the process of reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
She also encouraged the Sri Lankan government to engage
with the UN Secretary General and the relevant UN bodies
on the issue of accountability. 1 India too expressed a
somewhat similar hope, but stressed issues of reconciliation
and devolution. A spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry
expressed the hope that the Sri Lankan government would
act decisively and with vision on devolution of powers and
national reconciliation. India also stressed the importance of
putting in place an independent and credible mechanism to
investigate allegations of human rights violations, as brought
out by the LLRC. (Sunday Times, 26 Dec, 2011).

iv. Reconciliation and Peace-building: (a) making an effort

in good faith to develop a consensus on devolution of power
and building on what exists for maximum possible devolution
to the periphery as well as for power-sharing at the centre,
(b) enabling school children to learn each others language
and making the three-language policy compulsory in school
curriculum, (c) stationing in all government offices of Tamilspeaking officers at all times and bilingual officers in police
stations on a 24-hour basis, (d) designing a proactive policy
to encourage mixed schools to serve children from different
ethnic and religious backgrounds, (e) engagement with hostile
diaspora groups constructively and address their concerns,
(f) singing of the national anthem both in Sinhalese and Tamil
languages, to the same tune, (g) strict enforcement of the
law prohibiting hate speech which would contribute to
communal disharmony, and (h) declaration of a separate event
and date to express solidarity and empathy with all victims of
the conflict.

(To be Continued,. Vol. 6 No. 5)

Endnotes
1
Statement by the spokesperson for EU High Representative
Catherine Ashton on the publication of the report of Sri Lankas
Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. Available on http:/
/www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/
foraff/127030.pdf.

The reactions to the LLRC report have been mixed. Indeed,

opinion became sharply polarized between the government
and its supporters on the one hand, and critics of the
government and the LLRC on the other. While the government
and its spokesmen saw the report as showing the way
forward, external critics were quick to highlight its
inadequacies and shortcomings. The strongest reaction came
from the TNA, the main Tamil parliamentary party. R.

References
Fonseka, B., and Raheem, M. 2011. Land in the Northern Province:
Post War Politics, Policy and Practices, Colombo: Centre for Policy
Alternatives.
Government of Sri Lanka. 2011. Extraordinary Gazette No. 1699/
35. Colombo: Government of Sri Lanka, 31 March.

11
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Human Rights Watch, World Report 2011: Sri Lanka.

Sumanthiran, M.A. 2011. Situation in North-Eastern Sri Lanka: A

Series of Serious Concerns. 23 October. dbsjeyaraj.com: http://
dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/2759 (retrieved 6 February 2012).

Ministry of Mass Media and Information. 2011. Registration of

the Websites Has Been Started. 8 November. http://
www.media.gov.lk/news-events-349.htm (retrieved 6 February
2012).

UNOCHA. 2011. Joint Humanitarian and Early Recovery Update.

Colombo: UNOCHA, November-December.
UNOCHA. 2011. Joint Humanitarian and Early Recovery Update.
Report 37. Colombo: UNOCHA.

Polls Chief Regrets Misuse of State Media, Daily Mirror, 19

March 2011.
Skanthakumar, B. 2011. Silent and Powerless the Human Rights
Commission of Sri Lanka in 2010. http://www.sacw.net/IMG/pdf/
Silent_and_Powerless_ANNI_Report_2011.pdf (retrieved 6
February 2012.

Dr. Jayadeva Uyangoda is a Professor of Political Science University of Colombo, Pradeep Peiris is a doctoral student in
Political Science at the University of Colombo.

Available From the Suriya Bookshop

Social Scientists' Association

No. 12, Sulaiman Terrace
Colombo - 05
12
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SECULAR THOUGHTS
Without equality, democracy and social justice, which are three interrelated factors, secularism cannot exist as a
positive value in society.

K.N. Panikkar
This essay is based on a paper presented at a seminar
organized by Social Scientist and SAHMAT in New Delhi
to felicitate historian Romila Thapar and her contribution
to secularism.

in the struggles of the present. So it was during the recent

Hindu communal resurgence, using history as a means of
mobilization. In countering the misuse of the past, Romilas
study and interpretation of ancient Indian civilization has
served as a major intellectual resource.

omila Thapar counters the misuse of the past; her

study and interpretation of ancient Indian civilization has
served as a major intellectual resource.

The importance of Romilas work is not limited to the retrieval

of secular history from the biased interpretations of colonial
and communal historians, which in a variety of ways many
others also have accomplished. Her contribution is of a
different order, marked by a qualitative change in the prevalent
method of historical reconstruction. Her intellectual journey
from the times of her initial research on the history of Asoka
to the more recent interpretation of the Somanath temple
episode reflects a quality of scholarship ever vigilant to engage
with the latest trends in the discipline.

Secularism in India appears to have begun its journey with a

dead weight around its neck an irreconcilable resolution of
realizing communal harmony without creating the material
and ideological foundations to generate and sustain it. Without
equality, democracy and social justice, which are three
interrelated factors, secularism cannot exist as appositive
value in society.

Not that alone. She combines with remarkable ease scholarly

pursuit with social commitment in a manner that her wellinformed opinion lends direction to many a public issue. The
controversy over the Babri Masjid is perhaps the most wellknown example. In the campaign against the political abuse
of history, a term she coined, during those difficult days of
Hindutva resurgence, exploiting the history of Ayodhya,
Romila was in the forefront writing, speaking, protesting
and fasting in defence of the ideals of secularism. The Hindu
communal cabal hated her because they could not disprove
her facts or refute her interpretation or contradict her
arguments. At the same time, she entertained serious
reservations about the practice of secularism, particularly its
pursuit by the state. It is most appropriate, therefore, that the
seminar to felicitate her is devoted to a critical reappraisal of
the way secularism was conceived and practiced.

I HAVE known Prof. Romila Thapar for about 45 years,

most of it as a colleague at the Centre for Historical Studies
of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Romila, as she
is called by almost everybody from her eight-year-old
grandnephew to all of us present here had helped to set up,
organize and give a distinct academic orientation to the centre.
Her commitment to the interest of the centre has always
been a notch above personal considerations, a principle
without which no institution of excellence can be built. The
exacting standards she set for colleagues and students by
her personal example of continuous scholarly pursuits provided
the ambience for the academic work of the centre. That she
has been a team person who believes in democratic
functioning of institutions has accentuated the quality of her
contribution.
In the field of historical research, Romilas works stand apart,
both in narration and in interpretation. The writing of ancient
Indian history during the post-Independence era found in her
one of its outstanding practitioners, who brought together
modes of analysis and interpretation with a theoretically
nuanced innovative methodology. The quality of her
contribution to historical scholarship is so well known that it
needs no reiteration, so also the fact that the large corpus of
her work has been a major intervention in contemporary social
and political life. The past often figures as a powerful force

Debate on Secularism
he concern of academic debate and public discussion as
well as creative representation of secularism has been
mainly political: the relationship between state and religion,
interrelationship between different communities, and
interdependence of secularism and democracy. A common
bond connecting these three issues is the quest for religious
harmony, which in course of time came to be identified with
secularism. In politics, almost everybody swears by it although

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very few practise it. The identity of secularism with religious

harmony is well pronounced in creative representation. The
popular Hindi film industry, for instance, has exploited its
emotional possibilities in blockbusters such as Sholay and
Zanjeer by celebrating the sacrifice of characters committed
to the pursuit of religious harmony. In contrast, serious cinema
has demonstrated how fragile the commitment to religious
harmony can be, as was so brilliantly captured in Govind
Nihlanis Tamas, based on Bisham Sahnis novel by the same
name. The journey from Sholay to Tamas indicates the vast
areas of emotion, consciousness and culture that still remain
unexplored both in academic investigations and in creative
representations. As secularism appears to be weakening in
the face of the more emotional appeal of communalism,
understanding the vicissitudes of the former beyond their
political dimension demands closer attention.

failure of secularization in Indian society. Its origin can be

traced to the emergence of a public sphere which provided
the space for a rational critique of religious practices. The
Indian experience shared some of the general features,
particularly the attempt to reduce the dependence upon supra
human agency and to narrow down the areas of life in which
religious ideas, symbols and institutions held sway, but had
its own specific character, influenced by social, cultural and
political specificities. Yet, the process of secularization that
Indian society had experienced was qualitatively different
from what happened in most other countries, including
countries in Europe. In Europe, secularisation was integral
to the intellectual and cultural movements represented by
the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Central to these
movements was the influence of humanism, which accorded
primacy to human beings and their problems of existence.
Even if the social depth and intellectual intensity were missing,
the Indian historical experience was not devoid of an effort
to privilege the secular. However, the social base of
secularization in India being a weak and culturally colonized
middle class, it was incapable of ushering in an intellectual
and cultural transformation, which would lay the foundations
of a modern society.

Looking back from the vantage point of 63 years experience,

the practice of Indian secularism presents a mixed bag of
achievements and failures. It has succeeded in weathering
one crisis after another, so much so that all discussions on
secularism start and end with a consideration of either past
or impending crises. Yet, secularism has withstood the
intellectual scepticism about its relevance by the critics of
modernity or its rejection as an alien system by communal
ideologues. Moreover, legal and institutional structures have
managed to safeguard the secular space through
constitutionally guaranteed public institutions. It is indeed true
that aberrations have taken place in all these spheres, yet
secularism has survived, often precariously, but nevertheless
with sufficient strength to make the system work. As Martha
Nussbaum has observed, Indian society had reached the brink
of religious fascism, but had successfully pulled back, not
because of the tactical error of communal forces but most
probably because of a tradition the popular commitment to
secularism.

Yet, the colonial period did witness a rational critique of

religious practices, a humanist alternative for social ethics
and a universalist philosophy for social harmony. In the
absence of a social base powerful enough to nurture these
ideas, they could not usher in a secular alternative that could
transgress the caste and religious boundaries and create an
independent ethical code. This was compounded by the nature
of social and religious reform which, instead of dissolving
caste and religious influence, tended to reinforce them. As a
consequence, social identities were built around primordial
loyalties, which served as a major factor in the making of
political consciousness. This trajectory of social development
forced the secular to retreat into the space in which religious
ideologies held their sway. The Indian form of secularism
struck roots in this space dominated by religious ideologies,
the formation of which was partly aided by the socio-religious
reform and partly by the intervention of the colonial state.

It was because of this commitment that the country overcame

the trauma of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, responded
powerfully to the massacre of the minorities in Gujarat
orchestrated by the local government, and denounced the
attack on Christians in Kandhamal by Hindu fundamentalist
groups. On all these occasions, Indian secularism asserted
itself in a manner that forestalled any further disruptions.

Communitarian Context
he character of secularism in India can be understood
only in the context of the social composition and cultural
make-up of its society. The communities of the pre-colonial
period, experienced in their local settings, both material and
ideological, a fundamental change during the colonial
administration. A feature that influenced this process was
the religionization of small and diverse communities that

Secularization
his is not to suggest that the biography of Indian secularism
can be written as a success story. Far from it. The
assaults on secularism witnessed in the recent past were
partly a symptom of the weaknesses some might even say

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existed on the basis of their economic and social functions.

Their sense of identity, circumscribed by the local conditions,
was slowly eroded by the forces unleashed by colonial rule.
The 4,000-odd communities that the Anthropological Survey
of India had identified, on the basis of their life patterns, belief
systems and social structure, eventually came within the
parametres of one religion or the other. The constitution of
religious communities was thus a predominantly colonial
phenomenon. In pre-colonial times, religion was a perceived
and experienced reality, but it did not generate trans-local
consciousness. A partial change occurred because of the
community-based conception of society and consequent
administrative measures propagated by colonial rule.

times, it became more extensive and frequent under

colonialism.
Apart from the mobility due to administrative and military
reasons, there was also movement for personal reasons. In
1830, Engula Veeraswamy went on a Kasi yatra from Madras
and wrote a journal describing the land and the people he
encountered. Similarly, Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versikar, a
Chitpavan Brahmin, travelled to North India in 1857 for
rendering religious services, and his experience on the way
sensitized him about the popular sentiments against colonial
rule. He also has recorded his experience in a travelogue.
The experience of Veeraswamy and Versikar was part of
the formation of a larger communitarian identity. A
consequence of this physical mobility was that by the middle
of the 19th century the social horizon of the people had
transgressed local boundaries.

Communal conflicts, which became quite frequent during the

colonial administration, further strengthened community
consciousness. For the colonial state the conflicts were not
politically unwelcome. Administratively, however, it was
necessary to contain them. As a result, two strategies were
employed by the colonial state for their resolution: suppression
of violence, on the one hand, and the creation and
incorporation of civil society into the colonial system, on the
other. The first was invoked when violence threatened to
disrupt the normal transactions, and the second, as a longterm policy of hegemonisation. In pursuit of the second the
government gave representation to Indians in administrative,
legislative and advisory bodies on the basis of a fair distribution
of patronage to the members of different religious
communities. Be it representation in the organizations
sponsored by the colonial government to ensure its presence
and influence in civil society or elections to legislative councils
or nomination to executive and advisory bodies, the
government took care to distribute patronage according to
community affiliation. The official recognition of the
representative character to religious communities had
unintended consequences: first, it facilitated the construction
of internal solidarity and cohesion of communities, and
secondly, it imparted to the communities an overarching
character.

The process of secularization occurring in the context of the

historical experience encapsulated above had led to a
rearticulation of the relationship between state and religion
as well as of different religious communities. What the Indian
form of secularism did was to address these two dimensions,
but without ensuring the social reach of democracy and justice
and, more grievously, without effecting cultural equality. As
a result, both state- and society-centric approaches to
secularism were exclusively enclosed in the problematic of
religious consciousness and hence led to continuous tension
between the religious and material conditions of existence.
The former was concerned with the relationship between
state and religion while the latter focussed on inter-religious
relations. Jawaharlal Nehru had told Andre Malraux that
the secular project in India was not limited to the creation of
a secular state in a religious society, but the creation of a
secular state in a multi-religious society.
This important distinction demanded a three-way resolution:
first, determining the relationship between state and religion;
secondly, assigning relative distance between state and
different religious communities; and thirdly, ensuring
harmonious relationship between communities. The solution
proffered was the incorporation of all three issues within a
single remedy namely, secularization of the relationship
between the state, religion and community. The solution was
based on an Enlightenment view of religion which opposed
revelation, dogmatism and superstition. At the same time
religion as such was not rejected.

The formation of communities was aided by colonialism in

yet another, even if indirect, manner. The changes in the
system of communication and improvement in infrastructural
facilities brought about by colonial modernization, in however
limited a manner, considerably increased physical mobility
across the country. The pan-Indian religious communities
were no more an object of imagination alone; instead they
became part of the experienced reality. Although travel for
pilgrimage and trade was common even during pre-colonial

Having thus ensured that the Indian state would not be

irreligious or anti-religious, the principle of neutrality
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towards all religions was adopted. The intercommunity

relationship was a more difficult issue, as it was integral to
social consciousness, which can be created only through
continuous intervention. In the light of such an understanding
and approach, the secular project tended to work towards
the realization of religious harmony. But secularism is not a
product of religious harmony. In fact, religious harmony is
achievable only if secularism is in place. But in the conception
of secularism in India, religion was implicated in a manner
that the state could not dissociate itself from religious matters.
Moreover, the realization of secularism depended upon its
reconceptualization with secular political and cultural values
embedded in it. But the conception of religious harmony as
secularism was not sufficiently inclusive to realize this
possibility.

