Features

JRJ to Nehru: “India’s freedom is Lanka’s freedom too”

Published

1 year ago

2024/12/15

‘We in Lanka feel that our fight for freedom is being fought largely in India’

We continue the correspondence between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mr. J.R. Jayewardene in the pre-independence period excerpted from Jayewardene’s book, Men and Memories.

Wardha August 24, 1940.
J.R. Jayewardene Esqr.
Braemar
66, Ward Place
Colombo

Dear Mr Jayewardene,

Thank you for your letter of the 15th August which I have shown to our President, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. We shall be glad to meet the deputation from the Ceylon National Congress whenever it comes here. I agree with you entirely that our discussions should not be restricted to any particular issues but should cover future relations with India and Ceylon.

If you have been following developments in India, you will no doubt notice that the situation here is undergoing a complete change and the crisis that I hinted at in my last letter has arrived. This makes it very difficult for us to say definitely when and where we can meet you. It may be that long before November we shall not be in a position to meet you, or rather, that we shall be incapacitated from doing so. But apart from this uncertainty about the future, we shall look forward to meeting you early in November. Gandhiji will be pleased to meet your deputation.

The developing world situation makes in incumbent on all of us to look ahead and to think of the future. Whatever this future may be, it is certain that it will be very different from the past and the present.

About the exact position of the Communist Party in the Indian Congress not much can be said. The Communist Party is not a legal party in India. For many years the Government of India has banned it. Nevertheless, many individual Communists exist and proclaim their faith in communism. They describe themselves openly as Communists. There area fair number of others who, though not official Communists, are near Communists. Between the Communist and Socialist Party here there has been almost continuous conflict. For sometime the Communists were members of the Congress Socialist Party but later many of them left it. Since the War began many of the well-known Communists have been arrested under the Defence of India Act and interned.

So far as the Congress is concerned, it has no rule banning any organization or individual except one preventing members of communal organizations with objectives opposed to that of the Congress. All other persons can join the Congress if they accept its objectives and methods. Of course they are supposed to remain within the general discipline of the Congress. If Communists wish to join the Congress, they are perfectly at liberty to do so and, indeed, many have joined it in the past. Some of these have been important office bearers in different Provinces or districts. There has often been some trouble in local committees with Communist members and strictly speaking they have not always kept with Congress discipline. But no disciplinary action has been taken against them except in very rare instances. This may party be due to the fact that they are often good and earnest workers and partly because the British Government here is persecuting them so much.

It is not easy to write briefly about the recent differences of opinion between Gandhiji and the Working Committee. These differences are largely based on the theory and application of non-violence. They have been exaggerated somewhat in the press and it is quite likely that they will not affect materially any action that the Congress might take. There is no question of Gandhiji doing anything hostile to the Congress or of forming a different organization. All that he intended doing at one time was to invite those who fully believed in non-violence, even for a future state, to get into touch with him so that he might take some action through them. Such action would of course not have been against the Congress in any way. It is quite possible, and indeed probable, that by the time you come here all these problems will be of the past.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) Jawaharlal Nehru
17th Sept.
The President,
The Indian National Congress,
Swaraj Bhawan,
Allahabad

Dear Friend,

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has written to us, that you as President of the Indian National Congress and other leading members of the Congress welcome the idea of meeting a deputation from the Ceylon National Congress to discuss all present and future relations between India and Ceylon.

Our deputation will consist of myself as President of the Ceylon Congress, D.S. Senanayake, Minister of Agriculture and Lands and a few others. We hope to be in India during the first week of November and shall make arrangements to be free to meet you during the second week of November, probably 9th and 10th November. As we are anxious to meet Gandhiji also, I take it the meeting will be arranged at Wardha.

With best wishes, Yours truly,
(Signed) G.C.S. Corea,
President, Ceylon National Congress
17th October 1940.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

“Anand Bhawan”
Allahabad

India

Dear Mr Nehru,

I delayed writing to you as we were expecting a reply from President Azad to our letter dated the 17 September 1940, a copy of which I am enclosing.

