The enchantment of this book lies in the emotion that the author invests in the factual material about the Kalutara district, and the village or gama in which he was “nativised” (to coin a term). Bradman Weerakoon is a well known public figure, a polyglot - a man of many parts, a multi-faceted personality who yet maintains the accessibility of the true man of affairs, that the reader of the book more enjoys the sense or appreciation of the author, which emerges from the content than perhaps the content itself.
This appreciation of the author’s personality may be limited to those who know him or have worked with him, enjoyed the emotional and intellectual camaraderie, which the Ceylon/ Sri Lanka public servant creates in any public activity which serves a larger purpose than the actual role he/she plays in the orchestration of the event. Thus in participating as a Senior Presiding Officer in the 1960 general elections in March and July, I, as a new recruit, enjoyed a sense of significance of being part of a nationally significant event, the evolution of the country towards a democracy, for which role it seemed to have been providentially destined.
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When one reads the descriptions and anecdotes, the factual findings and inferences, the personal encounters, the historically significant details that fill this book, it’s not the data which holds the reader but the sense of an author, who conveys a personality both lovable and learned, that the reader instinctively feels that what he says is significant even though the subject itself may not be grand. That ability to portray the meaningfulness of reality is the fruit of Bradman Weerakoon’s personality, and that is his gift.
Why should one write a book about Kalutara except because it has meaning to the writer? The test of his success is to convey that meaning to the reader.
Let’s put it in simple terms: Is it an interesting book? I found it interesting. There are three reasons:
I know and admire the author . I am also a “native” of Kalutara. It is my gama, where both my father and mother were born and so were their ancestors and I understand that is true of Bradman too. Further both our fathers were public officers and both also worked in Kalutara though they were in a transferable service, Mr Weerakoon began at a much more elevated level as Assistant Superintendent of Police and my father as a clerical servant and finally as Kacheri Mudaliyar. Similarly Bradman reached the peak of the service from his very youth as Secretary to the Prime Minister in the mid 1950s while I was a climber from less than half way up the mountain and never reached the peak.
But this huge gap between Bradman and me does not prevent me from feeling a close comradeship, he gives the sense of sharing with almost everyone he works with, a true gift he enjoys and a rare one indeed!
He sees much more than others, including other writers, and says it very pleasantly. So when he says that there were “cassados” in the Portuguese army, that is soldiers who were encouraged to retire and settle down in the Western Province, which they ruled for 150 years and goes on to add that among his ancestors there seemed to have been one, I feel, “How true! I am sure I have one (or more) and is that how I have a “Perera” in my name?” So is that why I my mother was so much more light skinned than my father? And doesn’t Bradman too have a light skin? And aren’t a lot of people in the country light skinned?
And so the word “Kasadaya” or marriage came from “cassados” or Portuguese soldiers who marry and settle down with a wife and some land to live in and this is different from Kandyan or Sinhala marriage with deega and binna and multiple partnerships.
Till this revelation about “cassados”, the general feeling was that the conquerors from the west had their women and the children were “monuments to European adultery”, as an election speaker is supposed to have said, about his opponent in the Colombo Municipal elections in the early 20th century. There was no mention that the word “kasadaya” referred to a stable relationship encouraged and supported by the government of the time.
Why do I dwell on this issue? Because it illustrates what I feel is the true value of this writing about Kalutara, the ability to sift the significant from the trivial, which is the hallmark of a good public officer and an honest intellect.
I have no doubt that this short comment on history will arouse quite a few responses and I do hope that they will energise the intellectual environment. I am tempted to continue and compare Kalutara with my own book on Ratnapura (The British Diaries), whch is based on the diaries of the British Government Agents, who ruled Sabaragamuwa from 1815 to 1939. I made use of material collected by Malcolm Abeyratne, CCS who read all the diaries and climbed all the mountains in the early 1960s, when I worked there as District Land Officer. It was a great act of scholarship and public administration by Malcolm Abeyratne and I was able to transform the material into a Master’s thesis in English, presented at an American university, and later publish it as a book.
Bradman Weerakoon’s work on Kalutara resembles the magnificent spread of the outlook that the British GAs had about their task as rulers. It is a reality show about Kalutara.
It has a photo or a line drawing or a map on almost every other page and the author has spent many miles and many days discovering the district for himself. So it has a lot of useful information and authentic and first person narrative. I have stressed, however, the creativity of the encounter between Kalutara and the author and that is why it is an interesting book, a reality show about Kalutara.
Bradman Weerakoon was not only Secretary to successive Prime Ministers, as he has narrated in his book ‘Rendering Unto Caesar’, but also was, in interim periods, Government Agent in Ampara, Batticaloa and in Galle.
One’s position determines one’s outlook. A GA sees the entire district as his area of commitment and unifies its various features in his comprehension of relationships among them. So, in Kalutara, Bradman sees things in perspective: there are three main towns Panadura, Kalutara and Beruwala and each has its comparative features, there are water bodies Kalu Ganga, Kuda Ganga, Bentara Ganga and Bolgoda which contribute to make the wet and luscious place that Kalutara is; there is urban office and industry, and rural agriculture; there are religions living in harmony and political distinctions; there is Richmond Castle built by a Sinhalese Mudaliyar and Pahiyangana, a huge cave named after Fa Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who is supposed to have spent some time there centuries ago, on his way to Adam’s Peak.
These too have been personally visited and photographed and verbally evoked and we might well think that this is the GA of Kalutara, in British times doing his district circuit, as he was expected to do, according to Governor Maitland’s Minute in the early 1800s. Those GAs, straight out of Oxford or Cambridge, had a sense of wonder about the places in which they had been destined to rule, through the Pax Britannica, and their diaries and writings convey that sense of wonder, which Bradman continues to express in his own account.
As an after word I must mention that among his many credits Bradman Weerakoon also has a Master’s in Sociology from an American University, including a shorter attachment at Harvard and he conforms very specifically not only to the intellectual rigor required of a research student but also to the formalities of research paper writing with references and footnotes properly deployed. It is also a model research work, blending the academic with the practical, amalgamating theory and practice and producing an interesting and enjoyable read.
The book is published by Stamford Lake and is available at all leading bookshops. |
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