Several histories have been written and continue to be written

to elaborate this thesis. The secular history, however, is not
necessarily the history of secular rulers or of secular
tendencies. The secular is implicated in the historical process
as a whole, namely, in the social, cultural and ideological realm
of social existence and their representations. A departure
from a communitarian view is therefore a necessary step if
secular history is to be retrieved from the problematic of
religious harmony. Much of the energy of secular history has
been expended for disproving the colonial and communal view
of the Indian past being the history of continuous struggles
between religious communities and for establishing the
tradition of harmonious relations of religious communities.
The new directions in secular history have to seek out avenues
of historical investigations, like shared values, inclusive social
engagements and common cultural participation.

For realizing
Inclusiveness,
Cultural
Equality is
Essential.

An Alternative View
he inter-community relations have been so discredited in
the recent past by the incidence of intermittent religious
conflicts that secularism, it is argued, has reached a stage
beyond redemption. The inability of the state to observe
religious neutrality and to maintain equidistance from religions
and the resurgence of communalism which has compounded
it are the main reasons attributed to this discomfiture.
Moreover, secularism was posited exclusively within the
realm of religion, and other areas of human existence, like
culture and economy, were not incorporated into the secular
conception.

During his radical phase, Nehru had envisioned a modern

state completely dissociated from religious concerns. A
departure from it to accommodate religious pluralism was in
all probability due to the influence of Gandhi for whom religion
was the source of value for judging the worth of all worldly
goals and actions. The Mahatma, considered the spiritual
father of Indian secularism, sacrificed his life for HinduMuslim harmony; yet, harmony remained a distant dream.The
question, therefore, is that if religious harmony is not
secularism, what else constitutes it in a multi-religious society?
The answer perhaps lies in the ability of the state and society
to internalise values and ethics, informed by reason and
humanism. The social reality that the Indian form of secularism
has sought to address is religious plurality and the tensions
arising out of it, for which the peaceful coexistence of different
religions was adopted as the solution. History has been invoked
to trace its antecedents in religious harmony and cultural
synthesis from medieval times. As a part of this secular project,
Sufi and Bhakti traditions have been invoked, the contribution
of liberal rulers like Akbar has been celebrated, and the
composite nature of music, architecture, painting, and so on
was retrieved. The earliest representative view of this history
is the work of Tarachand who incidentally was handpicked
by Nehru to explain the Indian secular tradition to the Western
audience on the evolution of a composite culture through
Hindu-Muslim interaction.

Among the advocates of secularism, Jawaharlal Nehru was

quite conscious of the importance of taking cognisance of
the compulsions of material life. During his early radical phase,
he had emphasised the role of economy in the construction
of a secular society: The real thing to my mind is the
economic factor. If we lay stress on this and divert public
attention to it, we will find automatically that religious
differences recede to the background and a common bond
unites different groups. This opinion of Nehru can be
interpreted to mean that secularism can be a reality only
within the rubric of social justice. That is why Baba Saheb
Ambedkar considered secularism not only a political issue
but also a moral issue. In this, Gandhiji and Ambedkar appear
to share the same ground. But, in the final analysis, neither
Gandhis ethical notions nor Nehrus materialist ideas nor
Ambedkars sense of justice figured as the principles guiding
secularism.
The conception of secularism as religious harmony is based
on a monolithic view of religion, which does not take into
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is cultural equality; so also are democracy and social justice.

Without these three interrelated factors equality, democracy
and social justice secularism cannot exist as a positive value
in society.

account the differentiation within it. Within each religion there

are several cultural and social groups, between whom both
contradictions and complementarities exist. As a result,
religious pluralism and cultural pluralism connote entirely
different realities even though they are used as
interchangeable by many. The assumption of Indian
secularism that the tensions arising out of religious pluralism
can be overcome by harmony is unreal because of the cultural
and social hierarchies that exist within religion. Because of
the prevalence of these hierarchies, attempts to bring about
religious harmony cannot cover all followers of any religion.
The approach to secularism exclusively through inter-religious
relations cannot lead to an abiding solution.

The meaning of the Indian form of secularism, beyond interreligious harmony, which the Constitution had sought to
implement through practice, has not been internalised by state
and society. No definition of secularism was prescribed at
the time of adopting the Constitution or even when the concept
was introduced into it in 1976.The meaning, therefore, has
been a subject of unending debate. A clearer reformulation
of the concept and recovery of its meaning is now required
in the light of historical experience and contemporary realities.
It cannot be accomplished either by romanticising the
indigenous past or by dismissing the ability of vernacular
culture to engage with it. The alternative lies in imparting the
concept and the values of democracy and social justice and
cultural equality.

Being so, secularism in India appears to have begun its journey

with a dead weight around its neck. It carries the burden of
an irreconcilable resolution of realising communal harmony
without creating material and ideological foundations to
generate and sustain it. Implied in this reality is that the
communal harmony attempted at the religious level leaves
the internal contradictions untouched. The importance
attributed to religious harmony is indeed logical, given the
reality of a multi-religious society. But it is not sufficiently
inclusive to reconcile the cultural differences. For realising
inclusiveness, cultural plurality is not sufficient; what is
essential is cultural equality. The Indian form of secularism
draws upon cultural plurality, which does not dissolve but
accentuates differences and thus tends to undermine
secularism. Integral to the concept of secularism, therefore,

I would like to end by recalling what Prof. Romila Thapar

said in 2002 in her foreword to my book Before the Night
Falls: Forebodings of Fascism in India: Secularism has
to be retrieved from being a pale shadow of what is projected
as religious co-existence, to a system of values and actions
that come from insisting upon democratic functioning and
human rights. The success of secularism will depend upon
such a reorientation.
Courtesy Frontline

K.N. Panikkar was Professor of Modern Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)

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DAMBULLA MOSQUE CRISIS: NEEDED A POLICY FOR

MULTICULTURALISM AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION
Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
ri Lanka has a long and proud tradition of religious
coexistence, which is attested by the presence of
multireligious, sacred sites throughout the island, as well as
its uniquely mixed cultural geography. Buddhists, Christians,
Hindus and Muslims have historically shared public space.

where attempts are being made to relocate a mosque and

kovil. Unfortunately during the war, centuries of religious
coexistence were slowly eroded by ethno-armed actors and
nationalist politicians on all sides, as well as politicized religious
organizations.

The solution to the unfolding Dambulla Mosque crisis must

hence build on, protect and nurture these traditions of religious
syncretism, pluralism and coexistence in the country. After
years of conflict when the need of the hour is reconciliation
and social integration, the segregation or removal of
established shrines or places of worship would set a negative
precedent that amounts to a form of religious and ethnic
cleansing.

The current dispute is indicative of the need for a wider

national policy and institutional architecture and capacity to
pro-actively promote and mainstream multiculturalism in the
arts, religious establishments, as well as in the national
education system and curriculum, at wars end. Such an
initiative is in any case necessary for post-war reconciliation
so that the country may regain its proud traditions of
multireligious coexistence and pluralism that were eroded
during thirty years of armed conflict. There is need for a
formal space for interfaith dialogue and negotiation in the
interest of ethno-religious harmony when disputes arise, which
may best be convened by the Ministry of National Language
and Social Integration with the appropriate civil society
expertise and institutional capacity and perhaps the help of
UNESCO. Similarly, politicians and religious leaders must
take the initiative to foster a tolerant public sphere and enable
sharing of public religious space while respecting local
communities and minorities.

Kataragama, the Madhu shrine in Mannar and Sri Pada are

ancient and famous multireligious sites of worship, where
Hindus and Buddhists, as well as Muslims and Christians,
have come together for worship for centuries, as evident in
the countrys archaeological and historical records. For
instance, there is an ancient Sufi shrine in the Kataragama
sacred area that houses Hindu and Buddhist deities and related
religious complexes.
The British colonial administrator, John Still, recorded in his
book Jungle Tide, which was published over a hundred years
ago in 1911, that he witnessed a Muslim father bring his ill
son to the shrine at Madhu church, which was known to be a
powerful and healing sacred place. Sri Pada is a multireligious
site in the central hills. In contemporary religious practice a
majority of Lankans are pluralist and pragmatic, and tend to
gravitate to multiple religious sites to give alms and seek the
blessing and favour of various gods while hedging their bets,
so to speak. In Colombo it is not difficult to find a single small
street harbouring a kovil, mosque, temple and church each
next to the other (e.g., Mayra Place).

Dambulla is part of the cultural triangle area which is a world

heritage site as demarcated by the United Nations Education,
Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO.) Like other such
world heritage sites in the Southeast Asian region, several of
the Cultural Triangle sites epitomize Lankas Hindu-Buddhist
syncretic religious culture. This is similar to the great temple
complexes in Southeast Asia such as Angkor Wat and
Anchor Thom in Cambodia, and Borobudur and Prambanan
in Indonesia, which are adjacent Hindu and Buddhist
complexes from the Sri Vijaya period. It is relevant to note
here that Buddhism and Hinduism derive from the same
religious tradition, although Buddhism evolved as a critique
of certain Hindu traditions and practices in India and
contemporary Nepal. Buddhism also came to Lanka from
Tamil Nadu with the landing of Sangamitta, daughter of
Emperor Asoka, in Jaffna. Hinduism and Buddhism have
coexisted for centuries in Lanka as in many other parts of
south and east Asia.

Indeed, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board would do well to highlight

and market Lankas unique multireligious culture in its
brochures along with Lankas Buddhist heritage! These
historical facts should be the basis of any discussion,
negotiation and settlement of the current crisis in Dambulla,
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Erosion of Multicultural Co-existence

enturies of religious coexistence were slowly eroded
during the conflict years due to a deliberate targeting of
interethnic and interreligious ties and the LTTEs policy of
ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Sinhalese they perceived as
a security threat, as well as due to the lack of a policy to
promote and mainstream multiculturalism in the secondary
and tertiary education systems and ensure harmony and
coexistence. Post-war the challenge is to regain the
multicultural past and learn once again to share public religious
space while respecting local communities.

given Hinduism and Buddhisms common heritage in the

subcontinent and centuries of coexistence and tolerance,
Hindu-Buddhist ties have survived the worst days of the war
but are increasingly under pressure in the post-war period
with the rise of a militarized public religion. A pattern of land
grabbing that is destructive of centuries of cultural and religious
coexistence, and giving Buddhism (a highly tolerant religion)
a bad name, has emerged.

Multiculturalism in the Mixed Cultural Geography in Lanka

The Multicultural National Vision for Peace in Sri Lanka
defines multiculturalism thus:

As the Multicultural National Vision for Peace in Sri Lanka,

which was drafted after consultations in the various regions
of Sri Lanka in 2003, noted in its preamble:

Sri Lanka is a plural and multicultural land. Multiculturalism

refers to the islands cultural diversity inclusive of three
overlapping linguistic categories (speaking Sinhala, Tamil and
English, and regional dialects including Veddah languages);
four great world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and
Christianity, and their sects, as well as indigenous deities and
spirit beliefs); more than six ethnic groups recognized in the
National Census, and a number of overlapping and cross
cutting castes and sub-castes. Various ethno-national groups
based on linguistic, ethnic, regional and religious elements,
such as the Burghers (Dutch and Portuguese), Sinhalese
(Kandyan and Low Country), Tamils (Sri Lankan and
Malayaha), Muslims (Moor and Malay), Parsis, Colombo
Chetties, Vannialatto (Veddah) and several others have
emerged as significant identities; several of these categories
are composed of distinct sub-categories. Additionally, the
islands population may be sub-divided according to gender,
class, and regional cultures depending on the rational for
classification.[2]

Sri Lanka was long famous for its rich social diversity and
the harmonious co-existence of various communities. Since
independence, however, there has been a failure to define
and realize an inclusive national vision from the perspective
of this distinctive heritage. Instead, divisive politics and policies
have fostered deep social, cultural, political and economic
schisms and engendered violent armed conflict. The two
decades long armed struggle in the north (with primary focus
on ethno-linguistic difference) and the uprising in the south
(with primary focus on class disparity), reflect an inadequate
post-colonial national vision and strategy, and an inequitable
regional distribution of power and wealth we propose a
renewed and inclusive multicultural vision for the country
based on the principles of security and dignity for all groups
and persons, and respect for cultural and religious diversity.
Our attempt here is to address the causes of the conflict
while recognizing the deep scars that the violence of the last
decades has rendered upon the islands historically
multicultural society.

Sri Lankas cultural diversity and complex mix of identities is

not unique. Most modern nations are plural, diverse and
complex. However, in the postcolonial period, diversity has
been perceived as a threat rather than a gift. The result has
been marginalization and discrimination against smaller and
less powerful groups on linguistic, ethnic, religious, caste and/
or class bases, giving rise to various forms of violent political
conflict. In turn, many of these conflicts have resulted in
riots, attacks, forced displacement and/or colonization of
regions occupied by one community by another, and the
building of enclaves and territories dominated by one ethnic
group or another.

Since independence cultural and political discrimination in

governance, the lack of equitable development policies, and
failure to preserve and respect local and cultural knowledge
have become endemic. Competitive ethnic and religious
politics became institutionalized. Democracy came to
represent the tyranny of the majority, while a political culture
premised on the notion that might is right became entrenched
in the various regions of the island.
At times both parties in the war deliberately conceived to
destroy multicultural coexistence and benefit politicians and
or warlords in the country who sought power by playing the
ethnic and religious card to capture vote banks. However,

Acknowledgement of Sri Lankas ancient multiculturalism

and mixed cultural geography entails recognition that a majority
group in a region is bound to respect and protect those who

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are in the minority in that particular region. Every group or

individual is in a minority outside his/her own territory, region
or neighborhood, and in an increasingly integrated and
globalized region and world individuals and groups must be
free to move with security and dignity.

Pada, the Pada Yathra pilgrimage from Jaffna to Kataragama

along the east coast, etc.
2. Those responsible for the crisis in Dambulla, who broke
the law, propagated hate speech, disturbed the peace and
threatened religious harmony, with implications for all other
parts of the country, must be held accountable to ensure that
this does not happen in the future. Meanwhile the Buddhist
Sangha may hold an inquiry and discipline those political unBuddhist monks responsible for leading mobs and violating
Buddhist values, principles of tolerance, the dhamma and
vinaya, if found accountable.

A balance of power between regional/local majorities with

regard to respect and protection for the persons and property
of regional/local minorities is a sine qua non for sustainable
peace. It is also necessary to reverse the pattern of ethnic
ghettoization and ethnic cleansing of regional and local
minorities that occurred during the twenty years of armed
conflict and the riots prior to it in the north and south of the
country.

3. There is need for a Ministry to pro-actively promote and

mainstream multiculturalism and enable interfaith dialogue,
negotiation and ethno-religious harmony when disputes arise.
Such disputes need not and should not wait to be referred to
the highest in the land! Rather, independent expertise from
civil society and not just religious leaders and politicians (who
are often part of the problem by playing the ethnic card to
win votes, territory and power), need to be engaged. This is
particularly the case after thirty years of armed conflict and
as part of the reconciliation process. Perhaps UNESCO could
be invited to help build national capacity and institutions to
develop and mainstream a national policy for multiculturalism,
coexistence and reconciliation.

Several multireligious sites attest to a history of peaceful

coexistence among the various religious communities in the
island. These sites of multireligious significance are especially
to be celebrated in the aftermath of a polarizing conflict. We
propose that sites such as Sri Pada, Kataragama and Madhu
shrine, with their diverse traditions, be recognized and
celebrated as multireligious zones of peace and amity.
At this time, negotiation to ensure protection and
accommodation of the mosque and Hindu shrine, which were
long established prior to the establishment of the Dambulla
sacred area and are not unauthorized structures towards
ensuring that Lanka remains a multireligious space and
country, is necessary. The historical fact of sharing public
space among religions should be the basis of any discussion
and settlement of the current crisis in Dambulla, where
Buddhist and Muslims should be both accommodated in the
same place since both have the right to be there and own the
lands.