I do not know whether he has received the letter. We are making all arrangements to meet the Indian Congress on the days mentioned in that letter.

Please let me know when you intend to hold the meeting. I have just read in the papers that Gandhiji has started the Civil Disobedience Campaign instructing Mr Vinoba to make an anti-War speech. I will not detain you longer but please accept my very sincere wishes for the success of India’s struggle. It is our struggle to that you are waging.

Yours sincerely,
(Signed) J.R. Jayewardene
7th May, 1941
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,
Swaraj Bhawan,
Allahabad.
India.

Dear Mr Nehru,

I have not written to you since you were interned, because, I was not sure whether you would receive my letters. I wonder whether you will receive even this? I am however writing in the hope that the censor may pass it. I suppose any reference to politics would mean that the letter may not be passed. Therefore I have refrained from writing about things which are now playing such a large part in the lives of the people of India and Ceylon.

You may have read in the papers about the Indo-Ceylonese differences. They exist. Yet, the wish of an increasing number here is that a free Ceylon should some day, and that very soon, march together with a free India.

Our Congress Party in Ceylon had much success in the Colombo Municipal elections last December, and we were able to have our Congress Mayor.

The 21st Session of our Congress Party was held in December and It was modeled on the lines of the Indian Congress with Swadeshi exhibitions, open air mass meetings & etc. Our visit to Ramgarh enabled us to introduce many of the features we saw there.

I have sent today to Swaraj Bhawan a small memento of out visit, a few hand-woven Ceylon mats.

Wishing you are in the best health,
Yours truly,
(Signed) J.R. Jayewardene
By Air Mail
May 29, 1941 (This letter is handwritten)
From Jawaharlal Nehru
District Jail Dehra Dun
To J.R. Jayewardene Esqr.
Braemar,
66 Ward Place, Colombo

Dear Mr Jayewardene,

Your letter of the 7th May has reached me and I was happy to hear from you again. As you realize it is not possible for me at present to carry on an intelligent correspondence about things that matter and are in our minds. Events are marching fast all over the world and it surprises me that many people are still thinking in the old way and cannot get out of the ruts. But the future, whatever it is going to be, is not going to wait or to confirm itself to their slow-moving minds.

In person especially, when one is cut off from the present, the mind fixes itself more on the future. In the thoughts that fill my mind, Ceylon often recurs and the difficulties of the present day do not worry me much.

My good wishes to you and to the people of Lanka.

Sincerely yours,
(Signed) Jawaharlal Nehru
5th December, 1941

Dear Pandit Nehru,

It is with great relief that we in Ceylon read in the papers of your release and the release of the other political prisoners from gaol.

Does this mean that, at long last, the British Government intends to consider the question of India’s freedom? We too hope that if any discussion takes place between the British Government and the Indian Congress, you will advocate Lanka’s claims to freedom too. Do you think it will be useful to send a representative of ours to India at this time?

The Ceylon National Congress is meeting at its 22nd sessions from 27th-30th December. We hope to hold one of the biggest national assemblies ever held in Ceylon. We have invited representatives from India and Burma, but unfortunately the Indian National Congress has not be able to accept our invitation.

I wonder whether you could come, or sent a message? If you could come even for a short stay, I can make arrangements for a quiet holiday in the Hills. I trust you received the books I sent to you in gaol.

With best wishes, Yours truly,
(Signed) J.R. Jayewardene
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,
Swaraj Bhawan
Allahabad
India
J.R. Jayewardene Braemar
66, Ward Place
Colombo
28th July, 1942
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Anand Bhawan
Allahabad
India

Dear Pandit Nehru,

My letter to you dated the 5th December 1941, and the books I sent with that letter have evidently been stopped by the censor, for I have received no reply or acknowledgment. Though I wanted very much to write to you again, I thought it better that I should not, as any reference to political affairs would have met with the censor’s disapproval.

I have therefore refrained from any such reference and only wish to ask you whether it would be possible for me to meet you if I happen to be in Bombay between the 4th and 8th August.

