A picture of the times

It is not only a tale of murder and robbery that the news clippings reveal, but also many other important strands that bring into focus a picture of the times and lives of people then. Not only the varied witnesses, who fearlessly came forward to give evidence at the non-summary proceedings, but also public officials who had been holding positions of power in the Anuradhapura and the Maradankadawela of the 1950s are indicative of the fine ethnic mix of those years gone by.

The Maradankandawela Headman, S.P.M. Motala, trader Podi Appuhamy, the barber who shaved Yakadaya’s beard Antonipillai, the apothecary, S. Rajaratnam and Postman M. Sinnadurai, the Anuradhapura Magistrate, G.E. Amarasinghe and the acting Magistrate S. Nataraja, the doctor who examined the suspects, Dr. R. Sivagurunathan, the Investigating Inspector of Post Offices, Central Division, A.H. Lutersz who checked out what was missing from the Maradankadawela Post Office and the police team who carried out the dramatic capture ASP Van Sanden, SI Andrews, Sergeant S.H. de Hoedt, Police Constables Edwin, Wimalasena and Ossen and Police driver Yasaratnam, all proof of a society that lived in harmony.

Other tiny pointers, may be to a better Sri Lanka, are the courageous capture of Yakadaya, without shooting him dead on the spot, as it seems to happen frequently these days in any case which makes headlines and the whole-hearted support from the postal fraternity to the family of a brother officer killed on duty, with the comment, “It is rarely that a man is prepared to sacrifice his life for the protection of public property”.

The widow of Postmaster Thambiah had been handed over Rs. 9,000, a princely sum probably in those days, collected by the All-Ceylon Postmasters’ Union for her and her two sons, with the condemnation of the government for not adequately compensating the family and the fact that W. Dahanayake had characterized the government payment as “gram money”. While Thambiah’s death resulted in many officers refusing to take up duty at Maradankadawela, a decision had been made to arm postmasters in lonely outposts.

As in current times, the prison authorities seem to have had fingers pointed at them for not giving a change of clothing to Yakadaya and not taking Jimmy to hospital for a painful hernia and also for harassing relatives who visited prisoners and for tampering with their letters.

Of course, the superstitions which control the psyche of many Sri Lankans had sent tingles down the spine of people even those days as is evident from the tiny news snippet: Post Office ‘haunted’, according to which postal officers working at Maradankadawela had stated that at certain hours of the night, the telephone rings and the noise of letters being stamped, drawers being opened and the sound of coins being placed on the counter could be heard.

The curiosity and morbid fascination of Lankans are also recorded for posterity through the photos of gaping crowds who had gathered to see the manacled and chained Yakadaya.

Drama in court as evidenced even today with some politicians and their relatives making a scene, also seems to have been part of Yakadaya’s cards, when he walked into court in silk “slips” refusing to wear any other clothes, was on one occasion carried in on a stretcher apparently too ill to walk and on another brought in wrapped in a sheet, with a jail guard feeding him liquid on and off.