Features
The JVP’s Military Battle for Power
THE APRIL 1971 REVOLT – II
By Jayantha Somasundaram
The JVP evolved in the late 1960s under Rohana Wijeweera as a radical rural youth group. It believed that a socialist change in Sri Lanka could only be effected through a sudden armed insurrection launched simultaneously across the country. Recruits to the JVP underwent a series of political classes as well as military training, while the organisation clandestinely armed itself. The United Front Government responded in March 1971 with a State of Emergency, the arrest of JVP cadre and the deploying of the Army to the provinces.
In March 1971 events rapidly escalated. The JVP believed that the government was planning to use the Army to launch an all out offensive against them. And on 2nd April nine JVP leaders, six members of the Political Bureau and three District Secretaries, met at the Vidyodaya Sangaramaya at a meeting presided over by S.V.A Piyatilake. They took the decision to launch their attack at 2330 hours on 5th April. “The decision taken was to attack on a specific date at a specific time. This decision is completely in line with the evidence that the Fifth Class of the JVP…advocated that in the circumstances of our country, the best method would be to launch simultaneous attacks everywhere,” concluded the Judgement of the Criminal Justice Commission Inquiry No 1 1976.
The date of attack was relayed by pre-arranged code in the contents of a paid radio obituary notice by an unsuspecting state-owned Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation. The JVP cadres at Wellawaya however misinterpreted the instruction and launched their attack on the Wellawaya Police Station 24 hours earlier on the night of 4th April.
The initial targets were rural police stations both in order to further arm themselves and because the JVP viewed the police as the only representative of the state in the countryside. Moreover, they believed that the police and the armed forces were low on ammunition and they discounted the government’s ability to counter attack once the JVP had gained control of the countryside. Besides, the attacks on remote police stations across much of the country’s rural south, a large group also travelled north in order to rescue Wijeweera who was held in Jaffna.
Attacking with home-made weapons in groups of 25 to 30 in order to seize better arms from the police stations, the JVP believed that controlling these rural police stations would provide them with areas of military and political control, thereby denying the government access to such areas which would provide secure rear-bases for subsequent attacks by the JVP on towns and cities. Ten out of the island’s 22 Administrative Districts were battlegrounds. “Ninety two Police Stations had been attacked, damaging fifty and causing around fifty to be abandoned,” wrote Major General Anton Muttukumaru in The Military History of Ceylon.
Piyatilake was responsible for operations in Colombo. He detailed Raja Nimal an Advanced Level student to storm the Rosmead Place residence of Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike on the night of the 5th along with 50 student cadre, to capture the Prime Minister and transport her to a place where she would be held. However the expected vehicle and Piyatilake failed to arrive at the prearranged rendezvous in Borella and the attack did not materialise. Meanwhile unaware of the impending danger, the Prime Minister’s security advisers prevailed upon her to move to her official residence at Temple Trees, where she would be more secure.
Elsewhere in the Colombo District a major attack occurred at Hanwella, where the A4 High Level and Low Level Roads converge. Early on the morning of the 6th about 100 JVP combatants using hand bombs, Molotov Cocktails and firearms attacked the Police Station compelling its personnel to abandon their positions and flee into the surrounding jungle. The JVP captured the station’s armoury of weapons, hoisted a red flag and froze transport into Colombo. They held the town until armed police from Homagama supported by troops from Panagoda overpowered them.
The Battle for Kegalle
Athula Nimalasiri Jayasinghe, known within the Movement as Loku Athula, was in charge of the Kegalle and Kurunegala Districts. Once the decision to attack was made he moved into the area on the 3rd, meeting Area Leaders at Weliveriya and coordinating operations with detachments in Veyangoda and Mirigama. About 600 JVP combatants were deployed across the Kegalle District concentrated at Warakapola and Rambukkana.
Under Patrick Fernando, the Pindeniya detachment attacked both the local Police Station and the Bogala Graphite Mines, capturing a lorry load of explosives from the mines. On the 8th the Warakapola Police Station was successfully attacked, its weapons including two sub machine guns seized and the building set ablaze. In addition, Police Stations at Bulathkohupitiya, Aranayaka, Mawanella, Rambukkana and Dedigama were also attacked and the station at Aranayake burned down. Only Kegalle Police Station and the area surrounding it remained under Government control.