I am sending separately a small booklet of Essays on Buddhism which I published recently.

With best wishes,
Yours truly,
(Signed) J.R. Jayewardene

J.R. Jayewardene 66, Ward Place
Colombo
29.6.45 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Swaraj Bhawan
Allahabad
India

My dear Pandit Nehru,

I wonder whether you remember our last meeting? It was on the day before the AICC Meeting, in August 1942. A few of us, members of the Ceylon National. Congress had come to Bombay, and you very kindly spared a few minutes of your time, discussing with us, problems affecting our two countries, at Mr Huthee Singh’s residence.

With your help we were able to attend the first day’s meeting. The next day the leaders were arrested, and on our way to the meeting place, we found the Police dispersing the crowds, with violence. We visited your residence that same day, bade good-bye to Mrs Huthee Singh, and left for Ceylon that very evening. On our way back, our train was stoned at one or two places, near Bombay, but without injury to anyone. My Satyamurthi, who was traveling with us, was arrested near Madras. We reached Colombo a few days later.

Three years have gone by since then; years which have seen many changes and stirring events, but few have been so eagerly received here as the release of the Indian leaders. I hope you received our message of goodwill. I think the main reason for this is, that we in Lanka feel that our fight for freedom is being fought largely in India, and India’s freedom is Lanka’s freedom too.

The urge for freedom has grown immensely here, during these three years. Soon after our return, the Ceylon National Congress in December 1942 rejected Dominion Status and adopted Freedom as its objective. Soon after this, I was nominated as the Congress candidate, for the vacancy created, by Sir D.B. Jayatilleke’s appointment as Representative in India, and fighting the election on the issue of “independence” vs “Reforms”, against an elder politician, E.W. Perera, I was able to win by over 10,000 votes. The State Council and all political parties too, now ask for freedom, and India’s help will be a great asset to us. It is to acquaint you with the latest developments in Ceylon that I thought of writing these few lines.

I am sending you the following Sessional Papers which give an account of what has happened here; S.P. 13 of 1943; S.P. 17 of 1943; S.P. 12 of 1944; S.P. 14 of 1944, the draft of an Ordinance to provide a new constitution for Lanka, and the Agenda of the 25th Congress Sessions.

On the 26th May 1943, the British Government declared that it would grant full responsible government to Ceylon, in all matters of internal civil administration. This declaration is printed in S.P. 17 of 1943, together with the Ministers interpretation of it. The Ministers drafted a Constitution and sent it to the Secretary of State in February 1944. They were then informed that a Commission would be sent out to Ceylon. The Ministers objected to the sending out of this Commission, withdrew their Draft and decided not to cooperate with the Commission, vide S.P. 12 of 1944. The Ministers’ Draft Constitution is in S.P. 14 of 1944.

The Commission, an “all White one”, held its sittings from December 1944 to April 1945, and was boycotted by all progressive political bodies, following the lead of the Ceylon National Congress.

While the Commission, which consisted of Lord Soulbury, Sir F.J. Rees and Mr F.J. Burrows, was hearing evidence, we introduced in the State Council, an Ordinance to provide a new Constitution for Lanka. This Ordinance contained the Ministers’ Draft Constitution, shorn of certain limitations, and provided a Constitution of the recognized Dominion type for a Free Lanka. The third reading of this Ordinance was passed in March 1945, with only two elected members, both members of the Tamil Congress, a new body created to give evidence before the Commission voting against it. The Ordinance has now been reserved for His Majesty’s assent.

I understand that the Soulbury Report is now ready, and the Leader of the State Council, Mr D.S. Senanayake, has been invited to England to discuss future constitutional problems with the British Government. I do not think that either the State Council, or the country will accept anything less than has already been promised to India and Burma, that is the status of a free and equal partner, in the Commonwealth of Nations.

The latest Resolution of the Indian Congress Working Committee, demanding freedom for the Colonies, has heartened us, for even the moral support of a powerful neighbour gives strength to our cause.

