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Looking back and looking forward
By Sudharshan Seneviratne
In numb silence I walked away from funerals where fires were eating into the mortal remains of those who shared moments of joy and sorrow with me for years. Those friends and thousands of other Sri Lankans including our neighbours lost their loved ones and friends in one sudden moment. Everything changed from joy to tragedy during a season of festivities. I was brought up in a culture that taught us to respect the impermanent nature of mind and matter.

We often forget this norm and then reality descends on us at the most unexpected time and in the most devastating manner. It humbles us. It makes us reflect with humility as to who we are, about life and death, our priorities in life, the way we reach out to people - in basic terms, teaching us the very essence of humanism. The fleeting images in the print and electronic media depicted pain and tragedy in its most agonizing and gruesome form. If this carnage inflicted by nature does not give us a wake up call, nothing ever will!

For a moment my thoughts drifted back to the lady who was advised by the Buddha to seek some seeds from a household where no kinsmen had died. We had our moments of agony. 1971, 1983, 1987/88 - the carnage humans inflicted on fellow humans. We were complacent about such agonizing moments as they were mainly, until now, inflicted by 'human beings' on the 'other' - class, ethnic, religious or language group. We also let those agonizing moments fade into a memory of insignificance. In the recent past whenever nature warned us, it was 'provincial' and not national. So what! We had floods. Send down a few lorryloads of provisions. We had a drought. Send some gallons of water.

It took the ocean, nature's very endowment to humanity, to rudely awaken us from our slumber, our inwardness and apathy. The ocean we aesthetically enjoy, our source of poetic inspiration, the endless resource we harvest was not expected to inflict this pain upon us. The tsunami descended on us silently, but with frightening ferocity and retreated in a mocking gush leaving behind its trail of material destruction and human suffering. It did not discriminate.

All mortals were subject to its majestic fury. Our vanity was finally subdued and an island society was brought to its knees. Kisagotami did not find mustard in a single home where kinsmen had not passed away. Mother Lanka wept for her children as did Kisagotami, for every person in this island has a kinsman, loved one or friend who sacrificed their lives at this oceanic altar on 26/12.

Historical narration
This island has known periodic natural disasters since time immemorial. Pre-historic investigations indicate sudden as well as long drawn oceanic advances and retreats and consequently landscape evolution along the coastal belt and in the central parts of the island. Investigations along the Puttalam coastal belt revealed Early Iron Age (1000 BC to 450 BC) pottery buried under coastal sand dunes at a depth of 15 feet below surface level. The accumulation of sand was through sea action and quite obviously sudden. The Mahavamsa (Chapter 22) narrates the unfortunate incident that resulted in the wrath of the sea-gods being inflicted on the coast of Kalyani when they caused the sea to overflow the land.

The magnitude of this destruction may have been so great that it remained in the memory of later chroniclers who repeated this event in association with other similar actions of the sea that occurred at a later date. The Rajavaliya (composed around the 17th Century AC) describes how the sea ravaged the fortress, streets and palaces of Ravana situated between Mannar and Tuticorin (Tuttukudi) due to his wickedness. Similarly, records the same text, the sinful action of Kalanitissa of putting an innocent monk to death, angered the guardian deities of Lanka and submerged the west coast of Lanka where it destroyed seaport towns, 970 villages and 470 villages of pearl-fishers. Only Mannar and Katupiti Madampe escaped this destruction according to the text.

Archaeological evidence in the northwest coast also indicates the destruction of the famous port at Kudiramalai, where its vestiges are visible at sea during low tide. It is also known that the great port of Mahatittha was gradually silting around 10th Century AC and was finally abandoned, possibly due to tectonic activity. Those who are promoting the 'Sethu-samudra' in the Gulf of Mannar must take cognisance of this situation. In addition to oceanic ravages, the texts mention several incidents of various plagues, diseases and famines that took a heavy toll on the whole island where resident communities including the clergy either fled to south India or retreated to the central hills. There was always a resurgence of the island culture finally overcoming adversity and reasserting its habitat. It went on to endow to the world the magnificent civilization we witness in its material vestiges.

Hope for reconstruction
Often we fail to learn from the past and we have paid a heavy price for our constant ignorance and arrogance. Learning from the past is not to romanticize the past but to reach out to its living reality. We are an island nation that is formed of various ethnic communities, cultures, religions, languages and other forms of cultural traits. In the face of the adversity we witnessed recently, there are obviously no chosen communities favoured by guardian deities. We stand equal and we receive our boons and punishments. Our diversity gives us the greatest strength in reconstructing our mindset leading to national reconstruction. National reconstruction is a concept that must touch both mind and matter. It is not restricted to this or that community. An island society encompasses the total resident community who have an equal right to its national resources. Conversely, it is also their obligation to contribute towards the development and sustenance of its national resources.

Out of this devastation we have to and we must envisage the emergence of a new mindset. Let us make it a pathfinder for national reconstruction. We must now pick the pieces and move on to a qualitatively new plane of thinking and action. It calls for a mindset that reaches out beyond the tribe and to the nation. Material reconstruction is only half done if social reconstruction is not revitalized and completed. Social reconstruction is not possible if social harmony is not consciously thought of. It cannot be imposed from above but must emerge as a dire necessity demanded by the community itself - for its very survival. Our ability to respect diversity in society while we celebrate our national identity as the resident community of Sri Lanka is and will be our greatest source of strength, sustaining social harmony.

The process of reconstruction will take diverse forms. It will witness the convergence of the best of our diverse cultural elements and its humaneness. Centrifugal forces will work towards the reverse process. While the state will be more tolerant, elements opposing the state leading to a vertical division of this island will now work towards the common good. International friends will be genuinely involved towards reconstruction of hearts, minds and material beyond the narrow confines of the peace process. Newly constructed town, city and village dwellings will be people and eco-friendly habitats giving greater priority to the quality of life.

These habitats will be centres of personal and not impersonal relationships. New reconstructions will carry greater respect for our environment and not its subversion. In the place of anarchic capitalism people-friendly accumulation of social wealth will be respected. Technology will not devastate the land we live on, the air we breathe, the forests that nurture us and the water that sustains us, but augment the very survival of those life-giving sources in the universe. Heritage sites will be managed not by parochial tribal chieftains and Nazi administrators but by a new generation of enlightened professional archaeologists who are citizens of the world. We shall not fear globalisation, as we will truly be citizens of the world in our thoughts and in our material culture that is ushered in by our humane spirit of sharing and celebrating diversity.

Let us not make the lives sacrificed at the oceanic altar a waste. Let us celebrate their memory in the spirit of courage, turning adversity into advantage.

(The writer is Professor of Archaeology
University of Peradeniya)

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