Midweek Review

Eugenio Barba’s Living Archive & Floating Islands

Published

3 years ago

2023/06/28

Rehearsing "Anastasis" (resurrection) May 2023 Eugenio Barba & Odin Teatret INSTAGRAM: odinteatret2Photo: Stefano Di Buduo

“A living memory is a living library, a living museum: a place of metamorphosis.The past as proof of the impossible that has become possible.” Eugenio Barba

During the Aragalaya in 2022, seeing (online), the vibrantly theatrical protest march led by artistes and also several cultural events and performative acts staged at Galle Face and elsewhere (which I wrote about in a previous essay for The Island), I felt that Barba’s life-long work in theatre, in several continents and his important scholarship would be of some interest and relevance to theatre folk in Lanka too. I don’t know if some of his work is already been taught at any University, so this is simply a short introduction to his multi-faceted visionary work.

by Laleen Jayamanne

Eugenio Barba is considered the last in the great lineage of European theatrical theorists and directors, beginning with Constantine Stanislavsky of Russia, in the early 20th Century. There is a scholarly series of books documenting the history of their unique and highly influential contributions to world theatre, simply named after each director—all male, naturally! They include names such as Meyerhold, Brecht, Artaud, Copeau and the final volume is titled (Peter) Brooks, Grotowsky, Barba. Their profoundly impassioned experiments in theatre and theatrical thought have now spread through the various currents of the oceans, into all five continents.

In fact, Barba’s most recent book co-written with his long-term collaborator, theatre historian, Nicola Savarese, is called The Five Continents of Theatre: Facts and Legends about the Material Culture of the Actor, a pictorial history of theatre of the globe from ancient times to the present. There, they imagine with Shakespeare, that ‘All the world’s a stage …’; all the players dazzling beacons illuminating the enfolding darkness for a mere instant, leaving us with traces of unforgettable intensity. I do hope this volume might become a reference book for all Lankans studying and doing theatre at a University. I wish I’d had it instead of the bone-dry ones we had to study at New York University. It is beautifully produced by Brill and written in a very engaging style, easy to read because of the hundreds of carefully selected, rare images and because the two scholars have fun giving themselves fictional names of characters from Flaubert’s novel, Bouvard and Pecuchet (who were overwhelmed by the mountains of books they had to read), to discuss theatre history in dialogic form. Like me, you might also linger on a favourite image or two and keep returning to them many times. In paperback, it weighs over one kilo!

Islands don’t float, they are as grounded as subcontinents and continents. What then are Floating Islands? Eugenio Barba coined the name to describe and validate the plethora of ‘nameless theatre groups’ of our world. In doing so he has become a spokesperson and the visionary advocate for some of the poorest and marginal of theatre folk, especially in Latin America who, undaunted by poverty and myriad other difficulties, find it necessary to do theatre and stay together in a group to do so. Earlier on he has referred to these as ‘Group Theatres’ and also ‘Third Theatre’. I’ll come back to the name as it has an interesting global political history. But more recently he coined the poetic phrase ‘Floating Islands,’ creating a fabulous (fable-like) image to pay tribute to their tenacity of spirit, aesthetic will, sense of self-determination and fierce autonomy.

We usually don’t think of archives as being alive, but ‘Living Archive’ is the name chosen for the historical archive of Eugenio Barba and his Odin Teatret, Denmark, newly housed in the Bibliotecca Musiale, Lecce, in the Puglia region, Southern Italy, his birthplace. It is due to open by 2024 with dynamic exhibitions and installations presenting Odin’s theatrical activities over sixty years. The costumes, masks, props, sets, posters and stuff will be presented in contemporary audio-visual, interactive displays, and Barba’s collection of 5,000 books, in the many languages he has mastered, will be accessible to scholars of theatre from across the world. He has himself written many books and a vast number of scholarly articles. In short, it promises to be a major cultural centre for innovative ways of studying theatre and imagining its future in the 21st Century, without necessarily having to have a University degree as an entry ticket.

It’s this sense of dynamism that is captured by the title, ‘Living Archive.’ I hope young Lankan theatre folk will also have an opportunity to visit this visionary institution over the 21st Century or at the very least read his books and follow his lectures, workshops and interviews, now luckily accessible online.

