Category Archives: life stories

October 10, 2013 · 1:42 pm

One musical step across the ethnic divide with Tanya Ekanayake of Edinburgh

Laura Cummings, in The Edinburgh News, where the title reads “Music fights the ravages of civil war“

TANYA PRFILE IT was a conflict that spanned a quarter of a century and claimed the lives of more than 80,000 people. Now, an Edinburgh tutor has helped Sri Lankan children to cope with the aftermath of the island’s civil war through a music workshop. Dr Tanya Ekanayaka, who was born in Sri Lanka and lectures part-time in the music department at the Edinburgh College of Art, staged the event in the northern part of Sri Lanka, which bore the brunt of the 25-year-long conflict. A noted pianist, Dr Ekanayaka is also a composer and linguistic expert. She believes that children in her homeland can benefit from music therapy to help overcome the effects of the civil war. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2013 · 1:55 am

Remembering and Applauding A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Laksiri Fernando, courtesy of the Island, 9 October 2013

SJV CHELVA A J WILSON SL TAMIL N'LISM

This tribute is not only from me but also from a friend of mine who had associated Professor Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson, even more than me, for over two and a half decades very closely even living in his home in Frederickton, Canada, for few years. I am writing this not only as a tribute to this great man and an undisputed silent humanist, Wilson, but also to show how some of the hidden stories of Sinhala Tamil relations could bring certain sanity to the otherwise poisoned atmosphere in Sri Lanka and promote reconciliation and harmony among different communities. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2013 · 1:44 am

Reflections on the Rise and Fall of Sama Samājism in Lanka

 M. Haris Deen, in Daily News, 10 October 2013

Following my earlier piece, “78 Years of Sama-Samajism – Where Art Thou Now”, there were several letters of appreciation for what I wrote – All bouquets not brickbats. However, one reader, while acknowledging the bottom line that highest number of seats the LSSP were able to secure in any Parliament were 14 pointed to some inaccuracies in my article. The corrections my reader pointed out were that Moratuwa was won by Merril Fernando and Bandarawela elected M.P. Jothipala under the Hammer and Sickle with the embossed No.4 signifying the Trotskyite Fourth International LSSP banner. It was Dr. Hector Fernando and not Hugh Fernando who secured the seat of Negombo for the LSSP. By that time T.B. Subasingha, Philip Goonewardena and Somaweera Chandrasiri having joined the MEP. While thanking the reader who pointed these out, I was actually going to put the record straight in this issue. Continue reading →

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October 9, 2013 · 2:10 am

Tributary Overlordship and Cakravarti Figures in Pre-British Lanka

Michael Roberts

Darshani Ratnawalli* has recently deployed one motif within my book Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period, 1590s to 1815 in a perceptive and telling manner. The motif is the concept of “tributary overlordship.” Details from Robert Knox and Philippus Baldaeus[2] are presented in useful ways by Ratnawalli to underline the weight of this concept in the political relations between “centre” and “periphery” in the 17th and 18th centuries. The notion of centre-versus-periphery, I stress, is an adjunct concept that serves to strengthen my argument about “tributary overlordship.

P1Ratnawalli tells her readers that tributary overlordship refers to a “political mechanism” that linked “satellite states” to the “superior Chakravarti figure” – thereby serving as a “form of allegiance and rule that accommodated localized dominion[s].” This is a succinct summary. However, one cannot be certain that the generality of readers will comprehend the import of this distillation because they do not have the benefit of the elaborations within Sinhala Consciousness that Ratnawalli has absorbed. These amplifications, I stress, include considerable detail and also use charts and illustrative photographs (examples of the latter will embellish this article). Central to the argument was the set of meanings attached to the rite of däkuma in its various forms, a practice that overlapped with the personalized exchange relations that were termed panduru pakkudam. Continue reading →

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October 9, 2013 · 2:04 am

Into the Vanni and Jaffna of the 17th Century

Darshani Ratnawalli

tiers of lordship

His name was Knox. Robert Knox. English. He was a prisoner in Lanka from 1660 to 1680. Finally he escaped from Kandy or more specifically from Rajasinha II, who claimed to be the sovereign overlord of the whole of Lanka and its people. The world-view Rajasinha II inherited as a ruler of Sinhalē (a perception of pan island chakravartihood) comes across in his correspondence with the Dutch. He told them that “the black people of this island of Ceilao, wheresoever they might be, [are] my vassals by right”- (Roberts: 2004[i]:78). In the royal view, the Dutch were the “faithful Hollanders, the guardians of his coast” and earlier during his enterprise to oust the Portuguese, they were “his hired guns”. In Rajasinha II’s early letters to the Hollanders (written in Portuguese) he was “The most potent Emperor of Ceilao” while they were “My Hollanders” and the fortresses held by them were “my fortresses” as in “my fortress at Gale”. What with “my black folk”, “my vidanas,” “these lowland territories of mine” and “my said island”, Rajasinha II was asserting that he “did not recognize Dutch claims to sovereignty over the coastal areas”- (ibid and Dewaraja 1995:189). The Dutch kept up the appearance of concurring with this assertion in their diplomatic relations. “The governor, Pijil, referred to himself as the “king’s most faithful governor and humble servant”, called the king “His Majesty” and spoke of “the king’s castle at Colombo.” He even “declared that all the island belonged to the Sinhalese King.”- (Roberts: 2004: 79). Continue reading →

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September 30, 2013 · 3:54 pm

A Chola Tiger within Wigneswaran Swamy and the TNA?

