Opinion
Kavikolaya supporting CWW’s election campaign
Mr C W W Kannangara, the Father of Free Education in Sri Lanka entered the State Council, first from the Galle electorate, and then from Matugama. He was born in Loolbadduwa village,of Matugama where he established the first Central College. As children we knew, t was the work of a gentleman called Kannagara from Loolbadduwa, the adjoining village, that we were taught free of charge in schools. Only later we learned the greatness of this personality.
I have heard adults discussing how various forces had him defeated in 1947 parliament election. Thus, the Father of Free Education could not be the first Education Minister of independent Sri Lanka.
His rivals contesting the 1947 election from Matugama were Wilmet Perera,the famous Buddhist philanthropist, and Robert Gunawardana.
Handouts or leaflets in the form of poems (kavikolaya) were a popular form of propaganda in election campaigns. This is what one kavikolaya had to say. My late mother used to recite it and I memorised it.
(Apa methinda was CWW)
Dr. Lal Ratnasiri