Barba has had a long-standing, deep, ongoing engagement with the classical Indian dance-theatre forms and theories and with some of the living masters in Asia more widely, which I will discuss later, this being one of the main reasons I wanted to write this piece.

Eugenio Barba

During the Aragalaya in 2022, seeing (online), the vibrantly theatrical protest march led by artists and also several cultural events and performative acts staged at Galle Face and elsewhere (which I wrote about in a previous essay for The Island), I felt that Barba’s life-long work in theatre, in several continents and his important scholarship would be of some interest and relevance to theatre folk in Lanka too. I don’t know if some of his work is already been taught at any University, so this is simply a short introduction to his multi-faceted visionary work.

And by the way, it was he who edited and published the theatrical scholarly best seller, Grotowsky’s Towards a Poor Theatre, in his publishing house at Odin theatre in Denmark in the late 60s. I remember to this day the moment I saw this book (with its striking cover image of the Holy Actor), displayed on the open stand for new acquisitions, at the Peradeniya University Library. I read the book soon after in one gulp and was amazed at the photographs of the theatre space and minimalist props, the cultivation of a poverty of means (just a highly trained ascetic actor, an arrangement of an intimate space with benches and some lights). Barba’s scholarly contribution to theatre history has earned him 12 honorary Ph.D.s from universities, European and other. He has said that he is an auto-didact, self-taught, reading very widely, which feeds into his inter-disciplinary theatrical work.

Brief Biography

Barba, born in 1936 in Southern Italy to a middle-class family, has recently celebrated his 86th year. His father who joined Mussolini’s fascist army died when he was young. But because of this army connection he was educated in a high school for children of army personnel. He speaks of the rigorous, severe discipline he experienced there. At 18, perhaps wanting to leave this burdensome paternal legacy behind, he went to Norway, where without any knowledge of Norwegian, he made his way by working as a welder, grateful for the work ethic he learned there doing manual work. He learnt the language by taking evening classes and spending time in the library reading. It appears that he never forgot this link between the skilled manual hand and thought, when he made theatre. Even watching his performances on a computer, I feel a strong tactile connection with the images and sounds Barba creates. This is because of their synaesthetic Rasa-bara richness, our five senses are drawn in to play together in relays.

Having read Romain Rolland’s book on Ramakrishna’s life, an important figure in the Bengali Renaissance, he worked as a sailor on a merchant ship, mostly in the boiler room, so as to get to Calcutta in 1956 at the age of 20. He says that as a Southern Italian with dark skin he faced racism both in Norway and especially on the ship. He visited the Ramakrishna ashram in Calcutta, his trip creating an abiding link with India. On returning to Norway, he entered University to study Norwegian and French literature and Comparative Religion, focusing on forms of mysticism, including those in Islam. He was also interested in Nagarjuna’s Buddhist thought and in altered states of consciousness in various religious practices. He appears to fold these ideas into his actor training and creation of theatre.

Apprenticeship with Grotowski, 1961-1963

On graduation, he received a scholarship to study theatre in Warsaw, Poland, in 1960. After one year at the theatre school he dropped out to join the then unknown Jerzy Grotowski’s small theatre laboratory in Opolo, and worked as his apprentice from 1961-1963. This was to be his most decisive initiation into a life in theatre as a way of life. He considered Grotowski (who was only three years his senior), his guru and felt so to the end. During these three years he also undertook what feel more like pilgrimages (than trips) to witness two profound theatre experiences.

Crying at the Berliner Ensemble

One of his Polish mentors (who had designed Brecht’s poster for Galileo), gave him a letter of introduction to Helena Weigel at the Berliner ensemble, in East Berlin, now under Soviet rule, where she was performing in The Mother, based on a Russian play by Gorky. Brecht was dead by then and Barba, who was deeply immersed in his theories of Epic Theatre and of its social and political functions, was profoundly disturbed to find himself crying at the end of the play, at the Berliner Ensemble. This happened when, at the end of all her trials and tribulations, the mother waves a little red flag.

