“The Sri Lanka Reader,” which signifies a new turn in documentation of Sri Lanka’s history, is an attempt to present rationally a collection of appropriately picked historical events and issues which had a bearing on the island’s social and political history. The Editor in doing so, keeps the reader well focused on present realities paying special attention to the ethnic conflict.
Although it is a deviation from the usual chronicling of historical events, the 722-paged volume is a sweeping coverage of Sri Lanka’s 2500-year history extending up to the contemporary post-LTTE era. What is notable in “The Sri Lanka Reader,” edited by non-Sri Lankan, John Clifford Holt, Professor of Humanities and Religion and Asian Studies of Bowdoin College, UK, is its balanced presentation of his selected subjects where traditional interpretations are often followed by alternative views and reviews. In depth analytical essays, critical assessments and observations written by experts on relevant fields as well as counter arguments, even prejudicial viewpoints have thrown light to give a fuller picture of events while the inclusion of letters, reports, pages off diaries, poetry, short stories, photo essays et al have further enlarged the picture.
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Thus, converting the volume to a platform with the accommodation of a wide spectrum of expressions has besides bringing credibility, given a new dimension to books on sociological history. Of much value is the brief analytical explanation that precedes each essay which makes it easy to access the choice of one’s topics.
The account of Sri Lanka’s early history begins with the Mahavamsa version of the three visits of the Buddha to Sri Lanka preceded with its own version followed with the arrival of the progenitor Vijaya. “Tamil Hindu Vijaya” is an account as given by the Tamil Hindu community of Jaffna in the eighteenth century on the request made by the then Dutch officials for a report of the country’s origin. Its introductory analysis says, “it is a creative reworking of the Vijaya cycle of myth which has been linked to the historical time of the epic Ramayana.”
The Editor counters this view as an imaginary alternative to ancient Sinhala migration stories and articulates rival claims to primordial ownership or settlement of the island, which illustrates the Editor’s recognition of prejudices that had existed among rival ethnic groups even in the eighteenth century. Common myths and misconceptions in fact that abound in early history have been placed in a logical perspective.
Sri Lanka being home to Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil Hindu civilizations with Arab Muslims integrating from the eighth century followed by the four and a half centuries of colonial rule by the Christian Portuguese, the Dutch and the British led to the complex evolution of Sri Lankan society. With such a legacy, Sri Lankan society is marked by its variegated religious, linguistic and ethnic identities and is further divided by urban and rural, caste and class distinctions. Instead of celebrating Lanka’s diversity, it is pointed out that the divisions have contributed to political convulsions with politicians seeking to return to power by appealing expediently to ethnic affinities. Sri Lanka therefore, has turned out to be a classic case of tyranny of the majority.
The account of early history which reflects the richness of past glories had included records of a handful of Kings. Depicted in detail the “Dutugamunu Saga” reproduced from the Saddharmalankaraya of the fourteenth century, are the military operations of King Dutugamunu who is identified as the most controversial historical king. “The story continues to resonate for many contemporary Sinhalese who find the defeat or subjugation of the island’s Tamils an important dimension of their social and political identities” says the preceding synoptic explanation. Following the invasion of Polonnaruwa by Magha from Kalinga (modern Western Orissa,) turbulence continued from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries with the Sinhala Kings retreating towards the Southwest when they set up kingdoms in Dambadeniya, Gampola and in Kotte.
“Dambadeni Asna” which indirectly reflects the stability in the Sri Lankan nation after the fall of Polonnaruwa relates the re-establishment of the Capital of Buddhist Kingship in Dambadeniya by Parakramabahu the Second. It relates his defeat of Tamil invaders of Kalinga while his literary achievements which coincided with his stable reign brought him the prefix Pandit Parakramabahu.