You may remember in August 1942, I suggested that Ceylon too, should be included in the resolution to be placed before the AICC, as one of the countries for whose freedom the Indian Congress would strive. Specific reference of this nature to Ceylon is of great psychological value to us, in our work.

It is not possible to suggest, just now, any means whereby India can help us. We anxiously await the outcome of the Simla Talks. I have only attempted to provide you, with a summary of recent political events in Ceylon, so that, if you have the time and the desire, you may yourself consider what help you can render us. I am afraid, I have already taken too much of your time, but I cannot close, without extending to you and to any of your friends, you wish to bring, a cordial invitation to be my guests in Ceylon, if you can find the time for a short holiday. The best time would be January, a cool month, when moreover, we will be holding our 26th Congress Session.

With my best wishes to you,
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) J.R. Jayewardene

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Features

The Division Bell Mystery

Published

2 days ago

2026/05/29

Thilina Walpola

Tales of Mystery and Suspense 3

The murder, in a private dining room in the house, is of a financier with whom the government was negotiating a loan. When this seemed difficult the Minister of Home Affairs agreed to lead discussions, since he had known Mr Oissel the financier when they were young. Hence the private dinner, but when the Minister stepped out for a vote, Oissel was shot just as the Division Bell rang.

The Brahms and Simon detective novels, the first of which I wrote about last week, were amongst several books by the pair that Robert Scoble gave me when I was in Australia towards the end of last year. Amongst them was another thriller of a very different sort, though that too was written and set between the wars.

Called The Division Bell Mystery, it was set in the House of Commons, the first such book I believe, and was by Ellen Wilkinson, a Labour MP who became Minister of Education in Attlee’s government after the war, having served previously as Parliamentary Private Secretary to several ministers. Her hero Robert West is also a PPS, but a conservative, and his Minister, of Home Affairs, is an old style aristocrat, not much loved by the less orthodox Prime Minister, who nevertheless needs his support on many occasions.

The murder, in a private dining room in the house, is of a financier with whom the government was negotiating a loan. When this seemed difficult the Minister of Home Affairs agreed to lead discussions, since he had known Mr Oissel the financier when they were young. Hence the private dinner, but when the Minister stepped out for a vote, Oissel was shot just as the Division Bell rang.

West was just outside the door when the shot was heard, and when he opened it saw only the dead body with a revolver beside it. The assumption that this was suicide was however challenged by Oissel’s grand-daughter Annette, who was his heir, on the grounds that he would never have killed himself. But her view was given greater credence by the Inspector put in charge of the case who said there were no burn marks on the body which would have been the case had Oissel fired the pistol himself.

Matters are complicated by the fact that Oissel’s flat had been burgled while he was at dinner, and Jenks the policeman allocated to him, who had served the Home Secretary and seemed more acceptable to Oissel than someone from the Security Service, had been killed. Matters get even more complicated when Annette says her grand-father’s notebook in which he wrote his secrets in cipher was missing.

That was found in Jenks’ pocket, and then a photographer came to West to say he had been asked by Jenks to photograph this. More worryingly for West, he finds in the Home Secretary’s drawer a few pages from the notebook with what appears to be an interpretation of the cipher.

Ellen

Overwhelmed by all this he confides in a recently created peer who knows all about the business world, who insists that they leave the house party at which they had met over dinner and discuss the matter with the Prime Minister who promptly summons the Home Secretary.

But the Home Secretary had gone to Scotland to launch a ship over the weekend, so the meeting could take place only on the morning of the Monday, when difficult questions were expected on the adjournment motion. He admits at the meeting that he had got Jenks to take the notebook, and also that he knew the code since it had been created by him and Oissel when they were young.

He thought he should resign, and even contemplated suicide, but the Prime Minister told him that that would be even worse for the government, and that he should go home to bed. The Prime Minister said that he himself would handle the question, which he did with aplomb, insisting that confidentiality was needed until the inquest. What had happened would be made clear then, he declared, leaving West and Inspector Blackit and Lord Dalbeattie what seemed the impossible task of solving the murder.