4. As the LRRC and the Multicultural National Vision for

Peace recommend, legislation and a bill on the Prevention
of Incitement to Racial and Ethno-religious Hatred should
be brought into effect so that those who indulge in hate speech
and attack people or property of other communities and turn
them into scapegoats may be held accountable.
Finally, as the United Nations World Conference Against
Racism affirmed in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, diversity
is a gift rather than a threat. The Sri Lanka Tourist Board
would do well to promote the island as a uniquely multireligious
land and organize a tour of Lankas multireligious sacred sites.
Finally, it is to be hoped that the month of May, when the
third anniversary of the end of war is celebrated, will be a
month of reconciliation and remembrance of the past, and of
present victims of violence from all religious and ethnic
communities in the island.

It is hence to be hoped that the solution to the Dambulla

crisis would:
1. Build on existing traditions of multireligious coexistence of
sharing of public space and religious syncretism in Sri Lanka,
which has a long and proud tradition of religious coexistence.
This tradition of religious coexiste is evident in historical
sacred places and contemporary practices Kataragama, Sri

Dr. Darini Rajasingham -Senanayake is a Social Anthropologist.

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WE HAVE TO HAVE MORE WOMEN IN POLITICS

Rosy Senanayake

ri Lanka was one of the forerunners in the fight for

universal suffrage since 1927; in this region we were one
of the first countries to give women the right to vote and
contest.

importance of ensuring that there is this mandatory inclusion

of women in politics, at least for a few terms.
The new Bill is a combination of proportional representation
and the first-past-the-post-system; therefore depending on
how many votes a certain party obtains, they are given a
number of candidates to be appointed. Therefore the United
National Party proposes that the first two or three individuals
who are nominated to the local government bodies are
women.

In 1931 when the battle was finally won we had 4.5 percent
in the council. However we are yet to move forward from
this achievement almost eighty years later there are only
13 women in an assembly of 225. In this context it is mandatory
that the fight for equal representation of women in decision
making bodies starts at the local government level.

Therefore the women do not necessarily need to contest but

she can help people to obtain the votes, therefore you will
have a certain number of women in each council. Sajith
Premadasa is also proposing an amendment to the Bill where
he proposes there be 50 percent youth and women, where
women get at least 25 percent mandatory representation.

In the proportional representation system it is very tough for

a woman to fight elections and win because there are a
number of stumbling blocks: the gun culture, character
assassination and the financial commitment. Therefore even
if a woman wanted to get into politics, their families would
never allow them because of all the hindrances. Even in
parliament with the exception of myself and one other, every
other woman had a ready made voter base.

We have to have more women at the grassroots level

representing their interests, because if you take India they
have over a million women at the grass roots level.

Therefore we are looking at the Local Government Bill that

is to be debated in parliament on the January 17. Previously
the Bill called for 40 percent mandatory youth representation
in the nomination list, however in the newer version of the bill
this has been changed to 25 percent mandatory women or
youth representation.

These are women who were totally discriminated and had

no political edge in the decision-making realm, but thanks to
Rajiv Gandhi who fifteen years ago brought in a quota at the
local level and now they have women actively involved in
representing the needs of their communities. Women have
proven to be more sincere, transparent and committed and it
has been proven that women do a better job than men.

Even this concessionary action was taken due to the fact

that we have a very strong Womens Movement in this
country comprising a number of political leaders such as Mrs
Ferial Ashraff and myself, as well as leaders from civil society
and nongovernmental organizations. A strong caucus of
women committed to improving the position of women in
decision-making institutions from every sphere, including the
supreme decision making body the parliament, and every other
possible sphere of life.

As a consequence of this successful exercise in 2010 on

International Womens Day, March 8, India brought in a Bill
to ensure 33 per cent female representation on the national
level. There was unanimous agreement, however they
wanted the Bill to be well debated and therefore had it passed
the following day.
If we compare ourselves with the rest of the region we are
lagging behind countries like Nepal, Maldives and Bangladesh.
These countries have implemented legislation that ensures
representation for women in positions of power. Furthermore
certain countries have an act on the landmark resolution on
Women, Peace and Security or the United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1325; however Sri Lanka has no such
act.

However this 25 percent of youth or women means nothing,

because it can be filled with either youth or women. I have
been fighting for at least 30 percent of mandatory
representation of women on the nominations list to ensure
that women have a prominent say starting from the local
government level. I have spoken to President Mahinda
Rajapaksa and Dinesh Gunawardene many times on the
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By no means should we stop the fight for equal representation

at the grassroots-level, because although Sri Lanka is a
signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and a number of
other conventions, we fail to have any proper legislation passed
in parliament in favour of women. Therefore having more
women in parliament will ensure that the protection of women
is ensured by law.

There are number of eminent women, who would be very

committed towards serving the nation in the political arena if
the environment was created for them. Female literacy
surpasses that of men and even when it comes to university
entrance women have the edge, however when it comes to
the decision making realm we find very few women represented
at the higher levels. This needs to change and the Local
Government Bill is the first step towards that change.

Rosy Senanayake is a Member of Parliament

Just Out From the SSA

The Political Economy

of Environment and
Development in a
Globalised World.
Essays in Honour of
Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam
Edited by
Darley Jose Kjosavik and Paul Vedeld

Rs. 1150/-

22
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BOOK REVIEWS

HARBOUR LIGHTS:
THE POETRY OF YVONNE GUNAWARDENA
Sarojini Jayawickrama
Gunawardena, Yvonne, 2011, Harbour Lights: More
Collected Poems, Colombo: Bay Owl Press, Pages, 82, Price
Rs. 700/-

Although much of Gunawardenes poetry is intensely personal,

her wide ranging vision focuses on a world beyond this private
one. The fate of a child in one of the bombed refugee camps
in Chatilla and Sabra engages her and inspires her poetry in
The Legacy. The `face glazed with hurt of `the little boy
in the torn shirt is seared into her mind and impels her to
write. She ponders over the deeper implications of the
carnage unleashed on the innocent, the cycle of hatred and
revenge inherited by the victims and the victimisers who will
follow the relentless maxim of an `eye for an eye.

he experience of living in countries and cultures other

than her own underlie many of Yvonne Gunawardenas
poems. Some have their context in Sri Lanka and are tinged
with nostalgia for a way of life she no longer experiences.
Others are animated by the expatriate life experience, in that
the sensibility, the perceptions and the perspective that moulds
them are generated by that specific experience. Her poetry
is structured into three sections, Now, Then and
Landscapes from Memory. These are not discrete
segments for themes from one seep into the other, as when
the past trespasses into the present or vice versa and creates
a different understanding of each.

She shifts her focus to events at home, from the boy in the
refugee camp bereft of his mother, to the mother who has
lost her son in a comparable situation of brutality and violence.
In Requiem for Richard, a poem powerful in its indictment
of senseless killing and violence, Gunawardena mourns the
loss of a young life cruelly cut off in its prime. `Weep, weep
one more body lies/low on a wind-whipped beach. / Howl,
howl before the evening dies. / Let them not silence you/
with phials of anodyne. These lines are framed as though
they are a chorus voiced by the castrati male singers in an
opera. The device is very potent, dramatising the scene and
investing the lines with a visual impact, the alliteration and
the assonance underscoring the cruelty of the murderous act.
She passionately asserts the importance of crying out against
such atrocities and keeping memory alive, `the flames fire
burning raging against the injustice of the killing.

Intensely emotional experiences release the springs of

creativity, and some of Gunawardenas most powerful and
moving poems are generated from such situations, ones that
resonate in the readers minds and touch a chord of empathy.
A marked feature of her poetry is the restraint and dignity
with which she handles and gives expression to her emotions.
In Visiting the Rose Garden she reins in her feelings at a
moment of intense personal grief. There is a poignant
evocation of death, the transience of life, and a belief in the
after- life, expressed in terms of natures cycle: the petals
will turn to ash and the ash/will, come spring, bring forth
more/roses. The movement of the lines focuses the
emphasis on `roses and the juxtaposition of the gorgeous
colours of the roses with the colourless grey ash reinforces
the contrast between life and death. Death is not presented
as an experience fraught with fear and dread but as a longed
for repose, ` ...now you will/ dream and sleep in the silence
your/inert flesh so craved. Death is not the destruction of
the physical self but its merging into oneness with nature, `...
We leave you/to be one with a thousand roses. The poem
ends with a sense of closure.

In a series of poems (in Then), Gunawardena explores

and analyzes her expatriate situation. An ambivalence marks
her stance towards her `adopted country England - in which
she has lived for over three decades and `transplanted, herself
in, ` ... a seed blown over/ from the distant tropics,
germinating/ here through some quirk of time. Letter to
England evinces this ambivalence. As a newcomer to the
country, the English springtime, the `pastel shading of the
landscape, `fields layered with greening cress, draws her to
the country, yet this feeling is not mutual. She senses an
absence of acceptance, and experiences a feeling of
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alienation. Englands response to her is one of indifference

and boredom even at her `intrusion into its society. She
reciprocates spiritedly, and in her turn `tests England at her
`chillest depths (the phrase functions at both the literal and
metaphorical planes), but succumbs once again to the beauty
of the spring and her mood softens. She is animated by
contending feelings of attraction to, and distancing from, the
country. This dialogic interplay of contradictory and shifting
viewpoints, moods and tones invests the poem with
complexity. In exploring and analyzing her own expatriate
condition Gunawardena reflects the predicament of most
expatriates who have traversed a similar path, uprooting
themselves from their own cultures and of necessity having
to transplant themselves in an unfamiliar one.

rooted here, so many centuries ago. They are not recent

expatriates but now have a sense of belonging to the country,
their forefathers having come many generations ago; no
longer do they suffer a feeling of being `alien.
Gunawardena crafts her poetry with an assured touch when
she writes of the home she has left but for which she has a
deep and abiding affection. Most of these poems are in
Landscapes of Memory, the segment which in my view
contain some of Gunewardenas best poetic compositions.
The seeds of these poems are in her memories of life in Sri
Lanka and they are refreshed and sharpened by experiencing
them in the Now on her intermittent visits to Sri Lanka.
They are sensitive vignettes of Sri Lankan life experiences
or idyllic word pictures as in To the Waterfall, a poem that
reveals Gunawardenas skilled employment of figurative
language. The images are tactile and visual and impact on
our sensory perceptions - the cascading water is a `...spray/
sliding down in veils of cool white/ foaming crystal
shimmering, moss -encrusted/ falls of water. These poems
also record memories of a charmed childhood shared with
her siblings. Recollected in the present (2008), they are
perhaps filmed over with a patina of idealisation. In some
instances she tends to romanticize the land (Coming in to
Land) - `...I see this island/ has a child - like innocence; its/
mountain ranges, spread out like / the wings of guardian
angels,/ glow euphoric with the rising sun.

Divisive Inheritance encapsulates the alienation

Gunawardena experiences in her `adopted home. A land of
`frozen people is how she perceives it. The image of `double
glazing, which shuts one in or out, conveys the isolation
imposed on her. Her wry comment on her `semi-detached
children underscores her negative response to life in England.
The coupling of `semi-detached children with `detached
houses makes its own witty and ironic comment. In the use
of imagery we see here a feature of Gunawardenas skilful
use of poetic devices where the image functions
synonymously on a literal and metaphorical plane, conveying
different layers of meaning; `frozen people, `semi-detached
children , and `double glazing all function in the same way,
concentrating a richness of meaning in brief telling phrases.

At first glance, The Elkaduwa Road (2009) presents `a

perfect world, a prelapsarian one where the `guava trees
are sun -kissed, and the `waterfall did not dry up. This ideal
world is undercut by being framed as a dream. It is only
illusory. Gunawardenas awareness that such perfection
can only be illusory and can find realisation only in a
dream world infuses the poem with nostalgia for a childhood,
and more significantly for a life, that cannot be re-experienced.

Other poems express Gunawardenas bonding with the country

from which she once felt distanced. Mornings in Regents
Park can be likened to a paean for Regents Park. In language
of luminous beauty, `sun-skimmed leaves, ` butterflies in their
rainbow rhythms, `the wisterias amethyst lushness, she
conveys the almost rapturous delight that fills her. As an artist
does with a palette of varied colours she paints a visual picture
using language creatively. `Regents Park is a celebration,
she says in a moment of epiphany, couching in lyrical terms
her response to its beauty and `limitless space.

Past memories have the immediacy of Now the present,

and her evocation of them in poems such as The Rains Came
to Wattegama is a graphic portrayal of the havoc unleashed
on the people by flood waters. We see here a characteristic
feature of her craft; her way of seeing things differently.
The devastation caused is seen as a divine chastisement: `You
prayed for rain and so it came/as if the Lord in his anger had
said,/Take this, and this and that and more,/take it all and
pay for it.. The punishment is remorseless and unrelenting.
There is here an allusion, I believe, to the Old Testament
story of Noah and the Ark which invests the events with a
greater import. But the poem ends on a note of hope and
renewal with the blossoming of the water hyacinths, the
`incomparable blue, dream-like flowers which rise from the
muddy waters.

A mirror image of the Sri Lankan expatriate is presented in a

lighter vein in A Sunday Morning. It is a picture of `
...Upright ladies/ fervent in collars and cuffs, hats/ trimmed
with berries and genteel lace., clothes, completely
unsuitable and incongruous in a tropical climate following
the Sunday morning ritual of going to church. They are the
descendants of the Dutch with `names that trip off the tongue
like/ Seibel, Arndt, Jansz and de Jong. Its a tongue-in-the
cheek portrayal that Gunawardena paints, touched with
humour; `they shone like pure metal in an / alien setting, having
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Evocative descriptions do not function simply on the plane

of graphic word pictures but are imbued with deeper
significance as in Non-Pareil. In this poem, written after a
visit to Horton Plains, she sees an equivalence between
totally disparate entities, the `tiny yellow-speckled butterflies,/
compulsively dancing to their doom/ in a seasonal pilgrimage
to Samanalakanda ., self destructing themselves , and the
revolutionary youth of the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna, `wild
eyed young men/sprouting beards and revolution/...driven
by the Fates and Furies to flutter/ blindly forward and dash
their brains/... on the states unyielding, monolithic visage.
Her imagery yokes together completely dissimilar entities
a distinctive feature of her verse.

home, and the country she has adopted. The focus of her
poetry is not confined to this theme. Family life and
relationships are presented in cameo-like portraits touched
with humour and irony. In Portrait of Three Children, she
depicts the gender battle between herself and her male
siblings with incisive wit. Her rebellious spirit resists the
specific gender role assigned to her, a Cinderella poised
between her two brothers in the photograph, symbolic of
her position in the family. But she has to ruefully accept
defeat; it is a foregone conclusion `for the power struggles
had been clearly defined/ to create our future cricket heroes.
In the same vein she treats another domestic battle, this
time between husband and wife, in Trumpet Concerto.
Other poems speak of her nuclear family. In School Report,
the writer of her sons report complains that. He is excellent
in this subject/... tends to daydream in the class.She,
knowing her sons special genius in numbers, fathoms that
while others played noughts and crosses his play with numbers
was productive; the numbers he scribbles on a page are the
equations that he `day-dreams.

In her poems contextualized in Sri Lanka we see

Gunawardena exploring other dimensions of life there. Her
deep social consciousness impels her to scrutinize events
in her island home through a critical lens, as in
Independence Square. Seeing a photograph in the London
Times of 2009, captioned Victory Parade, of `...legless/
men, [who] skilfully manoeuvred/ themselves into the pristine
square but `smiled stoic through their pain, she perceives
the hollowness of such state sponsored `celebratory events.
Scrutinizing the underside of Sri Lankan life, the fissures in
its social fabric, she articulates a strong indictment of the
insensitivity and indifference of society to the suffering of
the many in Feasting and Fasting and in A Lost Paradise:
`Booby traps, claymore mines, a suicidal femme fatale/ and
more helpless refugees. Who cares? Our houses are/
emporiums, our debates flatulent, our appetites sensational/
and our fahionistas drip diamonds as large as the Ritz.
(All three poems deal with the Now of Sri Lankan life).