“The Alakeshvara Yuddhaya,” another chronicle of political history mentions about the King of Lanka being taken prisoner to China, an event obliterated in the Mahavamsa. This brought to power the merchant family Alakeshwara of Kerala origin who was supervising the rule of the weakened Sinhala kings of the upcountry from Kotte – their powerbase. Eventually, Parakramabahu, installed as Parakramabahu the V1 on the Sinhala throne at Kotte, through a coup orchestrated by a Chinese Admiral, vanquished Aryachakravarti, the King of Jaffna and Sri Lanka with Kotte as the Capital, came under one rule. After the Polonnaruwa-era, beginning from 1420, this was the only unification of Sri Lanka which ended with the Kandyan era in 1815. The Kotte period, known as the golden age of literature, ironically was also the eve of the arrival of the Portugese in the island.
A wide selection of essays, reports and reproductions of old documents have been used to analyse the advent of the colonial powers of the Portugese and the Dutch. But a statement relevant to today’s context is made by the famed historian K.M. de Silva that the economic transformation and religious impact of colonial powers continue to influence post-colonial Sri Lanka. He further states that the British colonized Ceylon more intensely than India due to the dramatic physical transformation of land that took place with the establishment of the plantation economy and the bringing of the thousands of Tamil people from India to work on the coffee/tea plantations. The British rule was also largely uncontested and western modernity was well imbibed by a cultivated, indigenous elite who were trained in English-speaking schools. And after cinnamon, coffee and tea, with the commencement of the rubber plantation and the start of industries, a Sinhala capitalist class emerged.
The reawakening of the Buddhist sentiments was seen from the 1860s onwards spearheaded by Buddhist monks who had engaged English missionaries in public debates about religious doctrines. In 1905, Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy’s appeal to the Kandyan chiefs to rescue the remains of their culture from loud modernity and not to allow time to obliterate it coincided with the reawakening of the national sentiments. He said the vanishing of culture and the de-establishment of the Kandyan kingdom resulted in the artistic community losing its primary patron in the King and the Royal Court.
Expressing a view that the reawakening of the Sinhala-Buddhist ethos led to the current ills, “The Sri Lanka Reader” tracing its recent beginnings states that Henry Steele Olcott, a retired American Army colonel, in the last years of the nineteenth century, arrived in Sri Lanka and led the resurgence of Buddhism with Anagarika Dharmapala instilling pride in being a Buddhist in the then contemporary context of British rule. This religio-political stance is stated as having signalled the emergence of the hardline Sinhala Buddhist politics in Sri Lanka.
While the rise of the JVP in the insurrections of 1971 and 1988-1989 was an important trajectory of recent Sri Lankan history, the issue stated as having impacted on the roots of Lankan politics was the call for separatism, the 1983 riots, the language issue, the militarisation of Tamil youth and the Tamil refugee issue.
Some of the most valid points on the ethnic issue have been made through observations made by Professor Howard Wriggins, a former Ambassador for USA, appointed by President Jimmy Carter who returned to Sri Lanka 27 years after his tenure in the island. Regarded as one of the Americans (Robert Kearney being the other) who had been at the forefront of analytical expertise on Sri Lankan politics, recounting his encounters and impressions, first when he visited as a professor and interviewed Prime Minister S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike and thereafter through interviews with Prime Ministers and Presidents running up to Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga he states that (whether the govt.was formed by the SLFP or the minority-liberal UNP) “any visible steps towards devolution might have been seen by the anxious Sinhalese as the first steps into the slippery slope towards Tamil Eelam.” Professor Wriggins had not given thought to such a possibility but says that unless the two principal Sinhala parties shape together a serious proposal to offer to the minority communities or at the least, one of the two mainstream parties fully supports their opponents’ initiative, no proposal can carry the weight of plausibility in the eyes of the minorities. All will remember the too brief existence of earlier agreements. That is why the quality of relations between the government and its mainstream opposition is of critical importance in finding a resolution.
“Besides, without a fresh approach to relations between the two mainstream parties on the crucial issue of devolution, no offer by the government stands a chance of being taken seriously by politically-active Tamils.”
The mosaic of contemporary Sri Lankan society is the by-product of a long and complicated history replete with social and political blunders. Whether the extensive search through the pages of “The Sri Lanka Reader” to look for answers “Whither Sri Lankan Identity per se?” could be found is in doubt. The volume however will remain the ideal source book for analytical study of Sri Lanka’s history enlightening the reader as to what caused the present ills. |
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