Great sons of Galle Part III

Born on October 22, 1902, he was the twin son of Muhandiram Dionysius Sepala Panditha Dahanayake. He was named Wijayananda after the Wijayananda Vihara in Weliwatta, Galle, where Col. H. S. Olcott first observed the five precepts.

His learned father was the chief lay disciple of this Vihara. The eminent astrologer Karo Gurunnanse, who read Dahanayake’s horoscope had predicted that one day he would rule the country. With Ceylon under the British Raj at the time, and with no independence in sight, it was treated as a far fetched prediction.

He was educated at Richmond College, Galle and later at S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. The born fighter that he was, he one day created a rumpus, while lunch was being served, when Warden Stone sternly said, “Dahanayake! the next train to Galle is at 4.30.”

As a young man, he took part in the by-election campaign of Kannangara for the Legislative Council, referring to him as a ‘Conscientious Willing Worker’ (C. W. W.). At the time he would never have dreamt, that they both would be future ministers of education.

From S. Thomas’ College he joined the Kingswood College as a teacher. He once said that at Kingswood he learnt more than what he taught there.

A dashing young man then, he was in love with Rev. de Silva’s charming daughter, who played romantic music for him on the piano, which included a rendering of ‘Someone like you’.

Years later when he was heavily involved in politics, a newspaper reporter asked him as to why he remained a bachelor.

And, Dahanayake replied “I was looking for the perfect woman and one day I found her and proposed to her.”

“And why didn’t she accept you sir?” asked the reporter.

“Because she was looking for the perfect man!” chuckled Daha.

From Kingswood, he joined, the Government Training College in Colombo, as a trainee, together with his twin brother Kalyanapriya.

As a young man of 23 years, seated in the garden of the Government Training College, he wrote the poem titled ‘He stoops to conquer’.

The Poem was on the famous romance of Prince Saliya, son of warrior-king Dutugemunu and the Chandala girl, beautiful Asokamala; a romance that shook the Royal Court and the entire country and has been told and re-told, sung, and re-sung down the centuries.

“In palm thatched hut alone – she sat

And breathed the jasmine – scented air

Whilst woodland bird so blithely chirped

To greet this maiden wondrous fair,

An outcast born, unloved, unknown,

What passing phantom greets her sight:

‘Tis stately Sal, King Gemunu’s son

Her bosom heaved with mad delight

Whilst Sal, with magic dreams a lit,

Beheld this sprite, of Heavenly beauty,

No darksome rift his thoughts did sift,

For lingering love had conquered duty!

This lingering love was far above,

The harrowing pangs of princely pride;

By the Gods he swore “I thee adore!”

And lost a kingdom for a bride!”

One day he was reprimanded by the principal for not wearing a necktie to dinner, a strict rule at that time.

An apparently contrite Dahanayake humbly promised the principal that he would do so, the next day. The next day Dahanayake came to dinner wearing a necktie, as promised.

It was a shoelace.

Graduated a trained teacher, he had a brief stint at Siddhartha College Balapitiya, before joining St. Aloysius College, Galle where he taught for eight years, from 1928 to 1936, teaching a variety of subjects including Latin, mathematics, history, geography and rural science.

He was also the games master in charge of cricket, football and athletics. Dahanayake was no mean athlete, easily clearing five feet at high jump.

Schoolmaster Dahanayake was a fine actor and was the chief attraction in the college plays, many of which were adaptations from Moliere’s comedies.

It was the year 1935. The loyal little colony of Ceylon was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Coronation of King George the Fifth, in a big way, much to the infuriation of the sworn anti-imperialist Dahanayake.

Waving a black flag, he joined the celebrations and was immediately taken into custody by the Police. Hundreds of people who were there followed Dahanayake who was being dragged away to the Police station.

Thereafter he was detained at the Bogambara prison and was later produced in court, where he was fined Rs. 10.00.

Dahanayake, now an anti–British hero, was taken to his home “Sri Bhavana” in a colourful procession.

When Dahanayake started addressing political meetings, the school authorities terminated his services saying that teaching and politics were incompatible.

In 1933, he published a newspaper called ‘Ruhunu Handa’. It was four-paged, priced at three cents and was published every week. Its humour column ‘street talk’ was very popular. When D. R. Jardine’s controversial cricket team came to Galle, Ruhunu Handa headlined “Go back Jardine”.

Soon after leaving St. Aloysius College, he got into main stream of politics.

The humble John Aloysius and Alice Akkas, with whom he rubbed shoulders with easy familarity and affection, became his idols.

He also became a frequent visitor to the Pacha Gaha (Fibber’s tree), the local Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner, where he waxed eloquent as a political aspirant.

It was not long after, he became the first mayor of Galle in 1939. In 1940 he declared May Day as a holiday for the Municipal Council workers, long before 1956.

By now, he was an amusing speaker, a crowd puller, a very lovable human being and the undisputed champion of the down trodden masses.

He then went to Keppitipola’s Wellassa, far removed from his native Galle and contested the Bibile seat in the second State Council at a by-election in 1944, and was elected.