We see in this brief poem her facility in creating economically,

etching in lightning strokes everyday scenes or events, here
of her son doing his homework, packing them with interest.
In Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, Gunawardenas intimate
association with music speaks through the poem, and she
conveys its aural magic as she presents her daughters
performance of Bach. The movement of the music is
captured as it rises to a crescendo `... line by line he dips/
and he soars weaving his aural tapestry,. Gunawardenas
love for music and the skills she has acquired through training
in its discipline have been transposed onto her craft of
poetry writing; to use a phrase from music, she shifts to a
different key. Her long apprenticeship with music, marks
her poems with a harmonious flow and a taut and economical
structure, where she endeavours `to extend each brooding
motif into a logical harmony (Waiting for a Visit from the
Muse, 1986).

This sense of a lost paradise is a leitmotif in many of her

poems. They express a feeling of regret, sadness and loss at
the rupturing of a way of life through the brutalizing and
desensitization due to war and violence. Evening in
Ahungalle ruminates on the same theme: `...the land is
fractured/ In the water young bones lie/ in shreds like
splintered wood. She refers too to the bartering of our rich
resources, even of our selves, the trafficking in human bodies,
`... we/ sell ourselves, the sea, the endless sand. Allusion
rather than direct statement is a feature of Gunawardena,s
poetry. In my view there is a subtle reference here to the
paedophiliac activity on the southern beaches, the corrupting
by-product of the tourist industry.

Yvonne Gunawardenas poetry projects a voice from the

diaspora, but it is one firmly attuned to her original homeland.
The double-ness of vision she displays as she observes and
comments on both adopted and home country stems from
this divisive inheritance. The slim volume of poetry Harbour
Lights is a rich resource of the poetry of one adept in her
craft who brings a deep and sensitive insight into her writing.
Her poetry is indeed a harmonious synthesis of evocative
words, musical rhythms and artistry which she weaves into
a tapestry of scintillating colour.

I have dwelt almost exclusively on Gunawardenas exploration

of her expatriate condition, the contending pull of her island

Sarojini Jayawickrema is the author of Writing that Conquers Re-reading Knoxs Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon
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A COLONIAL CLERGYMAN ON SRI LANKAS NATURAL

BEAUTY AND ITS 'HEATHENS'
Neville Weereratne

contradiction between a bigoted missionary and a romantic

lover of nature. Language is the vehicle of comment and in
the various guises he assumes, Bailey is at once the poet
deeply in love with the island whose adulation is overtaken
by an over-zealous clergyman. Not every prospect pleases
him.

R.K. de Silva, 2011, Poetical Sketches of the Interior of

Ceylon. Benjamin Baileys original manuscript of 1841, with
an Introduction by Dr R K de Silva. London: Serendib
Publications, Price Rs. 4200/It would have been quite impossible for Dr Rajpal de Silva to
have avoided describing his discovery of this manuscript as
anything but serendipitous considering that he made this
happy and unexpected discovery by accident, in the Oxford
Dictionary definition of Horace Walpoles epithet.

These Poetical Sketches are a new and rare experience in

our encounter with the colonial expatriate. Baileys work
consists of a formidable output of some 190 sonnets. It
requires, in my mind, an equally devoted reader to sustain his
interest while the poet meanders through mountain and valley,
very much like the rivers themselves that carved their way
through this landscape.

Dr de Silva found Benjamin Baileys sonnets thirty years ago

in an antiquarian bookshop in London and it is his industry
that has provided us with a well-delineated portrait of an
extraordinary character. For want of information to the
contrary, I rather think he would be the one remembered in
the Bailey Street of the Fort in Colombo, between Millers
and Cargills.

Benjamin Bailey (1791 1853) was a clergyman, Archdeacon

of Colombo, a contemporary and friend of the poet John Keats
who described the priest as one of the noblest men alive at
the present day. The images he evokes of the Sri Lanka of
his time are ardent. Wherever he looked, it seems he
encountered nothing short of an earthy paradise. The Rev
Baileys Christian faith was greatly encouraged by what he
saw, and he is unrelenting in his admiration of these revelations.

I would like also to take this opportunity to acknowledge Dr

de Silvas splendid work in his exceptional three volumes
devoted to the visual impressions of the Dutch and the British
during their days in Sri Lanka.

Dr de Silvas publication contains the three parts that constitute

the Poetical Sketches of Benjamin Bailey. Part 1 consisting
of 52 sonnets was published in 1841. Part 2 is made up of 80
sonnets, and Part 3 of 58; and all three parts appear together
in the present volume for the first time. This publication also
includes copious and most interesting notes which elucidate
for the reader the experience upon which the poet draws. In
addition there is also a small group of poems all devoted to
extolling the islands beauty. The notes reveal the man as
well-read and scholarly as we might expect of an Oxford
alumnus.

These books are worthy of recall after the twenty years and
more since they first appeared: Early Prints of Ceylon
published in 1985, Illustrations and Views of Dutch Ceylon,
1602 1796 in 1988; and 19 th Century Newspaper
Engravings of Ceylon-Sri Lanka in 1998. They were all
meticulously crafted, both in the exacting research Dr de
Silva devoted to them, and in the style and perfection these
productions achieved.
This new publication turns the page, as it were, from the
pictorial records made by the colonialists of those times to
poetic expressions of an Englishman in the early years of the
British Raj in Sri Lanka. They are unambiguous expressions
and are, in their way, as compelling in their interest as the
response of the artists using various techniques. The pictorial
artist was no critic of the landscape: he loved what he beheld,
else he ignored it. In this instance, however, we have a painful

I am not competent to comment on the literary value of these

works except to say that they certainly fulfil the intensions of
their author. The sonnets follow the required 14-line
construction, and, as I said, lavish line upon line on the
countryside. Bailey travelled extensively in the twenty years
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He fulminated vehemently against Buddhism when the

Governor, Lord Torrington, withdrew an injunction to do away
with the hateful ConneXtion with the heathen Idolatry and
Atheistical Buddhism of the Island in 1849. Bailey wrote
six long and strong letters to the Ceylon Times of those
days under the pen-name of Vetus, taking in his stride the
Roman Catholic Church whose practices he thought allowed
for the reverence of images, and assimilated so much the
idolatry of the Buddhist in the Wihare, and the mixed worship
of Hinduism and Buddhism in the Dewale

he spent in Sri Lanka and his eulogies seem to stem from a

solitary contemplation of the world around him. He derives
great consolation from what he sees and with the piety of
the true believer, thanks God for them.
In Sonnet LIV in Part 2, Influence of natural objects on the
mind, he recounts each detail of this marvellously unfolding
landscape:
I have been asked, what spot of this fair Isle,
Whose beauty hath for many days been spread
Before me, I preferred. I have not heed
To the true feeling of my bosom while
I answered. But if mountain pile on pile,
Innumerous vales where scarcely foot can tread,
If rivers rolling oer their rocky bed,
The rushing waterfall, the rippling rill,
Forests that darken on the mountains brow,
And fling a mystery oer the deep ravine;
If all that crowds upon my memory now
All that the heart hath felt, the eye hath seen,
Can please, or sooth the soul, I only know
I have been soothed wherever I have been.

His intransigence in these matters was to lead to his dismissal

from the appointment he held and to his return to England in
1852 where he was to die the following year. This was also
the time when Queen Victoria, exercising her prerogative as
monarch, ordered the removal of all restrictions placed upon
Buddhism and Buddhist practice in Sri Lanka. She restored
the rights of the people to practice freely the religion of their
choice. Temples that had been torn down were rebuilt or
repaired and some in the South bear witness to this
magnanimity in the portraits of the Queen, sometimes with
Prince Albert, painted over their entrance facades.
Neither would it appear that Bailey had much regard for the
people of the country whom he thought were ignorant and
barbarous. He often regrets these savage Despots did
not appreciate what they had been gifted by the hand of God.

Bailey identifies the many places he visited. His spelling of

their names is quaint but in todays usage he considers Kandy,
Warakapola, Kadugannawa, Katugastota, Dumbara,
Gampola, Ramboda, Nuwara Eliya, Pidurutalagala and so on,
in Part 1. And again in Part 2, Bailey writes of Utuwankanda,
Kundasale, Namunakula, Idalgashinna.

In this view he had an ally in Bishop Heber of Calcutta, the

composer of hymns:
What though the spicy breezes blow soft oer Ceylons isle:
Though every prospect pleases and only man is vile;
In vain with lavish kindness the gifts of God are strown;
The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone.

And yet many more in Part 3. Wherever it is, Bailey is in

raptures.
I picked the sonnet on Diyatalawa arbitrarily but it is as typical
as any in this collection of sonnets. He wrote:

Even at moments of ecstasy Bailey could not bear the sight

of the Buddha image carved in stone, which he ridicules. In
a sonnet called Buddha Erect (XV in Part 2) he writes:

Alone,
While in my ear with notes of thanksgiving
The birds and falls and murmuring water sing
In love, as well as might I feel thee, One
Father of All! Diatalawe, none
Among the mountains of this isle will cling
With brighter beauty to my memory
Than thou

The Idol but a mighty baby seems,

Standing Erect. His posture gives the air
Of Imbecillity. The Worshipper,
Did he not wallow in the muddy streams
Of aged superstition, of his dreams
Of ignorance might from this face beware,
That inexpressive vacancy of stare
Of the Colossal Infant

For all that, Dr de Silvas diligent research reveals Bailey to

have been incensed by what he described as the heathenism
and the idolatry practised by the Buddhists and the Hindus
of the island.
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I think that Baileys problem lay in his abhorrence of the

heathen religion which tainted his appreciation of the people.
That he yet harboured a forgiving and understanding heart is
revealed in a rare piece called The Kandyan Village (XXVIII
of Part 2) in which he finds the people with eager and
inquiring looks all stand / And gaze and smile/ And happy
are the faces in this land /Of nature and simplicity. He is
even prepared to concede that The Kandian sings or chants
his country song not untunefully Allured to dance, /A
child with its fond mother in this throng / Of happiness is
seen. And he is moved to exclaim: O may Lifes chance /
Neer bring me where Loves current runs less strong!

Baileys letters to the Ceylon Times are vehement political

diatribes. His sonnets, to the contrary, are generous
expressions of innocent, unbridled pleasure.
If we are to overlook the prejudice that mars his acceptance
of the people of a country which provides him with such
inspired eloquence, we may yet extract from these poetical
sketches some truly delightful moments.
It is Dr de Silvas remarkable achievement that he has
successfully resurrected the priest, the poet and his prejudice
from an ancient leather-bound volume of Baileys original
work. It is an overwhelmingly difficult task, a feat of
exceptional discipline and scholarship, which calls for our
sustained applause.

Forthcoming from the SSA:

Senake Bandaranayake
Continuities and Transformations: Studies in Sri Lankan
Archaeology and History
(330pp, 120 illus.)
This new book is an important contribution to the study of
historical dynamics. Proceeding from an archaeological
perspective, it sees Sri Lanka as an island laboratory for
studying historical change.
This collection of 9 articles deals with theoretical issues,
hypotheses and generalizations in the study of the material
remains of Sri Lankas historical civilization. All previously
published, but in widely scattered or inaccessible sources,
these writings together make for a construct larger than the
sum of its parts.
Continuities and Transformation covers a variety of
subjects: from the agrarian transition of protohistoric times
to traditions of premodern urbanism extending over
millennia from early periodization efforts of Sri Lankas
historical trajectory to hypotheses on unity and
differentiation, toward locating the specificity of our
tradition in a matrix of Monsoon Asian cultures from
patterns and semiotics of power and authority in
architectural planning to social dimensions in arts
production and consumption.

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WRITING THAT CONQUERS: A POSTCOLONIAL

STUDY OF ROBERT KNOX
Anoma Pieris
Jayawickrama, Sarojini, 2004,Writing that Conquers: Rereading Knoxs Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon,
Colombo: Social Scientists Association, (reprinted), Pages,
349, Price. Rs. 850/-

the rule of Raja Sinha the Second are acquired from what
has become a seminal text: Robert Knoxs An Historical
Relation of the Island Ceylon. The book is an
anthropological narrative by an English sailor of the East India
Company who was held captive by the king of Kandy for
nearly twenty years. During this period Knox observed the
habits of the people around him, the villagers, courtiers and
what he saw of the king, recording it after his escape and
return to England. His book, published in 1681, became an
immediate success informing the British public about a
territory that was available for colonization. Its religious
overtones only superficially disguised its true objective of
establishing the relative superiority of Britain and suggesting
the need to deliver the Ceylonese from their feudal existence.

Our knowledge of the history of our country is necessarily

biased, due to our general lack of self-reflexivity and the
selectivity of our national memory. My own understanding
of history is gleaned from nationalist text books, which are
reproduced in the ideological spirit of the Mahawamsa and
bent on glorifying Sinhala kingship; or from its polar opposite:
colonial travel narratives that cast our people as pagans that
needed to be civilized. Textuality, i.e. the written word,
predominates and in both cases is given an authority, which
in each case is grossly over-rated. Just as the Mahawamsa
has as its objective the legitimization of dynastic kingship, the
colonial narrative presents the colonizer as saving the native
population from the tyrannical rule of those very kings. Much
of the history of resistance to British occupation can be found
in historical novels such as The Last Kingdom of Sinhalay
by Elmo Jayawardene (2004), who narrates the treacheries
and resistance to the British surrounding the fall of Kandy.
Understandably, the bulk of this work concentrates on the
Kandyan period, a period charged with political strife and
territorial contestation, as European powers competed for space
and commercial monopolies over our specific geography.

It is the minute detail in Knoxs account that captures the

readers imagination, allowing him or her to construct a
colonialists version of native life. Knoxs encyclopedic
account gives intimate knowledge of community structures,
marital relationships, cooking and eating habits, social
customs, dwelling types and construction methods with special
attention to the relations between the king and his subjects.
On its publication, accompanied by lithographs, it proved to
be one of the most popular representations of Ceylon to be
produced and disseminated in Europe during that period.
Translations were made into French, German and Dutch.
Jayawickrama compares this text to that by Daniel Defoe,
Robinson Crusoe, regarded by many of us as a boys
adventure story but equally replete with imperialist motives.
By placing her analysis within the frame of postcolonial literary
critique and employing comparisons with colonial period texts
from other colonized cultures, Jayawickrama demonstrates
how Ceylon too was drawn into the larger orientalist project
to colonize through the written word.

The anthropologist Michael Roberts in Sinhala

Consciousness in the Kandyan Period (2004) describes
how both Sinhalese and Buddhist sensibilities were being
shaped and projected both politically and culturally during
the Kandyan period, differentiating the Sinhalese from both
colonizers and peoples of other races. Sarojini
Jayawickramas book Writing that Conquers adds to this
discussion of the Kandyan period as yet another contribution
to its history. Her research re-reads An Historical Relation
of the Island Ceylon by Robert Knox following the scrutiny
of textual histories provoked by postcolonial studies. If we
were to analyze the politics of the colonial text, would we
draw quite different conclusions about our history? she asks.