So, what made Barba cry at the Berliner Ensemble, despite all Brecht’s warnings about the danger of being swayed by emotions in the theatre and despite himself? Barba doesn’t tell us, so we don’t know, but can imagine. We don’t always know why we are moved to tears. It remains an ambiguous sign, far more than, say, laughter. Do some animals cry? Barba was profoundly aware of the new politics of the Cold War having been in Poland. So, when he had to go through the flourishing consumer capitalist neon lit paradise of West Berlin (under the largesse of the US Marshall plan), in order to get to the impoverished East Belin under Soviet style bureaucratic control, the contrasts, the contradictions, were immediately felt. He says he felt nauseous seeing the luxury in West Berlin, having come from a grim postwar Poland where the rubble was still being cleared, with shortages and food queues. Barba crossed the recently erected wall to enter East Berlin in 1961.

“Theatre as A Politics by Other Means” (Barba)

This trip to see Brecht’s play was a compressed journey through mid-century European history (in which he and his family were enmeshed), and a dramatic experience of the new bi-polar world. This, I believe must have fed into Barba’s cathartic experience within Brecht’s revolutionary theatre, in a totalitarian state after Stalin’s death. He says the Brechtian theory he fervently believed in became irrelevant. What mattered was to be able to stay with that impulse to cry and work through the sense of bewilderment and disorientation he experienced, so as to figure out a path to do theatre without preconceptions. Barba has made a virtue of uncertainty and disorientation, so as to break with theatrical and other habits, cliches.

Barba’s mature thought, about audience reception of energy and impulses from the actor, are significantly different in form, focus and intent from Brecht’s Epic constructs, though the latter has said that a theatre which failed to entertain would be a failed one. However, what Brecht didn’t want was an audience punch drunk on sentiment alone.

But Brecht didn’t make a fetish of ‘Reason’ either, given its violently instrumental, spectacular expression in Nazism. Certainly, what Barba experienced was his guru Brecht’s gift to him, beyond the grave, with the great epic actor, Helene Weigel (also Brecht’s ever loyal wife), as its vital conduit. Great gurus do not make clones, rather, they propel disciples to diverge and strike a new path. The tears were a gift!

Kathakali in Kerala, 1963

In 1963, while at Grotowski’s theatre, he went to India for a second time, to the Kathakali Kalamandalam to see the dance form. He watched an all-night performance and observed the relaxed state of the audience, eating, talking, falling asleep, and their appreciation and keen attention at some moments. But above all, he was taken by the rigorous discipline the young boys had to submit to in their training, to become Kathakali dancers much later in life. Their daily 4 am waking up schedule, their intricate exercise routines all day and the monastic discipline left a lasting impression on Barba and will help determine his own rigorous approach to actor training later.

It is indeed strange that a Lankan like me studied Kathakali dance-theatre with a drily-erudite Indian scholar, at New York University, when Kerala was just a short flight from Colombo, where I had lived for 23 years! A. J. Gunawardena, a Professor of English, edited an excellent special double Issue of The Drama Review (TDR) on Asian Theatre, also at New York University, which had an article on Kathakali as well. It’s the case that some Lankans have to go to the ‘west’ to discover India. Though the most gifted and cluey of Lankan artists of earlier generations knew better and had studied at Tagore’s Shantiniketan (Vishava Bharathi, Universal India!) and therefore have contributed to a Pan-Asian and cosmopolitan awareness in Lanka, countering the parochial Sinhala Buddhist nationalist ideology of the post-colonial era. Names like Manjusri, Harry Pieris, Bellanvila Siththara, Sunil Santha, and later Sarachchandra, come to mind. I wish someone would compile a full list of Lankan students of Shantiniketan.

(To be continued)

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Midweek Review

Daya Pathirana killing and transformation of the JVP

Published

4 days ago

2026/02/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, who returned to Sri Lanka in late Nov, 2001, ending a 12-year self-imposed exile in Europe, declared that India helped him flee certain death as the government crushed his party’s second insurrection against the state in the ’80s, using even death squads. Amarasinghe, sole surviving member of the original politburo of the JVP, profusely thanked India and former Prime Minister V.P. Singh for helping him survive the crackdown. Neither the JVP nor India never explained the circumstances New Delhi facilitated Amarasinghe’s escape, particularly against the backdrop of the JVP’s frenzied anti-India campaign. The JVP has claimed to have killed Indian soldiers in the East during the 1987-1989 period. Addressing his first public meeting at Kalutara, a day after his arrival, Amarasinghe showed signs that the party had shed its anti-India policy of yesteryears. The JVPer paid tribute to the people of India, PM Singh and Indian officials who helped him escape.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Forty years after the killing of Daya Pathirana, the third head of the Independent Student Union (ISU) by the Socialist Students’ Union (SSU), affiliated with the JVP, one-time Divaina journalist Dharman Wickremaretne has dealt with the ISU’s connections with some Tamil terrorist groups. The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) hadn’t been among them, according to Wickremaretne’s Daya Pathirana Ghathanaye Nodutu Peththa (The Unseen Side of Daya Pathirana Killing), the fifth of a series of books that discussed the two abortive insurgencies launched by the JVP in 1971 and the early ’80s.

