Democracy and Freedom – personal perceptions

So we are all set to celebrate National Day tomorrow (as I write this). All week long I heard jets screaming overhead in formation and the distant sound of marching feet and commands barked out. So another parade tomorrow, now commemorating Nationalism and not Independence per se as this parade and day of celebration started off on February 4, 1948. It has continued each year for 73 years, with as mentioned, a change of name, stance and significance.

Are we truly national minded and loyal to our country with its proud Lion Flag and ancient recorded history and more than two and a half millennia of culture? I would offer a NO in reply. Basically how be considered truly national when many name themselves Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and then qualify by adding the religion followed. This seems to be done principally by the Sinhalese who add on the further qualification: majority. If truly national we must label ourselves Sri Lankan. We hear of a Tamil diaspora funded vehicle parade up north starting in the Vanni and ending in Jaffna on Feb. 4 morning, protesting independence and nationalism too, I believe. Is this unity and national feeling demonstrated by the Tamils who have been treated well after their instigated, horrendous civil war? And also the Muslims having a radical group massacre churchgoers and hotel guests? False nationalism drove the Burghers away.

I know one or two diehards who still call this island home Ceylon and term themselves Ceylonese, harking back to pre-republic status! Maybe longing for stability enjoyed then, during later British rule and independence soon after.

Recollections down the years

There live many, including columnists and writers to this newspaper who were born before 1948 and the first Independence Day. Remembered but more ingrained in the mind are the missionaries under whose guidance we first learnt our three Rs, and in the English language. That was definitely a benefit. Remembered strong is the fact that we lived, played together, exchanged trays at festivals with no notion of separateness into races. Less regard toward religion.

Living in Katukelle, Kandy, we had Sinhalese neighbours of different social strata, Tamil and Burgher families with whom we associated freely. The Muslims were more in business and their daughters did not study to the higher grades in school. Religious harmony prevailed in both village and town. In villages surrounding Kandy, most were Buddhist but there was never any antagonism towards other religions. (After the 1914 Muslim-Sinhala riots, of course). Many Buddhist and Hindu families sent their children to Christian schools, there being only Mahamaya and Dharmarajah and Vidyartha colleges considered Buddhist. Hindu schools were started much later and the famous Zahira in Gampola was firmly established when Badi-ud-din Mahmud was Minister of Education in 1970-77.

We studied Christianity in school and went to the Methodist Church in Kandy town on Sundays. All the better for us, since we got to read the Bible and sing psalms and hymns. Christmas was so much more showy fun with decorated trees and gift-wrapped presents than the piety insisting Vesak and the Sinhala and Tamil Avurudha though it came alive if we went to our maternal village to savour it and grandmother’s unduvel.

Independence then

In the sense of independence as regards British rule, we were totally ignorant of any ‘fight’ for it. We were more knowledgeable about India’s struggle with unstinted admiration for spindly Gandhi and handsome Nehru. Then with the dawn of February 4, 1948, D S Senanayake loomed large on our horizon. Others followed. With childhood over and adulthood firmly established with responsibilities of career and marriage and children to nurture, we got interested in the political scene, but only interested. Governing was left to those we voted in to govern. Speaking for myself, I disapproved SWRD Bandaranaike’s policies, especially his Sinhala Only which caused so much turmoil, inequality and separation. Free education was very good – affording opportunities to all – but teaching in the Swabasha was a crime as it was continued in higher classes and even in university education.

Independence within the family

As a child, our Kandy families were completely patriarchal, but the patriarchs totally benevolent. Our maternal grandfather was the most significant figure in my childhood, until he died, but after my father’s premature death. My mother was a very strong woman but she definitely was passed on from father to husband and then my elder brother became the leading force in the family. This she sought herself.

Independence to girls and young women was highly restricted, but there were no revolts. Girls were amenable to all strictures in behaviour and then agreed to arranged marriages. With all the intense guarding by my mother of her three grown daughters, restricting them severely to the straight and narrow, they did manage little romances and me, a very young sister, was often the go-between – post a letter; hide a present received in my cupboard to thwart detection by Mother or Loku Aiya.

Remembered is my eldest sister, secretly sobbing her heart out as she agreed to marry a person selected for her and not the person who was interested in her and she loved. Caste difference was a strong deterrent then. She sacrificed her desire for the sake of her younger sisters. When I reached adulthood the world had changed, and so also our conservative family.

Recollected is the Jane Austenish lives of young girls in the 1940s. They played netball and tennis; were prefects in school; but complete obedience was demanded in homes and school: traditional dress, modest behaviour, and once in a way the banning of a girl friend as unsuitable.

Life really was better then in spite of restrictions and lack of amenities that flood us now. True national loyalty and independence were enjoyed. There was no corruption, that’s for sure, in public life. Public servants lived true to their appellation. Politicians were voted in at fair elections and left to govern the country, which they did with national mindedness and no corruption. Most funded their elections themselves so the better bred and educated contested.

We suffered pandemics like malaria of the early 1930s; the devastation of the Dry Zone by malaria until after WWII when DDT was widely used; later the onslaught of poliomyelitis around the 1940s. STDs were surely unknown then with morality high on the list. Our free health was a boon and the health services efficient, reducing mortality rates of birthing mothers and infants. Everyone had something to eat – a meal of boiled jak fruit sufficing sometimes.

And now, so many decades later, we suffer Covid 19 fatigue and the fear that democracy is being drained and corruption and attendant vices not significantly stymied or dented by law.

No wonder the feeling of discouragement.