In this regard, Jayawickramas re-reading of Knox addresses

a familiar destabilization experienced by all native readers
on encountering a western version of their history. While
the form of the narrative typically asks the reader to identify
with the protagonist, Knox, and to imbibe his values and
positioning, the necessity to sympathize with his predicament
and empathize with his interpretations of the Kandyan kingdom
jolts our post-national subjectivity. It places Sri Lankan

Our knowledge of the Kandyan kingdom during the

Seventeenth Century at a quotidian level and the details of
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readers outside the space of the narrative and its reception.

It is from this liminal space outside the reciprocity of Western
authorship for Western audiences that Jayawickrama
approaches the writings of Robert Knox, deploying her
knowledge of the complexities of a Buddhist Sinhalese
subjectivity to challenge both his version of history and his
motives.

categorize, essentialize and objectify the native subject,

equating difference to primitivism, savagery, infantilism and
inferiority. She says Writing becomes a process of
subordination and domination when in the act of representation
one voice becomes privileged, silencing and suppressing others
in the colonizing tones and gestures which inscribe difference,
demarcating margins and creating centres and peripheries.

What were Knoxs motives when writing this history? Did

his careful record of the Kandyan kingdom, the activities of
the king and his subjects, prepare the stage for British
colonization of Kandy and therefore the whole island? Taking
a range of subjects apart through careful analysis,
Jayawickrama suggests that Knoxs impressions of the
Kandyans were filtered through his own ideas of English
morality, commercial interest and Individualism, all of which
was veiled in the language of a benign Christianity. She also
describes how, due to his own narrow patriarchal and
puritanical world-view, Knoxs impressions of the Kandyans,
particularly of Kandyan women, were often quite contrary
to what we know of the culture. Similarly, his interpretations
of Buddhism were confused in their translation into a Christian
vocabulary.

Jayawickramas re-reading of Knox addresses a generation

born on the cusp of independence, Sri Lankas own midnights
children (or those for whom the collective memory of
February Fourth 1948 resonates significantly), who were
caught in the struggle between two imaginations from the
East and the West. Her education in a missionary school in
Colombo was symptomatic of the education system at the
time, with strong colonial overtones and a Christian morality
constructing the proper objects of history. Buddhism,
feudalism, and the tyrannical kings of the Kandyan kingdom
were scrutinized and marginalized in order to buttress the
flailing confidence of the colonial project in its twilight years.
It subjected Buddhist students, like herself, to a particular
moral dilemma that revealed the ideological undercurrents in
colonial historical sources.

Jayawickrama delves even further to argue that Knoxs desire

to represent the natives in the e terms came from his own
deep-seated insecurity as a prisoner of the Kandyan king.
The court of Raja Sinha the Second was a heterogeneous
space including people from diverse religions and several
other European prisoners. As a prisoner, Knox no longer
held the privileged space of the colonizer and found himself
vulnerable to the Kandyan socio-geographical context.
Jayawickrama places Knox in a liminal space between
colonizer and colonized, anxiously preserving his own
precarious selfimage by differentiating it from the natives.
This anxiety of the self, which Jayawickrma observes was
European, predominantly white, male, Christian and middleclass, accompanied the colonial project, but became
fragmented and insecure in a space which was unknown,
uncharted and unfamiliar. The collapse of Knoxs confidence
heightened the desire for self-affirmation and self-fashioning
against the image of the East, the native and the unknown
culture.

The generation that followed those born at independence,

the children of our midnight generation born into a republican
Sri Lanka, has little awareness of this sensibility for they
were swung in the opposite direction by a defensive
nationalism. Immersed in an equally uncritical revisionist
narrative that demonized the colonizer, students of the nineteen
seventies and eighties, like myself, grew up with scant
awareness of discourses outside the national narrative. Knox
and all colonial sources were completely suppressed in the
collective amnesia of a post-colonial consciousness. By the
nineteen nineties colonial history made a comeback, promoted
by tourism, stripped of its political asymmetries in a nostalgic
and sentimental yearning for a past era. It coincided with
the Raj Revival: TV series like The Jewel in the Crown,
Far Pavilions, and Heat and Dust that played on the exotic,
chaotic image of the East through a process that Edward
Said described as orientalizing the other(meaning nonwestern cultures and peoples). The Raj Revival was a biproduct of the Imperialist ambitions of Thatcherite Britain
punctuated by the Falklands war and the construction of
British-ness against the influx of migrants from Britains
former colonies. In Sri Lanka, the colonial past seeped back
into our architecture through images and artifacts and,
supported by the hotel industry, its picturesque ambience was
captured in a life-style paradigm embraced uncritically by
many Sri Lankans.

Jayawickrama observes that the representation of the other

is textually fashioned and although the language of the travel
narrative may purport to be neutral, and may appear to be an
objective report on an individuals experience, all writing is
ultimately political, and shaped by covert agendas. She
observes that in travel writing a shared repertoire of tropes
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Jayawickramas voice, framed by these shifting pedagogical

positions, writes history at the interstices of a generational
shift and a national beginning. She speaks for a generation
that, unclouded by the terror of the post-nationalist era, are
able to deconstruct the politics of partisan positions. She
speaks against the tenor of the Raj Revival in literature and
in cinema and its aggrandized, romanticized constructions of
the colonial period and its orientalist constructions of us as
natives. We must learn to read behind the lines of the
historic text and gain a more nuanced version of our own

history with an awareness of the return of colonial power

relations in new forms of imperialism and globalization (most
visible in our hotel industry and labour relations). More
importantly in a time when competitive ethnic histories launch
media wars in cyberspace, and we are divided by the identity
games of political parties, Jayawickrama speaks for a
generation who understood that identity is a fragile
construction in a world where there are no absolute cultural
positions.

Anoma Pieris is an architect with an academic focus on cultural theory and has degrees from the University of Moratuwa and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D from the University of California. She is the author of several books on
architecture.

Available From the SSA

Suriya Bookshop
No. 12, Sulaiman Terrace
Colombo - 05

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BEYOND OLCOTT AND DHARMAPALA: COMING TO

TERMS WITH BUDDHIST RITUAL AND TRADITION?
Asoka de Zoysa
Blackburn M. Anne 2010, Location of Buddhism, Colombo:
Social Scientists' Association. Pages 237, price Rs. 850/-

a well connected, high-caste Buddhist family had a

horoscope made for the newest addition to their family, a
son (Blackburn 2010 p. ix). The biography of this scholar
monk is not narrated in the typical linear way, which often is
boring to the reader. It is broken from time to time, when the
author takes the reader back to the society and politics of the
earliest years of British rule. Already in the Preface
Blackburn very swiftly sketches the growing economy of
the coastal belt around the Galle harbor and the Christian
presence and missionary activities in the island. New ritual
space was necessary for Buddhists moving into the new cities
and towns to meet these challenges. As such, the functions
of the Buddhist temple had to be redefined. Above all since
1815, when the British took over the control of the entire
county, Buddhism lost the royal patronage. Buddhist monks
were divided into three fraternities: Siyam, Amarapura
and much later Ramannya. According to Blackburns study,
one of the key interests of Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala
was to unite the Sangha (Buddhist clergy) under royal
patronage, through his networks in south-east-Asia; an aspect
many researchers have overlooked. Visiting some temples
in Akurssa, Hikkaduva, Kathaluva, Dodanduva, Ginivella,
Ambalangoda and Kalutara, I am often confronted with the
nagging question of the sponsorship of the temples. The vast
expanse of interesting murals in the viharas, elaborate
preaching halls with beautifully carved preaching thrones,
libraries with comprehensive collections of palm leaf
manuscripts indicate that these coastal areas were a hive of
Buddhist activity in the mid 19th century. After reading
Blackburns study, I feel that the populist notion that Buddhist
consciousness was revived when the printed information of
the Buddhist-Christian debates between the years 1873 to
1877 reached the theosophist Colonel Olcott in the United
States, needs rethinking.

ost War Sri Lanka seems to be experiencing a Buddhist

Revival: Mass Pinkamas are held at historical temples,
where thousands lamps are lit and thousands of trays of
jasmine are offered to the Buddha. Mass ordinations of young
boys are frequent. One cannot ignore the influx of young
monks from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia in the
Buddhist monasteries. More and more universities and
academies offer degrees and diploma courses in Buddhist
Studies attracting monks and students from the Asian region.
New disciplines such as Buddhist Psychotherapy keep
emerging. Preaching in verse (kavi bana) and recitation of
Paritta texts (pirith) are available on CDs sold side by side
with Sinhala pop songs. Buddhist TV channels and radio
stations bring spirituality to the living room. Frequent exhibitions
of relics too can be added to the list. The Sri Lankan pilgrims
itinerary too has expanded to the North and the East visiting
new sites re-claimed for Buddhists in former LTTE-occupied
areas to witness miracles at these sites. A critical edition of
the Tripitaka using texts from Myanmar, Thailand and Laos
enhancing digital technology are some novel features. Can
such a surge in religious activity be seen as a Buddhist Revival?
If not, when was the last Buddhist Revival ?
Anne C. Blackburns latest book Locations of Buddhism
(2010) harks back to a period in the early colonial days when
Buddhist monks active in the pirivenas and gentry from the
Sabaragamuwa province and entrepreneurs in the upcoming
towns and cities of the south and the South and Western
provinces launched many projects to nurture Buddhist
scholarship and address the missionary activity of the British.
Much has been written about Colonel Olcott and Anagarika
Dharmapala, but little information is available about the
projects launched by Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala (1827
1911). The book is published at a time when Buddhists of Sri
Lanka, living in a multi-religious background, articulate
grievances and challenges to be faced in a new millennium
of globalized politics and competitive entrepreneurship.

Blackburn traces Buddhist scholarship to the years beyond

Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala: The names Mohottivatte
Gunananda, Ratmalane Dhammaloka and his pupil Ratmalane
Dharmarama, Valane Siddhartha, Vaskaduve Sri Subhuti and
Battaramulle Sri Subhuti, may show a somewhat shaky but
unbroken tradition going back to the great revival movement
under King Kirti Sri Rajasimha and Ven. Vlivita Saranamkara
of the mid-eighteenth century.

What most fascinates me is the novel style of Blackburns

book. The Preface takes the reader back to the 1820s when
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The reader in the first chapter is transported to 1868 when

an edited manuscript of the Vinaya (a collection of Pali texts
on monastic life and discipline) was brought in state from the
Sabaragamuwa town of Pelmadulla downriver to Kalutara
on the southern coast and, then through a series of southern
towns and villages to the major port city of Galle. (Blackburn
2010 p. 1). One of the chief editors of the editorial council
and Sangiti (recitation of canonical texts to establish
consensus regarding variants in reading) was Ven. Hikkaduve
Sri Sumangala, who was officiating as the chief monk of Sri
Pada (Adams Peak) since 1867. Sixty monks had been
invited to the formidable project to edit the Pali texts of the
Tripitaka, using Siamese and Burmese manuscripts to
Pelmadulla. Sponsorship for this historical project was borne
by the radala- leaders of the Sabaragamuwa region.
Iddamalgoda, the chief custodian (Basnayaka nilame) of
the Maha Saman Devalaya in Ratnapura took over the
patronage previously held by the king.

Anagarika Dharmapala) are introduced here. Blackburn first

compares how Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala and Olcott
understood Buddhism, reviewing the agendas of the Ven.
Sri Sumangalas Vidyodaya Pirivena and Olcotts Buddhist
Theosophical Society. She then moves to printing activities
of the newly established presses publishing two news papers:
Sarasavi Sandarsa of Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala and
the Theosophist of Olcott. The spoken word at the temple
is now available on print, using Sinhala typography.
For the section on Anagarika Dharmapala, Blackburn draws
much from the seminal work of Richard Gombrich and
Gananath Obeyesekere (1988), Obeyesekere (1972 and
1992), Michael Roberts (1997 and 2000) and Alain Trevithick
(2007). Blackburns stance on Anagarika Dharmapala is
interesting: She introduces him: D. D. Hevavitarana was
sixteen when Olcott and his colleague Helena Blavatsky first
arrived in Lanka, When Olcott and Blavatsky first reached
Lanka, young Hevavitarana was at loose ends he
worked as a clerk for the Department of Public instruction
he offered translation services to Olcott, became involved
as an editor of Sarasavi Sandarsa. In the next section she
narrates: In 1891 after a transformative visit to Bodh Gaya
() Hevavitarana, (who in 1883 had adopted the heroic and
optimistic name Dharmapala or Dharma Guardian)
became consumed by the prospect of bringing Bodh Gaya
under Buddhist control and protection (Blackburn p.116-118).
She very clearly shows the emerging new generation of
activism, which maybe was less engaged in promoting Sinhala
education and Buddhist scholarship but following an agenda
to defend. Disputes between Ven. Sumangala, Olcott and
Anagarika Dharmapala are spelled out well, although the
Hevavitarana family regarded Ven. Sumangala as the family
priest.

Blackburn then shows the importance of this project in the

backdrop of the Buddhist-Christian tensions of the late 1840s
and the intra-monastic Vinaya-debates between the
established Siyam Nikaya and the newly ordained monks of
the Amarapura Nikaya. Her source material for these
chapters vary from Tissa Kariyawasams Ph. D dissertation
(1973), Ven. Yagirigala Prajnanandas two volumes written
in Sinhala on Ven. Sri Sumangala (1947) and published writings
of Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala.
Blackburn gives the title Locations of Buddhism to her book.
One may understand the locations as geographical locations,
Pelmadulla, Hikkaduva, Ratmalana, to Kotahena,
Maligakanda where Ven. Hikkaduve Sri Sumangala
establishes the Vidyodaya Pirivena in 1873. What is most
fascinating to read are the names of dayakayas associated
with each location which may hint on their own political and
agendas in entrepreneurship. Reading between the lines, one
may be able to answer question why these towns on the
coastal belt or locations in Colombo came to be sites of
resistance. For example, it is not a coincidence that the
Vidyodaya Pirivena is located vis--vis to the Maha Bodhi
Society, surrounded by Sinhala printing establishments in
Maligakanda, close to the location where the Ananda College
stands today in Maradana.

The fifth chapter is titled Sasana and Empire. In April

1897, the Siamese King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) reached
Sri Lanka on a state visit en route to Europe. From the
perspective of Hikkaduve and many other Lankan Buddhists
leaders it was a celebrated opportunity, a chance to make
direct personal contact with the only Buddhist monarch, who
had retained a degree of independence in the face of French
and British imperial designs on southern Asia (Blackburn
2010 p. 143). The opening of this new chapter explains its
objective. Citing Pali and Sinhala correspondence and
newspaper articles, it brings in new material to the research
of the revival movement of the fin de sicle.

The middle chapters bring in the new agents of the 1880s

and 1890s in the common quest of addressing the challenges
posed by colonial rule and Christianity: Colonel Henry Steele
Olcott and Don David Hevavitarana (later known as
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The style of this chapter is compact and requires more than

one concentrated reading. Thankfully it is not placed at the
beginning. The reader may turn the pages back to the
beginning and look for details in the first five chapters.
Blackburns arguments inspire one to re-read the works she
cites. Her Locations of Buddhism are centered around the
Pirivena- Monasteries, Sri Pada or Adams Peak and the
Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. As such, she does not force
herself to view Ven. Sumangalas engagements in
traditional and enlightened categories or in things
pertaining to salvation and things of this world, as Gombrich
and Obeyesekere named them in 1988. Above all, Blackburn
does not overlook the ritual significance of important temples
nor juxtapose Buddhist scholarship and ritual practice of
Buddhists to carve out a pure Buddhism that appeals to
the West.

