The convent, the JVP and a new start
Chitra Bopage’s life story could easily be lifted from the pages of The Sound of Music: a vibrant young woman with a beautiful voice, an irrepressible spirit, challenging norms and carving out her own path.
Nun Other Than, a documentary about Chitra’s extraordinary journey, directed by Dr. Udan Fernando, was recently screened in Colombo and Melbourne. We caught up with Chitra in Melbourne, where she is now retired and lives with her husband, Lionel.
Chitra Bopage
Growing up in the home of educators in Avissawella, Chitra was energetic and curious. Her parents, recognizing a spark in her that set her apart in their eight-strong brood, enrolled her at St. John Bosco College, the only private school in the area offering English-language instruction. Little did they know, Chitra was destined for a life far beyond the ordinary. From schoolgirl to Catholic nun, secret Marxist singer, marriage to then General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Lionel Bopage, to a refugee fleeing the country, her story is cinematic.
Chitra’s questioning nature became obvious at age 18 at an unexpected place: the Colombo General Hospital. An illness placed her in a ward where the conditions opened her eyes to the stark inequalities around her. The woman in the neighbouring bed was neglected and unkempt and had no visitors, while Chitra was pampered by the nurses, served hospital meals with eggs that she refused because her family visited daily with home-cooked food. She ignored her neighbour until she said, “If you don’t want the eggs, give them to me.”
The conversation that ensued sparked her conscience. “I learned that patients who paid extra money received better care,” she remembers. “The staff, poorly paid, would take home patients’ meals unless they were given something extra.”
Something stirred deep inside her. Watching the nuns from the Sisters of Perpetual Succour (now Sisters of Perpetual Help) tending to the patients like her neighbour, she decided to join their ranks to serve those in need.
Despite her parents’ concerns, Chitra entered the religious order. The arduous path, involving years of training and discipline spanning pre-postulancy, postulancy, novitiate, First and Final Vows, was not an easy fit for Chitra’s free-spiritedness. She was often at odds with the strict convent rules. As a novice in the Mother House in Negombo, Chitra had to pay for her mischief by kneeling in public places: “Once, I had to wear two aprons; one at the back and one at the front and kneel with something balanced on my head,” she recalls.
Social service duties appealed to her. After taking her First Vows, Chitra was stationed at the Katukurunda parish, where she combined her religious practices with basic health care at beachfront slums and taught Religious Education at the local school. She also taught English at a local welfare institute for children who couldn’t afford tuition.
She first met members of the JVP as a Social Science student at Catholic University (later Aquinas College University). Her melodious voice was well known in the convent choir, and her fellow students at the college, JVPers, would ask her to sing hymns, and she obliged.
“I wasn’t aware of their political affiliation,” she says. “I had a very negative impression of the JVP at that time.” Fears arising from the 1971 JVP insurrection were present then.
A research project took her to Welikada Prison to interview JVP cadres detained after the 1971 insurrection, where she met a group of young women captured in the jungles by the armed forces. One beautiful girl, in particular, was in agony, from repeated rape on a slab of rock in a jungle. Her image remains etched in her mind.
By now, Chitra was a fully pledged nun, working in the slums as a staff member of the Centre for Society and Religion led by Fr. Tissa Balasuriya. While helping children of Maligawatte who had not found a place in local schools, she motivated some people to build a rudimentary school on a cleared rubbish dump, then watched tearfully as the Colombo Municipal Council burnt it down two days after it opened. Appeals to the government and religious authorities went unheard.
In this environment, Chitra’s drive to confront social injustices found its true purpose. She even began to question her privileges within the church. and later after being voted to a senior position at the convent, she made notable changes, such as introducing skills training for domestics.
Around this time, Chitra met Lionel Bopage, then General Secretary of the JVP, released after seven years in prison. Lionel was seeking support for the JVP’s human rights initiatives. He visited the convent with Sunila Abeysekera, an activist and singer of the JVP’s ‘Songs of Liberation’ concerts performing songs reflecting the party ideology. Later, Lionel invited Chitra to sing at JVP concerts.
Chitra lent her voice to the JVP cause in secret, because nuns were prohibited from participating in such activities. She would tell the Sr. Provincial she was attending a youth meeting, and sneak away to sing at JVP concerts. Her sister would be waiting with a change of attire, in which Chitra would sing songs of liberation from her heart.
“Of course, it is wrong for a nun to do this, but I saw nothing wrong in singing songs that raised social awareness,” she says.
In turn, Lionel taught the nuns A’ Level economics.
Over time, a mutual attraction developed between them. “We did nothing about it because we were both bound by our commitments; me to my vows and Lionel to the JVP,” she says.
A turning point came when Chitra was invited to speak about the slum project at the 5th Asian Meeting of Religions for Peace attended by religious and other leaders from across Asia to discuss social, political, and cultural issues. Abandoning a pre-approved script, Chitra urged the audience to leave their pristine surroundings and step into the slums to witness the suffering first-hand.
She was reprimanded. Soon after, the Criminal Investigation Department reported her involvement with the JVP to the church. Although her superior acknowledged her activities, she was advised to remain within the boundaries of her religious role.
Chitra was torn between her commitment to the Church, her social activism, and her feelings for Lionel. After consulting her best friend and Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, she was advised to go on retreat for reflection. She chose Lionel and dedicated herself to supporting him and his work.
Lionel was a devoted husband, but his ties to the JVP cast a dark shadow over their life together. In the first years of their marriage, they lived with friends due to financial difficulties. Chitra’s family, initially wary of Lionel, gradually accepted him.
By early 1983, trouble was brewing in the country. Ideological differences between Lionel and the JVP leadership had surfaced. The JVP became one of three parties blamed and banned for the July ’83 riots. All the JVP leadership went underground, except for Lionel who continued living with his family, stating he was innocent. Chitra watched as police took him away, manacled. Chitra’s mother took their children away for safe keeping.
Chitra began frequent visits to the Fourth Floor of the CID in Colombo Fort, where Lionel was being held. “It was a difficult time. We had no money. When I saw him asleep on the cement floor, his leg chained to the table, I cried.”
Lionel was released seven months later without charges. He resigned from the JVP in February 1984 and found work as an engineer and consultant. The couple and their two children settled into a house in Piliyandala gifted by her brother Kingsley and his wife Shyama.
But the shadow lingered. Sri Lanka’s separatist tensions escalated and another JVP insurrection began. Although uninvolved, Lionel was targetted. Anonymous death threats arrived, and he was frequently harassed. Fearing for their safety, Lionel left for Japan helped by his superiors.
Chitra and the children flew to Australia where they applied for refugee status with help from Fr. Tissa Balasooriya. Lionel moved to Australia after Chitra successfully appealed to the UNHCR and Australian Immigration. In Australia, Lionel found work with an engineering firm, and Chitra began a new career in education. Lionel and Chitra have continued to advocate for human rights in Australia and Sri Lanka.
‘Nun Other Than’ gives a brief account of Chitra’s experiences. ‘The Lionel Bopage Story’, authored by Michael Colin Cooke, was released in Melbourne earlier this year.
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