Pathirana was killed on 15 December, 1986. His body was found at Hirana, Panadura. Pathirana’s associate, Punchiralalage Somasiri, also of the ISU, who had been abducted, along with Pathirana, was brutally attacked but, almost by a miracle, survived to tell the tale. Daya Pathirana was the second person killed after the formation of the Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (DJV), the macabre wing of the JVP, in early March 1986. The DJV’s first head had been JVP politburo member Saman Piyasiri Fernando.

Its first victim was H. Jayawickrema, Principal of Middeniya Gonahena Vidyalaya, killed on 05 December, 1986. The JVP found fault with him for suspending several students for putting up JVP posters.

Wickremaretne, who had been relentlessly searching for information, regarding the violent student movements for two decades, was lucky to receive obviously unconditional support of those who were involved with the SSU and ISU as well as other outfits. Somasiri was among them.

Deepthi Lamaheva had been ISU’s first leader. Warnakulasooriya succeeded Lamahewa and was replaced by Pathirana. After Pathirana’s killing K.L. Dharmasiri took over. Interestingly, the author justified Daya Pathirana’s killing on the basis that those who believed in violence died by it.

Wickremaretne’s latest book, the fifth of the series on the JVP, discussed hitherto largely untouched subject – the links between undergraduates in the South and northern terrorists, even before the July 1983 violence in the wake of the LTTE killing 12 soldiers, and an officer, while on a routine patrol at Thinnavely, Jaffna.

The LTTE emerged as the main terrorist group, after the Jaffna killings, while other groups plotted to cause mayhem. The emergence of the LTTE compelled the then JRJ government to transfer all available police and military resources to the North, due to the constant attacks that gradually weakened government authority there. In Colombo, ISU and Tamil groups, including the PLOTE (People’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) enhanced cooperation. Wickremaretne shed light on a disturbing ISU-PLOTE connection that hadn’t ever been examined or discussed or received sufficient public attention.

In fact, EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students), too, had been involved with the ISU. According to the author, the ISU had its first meeting on 10 April, 1980. In the following year, ISU established contact with the EPRLF (Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front). The involvement of ISU with the PLOTE and Wickremaretne revealed how the SSU probed that link and went to the extent of secretly interrogating ISU members in a bid to ascertain the details of that connection. ISU activist Pradeep Udayakumara Thenuwara had been forcibly taken to Sri Jayewardenepura University where he was subjected to strenuous interrogation by SSU in a bid to identify those who were involved in a high profile PLOTE operation.

The author ascertained that the SSU suspected Pathirana’s direct involvement in the PLOTE attack on the Nikaweratiya Police Station, and the Nikaweratiya branch of the People’s Bank, on April 26, 1985. The SSU believed that out of a 16-member gang that carried out the twin attacks, two were ISU members, namely Pathirana, and another identified as Thalathu Oya Seneviratne, aka Captain Senevi.

The SSU received information regarding ISU’s direct involvement in the Nikaweratiya attacks from hardcore PLOTE cadre Nagalingam Manikkadasan, whose mother was a Sinhalese and closely related to JVP’s Upatissa Gamanayake. The LTTE killed Manikkadasan in a bomb attack on a PLOTE office, in Vavuniya, in September, 1999. The writer met Manikkadasan, at Bambapalitiya, in 1997, in the company of Dharmalingham Siddharthan. The PLOTE had been involved in operations in support of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s administration.

It was President Premadasa who first paved the way for Tamil groups to enter the political mainstream. In spite of some of his own advisors expressing concern over Premadasa’s handling of negotiations with the LTTE, he ordered the then Elections Commissioner Chandrananda de Silva to grant political recognition to the LTTE. The LTTE’s political wing PFLT (People’s Front of Liberation Tigers) received recognition in early December, 1989, seven months before Eelam War II erupted.

