It appears that there are pressures in motion[1] to return to the old Rajapaksa programme of rendering the National Anthem on Independence Day in Sinhala Only. As Eranda Ginige has contended, this would be a retrograde step. Towards our comprehension of the issues, I present a preliminary and incomplete bibliography of pertinent items — including the work of Kushil Gunasekera and his Foundation of Goodness in fostering the Murali Cup; the endeavours of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene; and Sasanka Perera’s slashing criticism of the parochial responses to Kishani Jaysinghe’s operatic rendering of “Danno Budunge.”
Hardline Chauvinist Opposition
Senaka Weeraratne: “A Rejection of Reconciliation via Namo/Namo: Weeraratna’s Hardline Sinhala Majoritarian Statement,” 29 January 2017, ……………………… …… ….. /thuppahi.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/a-rejection-of-reconciliation-via-namonamo-weeraratnas-hardline-sinhala-mahttps:/joritarian-statement/
Key Essays from the Pen of Michael Roberts …. in order of presentation
- “Some Pillars for Lanka’s Future,” Frontline, 24/12, 6-19 June 2009, pp. 24-27…. Rep. in Asaga Welikala (ed.) Reforming Sri Lankan Presidentialism, Colombo, 2015, CPA, 22, pp 808-15.
- “Intolerance: Hues and Issues,” Nethra Review, 11/2, December 2010, 20-21.
- “Sangakkaras visit St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna,” 12 April 2011, https://thuppahis.com/2011/04/12/sangakkaras-visit-st-patricks-college-jaffna/
- Michael Roberts: “Kumar Sangakkara’s Ecumenical Lankan Nationalism,” 9 July 2011, https://thuppahis.com/2011/07/09/kumar-sangakkara%e2%80%99s-ecumenical-lankan-nationalism/
- “Mahinda Rajapaksa: Cakravarti Imagery and Populist Processes,” 28 January 2012, http:// thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/mahinda-rajapaksa-cakravarti-imagery-and-populist-processes/, …..reprinted in Asanga Welikala (ed.) Republic at Forty, …
- “A Man Inspired, A Man who Inspired: Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe,” 18 April 2012, https://thuppahis.com/2012/04/18/a-man-inspired-a-man-who-inspired-bishop-lakshman-wickremasinghe/
- “Murali Harmony Cup serves the Northern Province and deploys Cricket in the Work of Reconciliation,”8 September 2012, https://thuppahis.com/2012/09/08/6956/
- “Kumar and Mahela … Cricket and Reconciliation… Northern Empowerment … via Alison’s Tea Break,” 12 October 2012, https://thuppahis.com/2012/10/11/kumar-and-mahela-cricket-and-reconciliation-northern-empowerment-via-alisons-tea-break/
- “Ideological Cancers within the Sinhala Universe: Roadblocks in the Path of Reconciliation,” Groundviews, 10 May 2014, ……………………….. ………………………… http://groundviews.org/2014/05/10/ideological-cancers-within-the-sinhala-universe-roadblocks-in-the-path-of-reconciliation/
- “Where Majoritarian Part subsumes the Whole: The Ideological Foundation of Sinhala Extremism,” 28 July 2016, https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/where-majoritarian-part-subsumes-the-whole-the-ideological-foundation-of-sinhala-extremism/
- “The National Anthem as Spearhead in Steps towards Reconciliation,” 24 January 2017, https://thuppahis.com/2017/01/24/the-national-anthem-as-spearhead-in-steps-towards-reconciliation/
- “Kumar Sangakkara’s Many Steps towards Reconciliation and Sensible Institutional Governance,” 11 June 2017, https://thuppahis.com/2017/06/11/kumar-sangakkaras-many-steps-towards-reconciliation-and-sensible-institutional-governance/#more-25967
Pertinent Sidelights
Sasanka Perera: “Danno Budunge: “Goodness Gracious Me!” 15 February 2016, https://thuppahis.com/2016/02/15/19676/
Adjunct Essays from the Pen of Michael Roberts …. in order of presentation
“Stimulants and Ingredients in the Awakening of Latter-Day Nationalisms,” in Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, 1979, pp. 214-42.
“Problems of Collective Identity in a Multi-Ethnic Society: Sectional Nationalism vs Ceylonese Nationalism, 1900-1940,” in Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in Modern Sri Lanka, Colombo: Marga Publications, 1979, pp. 337-60.
The 1956 Generations: After and Before, G.C. Mendis Memorial Lecture for 1981, Colombo, Evangel Press, 1981a
“Ethnicity in Riposte at a Cricket Match: The Past for the Present”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1985, 27: 401-429.
“Nationalism, the Past and the Present: the Case of Sri Lanka,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1993a 16: 133-161.
“Beyond Anderson: Reconstructing and Deconstructing Sinhala Nationalist Discourse”, Modern Asian Studies, 1996a 30: 690-98. [reprinted in Confrontations, 2009].
“Teaching Lessons and Removing Evil: Strands of Moral Puritanism in Sinhala Nationalist Practice,” Felicitation Volume for Professor S. Arasaratnam, edited by Michael Pearson, as South Asia, sp.issue, Sept. 1996, pp. 205-20.
“Sinhala-ness and Sinhala Nationalism,” in G. Gunatilleke et al (eds.): A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: 2001 Marga Monograph Series, No 4.
“The burden of history: obstacles to power sharing in Sri Lanka”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, n. s., May 2001, 35: 65-96.
“Ethnicity after Edward Said: Post-Orientalist failures in comprehending the Kandyan period ofLankan history,” Ethnic Studies Report 2001, 19: 69-98. [reprinted in Confrontations, 2009].