The theoretical background which academics generally insist

should be placed in the beginning of the research, emerges
finally, only in the concluding sixth chapter. This does not
mean that Blackburn, working on the lines of historical
sociology and hermeneutics, does not value the importance
of what academic supervisors call theoretical underpinning.
She narrates a biography with a strong conviction of what
she wishes to project through her study, may be in a more
inductive way.
In the sixth and concluding chapter called Horizons Not
Washed Away she locates her study of Colonialism and
Modernity in the context of the body of research available
in authoritative writings: Kithsiri Malalgoda (1976), Richard
Gombrich (1988), Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere
(1988) and George Bond (1988) and the earlier lesser cited
works of C.D.S. Siriwardana (1966), Smith (1966), Swearer
(1970) and Wriggins (1960) representing one school of thought
which saw a shift in Buddhist activity from monastic to lay
authority and another strand under the key words
modernization and modernity emphasized in the works
of Ames (1963 and 1973) and Bechert (1963 and 1973).
Quoting Obeyesekeres research of 1972 Blackburn sees
the term Protestant Buddhism having two meanings: (a)
Its norms and organizational forms are historical derivatives
from Protestant Christianity (b) more importantly, from the
more contemporary point of view, it is a protest against
Christianity and its associated Western political dominance
prior to independence (Blackburn 2010 p. 198). She further
comments: The terms Buddhist Revival, Protestant
Buddhism and Buddhist Modernism have now long been
used as comprehensive terms with which to describe the
character of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century
Buddhism in Sri Lanka, despite periodic attempts by historians
of religion and colonialism, and critical theorists of colonialism,
to further nuance claims made in the name of Protestant
Buddhism ... The preceding chapters make very clear that,
even in central urban Buddhist institutions and associations
linked to new forms of lay Buddhist participation, we do not
see a substantial decline of monastic power and prestige, but
rather continued collaboration between laypeople and
monastics(Blackburn 2010 p.199-200 emphasis added ).

This book shows the networks operating before the advent

of Protestant Buddhism moving from the much hackneyed
track followed by the researchers that opens with the
Buddhist-Christian confrontation of the 1870s. For the reader
acquainted with writings of the 1970s, Blackburns book poses
many questions, inviting the reader to look beyond Olcott
and Dharmapala and also to review Buddhist revival
movements from a more broad-based and multidisciplinary
standpoint. This means taking endeavours of monks in the
field of education, preaching, networking with south-Asian
monks and royalty into consideration. It also incorporates
the agendas of local urban entrepreneurs who sponsored the
projects, Kandyan and Sabaragamuwa aristocracy taking
up the role of patrons and usage of modern media of that
time, like the printing press, into the study. Much of this
information is available in Sinhala recorded in the
Charitapadanas or eulogies written on Buddhist monks
and newspapers of that time. To me, Locations of Buddhism
has shown that the endeavours of Ven. Hikkaduve Sri
Sumangala were not to revive but energize Buddhism
receiving less patronage from the colonial ruler. After a lapse
of over twenty years, a deep study of Buddhism of the colonial
day based on texts has finally emerged, which can show
methodologies for new research on Buddhist activism of post
war Sri Lanka.

Dr. Asoka de Zoysa is Professor in German Studies, Department of Modern Languages

University of Kelaniya.

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HANDY PERINBANAYAGAM AND THE JAFFNA YOUTH

CONGRESS
Learning lessons from an inspired era
Rajan Philips

Kadirgamar, Santasilan, 2012, Handy Perinbanayagam

Memorial Volume and the Jaffna Youth Congress, Colombo:
Kumaran Book House, pages 339, Price Rs. 1500/-

30 years in age. Perhaps naming the organization as Youth

Congress, was a reflection of the youthfulness of its
founders. It was unique in that it was a youth organization
without allegiance to any parent organization. In fact, it was
its own parent organization challenging in every way the
established orthodoxy of Jaffna society, especially its
casteism. The JYC leaders were committed to non-violence
and democratic values.

remarkable achievement of the book project is the

simultaneous release of Part 1 of the book in all the
three languages of the land. The parity of language, Indias
cultural support and the occasion for learning lessons are all
in keeping with the Gandhian inspiration to freedom, the
inclusive nationalistic ideals and the emphasis on education
and the privileging of national languages that were the
hallmark of the Jaffna Youth Congress, Handy
Perinbanayagam and his illustrious contemporaries.

Despite being called the Jaffna Youth Congress, the

organization was anything but peninsular in outlook and stood
for a free and united Lanka committed to universal values
and ideals. The use of the place name (Jaffna) in the title
was mostly geographical identification without political
connotations. The linguistic emphasis was on privileging
national languages (Tamil and Sinhalese) as opposed to English,
and not as the basis for narrow linguistic nationalism. It is
also significant that the JYC founders were inspired by
Gandhian ideals of all-India nationalism rather than the antiBrahminical but pro-colonial politics of the Justice Party in
Madras, precursor to South Indian Tamil nationalism.

The short lived history of the Youth Congress is forever

associated with introduction of universal franchise in 1931.
In an act of inspired notoriety, the Youth Congress
spearheaded Jaffnas boycott of Sri Lankas inaugural election
to the State Council established under the Donoughmore
Constitution and involving one of the early exercises of
universal voting rights anywhere in the world. The Youth
Congress like many others rejected the Donoughmore
Constitution for falling short of full independence, but only
the Congress translated its rejection into practical action.

As Silan Kadirgamar has noted, the boycott activities of the

JYC did not go unnoticed in the South. Philip Gunawardena
described the JYC as the only organization displaying political
intelligence and called on the rest of the country to follow
the lead Jaffna was giving. Four years later in the midst of
founding the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Colvin R. de Silva
declared that the roots of the LSSP were inasmuch in the
JYC in the North, as they were in the Suriya Mal movement
in the South.

The 1931 boycott and its consequences

The circumstances of the boycott and the intended and
unintended consequences that flowed from it for Tamil politics
as well as national politics offer many lessons about Tamil
society and politics as well as their creative and destructive
tensions with Sri Lankan society and politics. The Memorial
Volume chronicles the circumstances and the events of a
brief but tumultuous period in the history of Tamil political
society without embellishment and faithful to the dictum that
facts are sacred. It is for others to connect the plethora of
dots in the subsequent evolution of Tamil politics and develop
critical perspectives for historical analysis and prognosis.

But whereas the LSSP was able to build a mass base and
become a force to be reckoned with in the South and to a
lesser extent in the North, the JYC had disappeared even
before the arrival of the LSSP. Counterfactually, it could be
asked if the JYC leaders had contested the 1931 election,
the course of Tamil politics would have been different. As it
turned out, none of the JYC founders was able to win an
election and become a parliamentarian. A number of them

At the height of the 1931 boycott, the leading lights of the

Jaffna Youth Congress (JYC), including Handy
Perinbanayagam (HP, 1899-1977) were just over or under
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contested in elections after independence as candidates of

either of the two Left parties.

The sudden rise and the rapid fall of the JYC, says more
about Tamil society than about the youthful idealism or naivet
of the JYC founders. The numerical size of the community
was a factor in the sudden rise of influence of the JYC, and
it was equally a factor in its demise. Most of the principal
JYC leaders were great teachers and accomplished
intellectuals. Even without electoral success, they were held
in high esteem by the people, and even without becoming
parliamentarians, they continued to be leaders of the people.
We can only contrast the JYC experience with the more
recent and tragic experience of the Tamil society involving a
new generation of youth neither inspired by Gandhian ideals
nor committed to universal values, non-violence, or democratic
norms.

The boycott of the elections in Jaffna reduced Tamil

representation in the State Council, the outcome was not
popular in Jaffna after the euphoria over the boycott ended,
and the JYC ended up paying the ultimate price for it. In the
South, outside of the Left circles, the boycott was
misinterpreted as a response to the failure to secure communal
representation even though none of the JYC leaders ever
had any truck with the school of communal representation.
The fact of the matter is that the first State Council, elected
through universal franchise, also became the first communal
hothouse. This led to the emergence of full throated communal
politics in the North and in the South. The JYC had come
and gone.

Courtesy Island

Rajan Philips is a Researcher.

Now Available in the Suriya Bookshop

Social Scientists' Association

No. 12, Sulaiman Terrace
Colombo - 05
36
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M.G. MENDIS IN HIS HEYDAY

Kumari Jayawardena
Led by the Communists.4 The Toddy Tappers Union became
the strongest trade union in the non-estate sector, and the
success of the strike gave a fillip not only to the Union but
also to Malayali workers in urban factories. In 1940, the Toddy
Tappers Union and the Colombo Workers Club combined to
form the United Socialist Party (U.S.P.), after the split with
the LSSP.

ne of the prominent trade union leaders of the 1940s

was M.G. Mendis, who was in the Left movement of
the time. As a student at the Buddhist-Theosophist School
(Mahinda College) he had been deeply influenced by Indian
nationalism and during the second civil disobedience
movement in India in 1930, he had discarded his European
style-clothes and adopted the national dress. Mendis was
also influenced by Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe, an old boy of
this school, who in 1931 had addressed the students. Mendis,
who became a teacher at a Buddhist school joined the Suriya
Mal movement in 1933, and after the formation of the L.S.S.P.
in 1935 was the joint Secretary of the party. Following the
split in the L.S.S.P. Mendis became the General Secretary
of the United Socialist Party, and the editor of the partys
English journal, the United Socialist.

The second phase of Communist activity was the leadership

given to the trade union movement by the United Socialist
Party in 1940. The war had caused a certain dislocation in
employment and a sudden rise in the cost of living, giving the
U.S.P. a platform for agitation among the workers of
Colombo. At their Congress in November 1940, the U.S.P.
urged the workers to close their ranks, strengthen their trade
unions and wage a struggle for security of service, war
bonuses, 25% increase in wages, and an eight hour day.5 In
an article on the need for effective trade unions, M.G. Mendis
stated that the war was radicalizing the workers, because
the rise in prices, threats of dismissal and the dislocation of
trade and industry had worsened the conditions of the working
class; it is only now that the workers are realizing that it is
by combination and combination alone that they can defend
their own rights against the encroachments of capital.6

Communist Trade Union Activity

he most important advance made by the Communists in
the early years of the war was in the trade union field,
where they succeeded in replacing the L.S.S.P. as the chief
political influence on the working class. The Communists
were highly critical of the trade union leaders of previous
decades. A.E. Goonesinha was criticized for his failure to
lead the class struggle in Ceylon:

The U.S.P. gave leadership to 16 trade unions which had a

total membership of 3,300 workers.7 The most important of
these was the All-Ceylon Toddy Tappers Union, and the AllCeylon Harbour Workers Union. In June 1940, a strike
occurred among a section of the workers in the Harbour
warehouses who demanded an increase in wages to meet
the rise in the cost of living. Under the leadership of the
U.S.P. the strikers formed themselves into the All-Ceylon
Harbour Workers Union, with Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe as
President, and M.G. Mendis and K. Ramanathan as
Secretaries. The strike which lasted three days was settled
when the main employer, the Ceylon Wharfage Company,
agreed to give an increase in wages.8

Goonesinha never realized the role and function of trade

unions (he) merely organized a general labour union of
all workers by when he saw that genuinely championing
the cause of labour meant consolidating strikes struggles,
fighting for labours immediate demands and pursuing a
policy of class against class, he slowly and steadily retreated
so far that today he is the friend of the Imperialists.1

The trade union activities of the Communists in the early

years of the war can be divided into three phases. First, was
the formation of a strong union among toddy tappers2 The
great majority of the toddy tappers were Malayalis, a group
of emigrants who had, since the depression of 1931, been
subjected to attack and demands for their repatriation to India
by Goonesinhas organizations, and also by many of the
Ceylon politicians. In December of 1939 and in early 1940,
there were a series of disputes and strikes3 involving the
toddy tappers and the renters.

The U.S.P. was also successful in starting the first trade

unions among the workers of the large British tea and rubber
packing factories in Colombo. These included the British
Commercial company, Harrison & Crossfield, Brooke Bonds,
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Lipton & Co. Henderson & Co. (100 members) and Mackie
& Co. (75 members). The union at Mackie & Co. was
successful in getting eleven dismissed workers reinstated in
1940.

United Socialist Party existed in isolation; the need to unite

these unions into one trade union body was recognized by
the U.S.P., and on the 14th of December 1940, the Ceylon
trade Union Federation (C.T.U.F.) was formed. The founders
of the new union were the leaders of the U.S.P., Dr.
Wickremasinghe, M.G. Mendis, P. Kandiah, A. Vaidyalingam
and K. Ramanathan. A Buddhist monk, the Rev. Saranankara
was elected first President of the C.T.U.F. Others associated
with formation of the C.T.U.F.) were several skilled workers
from engineering and tea and rubber packing factories who
had been active in the U.S.P. trade unions T.W.Pedrickhamy,
Marshall Perera, P.D. David, L. Kulatunga, D.C. Hettiarachi,
B.H. Peiris, and A. Gunasekera. Other prominent members
were A.D. Charleshamy, who had been an active supporter
of A.E. Goonesinhas Union, and Ariyaratna, an ex-L.S.S.P.
executive committee member. The Malayali founder members
of the C.T.U.F. included P. Shankar, a full time U.S.P. trade
unionist (who had organized the toddy tappers), and several
Malayali workers.

In the same year the U.S.P. formed unions among press and
hotel workers, domestic servants, shop assistants and the
workers on unemployment relief schemes. Small unions of
thirty members each were also begun at the India Pipe
Company and the Cargo Boat Despatch Company.9
The advance of the U.S.P. in the trade union field was due to
the success of the Malayali toddy tappers strike in early
1940. These workers spread the news of their success to
other Malayali workers in Colombo firms. The Labour
Department reported, the U.S.P. exploited the situation fully
and captured Malayali labour and organized them in trade
unions Malayali labour, buffeted hither and thither by racial
animosity and stern employers found a platform in this new
party, to ventilate their grievances.10 The majority of the
U.S.P. trade union members and many of the union officials
were Malayali, and during the first years of the war, they
formed the backbone of Communist support in Colombo.

The Harbour Strike of 1941

he most important labour dispute that took place during
the early years of the war was the strike of harbour
workers in July 1941. This strike marked the appearance of
several trade unions in the port led to important wage
increases being granted to these workers. The strike also
caused concern among the government and military authorities
about the danger of strikes dislocating vital work in the harbour
during the war, and resulted in the government proclaiming
the harbour an essential service under the Defence
Regulations. The Harbour Strike was also the last major strike
supported by the C.T.U.F. before its change in policy towards
strikes consequent on its later support of the war effort.

Of the three other Union leaders who were active in 1940, P.

Kandiah was a graduate in Oriental Languages from
Cambridge, where he participated in Communist politics
during his stay there from 1936 to 1939. On his return to
Ceylon, Kandiah became a lecturer at the University, joined
the U.S.P. and devoted a great deal of his time to organising
trade unions. A. Vaidyalingam, a graduate in mathematics of
the Ceylon University, went to Cambridge in 1936 on a
Government Scholarship and did the Mathematical Tripos;
he too was actively involved in left politics while in Cambridge
and also became interested in the organisational problems of
trade unionism. Returning to Ceylon in 1939, Vaidyalingam
joined the Colombo Workers Club and later the U.S.P. and
concentrated his efforts on trade union work.

The repatriation of many Indian harbour workers in 1939

and the reduction of unemployment during 1941, had led to a
shortage of labour among the permanent labour force in the
Colombo harbour.12 The work available was at irregular
intervals because ships came in convoys during the war,
leading to periods of intense activity and intervals when no
work was available. The burden of this fell on the permanent
labour force, as the casual workers did not have the
experience or the stamina to work at great pressure, and the
wages paid to the workers varied with the total output of a
work gang.13 The reduction of the wages of the permanent
labour force that resulted, led to great discontent.