Transformation of ISU

The author discussed the formation of the ISU, its key members, links with Tamil groups, and the murderous role in the overall counter insurgency campaign during JRJ and Ranasinghe Premadasa presidencies. Some of those who had been involved with the ISU may have ended up with various other groups, even civil society groups. Somasiri, who was abducted along with Pathirana at Thunmulla and attacked with the same specialised knife, but survived, is such a person.

Somasiri contested the 06 May Local Government elections, on the Jana Aragala Sandhanaya ticket. Jana Aragala Sandhanaya is a front organisation of the Frontline Socialist Party/ Peratugaami pakshaya, a breakaway faction of the JVP that also played a critical role in the violent protest campaign Aragalaya against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. That break-up happened in April 2012, The wartime Defence Secretary, who secured the presidency at the 2019 presidential election, with 6.9 mn votes, was forced to give up office, in July 2022, and flee the country.

Somasiri and Jana Aragala Sandhanaya were unsuccessful; the group contested 154 Local Government bodies and only managed to secure only 16 seats whereas the ruling party JVP comfortably won the vast majority of Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas.

Let us get back to the period of terror when the ISU was an integral part of the UNP’s bloody response to the JVP challenge. The signing of the Indo-Lanka accord, in late July 1987, resulted in the intensification of violence by both parties. Wickremaretne disclosed secret talks between ISU leader K.L. Dharmasiri and the then Senior SSP (Colombo South) Abdul Cader Abdul Gafoor to plan a major operation to apprehend undergraduates likely to lead protests against the Indo-Lanka accord. Among those arrested were Gevindu Cumaratunga and Anupa Pasqual. Cumaratunga, in his capacity as the leader of civil society group Yuthukama, that contributed to the campaign against Yahapalanaya, was accommodated on the SLPP National List (2020 to 2024) whereas Pasqual, also of Yuthukama, entered Parliament on the SLPP ticket, having contested Kalutara. Pasqual switched his allegiance to Ranil Wickremesinghe after Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster in July 2022.

SSU/JVP killed K.L. Dharmasiri on 19 August, 1989, in Colomba Kochchikade just a few months before the Army apprehended and killed JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera. Towards the end of the counter insurgency campaign, a section of the ISU was integrated with the military (National Guard). The UNP government had no qualms in granting them a monthly payment.

Referring to torture chambers operated at the Law Faculty of the Colombo University and Yataro operations centre, Havelock Town, author Wickremaretne underscored the direct involvement of the ISU in running them.

Maj. Tuan Nizam Muthaliff, who had been in charge of the Yataro ‘facility,’ located near State Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne’s residence, is widely believed to have shot Wijeweera in November, 1989. Muthaliff earned the wrath of the LTTE for his ‘work’ and was shot dead on May 3, 2005, at Polhengoda junction, Narahenpita. At the time of Muthaliff’s assassination, he served in the Military Intelligence.

Premadasa-SSU/JVP link

Ex-lawmaker and Jathika Chinthanaya Kandayama stalwart Gevindu Cumaratunga, in his brief address to the gathering, at Wickremaretne’s book launch, in Colombo, compared Daya Pathirana’s killing with the recent death of Nandana Gunatilleke, one-time frontline JVPer.

Questioning the suspicious circumstances surrounding Gunatilleke’s demise, Cumaratunga strongly emphasised that assassinations shouldn’t be used as a political tool or a weapon to achieve objectives. The outspoken political activist discussed the Pathirana killing and Gunatilleke’s demise, recalling the false accusations directed at the then UNPer Gamini Lokuge regarding the high profile 1986 hit.

Cumaratunga alleged that the SSU/JVP having killed Daya Pathirana made a despicable bid to pass the blame to others. Turning towards the author, Cumaratunga heaped praise on Wickremaretne for naming the SSU/JVP hit team and for the print media coverage provided to the student movements, particularly those based at the Colombo University.

Cumaratunga didn’t hold back. He tore into SSU/JVP while questioning their current strategies. At one point a section of the audience interrupted Cumaratunga as he made references to JVP-led Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) and JJB strategist Prof. Nirmal Dewasiri, who had been with the SSU during those dark days. Cumaratunga recalled him attending Daya Pathirana’s funeral in Matara though he felt that they could be targeted.