Dalbeattie had suggested that West ask a female Labour MP who was very fond of him to get what information she could from the staff. That there was some involvement there had become clear when West, going back late one night to collect a briefcase he had left in a dining room, found someone lurking in the dark in the corridor outside the private rooms. Room J, where the murder had happened, was meant to be guarded throughout by a policeman, but he had left the room having felt dizzy, and it seemed that his coffee had been drugged. West’s sudden appearance however had prevented anyone else getting into the room.

Dalbeattie decides to recreate the scene of the murder and has a dinner party in Room J on the Tuesday night, inviting West and Annette and the society hostess at whose house he had met, and also Patrick Kinnaird, an MP who was engaged to Annette, as well as the Permanent Secretary to the Home Ministry.

After coffee Inspector Blackit comes in with Grace, the Labour MP who had got the confidence of the staff, and a journalist who had also been helpful, and just as they say they think they are on the track the division bell rings. Grace jumps up and tells the Inspector that that provides the solution and they get a ladder, and sure enough find the revolver in the space where the bell is. Directed at the place where Oissel had sat, it had been primed to go off with the ringing of the bell. The waiter who had helped to set things up made clear who the murderer had been.

The reason for the murder and the confused motives of all those involved made for a fascinatingly intricate mix. But also impressive in the book were the descriptions of the isolation possible in the crowded premises of the house, the forceful characterization of the members – Grace based on the writer, the society hostess based on Nancy Astor, the first female MP – and the laid back nature of senior politicians which West realized had to change in the brave new world of high finance.

Features

The challenge of keeping value-based politics alive

Published

3 days ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Anti-migrant protests in Durban, South Africa. BBC

The current outbreak of anti-immigrant protests in Durban, South Africa is bound to have taken many a subscriber to value-based politics or political idealism quite by surprise. After all, this is evidence that despite the historic accomplishments of nation-builders of the stature of the late President Nelson Mandela it cannot be taken for granted that identity politics, including racism in its worst forms, is no more in South Africa.

At the time of this writing details are scarce on the substantive root causes of the protests but it could very well be that economic grievances, particularly on the part of the majority community in South Africa, are contributing considerably to the disaffection. Shrinking employment and material prospects are likely to figure majorly among the factors igniting the unrest.

Fortunately, the local authorities in Durban are losing no time in calling for peaceful co-existence among the relevant communities and are pointing to the vital importance of stepping-up national integration processes. Apparently, immigrants in sizable numbers from neighbouring countries are present in Durban. However, international TV footage of the protests quoted some local authorities as saying that the majority of the immigrants in some centres that housed them were not illegal migrants and had the documents that entitle them to be in Durban.

In the Durban protests the world has fresh proof of the socially divisive consequences of the gathering globe-wide economic disaffection, touched off particularly by the continuing crisis in West Asia. Going ahead, the world would need to brace for increasing identity-based unrest of the kind it is just witnessing in South Africa.

Considering that the material lot of ordinary people everywhere could only aggravate progressively, with the US and Iran showing no signs of negotiating an end to their confrontation any time soon, it will be left to the more democratic and progressive sections of the world community to initiate positive measures collectively to bring a measure of relief to the discontented.

The swiftness with which such relief will be provided would depend crucially on the importance those sections taking up these undertakings attach to value-based politics as opposed to Realpolitik of power politics.

Going by these yardsticks, Italy could be considered to be moving in the right direction. Recently Italy came to the fore in initiating the collective named, ‘Rome Coalition for Food Security and Access to Fertilizer’, which has as one of its aims the swift provision of fertilizer to economically weak African countries.

In a recent statement Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, said that a principal aim of the project was to ensure that the farmers of Africa gained easy access to fertilizer, considering that food security is a growing concern among some of Africa’s economically vulnerable countries.

The statement went on to mention that some 30 countries hailing from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Balkans as well as the FAO had been invited to join the coalition. The venture is far-seeing in that food security is main among the reasons for social discontent which in turn could degenerate into endemic political turmoil and bloodshed. Separatist violence and geographical fragmentation of countries wouldn’t be too far behind these developments, as Africa itself has often proved.