At the State Council, he functioned as a one man opposition, espoused the idol of the masses and was always in the limelight with his gimmicks and fun.

In 1945, he made a marathon speech in the legislature lasting 13 hours. It is still an unbroken record.

Once he was named for a week for calling the State Council “a den of thieves”.

Dahanayake was the one and only member who voted against the introduction of the Soulbury Constitution, on the grounds that the cabinet system was not suited to the genius of the people. He preferred the then existing executive committee system of government.

He was a man with a keen sense of humour who had a gift for eloquence and repartee which he often displayed in the House.

Some of his delightful parodies as a master parodist, drove a point home where extended verbiage failed.

Here is he on Sir John.

Twinkle, twinkle, good Sir John,

How you’ve fooled our fair Ceylon.

Looking young in spite of age.

Like an actor on stage,

When the girls at “Temple Trees”

Crowd and dance like buzzing bees,

Then you sing your sweetest song,

Twinkle, twinkle, all night long!

But if you care to see the woe.

Of starving men who come and go,

Then you’ll sing a sadder song.

And twinkle like a wiser John.

Addressing a meeting at Galle, Premier Sir John Kotelawala once said “If Dahanayake tries his nonsense with me, I will devour him.”

The next day Dahanayake issued a statement: “Then at least Sir John will have a brain in his stomach”.

He was a darling of the press, who always found him for a good story.

As an unconventional parliamentarian he was the first M.P. to travel third class with a first class ticket. And once he was asked why he travelled third class. He chuckled, “Because there is no fourth class.”

It was one way that he kept in touch with the people.

Those were the days when in December every year, the Galle Gymkhana Club held their horse racing meets. And Dahanayake devised an ingenious way of keeping contact with the people. On the morning of a meet, he displayed the “Treble Forecast”, on the Beli tree in his garden. As some of his tips clicked, the Beli tree became more popular.

His official telephone was like a public telephone. Those days there were no direct dialling facilities and calls had to be monitored through the exchange. If the call happened to be an urgent one, then Daha would help the caller by calling back the exchange to give the call ‘official priority’.

He was not a globe trotting M.P. or a minister. Once Sir John, the then Minister of Transport invited him to join the inaugural flight of the newly created Air Ceylon to Madras. That was the only time he left our shores.

When S.W.R.D came to address one of Daha’s election meetings at Galle in 1956, he went up to the mike and shouted “Banda comes to town! UNP down!” On hearing it S. W. R. D. had a hearty laugh.

When W. was a hot-blooded young man, he was presiding at an LSSP meeting at Galle Face Green, when a comrade came up and whispered in his ear, that thugs from a rival political party had been posted at strategic points in the crowd to disrupt the meeting. When told this, Daha immediately got up, stopped the comrade who was speaking and in stentorian tones cried out.

“Mage gama Gaalley!

Gaalley kollo bohoma vasai!

Ung hapuwath Naaga visai!

Yakada kandan dekata navai

Dekata navala thunata kadai!”

(“I am from Galle!

The boys of Galle are very dangerous!

If they bite you, it’ll be like a snake-bite!

They can bend iron giders!

They bend them in two and break them into three!”)

And the planned disruption never took place!

At the 1947 general elections, Dahanayake contested W. Amarasuriya, one of the richest in the island at the time and defeated him.

There is an interesting aftermath almost four decades later. A statue of Amarasuriya was erected after his death by the grateful people of Galle, and Prime Minister Premadasa was invited to unveil it. On that occasion, Dr. W. Dahanayake, Minister of Co-operatives, made a stirring speech, going to describe the late H.W. Amarasuriya as a Bodhisatva.

The Prime Minister, in his speech, quipped that had Dahanayake made that speech in 1947, he would have lost the election!

On that fateful day of September 25, 1959, Dahanayake who was staying at the M.P’s hostel ‘Sravasti’ ordered a plain cup of tea for the security officer on duty and another for himself and was chatting with him at the security post, when he received an urgent message, on receipt of which he drove to the Queens House to take oaths as the acting Prime Minister.

On the days he was at Galle, the premier’s Cadillac was somewhat of a public vehicle in which the young men used to go on jolly jaunts, even to the extent of going to the Galle Town to bring hoppers for those manning his election office in the night.

Soon after his defeat at the 1960 March election, Dahanayake went on a pilgrimage, armed with a camera given him by Sir Susantha de Fonseka, a former Ambasador of Ceylon in Japan and a former deputy speaker.

He was going to the Avukana Shrine after parking his vehicle, when he felt thirsty and went to a hut close by, asking for some water. The woman there brought a glass of water and while offering it asked him where he was from. Dahanayake answered that he was from Galle, when the woman fuming with indignation said, “The people of Galle do not deserve to be given even a glass of water, for the way they defeated Dahanayake Mahattaya.”

Dahanayake chuckled and resumed his journey, without revealing his identity.

After a long and eventful tenure in the legislature, he lived in retirement sans opulent wealth, respected and loved by the people.

There will never be another like him!