Perhaps the most controversial and contentious issue raised by Cumaratunga was Ranasinghe Premadasa’s alleged links with the SSU/JVP. The ex-lawmaker reminded the SSU/JVP continuing with anti-JRJ campaign even after the UNP named Ranasinghe Premadasa as their candidature for the December 1988 presidential election. His inference was clear. By the time Premadasa secured the presidential nomination he had already reached a consensus with the SSU/JVP as he feared JRJ would double cross him and give the nomination to one of his other favourites, like Gamini Dissanayake or Lalith Athulathmudali.

There had been intense discussions involving various factions, especially among the most powerful SSU cadre that led to putting up posters targeting Premadasa at the Colombo University. Premadasa had expressed surprise at the appearance of such posters amidst his high profile ‘Me Kawuda’ ‘Monawada Karanne’poster campaign. Having questioned the appearance of posters against him at the Colombo University, Premadasa told Parliament he would inquire into such claims and respond. Cumaratunga alleged that night UNP goons entered the Colombo University to clean up the place.

The speaker suggested that the SSU/JVP backed Premadasa’s presidential bid and the UNP leader may have failed to emerge victorious without their support. He seemed quite confident of his assertion. Did the SSU/JVP contribute to Premadasa’s victory at one of the bloodiest post-independence elections in our history.

Cumaratunga didn’t forget to comment on his erstwhile comrade Anupa Pasqual. Alleging that Pasqual betrayed Yuthukama when he switched allegiance to Wickremesinghe, Cumaratunga, however, paid a glowing tribute to him for being a courageous responder, as a student leader.

SSU accepts Eelam

One of the most interesting chapters was the one that dealt with the Viplawadi Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna/Revolutionary Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (RJVP), widely known as the Vikalpa Kandaya/Alternative Group and the ISU mount joint campaigns with Tamil groups. Both University groups received weapons training, courtesy PLOTE and EPRLF, both here, and in India, in the run-up to the so-called Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. In short, they accepted Tamils’ right to self-determination.

The author also claimed that the late Dharmeratnam Sivaram had been in touch with ISU and was directly involved in arranging weapons training for ISU. No less a person than PLOTE Chief Uma Maheswaran had told the author that PLOTE provided weapons training to ISU, free of charge ,and the JVP for a fee. Sivaram, later contributed to several English newspapers, under the pen name Taraki, beginning with The Island. By then, he propagated the LTTE line that the war couldn’t be brought to a successful conclusion through military means. Taraki was abducted near the Bambalapitiya Police Station on the night of 28 April, 2005, and his body was found the following day.

The LTTE conferred the “Maamanithar” title upon the journalist, the highest civilian honour of the movement.

In the run up to the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, India freely distributed weapons to Tamil terrorist groups here who in turn trained Sinhala youth.

Had it been part of the overall Indian destabilisation project, directed at Sri Lanka? PLOTE and EPRLF couldn’t have arranged weapons training in India as well as terrorist camps here without India’s knowledge. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka never sought to examine the origins of terrorism here and identified those who propagated and promoted separatist ideals.

Exactly a year before Daya Pathirana’s killing, arrangements had been made by ISU to dispatch a 15-member group to India. But, that move had been cancelled after law enforcement authorities apprehended some of those who received weapons training in India earlier. Wickremaretne’s narrative of the students’ movement, with the primary focus of the University of Colombo, is a must read. The author shed light on the despicable Indian destabilisation project that, if succeeded, could have caused and equally destructive war in the South. In a way, Daya Pathirana’s killing preempted possible wider conflict in the South.

Gevindu Cumaratunga, in his thought-provoking speech, commented on Daya Pathirana. At the time Cumaratunga entered Colombo University, he hadn’t been interested at all in politics. But, the way the ISU strongman promoted separatism, influenced Cumaratunga to counter those arguments. The ex-MP recollected how Daya Pathirana, a heavy smoker (almost always with a cigarette in his hand) warned of dire consequences if he persisted with his counter views.

In fact, Gevindu Cumaratunga ensured that the ’80s terror period was appropriately discussed at the book launch. Unfortunately, Wickremaretne’s book didn’t cause the anticipated response, and a dialogue involving various interested parties. It would be pertinent to mention that at the time the SSU/JVP decided to eliminate Daya Pathirana, it automatically received the tacit support of other student factions, affiliated to other political parties, including the UNP.