“Dakunen sädi kotiyo, uturen golu muhudai,” [The fierce/vile Tamils to the south, the turbulent/unfathomable sea to the north] Pravāda 2001. 6: 17-18.
“Primordialist strands in contemporary Sinhala nationalism in Sri Lanka: urumaya as Ur,” Colombo: Marga Monograph Series on A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, 2002 No 20.
“Saivite Symbolism, Sacrifice and Tamil Tiger Rites”, Social Analysis 2005 49: 67-93.
“Pragmatic Action & Enchanted Worlds: A Black Tiger Rite of Commemoration,” Social Analysis 2006 50: 73-102.
“The Tamil Movement for Eelam,” E-Bulletin of the International Sociological Association 2006 No. 4, July 2006, pp. 12-24 [reprinted in Fire and Storm. Essays in Sri Lankan Politics, 2010, pp. 203-18].
“Understanding Zealotry and Questions for Post-Orientalism, I,” Lines May-August 2006,vol.5, 1 & 2, in http://www.lines-magazine.org.
“Tamil Tigers: Sacrificial Symbolism and ‘Dead Body Politics’,” Anthropology Today, June 2008,24/3: 22-23.
“Intolerance: Hues and Issues,” Nethra Review, 11/2, December 2010, pp. 20-21.
“Mahinda Rajapaksa: Cakravarti Imagery and Populist Processes,” 28 January 2012, http:// thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/mahinda-rajapaksa-cakravarti-imagery-and-populist-processes/,reprinted in Asanga Welikala (ed.) Republic at Forty,
“Ideological Cancers within the Sinhala Universe: Roadblocks in the Path of Reconciliation,” Groundviews, 10 May 2014, http://groundviews.org/2014/05/10/ideological-cancers-within-the-sinhala-universe-roadblocks-in-the-path-of-reconciliation/
ALSO = https://groundviews.org/2016/02/10/singing-of-our-national-anthem-in-the-two-national-languages/
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[1] Located as I am in Adelaide and struggling to sustain two webs ites on my own in the midst of home duties and a vibrant cricket and tennis watching seasons, I am not able to keep track of Sri Lanka’s newsprint sources, So I hope helpful hands will send me web references and news items copied in Word File format for my store of information on this set of issues.
My comment is in the form of questions.
In how many languages is India’s National Anthem sung at her Independence Day celebrations in New Delhi (Union Territory of Delhi)?. The anthem Jana Gana Mana was originally composed as Bharoto Bhagya Bidhata in Bengali and still sung in Bengali but heavily Sanskritised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLc–eVLkCU
In how many countries (having more than one ethnic community) is their national anthem sung in more than one language in the Capital? Is that number more or less than the number of countries which have their national sung in one language?
Did Sri Lanka have any big problems from 1948 to 2015 when our National Anthem was sung only in one language? What great reconciliation was achieved when after having it sung in Tamil too?
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RESPONSE
Singing the national anthem in two languages is a symbolic gesture – a meaningful one that can have some strands of useful reverberation without necessarily transforming the political situation like a magic wand. Just visit any of the You Tube videos displaying New Zealand or South African rugby matches and listen/see the anthems being sung in two and three languages respectively ….. and watch the local people in the stands singing.
That noted, let me state firmly that your last two sentences are meaningless hogwash. For ONE: the economic and political problems generated between 1948 and the present times have multiplex causes –both socio-political and economic (with the latter subject to the international scenario). The Sinhala Only policy adopted in 1956 – in part because of the thrusts of the underprivileged lower middle classes – was definitely a major factor in generating the Tamil communalist challenges that eventually brought the LTTE to power.
IF you can disprove this brief note, pl compose an essay with documentation. COMMENTS boxes cannot cope with the issues you raise.
As for language policy my view is that in 1956 Tamil should have been the official language in the predominantly Tamil-speaking areas of the North and East while giving due recognition there to Sinhala and English too. This is what Dudley Senanayake Government proposed under the Tamil language (Special Provisions act) in 1966 but could not be implemented unfortunately.
I am also not opposed to the National Anthem being sung in Tamil in the predominantly Tamil-speaking areas. My focus was on singing the anthem in one language at the main Independence Day celebrations in Colombo.
The communal conflicts since about 1958 had many reasons for which I blame politicians on both sides and sections of the clergy too. I agree with you that that the economic problems generated between 1948 and the present times were the major causes of crisis both in the North and the South. There’s no question about it.
The National Anthem being sung in one language had little or nothing to do with these problems .
I have watched New Zealand and South African rugby matches but why give examples from them instead of our neighbouring countries starting with India which I cited in my previous post?
The differences in historical evolution of New Zealand and South Africa are greater than those between India and Sri Lanka or for that matter between SL and other former British colonies in Asia.
What the previous UNP Government did was a cosmetic change on the issue of singing the National Anthem two languages in the name of so-called reconciliation.
However I can clearly see that going back to the pre-2015 period now can create friction which the previous rulers could have avoided in the first place.
Anyway, it is now up to the present regime to make a decision on it one way or the other..
Let me add something I forgot in previous comment sent just now.
You called my last question ‘hogwash’ without understanding what I meant. The question was whether big problems Sri Lanka faced since 1948 was due to not having the National Anthem sung in two languages or other factors. There’s no dispute about the latter.which you have mentioned
Also you have not answered the question: In how many countries (having more than one ethnic community) is their national anthem sung in more than one language in the Capital? Is that number more or less than the number of countries which have their national sung in one language?
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