K. Ramanathan was a journalist who had been a member of

the L.S.S.P.; he as active during the Toddy Tappers strike
and edited left-wing newspapers in Tamil and Malayalam. In
the formation of the U.S.P., he worked in organizing trade
unions in Colombo.
The Ceylon Trade Union Federation
he third phase of trade unionism which as the most
important advance in trade union activity by the
Communists, was the formation of the Ceylon Trade Union
Federation. The trade unions which had been formed by the

The strike ended after nine days when the Unions accepted
the Governments offer of a Commission Inquiry by the
Controller of Labour and an interim award within a few days;
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The Controllers interim report clearly brought out the urgent

need for an all-round increase in wages, and recommended
an increase of Rs 3/- per 1,000 bags of rice going to the
contractor or overseer.14

government provided for the sale of Ceylons total output of

tea, rubber, plumbago, copra and coconut oil at fixed prices.
The Communists, who had from 1940 onwards worked in
the Colombo Workers Club, the United Socialist Party and
the Ceylon Trade Union Federation, came into the open with
the formation of the Communist Party. The leaders of the
party were composed of the older group of L.S.S.P. members
of the thirties, (namely Dr. Wickremasinghe, M.G. Mendis,
Saranankara Thero and T. Duraisingham), re-inforced by two
groups of university graduates, from the Ceylon University
and from Cambridge.

The C.T.U.F. took the initiative in the renewal of the strike

and issued leaflets stating, we cannot be patient any longer,
we have got a splendid opportunity let us avail ourselves of
it, workers, do not come to work today,15 The strike was
illegal as the harbour had been declared an essential service
in July 1941, and eight C.T.U.F. leaders (including M.G.
Mendis K. Madavan, K. Edwin and Lionel Kulatunga) were
arrested and charges with inciting workers to strike. The
government appointed the controller of Labour, F.C. Gimson
to report on the strike and decided to publish the Gimson
Report immediately and thereby secure a return to work by
the strikers. The strike was called off on 27th November after
the workers had been assured that the Report would be
implemented. The employers resisted the minimum wage
recommendations (Rs 30 for a married man and Rs 25 for a
bachelor per month) and the 25% increase of wages to
workers on coal cargo. The Governor, finding that the
employers refused to accept voluntarily certain vital
recommendations16 used his authority under the Defence
Regulations to declare particular services in the harbour to
be essential work which made it obligatory for the
employers to accept the decisions of the Commission
appointed by the government.

The years 1945 to 1947 formed the period of the greatest

upsurge of trade union activity in the history of the Sri Lanka
labour movement. The economic uncertainties of the postwar years, and the restraint on labour activity during the war,
were partially responsible for the outburst; but the main factor
that caused the labour unrest was the political ferment of
these years when the issue was self-government and the
end of colonial rule in Ceylon.
The CT.U.F., claiming to represent 25,000 workers, sent a
petition to the State Council in September 1945, urging the
government to provide better employment opportunities, and
it was suggested that this could be achieved through
industrialization as we do not think we can solve our problem
by back to the land policies of peasant agriculture or by
being a feeder of raw materials for the imperialist market.17
The demand was also made for the repeal of the ban on
strikes; now that fascism has been defeated strikes are
one of the chief weapons of the working class and we are
not prepared to give up the right of its use any more).18
Other demands included an 8 hour day in all trades, a bonus
of three months pay to workers in essential industries, a
national minimum wage, pension rights, full trade union rights
for government workers, the release of a worker imprisoned
for sedition,19 and the reinstatement of an active C.T.U.F.
worker dismissed for union activities.20

The harbour strike was a major victory for the C.T.U.F., and
represented the first important trade union success in Sri
Lanka since the twenties. The strike demonstrated the fact
that the workers were in a strong position to obtain
concessions; the revival of trade and the growing shortage
of labour, combined with a sudden rise in the cost of living
increased the bargaining power of the workers; further, at a
time of crisis (because of the war) the government was
anxious to avoid industrial discontent and was willing to make
concessions. But the harbour strike which illustrated the
potential strength of the labour movement was also the last
major strike of the war years. From 1942 until 1945, the
opportunity for militant industrial action, was foregone, and
the workers were restrained by the C.T.U.F. which by 1942,
changed its policy towards labour agitation.

In September 1945, the C.T.U.F. organized a march of

workers to the State Council to present the petition. Led by
M.G. Mendis, over 10,000 workers joined the procession, but
were prevented by the Police from approaching the State
Council and the Board of Ministers refused to meet the
C.T.U.F. leaders. The workers then held a meeting in Price
Park at which Mendis said that because the Ministers had
refused to listen to the workers demands, they had to make
use of the strike weapon which had been discarded during
the war. In spite of strikes being illegal, a token half-day

The Inflationary Conditions 194245

fter 1942, the Ceylon economy was geared to the war
effort, and government intervention in economic matters
increased. Agreements signed between Ceylon and the British

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Footnotes

strike was called in September 1945 and 8,000 workers on

the tramways, the commercial firms,21 the municipality22 and
harbour23 workers joined the strike; three of the tramway
workers who were active union members, were dismissed
for being ringleaders of the strike.24 The result of this action
was a further strike among all tramway drivers and conductors
and sympathy strikes by workers at the Municipality, the tea
and rubber packing stores, and the harbour and engineering
firms.

The United Socialist, 19 Nov. 1940. Trade Unionism in Ceylon

by M.G. Mendis.
2
Tappers were employed in climbing coconut trees and extracting
the juice from the coconut flower which was made into an
intoxicating drink.
3
A threatened strike of the toddy tappers in Dec. 1939 led to an
agreement being made between the renters and the Union on
increased wages and improved working conditions. The failure of
some renters to abide by the agreement led to strikes of tappers in
Kandana on Feb. 1st and in Kandy on Feb. 5, 1940. A settlement of
the dispute was reached after further negotiations between the
Toddy tappers Union and the renters with the Deputy Controller
of Labour acting as arbitrator. This agreement represented a great
success for the Union as nearly all demands were conceded by the
renters.
4
The Secretary of Toddy Tappers Union (M.G. Mendis and its
President, (K. Ramanathan) were members of the dissident section
of the L.S.S.P. who broke away from the party in 1940.
5
The United Socialist, 19 Nov. 1940. Trade Unionism in Ceylon by
M.G. Mendis.
6
ibid.
7
Labour Dept. File T 18, Part I.
8
ibid.
9
Labour Dept. File, T 18, Part 1.
10
ibid.
12
CDN, 25 Jan. 1941.
13
CDN, 6 August 1941. Report of Controller of Labour on Harbour
Strike.
14
CDN 6 August, 1941.
15
ibid.
16
CGA. File C.F. A112/40. Letter of Governor to Sec. of State. 8 Dec.
1941.
17
CGA. File CFA/112 1940 CTUF Petition of 16 Sept. 1945.
18
Ibid.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid. The dismissal of D.P.Jayawardena, Factory Sec. of Hayley
& Kenny is a definite case of victimization and an attempt to destroy
trade unions an organized attempt to hit at the rights of the
working class.
21
Mackwoods, Harrison & Crossfield, Hayley & Co. Vavasseurs,
Ceylon Cold Stores, Adamjee Oil Mills, Hoare & Co. British
Commercial Co., Ceylon Commercial Co.
22
Hulftsdorp scavengers, Maligakanda Water Works, Municipal
Workshops.
23
Workers of Wharfage Co. Cargo Boat Despatch Co., Narottam &
Pereira.
24
File CFA/112/6 loc. Cit.
25
File CFA/112/6 loc. Cit.
26
Forward, 26 Sept. 1945.

The C.T.U.F. which claimed that there were 30,000 workers

on strike, encouraged the strikers to take direct action, and
members of the Communist Party and the C.T.U.F. (including
Hedi Keuneman) prevented the trams being run by blacklegs
by sitting down on the tramlines. There were scuffles with
the police, and M.G. Mendis and other trade union officials
were arrested. The strike assumed serious proportions, for
many of the workers in essential services had stopped work.
The government decided to refer the dispute to arbitration,
but the strike was settled through the intervention of the Mayor
of Colombo. The three dismissed workers were reinstated
and the strikers agreed to resume work.
This strike, which had lasted six days, was an occasion for
the C.T.U.F. to make its impact as a fighting trade union
organization. During the war years militancy in the form of
strikes had been kept at a minimum through the activity of
the C.T.U.F. but immediately the war was over, the C.T.U.F.
was determined to assert itself in the trade union field. The
settlement of the strike was acclaimed by M.G. Mendis as
an outstanding victory25 and a victory procession of workers
went round the streets of Colombo. The Communist weekly
Forward reported: it is the C.T.U.F. and the Communist
Party who are now known as the undisputed leaders of the
working class of Colombo.26
M.G. Mendis was perhaps the undisputed leader and most
prominent trade-union activitist of this militant period in the
urban trade-union movement. His active participation
continued in the 1950s when he was involved in several
notable struggles. In later years too, he was a prominent
activist in the Communist Party and a member of parliament.
He is remembered today as a courageous fighter for the rights
of the working class of Sri Lanka.

Kumari Jayawardena is the author of Rise of the Labor Movement in Ceylon.

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DOCUMENTS

The SSA carried out study in 2009-2010 on the theme, State Reform from Below:Local and Community
Initiatives for Peace Building, Development and Political Reforms in Sri Lanka.. In the course of this study, the
SSAs research team examined issues relating to local democracy and local governance in rural Sri Lanka. This
document is one of the several policy briefs emerged as outputs of this research initiative.

SSA POLICY BRIEF ON LOCAL DEMOCRACY

Reforming Local Government: Ideas for
Better and More Democratic
Local Government

Why Local Government?

ocal government is usually understood as government
beyond the centre. It is the branch of government closest
to the people, which looks after the essential local needs of
the citizenry. This is why in popular imagination local
government is seen as the door step government.
From the point of view of the theory of democracy, local
government is the site where more democracy is available
to common people at the local level. Political theorists
also see local government as the arena where the problem
of the distance between voters and representatives can be
overcome. The detachment of voters and their elected
representatives is a shortcoming in representative democracy.
Some argue that this problem of detachment between the
representative and the represented can be overcome by
facilitating greater and continuous participation of people in
governance. According to this approach, local government
provides the best site for continuous popular participation.

Introduction
eforming local government has been on the political and
policy agendas of Sri Lankas governments since
independence. The Choksy Commission of 1954, the
Moragoda Committee of 1978, the Presidential Commission
of 1998, and the National Policy on Local Government of
2009 are important landmarks of the continuing interest in
local government reform. The present UPFA government
recently took steps to change the system of elections to local
government bodies, seeking to reintroduce the ward system
with limited space for proportional representation. The
governments proposal for establishing a system of Jana
Sabhas at the community level of local government also
indicates a possible reform perspective. During the All Party
Representative Committee (APRC) deliberations a few years
ago, some political parties, too, showed a keen interest in
strengthening local government in Sri Lanka. Some even
suggested the revival of the Gam Sabha system.

In brief, local government is accepted as the level of

government that can facilitate more democracy.
Local Government in Political Theory
olitical thinkers have often recognized the capacity of local
government to make room for more democracy. For
example, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political
philosopher of the mid-19th century who wrote a major book
about democracy, considered local government as the
mainstay of local democracy. He also saw local democracy
as a school of political education and a safety valve of
democracy for the entire nation.

Why should Sri Lankas local government be reformed? What

new elements should be introduced? What objectives should
any new reform of local government serve? Reflecting on
these questions would be helpful to envision a sustainable
system of local government that will deepen Sri Lankas
democracy, enhance the quality of democratic governance
and make local government meaningful to peoples lives.
Before reflecting on these questions, let us first try to
understand the meaning and significance of local government
in a democracy.

In de Tocquevilles assessment, local democracy was a school

of political education because it taught people how to use
power democratically before they became national political

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leaders. Local government, according to de Tocqueville,

constituted a complementary second track of governance,
which made possible stable governance at the first track,
that is national, government. Citizens trained in the primary
school of local democracy would be politically enlightened,
independent and experienced. They would be able to protect
the everyday life of their fellow citizens and communities
against encroachment by the national government.

also blamed the local government system for not playing an

outstanding role in the mainstream of administration and
development. The Commission even went on to say that
the framework of local government in Sri Lanka is outdated
and at [a] crossroads at present.
In a study being carried out by the Social Scientists
Association, some of the major weaknesses of Sri Lankas
existing local government system as a sphere of democratic
local governance were identified. The following are these
weaknesses:

John Stuart Mill, 19th century English political philosopher,

believed that local government could provide a means for
dividing government authority so that excessive centralization
of central government authority could be checked. According
to Mill, local government could even become an alternative
to the central government. Therefore, Mill advocated the
autonomy of local government.

(i) Dominance of the central government in the affairs of

local government: Ministries, institutions, agencies and
personnel of the central government have greater authority,
resources and presence over local government bodies. As
elected institutions of governance, local government bodies
are placed at a level below the provincial councils. A host of
agencies of the central government function at the local level.
They include the offices of the District Secretariat, the
Divisional Secretariat, local offices of various government
ministries and departments, Grama Niladharis and other
officials such as the Samurdhi officer, cultivation officer and
family health officer. One consequence is a shift in the balance
of power in favour of agencies of the central government.
This has created disparities between elected institutions of
local governance and bureaucratic institutions of local
administration, at the expense of local democratic processes
of governance.

Mill also saw the democratic potential of local government.

He believed that local government could be an effective
training ground for citizens in the practice of democracy. Mill
argued that local government bodies, unlike national
government bodies, offered many citizens the chance of being
elected. By performing local functions, local citizens could
receive political education. It offered political space for those
who were excluded from the national processes of
democracy. Thus, Mill saw the value of local government in
broad-basing opportunities for political participation and
creating conditions for greater social inclusion.
This appreciation of local government gave rise to the
concept of local democracy. According to some theorists,
as a form of local democracy, local government bases itself
on the decentralization of power. It provides opportunities to
use local knowledge to meet local needs. It also provides the
most accessible avenue for political participation. People feel
most competent to engage in local politics. At the same time,
people can have a sense of ownership for local initiatives
and in turn ensure the sustainability of services if the
participatory element is respected by the local authority.

(ii) Political dependence for resources: The dependence

of local government institutions on politicians and parties in
power for resource allocation is widespread. Almost as a
general rule, pradeshiya sabhas in the periphery have access
only to limited financial resources. Annual grants for salaries,
members allowances and a very limited amount of capital
grants, mainly for roads, are the areas of support from the
central government which come through the provincial
council. Local authorities are supposed to generate income
from their own sources, as permitted by the governing
legislation, such as the Municipal Councils Ordinance, Urban
Councils Ordinance and Pradeshiya Sabha Act. These local
sources of income include property rates, taxes, licence duties,
tax on vehicles and animals, trade licences, rents on markets
and trade stalls, parking fees, fines and stamp duties. These
provide only a thin revenue base for local authorities,
preventing them from performing even their limited
development mandate.

Weaknesses in Local Government in Sri Lanka

here is both official and popular recognition that Sri
Lankas local government has been in a state of crisis
for some time. For example, the Report of the Commission
of Inquiry on Local Government Reforms (1999) noted that
Sri Lankas local government has become just another
subject in the administrative structure. It is weak in
resources, not effective in management. The Commission

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(iii) Lack of dynamism: There is a general perception that

local government institutions are inefficient, inactive and
therefore lack dynamism. Even many local government
representatives accept lack of dynamism as an inescapable
reality. Some critics even highlight issues of corruption,
nepotism, lack of energy and initiative, disregard for
procedures, administrative inefficiency, underutilization of
assets and inability to effectively respond to the development
agendas of the central government.