Soon after Anura Kumara Dissanayake received the leadership of the JVP from Somawansa Amarasinghe, in December 2014, he, in an interview with Saroj Pathirana of BBC Sandeshaya, regretted their actions during the second insurgency. Responding to Pathirana’s query, Dissanayake not only regretted but asked for forgiveness for nearly 6,000 killings perpetrated by the party during that period. Author Wickremaretne cleverly used FSP leader Kumar Gunaratnam’s interview with Upul Shantha Sannasgala, aired on Rupavahini on 21 November, 2019, to remind the reader that he, too, had been with the JVP at the time the decision was taken to eliminate Daya Pathirana. Gunaratnam moved out of the JVP, in April 2012, after years of turmoil. It would be pertinent to mention that Wimal Weerawansa-Nandana Gunatilleke led a group that sided with President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his first term, too, and had been with the party by that time. Although the party split over the years, those who served the interests of the JVP, during the 1980-1990 period, cannot absolve themselves of the violence perpetrated by the party. This should apply to the JVPers now in the Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB), a political party formed in July 2019 to create a platform for Dissanayake to contest the 2019 presidential election. Dissanayake secured a distant third place (418,553 votes [3.16%])

However, the JVP terrorism cannot be examined without taking into JRJ’s overall political strategy meant to suppress political opposition. The utterly disgusting strategy led to the rigged December 1982 referendum that gave JRJ the opportunity to postpone the parliamentary elections, scheduled for August 1983. JRJ feared his party would lose the super majority in Parliament, hence the irresponsible violence marred referendum, the only referendum ever held here to put off the election. On 30 July, 1983, JRJ proscribed the JVP, along with the Nawa Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party, on the false pretext of carrying out attacks on the Tamil community, following the killing of 13 soldiers in Jaffna.

Under Dissanayake’s leadership, the JVP underwent total a overhaul but it was Somawansa Amarasinghe who paved the way. Under Somawansa’s leadership, the party took the most controversial decision to throw its weight behind warwinning Army Chief General (retd) Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 presidential election. That decision, the writer feels, can be compared only with the decision to launch its second terror campaign in response to JRJ’s political strategy. How could we forget Somawansa Amarasinghe joining hands with the UNP and one-time LTTE ally, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), to field Fonseka? Although they failed in that US-backed vile scheme, in 2010, success was achieved at the 2015 presidential election when Maithripala Sirisena was elected.

Perhaps, the JVP took advantage of the developing situation (post-Indo-Lanka Peace Accord), particularly the induction of the Indian Army here, in July 1987, to intensify their campaign. In the aftermath of that, the JVP attacked the UNP parliamentary group with hand grenades in Parliament. The August 1987 attack killed Matara District MP Keerthi Abeywickrema and staffer Nobert Senadheera while 16 received injuries. Both President JRJ and Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa had been present at the time the two hand grenades were thrown at the group.

Had the JVP plot to assassinate JRJ and Premadasa succeeded in August 1987, what would have happened? Gevindu Cumaratunga, during his speech also raised a very interesting question. The nationalist asked where ISU Daya Pathirana would have been if he survived the murderous JVP.

Midweek Review

Reaping a late harvest Musings of an Old Man

Published

4 days ago

2026/02/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

I am an old man, having reached “four score and five” years, to describe my age in archaic terms. From a biological perspective, I have “grown old.” However, I believe that for those with sufficient inner resources, old age provides fertile ground to cultivate a new outlook and reap a late harvest before the sun sets on life.

Negative Characterisation of Old Age

My early medical education and training familiarised me with the concept of biological ageing: that every living organism inevitably undergoes progressive degeneration of its tissues over time. Old age is often associated with disease, disability, cognitive decline, and dependence. There is an inkling of futility, alienation, and despair as one approaches death. Losses accumulate. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” Doctors may experience difficulty in treating older people and sometimes adopt an attitude of therapeutic nihilism toward a life perceived to be in decline.

Categorical assignment of symptoms is essential in medical practice when arriving at a diagnosis. However, placing an individual into the box of a “geriatric” is another matter, often resulting in unintended age segregation and stigmatisation rather than liberation of the elderly. Such labelling may amount to ageism. It is interesting to note that etymologically, the English word geriatric and the Sanskrit word jara both stem from the Indo-European root geront, meaning old age and decay, leading to death (jara-marana).

