Harking back to the days of ‘God save the Queen’
View(s):This book by Lakshman Umagiliya brings back memories of my own past, growing up as a teenager in this island home under British rule. To quote from his own words: ‘I am a retrograde, maybe going backwards into a worse state than the one I was born into. I am heading for Eton, to wear the Eton collar, waist length jacket and an Eton crop of hair. I had become a humbug leaning towards the English rather than my own native land. The subjugation of our own language, religion and culture had left me bereft and unsure of myself. Take manners for instance. For a long time I had been unable to handle table manners imposed by our new rulers. On what side of the plate should the knife rest without offending the fork? And where should the different sizes of spoons lie without sliding off the table onto the floor?
Finally our servant, re-named the Butler, came to my rescue:
Little master use your right hand and the food will taste better. You can, yourself wash your hand afterwards at the kitchen tap.”
We were also compelled, apart from our adopted language of English, to master Latin verbs and Greek homilies. Our own languages, Sinhala and Tamil, were banished from the class-room. The King or Queen of England, whoever was warming the seat on the throne at that time, was adopted as the parent of Ceylon as then was the name given to Sri Lanka.
Whenever we attended a cinema or any public function, we had to stand for the British National anthem -’God save our gracious King’ or Queen, whoever was warming the throne in far off England.
Our own royalty were turned into a dung heap and buried with our history.
And so with inborn pride and prejudice the British supplemented a little part of England into Ceylon. They had little contact with the indigenous and native people of the little island they occupied as masters. They only moved with those who learnt their language and copied their way of life, those who followed their religion and their culture.
In the highlands of Ceylon the British truly found a ‘Little bit of England.’ Here they planted tea which was of true benefit, up to date, for the economy of Ceylon. Hired labour from South India proved cheaper than the Sinhalese themselves. Here the British planter and his wife lived in isolated splendour, in wide, sprawling bungalows, forming planter’s clubs for social interaction, now and then. They had butlers and maids who worked to make life luxurious, and at the same time, somewhat lonely for once busy people..
The down-trodden unfranchised Tamil tea pluckers lived in rows of little, cramped rooms called the “The Lines” producing tea for their British masters. A line room for a family of six consisted of one large bed which six could share, a single window; a toilet shared by many more line rooms, a well for drawing water for all. There was no room for ‘Loneliness’ in the lines unlike for the white planter’s wife in her luxurious atmosphere with nothing to do while her husband went on his early morning duty called ‘creeping’ which began at 5 a.m. with bed tea and polished shoes brought to him by a servant of the bungalow. By and large British planters, mainly Scots, thought themselves, gentlemen.”
From here on the author switches to his life in the United Kingdom where he had settled down with his family after finishing his university career.
I would not like to extend this review but leave it to the imagination of the reader who is welcome to buy the book and follow through. I guess all of us who came under the influence of the British carry such feelings through our lives…..
I recall how even I, at the age of 14, when our National flag was hoisted, revelled in the newly composed national anthem ‘Namo, Namo, Maatha’ with joy. Yet I still continue to read and write in the English language which had became a part of me. My inheritance from the British. To quote the Dictionary:
‘A Dinosaur means any of various types of extinct giant reptile.’
The influence of the British, however, never became extinct. For I still continue to think, feel and write, not in my mother tongue, but in English, same as the author of this extraordinary book had done.
| Book facts
Walking with Dinosaurs by Lakshman Umagiliya. |