(vii) Lack of accountability and responsiveness: One

widely held criticism of local government in Sri Lanka is the
absence of mechanisms and practices for either institutional
accountability or democratic accountability. Institutional
accountability is an outcome of proper rules, regulations and
procedures to ensure upward accountability that is
accountability to higher authorities such as the provincial
council and central government. Democratic accountability
entails accountability to citizens who elect local government
bodies. The lack of democratic accountability is accompanied
by the lack of responsiveness to peoples needs and day-today requirements, such as requests for building permits, trade
licences, etc.

(iv) Absence of peoples participation: Although in theory

local government should facilitate peoples participation in
local governance, Sri Lankas local government institutions
are not known for facilitating such participation. Even the
limited opportunities available for consultation of the people
through committees of urban councils and pradeshiya sabhas
are utilized neither by the councils nor the citizens. Local
government institutions have not developed a culture of
governance that requires citizen input and popular
participation. As a result, local government has lost its
democratic character and become totally controlled by political
parties, officials and the central government. In brief, local
government is not a form of government by the people, or
for the people. As a result, currently almost all local authorities
have lost credibility as governing bodies of the people.

(viii) Lack of accessibility: Even the lowest units of local

government bodies, pradeshiya sabhas, are not easily
accessible to people, due to institutional and political reasons.
Since most citizens view the local government bodies as either
irrelevant or not particularly useful to their everyday needs,
people are reluctant to access local government institutions.
In rural areas, the pradeshiya sabha office is often located
far away from the people. Marginalized social groups and
women rarely find local government institutions useful to their
needs. Under conditions of extreme politicization of rural
public life, citizens of the losing party have no inclination to
access their local government bodies. All this has led to the
detachment of local government from the people.

(v) Local power elites: The absence of popular participation

has led to local government emerging as a space dominated
by local power elites, linked to political parties and public
office. This explains why local government elections have
become moments for intense and sometimes violent power
struggles among local power elites, as well as among
immediate family members of powerful national and provincial
politicians.

Peoples Criticism of Local Government

s our study found, people as citizens also have a fairly
critical understanding of Sri Lankas local government.
The main points of citizen criticism are as follows:

(i) Alienation of local government representatives from

citizens: Most members of local authorities do not maintain
close links with the people once elections are over. After
winning the election, members are more inclined to serve
their kith and kin than those who voted them into power.
Candidates who lost an election have no interest in sustaining
any meaningful links with the voters between elections. They
reemerge during the next election, sometimes on a different
political party list.

(vi) Perpetuates social and political exclusion: Democratic

institutions have a social role to play in societies like Sri
Lanka. That role is to facilitate social transformation and
provide space and opportunities for marginalized and excluded
social groups to share benefits of democracy. The poor,
women, oppressed caste communities, marginalized
communities and ethnic minorities are examples of such
groups whose social upliftment local democracy should
promote. Sri Lankas local government institutions do not
serve this objective of social change, social equity and societal
democratization. Therefore, local government as a whole has
become socially conservative, perpetuating social and political
exclusion.

(ii) Local elected power as a stepping stone to corruption:

Most elected members are corrupt. They do development
work only when such work enables them to make money
from contracts. Getting elected to a local government body
marks the beginning of a career for personal and family wellbeing, as well as for upward political mobility.
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(iii) Lack of imagination and creativity: Even when a

chairman or members want to do something for the
community, the local councils do not have adequate resources.
They expect the central government or the provincial council
to provide them with resources. Councils do not think
innovatively about how to strengthen the resource base
necessary for public work. They are not innovative or
imaginative enough to marshal local resources and launch
new initiatives for development. This is because local
authorities have no concept or long-term strategic vision for
involving people in the area in decision-making or resource
mobilization. They do not have the habit of consulting citizens
who elected them. They know everything. So, why should
they consult voters?
(iv) Local government reproduces male power in
governance: Articulated by women political and social
activists, this critique points to the continuing alienation of
women citizens from local government institutions. This
womens critique points to a number of dimensions of male
dominance in local political structures. Women rarely get
opportunities to contest local elections, since they are treated
by party bosses, both national and local, as candidates who
cannot win elections. Sri Lanka has recorded the lowest
percentage of women representation in national and local
legislative bodies in the Asian region.

the units of governance that are closest to the people and

lowest in the order of institutional structure of the state) as
the guiding principle for Sri Lankas local government.
(ii) Strengthening the institutional capacity of local
government: This perspective seeks to address the
institutional weaknesses of Sri Lankas local government.
Ideas proposed include: (a) reforming existing laws to broaden
the revenue base of local authorities, (b) new legislation to
ensure better financial management and accountability, (c)
training and capacity building in all aspects of management,
(d) provision of better infrastructure facilities such as buildings,
office equipment and e-governance facilities, and (e) training
programmes in participatory budgeting.
(iii) Bringing local government under the control of the
central government: This is a new perspective being
advanced by the present UPFA government. It has two
components: (a) to ensure that all, or at least most, local
government bodies are politically controlled by the UPFA,
and (b) local government bodies are controlled by the central
government. The argument for this approach is both political
and developmentalist. The political argument is that as elected
bodies of governance, local government institutions should
generally implement the political agenda of the ruling party.
The developmentalist argument is that the local government
should play a direct development role in the country, and the
best way to ensure this goal is by bringing local government
under the political as well as administrative control of the
central government. This will also ensure central government
financial support, better management and accountability as
well direct guidance and supervision for local government.

How to Respond to the Crisis and Criticism?

here is a general recognition in Sri Lanka that the
countrys local government is in crisis. Criticism of local
government, as outlined above, is also generally shared by
many. Policy makers, scholars and donors are quite aware
of the crisis as well as the criticism. In response, three
perspectives have emerged in recent times to rectify the
weaknesses of local government.

Should Local Government Be Brought under Central

Control?
rom the point of view of democracy, the answer to this
question is no. Democratic governance requires
autonomy of local government, and not its control by the
central government. Central government control of local
government will lead to the serious erosion of local democracy,
which has already been weakened by a variety of other
factors. What Sri Lanka requires is not less local democracy,
but more local democracy. This can be achieved by ensuring
greater autonomy to local government, accompanied by a
programme to overcome other institutional, administrative and
managerial shortcomings.

(i) Making local government the third tier of government:

This perspective seeks to address the question of institutional
neglect of local government by granting it constitutional and
structural status as a separate sphere of governance. This
was a key recommendation made by the Presidential
Commission on Local Government Reform of 1999. This
position was endorsed by the Ministry of Provincial Councils
and Local Government in its Policy Statement on Local
Government, issued in December 2009. This perspective also
proposes a new vision for Sri Lankas local government.
This new vision seeks to make local government independent
from the control of the central government as well as of
provincial councils. It advocates subsidiarity (strengthening

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The second is the expansion of the revenue base of local

bodies through amendments to existing laws.

An Agenda for Institutional Reform

mong scholars and practitioners of local government in
Sri Lanka, there is shared argreement that an agenda
for reform should be based on the principle of institutional
autonomy of local government. Greater, and not less,
autonomy is a necessary condition for overcoming the present
crisis. This autonomy should cover three spheres: (a) political,
(b) institutional, and (c) financial.

An Agenda for a Stronger Culture of Local

Democratic Governance
s the popular critique of local government in Sri Lanka
clearly indicates, institutional autonomy alone is not
adequate to make local government relevant and meaningful
to citizens. Reform should address this question of citizen
alienation. This calls for a reform agenda aimed at democratic
capacity building of local government. Some proposals arising
from the popular critique are as follows:

Political autonomy of local government calls for accepting

the principle that local government bodies need not be an
extension of the regime in power at the centre. Local
government elections should not be viewed as an extension
of national election campaigns either. This will enable local
political actors involved in local government as well as citizens
to focus on local issues, local agendas and local development
needs. Ensuring the local character of local government is
necessary for the democratic rebuilding of Sri Lankas local
government.

(i) Reintroduce the ward system to enable closer interaction

between citizens and their local representatives.
(ii) Make the lowest of the local government units smaller
than the present pradeshiya sabhas. The present Grama
Niladhari division can provide the ideal size of the lowest unit
of local government to ensure better accessibility to citizens
as well as closer citizen engagement with local
representatives.

Institutional autonomy calls for establishing local government

as a separate tier of government, ensuring it constitutional
recognition and status. This should aim at guaranteeing local
government relative independence from provincial councils
as well as from the central government. It should also be
accompanied by a programme of institution building necessary
for a separate sphere of government. Institutional autonomy
is necessary to make local government an active, robust and
dynamic level of governance.

(iii) Assure representation in local government bodies to

women, social and ethnic minorities and the poor through a
quota system. This is a positive lesson to be learned from
Indias Panchayati Raj system, which has a quota system of
representation for women and depressed castes/tribes.
Assured representation is necessary to overcome the political
exclusion at the local level that arises from social exclusion.
The principle behind this reform is democratic inclusion.
This is one way that more democracy can be made available
to common people at the local level.

Financial autonomy should aim at strengthening the financial

base of local government bodies so that they can serve the
public and implement programmes of development without
depending on external sources of support, such as the
provincial council, line ministries and central government.
Financial autonomy can be ensured through two main policy
reforms.

(iv) A change of law alone is not adequate for making local

government more democratic. It requires action on the part
of citizens and local citizen groups. While laws must be
introduced to engage citizens in planning, implementation,
budgeting, monitoring and accountability, proactive citizen
participation is necessary for democratic local governance.
The following are elements that constitute a democratic
culture of citizen involvement in local government:

The first is direct annual development grants to local

government bodies by the central government, irrespective
of the political party in power in the local bodies. To ensure
autonomy, an independent Local Government Finance
Commission should be established. The Commission can
determine, allocate and monitor this process. For local bodies
in economically underdeveloped areas, where people are
mostly poor, sources of tax income are meager, and
development needs are greater, more economic assistance
should be extended on the principle of equalization.

(a) Sri Lankas rural society has many voluntary citizen

associations. These citizen associations can form themselves
into a forum for: (i) discussing policy priorities for their local
body, (ii) identifying development needs and priorities of the
community, (iii) inviting elected representatives for discussions

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and engagement, (iv) preparing development programmes for

the community along with budgeting, and (v) monitoring the
progress and activities of the local council. The principle that
guides these activities is the creation and maintenance of a
local forum for democratic deliberation.

Deepening Local Democracy

he reform ideas suggested above can be viewed as the
basis for regenerating Sri Lankas local government.
However, local government can work better only if there are
political conditions and the will for the sharing of political
power with citizens at the lowest level of governance. The
reform ideas outlined above have the capacity to deepen Sri
Lankas local democracy. The deepening of local democracy
is a precondition for better local government. Better local
government is a condition for better democracy.

(b) Citizens or representatives of citizen associations can

attend monthly council meetings to monitor council
deliberations and provide feedback. When councilors know
that their meetings are monitored by citizens, they tend to
work better and be conscious of direct accountability to
citizens.

Members and officials of the Village Council, Mirissa.

A picture taken in 1967.

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SRI LANKA: IS THE POLICE SPOKESPERSON

LIVING ON THE MOON?
A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission

oday, June 4, in the Daily Mirror on line edition the police

spokesperson, SP Ajith Rohana, is quoted as saying
Generally, as a practice torture never takes place in Lankan
Police stations. This police spokesperson, who is also said
to be an Attorney-at-Law, is further quoted as saying: Torture
is often misconstrued by the Media and the public. When the
Police go to apprehend a suspect, if there is resistance the
Police will use force in order to arrest him. This isnt torture;
nor is using force to prevent damage to public or private
property torture.

Commission which has already been seen by thousands of

people both in Sri Lanka and outside. He may see SRI LANKA:
The Police Torture Epidemic in Sri Lanka a
documentary
In 2011 alone, the AHRC published 102 Urgent Appeals
cases which are also available on the internet here. There
are already 25 cases published for 2012 to date.
It may of course be no use to give reading material to
this police spokesperson, but if he does care he may also
read a special compilation torture & ill-treatment in
Sri Lanka.

Perhaps, this Attorney-at-Law and the police spokesperson

may have never read any of the judgements of the Supreme
Court regarding the torture that has taken place in Sri Lankan
police stations. These cases are in the hundreds, and the
kind of physical torture includes assaults which have resulted
in kidney failure (the case of Gerald Perera), instances where
oedema on the brain has been caused due the victim's head
being placed beneath heavy books which were then struck
with bars (the case of Lalith Rajapakse), and so many deaths
which have happened after custodial torture, one of the most
recent being that of the death of Mr. Chandrasiri Dasanayaka
of Thalpitiya at the Wadduwa Police Station and the killing
at the Dompe Police Station which lead to the people
attacking the station and so many hundreds of other cases.

Further in 2011, the AHRC also reported on 325 cases of

torture in the book Police Torture Cases Sri Lanka
1998-2011.
Of course, there is no point in reminding the police
spokesman about the last report of the United Nations
Committee against Torture which dealt at length on the
torture taking place in Sri Lanka. And about so many
communications of the UN Human Rights Committee
where the Committee expressed views in favour of the
victims of torture who went before it.
SP Ajith Rohana made this statement denying that the
police in Sri Lanka have a reputation for engaging in
routine torture in order to defend the new bill introduced
to parliament giving the police the power to detain
suspects charged under some offenses for up to 48 hours
instead of the 24 hours, which has been the rule that has
existed for over a century. If the police engage in so much
torture within the 24 hour limit, how much torture we
will see when helpless suspects have to spend twice that
amount of time inside a police station.

SP Rohana seems to be a police spokesperson who does not

appear to read. The Daily Mirror on the very same day
reported in its print version several cases of torture under
the title Suspects claim police brutality after arrest. One of
the suspects is in serious condition and he has also been
admitted to a hospital.
It would have helped SP Rohana to have looked at some
audio visuals if he is not in the habit of doing any reading.
Had he examined YouTube, he would have been able to watch
over a hundred and fifty Sri Lankan victims of torture speaking
of their ordeals with graphic detail. It is not too late for him to
have a look at these firsthand accounts of torture by the
victims themselves by just taking the time and trouble to go
to YouTube.

The reported cases of torture clearly indicate that most

suspects who are tortured brutally are in fact, innocent
persons who have been taken into custody without any
evidence and often the purpose of the arrest is to find a
suspect for crimes that the police have failed to resolve.
With the introduction of the new rule of detention for 48
hours, many more persons will be made substitute

If that is too much trouble, then, he could look into this

documentary published by the Asian Human Rights

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2nd Proof - 22.06.2009

criminals after brutal torture forcing them to confess to

crimes they know nothing of.

The IGP likewise should call the police spokesman and

question him about his statement on police torture in Sri
Lanka. The IGP should show the police spokesman the
letters he has been receiving about persons being tortured
at police stations.

Police torture in Sri Lanka has also become a lucrative

business opportunity for police officers. The families are
willing to spend whatever they have in order to protect
their people from being tortured. Now, this opportunity
for making money by the abuse of the powers of arrest
and detention will naturally increase.

It would be less embarrassing for the IGP if he would

appoint a police spokesman who has the capacity to read
the judgements of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court and
High Courts and also read the reports published by
newspapers and human rights organisations.

Besides this, Sri Lankans are today unfortunate to have

people in the officer cadre blatantly lying to them without
shame. Tomorrow a former Attorney General will be
summoned to court to answer questions about a statement
he made at the last session of the UN Committee against
Torture when he was representing the Sri Lankan
government. He said that he was aware of where Prageeth
Eknaligoda, the missing journalist, is now living in some
country abroad. He is now being called upon to explain
this statement.

About the AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission

is a Hong Kong-based human rights group.

Printed with VOC free, non toxic vegetable oil-based environmentally-friendly ink.
Printed by Karunaratne & Sons (Pvt) Ltd. (info@karusons.com).

Forthcoming from the SSA

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