Even Sigmund Freud (1875–1961), the doyen of psychoanalysis, who influenced my understanding of personality structure and development during my psychiatric training, focused primarily on early development and youth, giving comparatively little attention to the psychology of old age. He believed that instinctual drives lost their impetus with ageing and famously remarked that “ageing is the castration of youth,” implying infertility not only in the biological sense. It is perhaps not surprising that Freud began his career as a neurologist and studied cerebral palsy.

Potential for Growth in Old Age

The model of human development proposed by the psychologist Erik Erikson (1902–1994), which he termed the “eight stages of man,” is far more appealing to me. His theory spans the entire life cycle, with each stage presenting a developmental task involving the negotiation of opposing forces; success or failure influences the trajectory of later life. The task of old age is to reconcile the polarity between “ego integrity” and “ego despair,” determining the emotional life of the elderly.

Ego integrity, according to Erikson, is the sense of self developed through working through the crises (challenges) of earlier stages and accruing psychological assets through lived experience. Ego despair, in contrast, results from the cumulative impact of multiple physical and emotional losses, especially during the final stage of life. A major task of old age is to maintain dignity amidst such emotionally debilitating forces. Negotiating between these polarities offers the potential for continued growth in old age, leading to what might be called a “meaningful finish.”

I do not dispute the concept of biological ageing. However, I do not regard old age as a terminal phase in which growth ceases and one is simply destined to wither and die. Though shadowed by physical frailty, diminishing sensory capacities and an apparent waning of vitality, there persists a proactive human spirit that endures well into late life. There is a need in old age to rekindle that spirit. Ageing itself can provide creative opportunities and avenues for productivity. The aim is to bring life to a meaningful close.

To generate such change despite the obstacles of ageing — disability and stigmatisation — the elderly require a sense of agency, a gleam of hope, and a sustaining aspiration. This may sound illusory; yet if such illusions are benign and life-affirming, why not allow them?

Sharon Kaufman, in her book The Ageless Self: Sources of Meaning in Late Life, argues that “old age” is a social construct resisted by many elders. Rather than identifying with decline, they perceive identity as a lifelong process despite physical and social change. They find meaning in remaining authentically themselves, assimilating and reformulating diverse life experiences through family relationships, professional achievements, and personal values.

Creative Living in Old Age

We can think of many artists, writers, and thinkers who produced their most iconic, mature, or ground-breaking work in later years, demonstrating that creativity can deepen and flourish with age. I do not suggest that we should all aspire to become a Monet, Picasso, or Chomsky. Rather, I use the term “creativity” in a broader sense — to illuminate its relevance to ordinary, everyday living.

Endowed with wisdom accumulated through life’s experiences, the elderly have the opportunity for developmental self-transformation — to connect with new identities, perspectives, and aspirations, and to engage in a continuing quest for purpose and meaning. Such a quest serves an essential function in sustaining mental health and well-being.

Old age offers opportunities for psychological adaptation and renewal. Many elders use the additional time afforded by retirement to broaden their knowledge, pursue new goals, and cultivate creativity — an old age characterised by wholeness, purpose, and coherence that keeps the human spirit alive and growing even as one’s days draw to a close.

Creative living in old age requires remaining physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially engaged, and experiencing life as meaningful. It is important to sustain an optimistic perception of health, while distancing oneself from excessive preoccupation with pain and trauma. Positive perceptions of oneself and of the future help sustain well-being. Engage in lifelong learning, maintain curiosity, challenge assumptions — for learning itself is a meaning-making process. Nurture meaningful relationships to avoid disengagement, and enter into respectful dialogue, not only with those who agree with you. Cultivate a spiritual orientation and come to terms with mortality.

The developmental task of old age is to continue growing even as one approaches death — to reap a late harvest. As Rabindranath Tagore expressed evocatively in Gitanjali [‘Song Offerings’], which won him the Nobel Prize:: “On the day when death will knock at thy door, what wilt thou offer to him?

Oh, I will set before my guest the full vessel of my life — I will never let him go with empty hands.”

by Dr Siri Galhenage
Psychiatrist (Retired)
[sirigalhenage@gmail.com]