Sebastian Rasalingam, courtesy of the Sri Lanka Guardian, where the title reads “Wigneswaran the latest Human Sacrifice to the Chola Tiger?”

It is extremely worrisome to read the election speeches in the Tamil language coming from those who are fighting it out in the North. It is also fortunate that most Sinhalese cannot read Tamil and recognize the return of the Tiger’s growl. Nevertheless it is surely designed to infuriate the south. The diaspora would love to see another communal pogram and stridently call for R2P.

Wig_SamThis is only a provincial election. However, the sounds are unmistakable to some of us who heard these rumblings even in 1952, when the clarion call for Arasu in our ‘own exclusive homeland’ was called for, with glorified accounts of reviving the old Tamil kingdom of Jaffna. In 1952, it seemed to be the political platform of the lunatic racist-fringe of the Tamils, led by some upper-caste lawyers living in Karuvakaddu (Cinnamon Gardens). They were roundly rejected. At that time the Tamils were doing very well, with in-roads to everything in Ceylonese society, just like the Jews of New York who were into every fountain of power. However, unlike the Jews of New York, the Tamils of Colombo ran the government -Arasu- for the British. Once the British left, this became less clear. Continue reading →

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September 22, 2013 · 5:13 pm

Sri Lanka’s Complex Background: Correcting & Amplifying Sheridan and Gotābhaya

Michael Roberts, … with highlighting emphasis in red now added

Invited to Sri Lanka by the government Greg Sheridan, a senior journalist of conservative leanings in The Australian stable, brought together some of the themes pressed by the Defence Secretary and KP Pathmanathan of NERDO in illuminating ways. The news item was/is aimed at an Australian audience.[1] This constituency is not well-informed about the settlement patterns and complexities of the Sri Lankan scenario. It will therefore be misled by some facets of the reportage because of the part-truths and oversimplifications incorporated therein.

Such an exercise in empirical correction can be seen as pedantic nit-picking if pursued by itself; but each such corrective is pursued here with further elaborations in order to bring out the complexities of the Sri Lankan situation (and its recent history) for those not versed in the context. It also enables me to amplify some striking motifs within the Sheridan overview. As these issues are not always connected with each other my essay will be composed in point form with segments numbered A, B, C, et cetera. Continue reading →

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September 22, 2013 · 3:08 pm

About the Military in the North: Major-General Hathurusinghe in Q and A with Sunday Leader

Camelia Nathaniel in the Sunday Leader, 22 September 2013 where the title reads “We Have No Role In Politics – Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe”

hathurasingheQ. What is your view of the mindset of the Tamil people in the North and their political preferences?
A. The Tamil people are voting for the symbol. They are not particularly concerned about who the person is. The change of mindset of the Tamils between the post independence period and the period just prior to independence took place in different backgrounds. The caste issue in Jaffna is a very big issue, and percentage wise, the lower caste Tamils comprise around 52% to 55% of the population. So, although the TNA and the TULF were gaining power at the time and going to parliament, the disparity in shared resources and the distance between the two segments of the population escalated to a sizable proportion. Prabhakaran’s ideology caught on to a vast majority as he too was not of the upper caste Tamils. They used this as their platform to convert people to their terrorist mindset and that still prevails in some as they identified with him. These are all politics. The distance between the South and North was further strained and widened. It is very difficult to undo this overnight and it takes time for their suspicions and concerns to change given the brainwashing they have been through to think that Southerners are not willing to share power with the Tamils, and their dream of a separate state. Although we have defeated terrorism, the ideology is very much engraved in their minds; it is not impossible to erase that, but it takes time. Continue reading →

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September 22, 2013 · 2:58 pm

Udappuwa as touchstone of economic incentives to migrate and the fantasies of the poor

Amal Jayasinghe,  for Fox NEWs 20 September 2013 with title being “Sri Lanka’s poor unmoved by Australia’s boat people policy“ +++

UDAPPUWA, Sri Lanka (AFP) –  As Australia’s new government launches tough measures to halt asylum seekers arriving on boats, some poor fishermen and their families half a world away in Sri Lanka seem undeterred. Australia has struggled to manage the stream of asylum-seekers, including from Sri Lanka, arriving on rickety, overloaded fishing boats, with hundreds dying on the risky journey in recent years. Australia’s Tony Abbott said he would act swiftly to implement a central plank of his election campaign to “stop the boats”, sending a strong signal to people smugglers, after being sworn in as prime minister on Wednesday. Continue reading →

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September 20, 2013 · 10:32 am

A face of HATE in Lanka

AFP- iaSHARA KODIKARAA young bhikkhu among demonstrators outside an UN office in Colombo, where some Sinhalese expressed virulent protests against Navy Pillai,   August 2013  – Pic by Ishara Kodikara for AFP

…. and the face that launched a thousand hates

navypillai - NAATION Pic from the Nation

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