It is hoped that more G7 countries would take the cue from Italy and do what they could to ease the hardships of economically distressed countries, particularly of the global South. In these efforts they would need to break rank with the US, which is today brutally indifferent to the consequences of its policy of making ‘America First’, come what may.

Going by current developments, the Trump administration seems to be blithely oblivious to the wider, deleterious effects of its policy course in West Asia. Besides rendering Iran militarily and otherwise impotent nothing else seems to matter to Washington, as regards West Asia. This is policy short-sightedness of an extreme kind. After all, right now West Asia could be said to be sitting on the proverbial powder keg.

On the other hand, Iran is not giving the world the impression that it is doing anything constructive to get out of the policy straitjacket that it wove for itself decades ago. Rather than enter into a policy of ‘live and let live’ in relation to Israel in particular and initiate a process of reconciliation with the latter, it has chosen to operate within policy parameters that continue to damn Israel. This has put Israel always on the ‘defensive’ so to speak and prevented the opening up of space for meaningful dialogue.

That said, Israel is obliged to explore the possibilities of entering into a negotiatory process with the Arab-Islamic world that could lead to a de-escalation of tensions and bloodshed. It cannot continue to look at its neighbours through lenses that distort them as archetypal enemies who should be ‘wiped off completely from the face of the earth.’

In other words, the need is urgent for Realpolitik to give way to value-based politicks. Italy is beginning to prove that the latter approach could be pursued with some success. May be the EU and the UK could throw their weight behind these initiatives as well and establish that international politics could be refashioned on the basis of humane, civilized norms. The UN would need to be fully supportive of these moves and prove an organizational nucleus of the operations that follow.

In fact the time is ripe for people of conscience to collectively stand up on the side of peace and say ‘No’ to war and violence. Organizations such as the ICRC, the WHO and Medicines Sans Frontiers have already taken up this call. Referring to the widespread destruction of health facilities and their dehumanizing results these organizations have said, among other things, that ‘This is not a failure of the law. It is a failure of political will.’

True, ‘failure of political will’ among those powers that matter accounts for the runaway, uncontrollable nature of war and destruction in contemporary times, but more fundamentally it is a failure of the human conscience. It could very well be that the phenomenal levels to which violence and war have been unleashed today have had the effect of deadening consciences. This is a matter for urgent study and wide discussion.

Features

Vesak celebrations … with Cuteefly

Published

3 days ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Perfect for celebrations, gifts, and meaningful occasions // Gift pack

I would describe Indunil Kaushalya Dissanayaka as innovative and creative, and she operates under the name of Cuteefly.

Indunil always comes up with something novel to celebrate special occasions, and she does it with candles … and that’s her profession.

She was in the spotlight when she created a happening scene, with candles, for Christmas, Sinhala and Tamil New Year, and Valentine’s Day.

As lanterns light up Sri Lanka for Vesak, the Colombo-based candle maker is quietly turning wax and wick into little pieces of the festival.

Candles reflecting Vesak themes

Her candles reflect Vesak themes – light, peace, remembrance, giving, etc., to enable you to fill your Vesak celebration with devotion and beauty.

Among her Vesak creations is a lotus-shaped soy candle, scented with sandalwood, lavender, etc., meant to burn during this Vesak Poya Day.

Indunil Kaushalya Dissanayaka: Customers
praise her for her creativity

These handcrafted Vesak candles are perfect for offering at the temple, she says.

What makes her creations so novel is that they come in different shapes, scents, themes, and all are handmade.

What’s more, her customers have heaped praise on her for her creativity.

According to Indunil, her creations are perfect as a thoughtful gift … to bring beauty, unity, and light into every moment.

Says Indunil: “Our beautifully handcrafted Unity candles are designed with premium detail and love, making them perfect for celebrations, gifts, and meaningful occasions.”

Cuteefly, says Indunil, is available online.

Readers could contact Indunil on 0778506066 for more details.

He Facebook Page is: Cuteefly.