The Army could only access the interior regions of the District on the 10th and initially had to focus on removing road blocks and repairing culverts and bridges to gain mobility. When they penetrated the countryside they were frequently ambushed as in Aranayake and both sides sustained casualties. In The JVP 1969-1989 Justice A.C. Alles concludes that “the insurgents had met with considerable success in the Kegalle District.”
On the 12th at Utuwankande the Army was ambushed by the JVP using rifles and submachine guns. But the battle was turning in favour of the Army which brought to bear superior arms to put pressure on the rebels and gradually reopen the abandoned police stations in the district.
Finally on the 29th led by Loku Athula the JVP forces began their withdrawal from the District, from Balapattawa via Alawwa and then north. As they retreated in the direction of the Wilpattu Park they came under attack from the Army and from the air by Air Force helicopters. The Army finally ambushed them near Galgamuwa, killing some and capturing Loku Athula on 7th June.
The experience of the Kegalle District was replicated by the JVP in the Galle, Matara and Hambantota Districts. With the exception of Dickwella all Police Stations in the Matara District were abandoned. While in the Ambalangoda Police Area all stations, Elpitiya, Uragaha, Pitigala and Meetiyagoda fell to the JVP.
Widespread JVP attacks were also launched across the North Central Province where only the Anuradhapura Police Station was spared. As in the Kegalle District the outlying stations had to be abandoned and personnel withdrawn to Anuradhapura. However the Kekirawa Station, though attacked several times, held out. The Army was only able to move into the outlying areas of the Anuradhapura District on the 30th. Further north the Vavuniya Police Station in the Northern Province was also attacked. Less intense activity was reported in the Kandy, Badulla and Moneragala Districts.
N.Sanmugathasan in A Marxist Looks at the History of Ceylon remarked that “The rank and file (of the JVP) seems to have been honestly revolutionary, with a sense of dedication that must be admired, and a willingness to sacrifice their lives – unheard of before in Ceylon.” The first Ceylonese Army Commander General Muttukumaru wrote “Their (JVP) courage was also evident in the display of their military skills which enabled them to control many regions in the country and give battle to the armed forces in fierce guerrilla fighting.”
The military background
In November 1947 on the eve of independence, Ceylon signed a Defence Agreement with the United Kingdom. The military’s threat perception was determined by “the Government’s concern, (which) was invasion by India. The military’s focus was to have a defence force capable of meeting any external threat until assistance arrived from Britain.” In the words of Air Vice-Marshal P.H. ‘Paddy’ Mendis, who was Air Force Commander in 1971, the objective that determined the capabilities of the armed forces therefore was to “hold up an invading force of the enemy until assistance arrived from a bigger country with which we have an alliance.” (Brian Blodgett in Sri Lanka’s Military: The Search for a Mission 1949-2004)
The only military threat perceived was external; there was no anticipation of an internal military threat. Furthermore, in the wake of the 1962 abortive coup against the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Government, and the alleged 1966 coup against the United National Party Government, both parties that had been in power were wary of the Army which in 1970 had an authorised strength of 329 officers and 6,291 other ranks, and an annual budget of Rs 52 million (US$10mn), just 1.2% of total government expenditure.
Despite these inherent structural limitations, the Government and the Army responded swiftly, appointing regional Co-ordinating Officers in the worst affected districts. They were Colonels E.T. de Z. Abeysekera in Anuradhapura, S. D. Ratwatte in Badulla, Douglas Ramanayake in Galle and Derek Nugawella in Hambantota, Lieutenant Colonels R.R Rodrigo in Jaffna, Cyril Ranatunga in Kegalle, D.J.de S Wickremasinghe in Matara, Tissa Weeratunga in Moneragala and Dennis Hapugalle in Vavuniya.
The Ceylon Volunteer Force was immediately mobilised, and the first military casualty was Staff Sergeant Jothipala of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Sinha Regiment [2(V)SR], who was killed at Thulhiriya in the Kurunegala District on the first day of the insurrection. While Sandhurst-trained Major Noel Weerakoon of the 4th Regiment, Ceylon Artillery was the first officer to be killed whilst leading an ammunition convoy from Vavuniya to the besieged town of Anuradhapura; he was wounded when his convoy was ambushed and later succumbed to his injuries.
The battle rages
In 1971 the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) consisted of three squadrons: No. 1 Flying Training Squadron with nine Chipmunk trainers based at China Bay, No. 2 Transport Sq. equipped with five Doves, 4 Herons and three Pioneer fixed wing aircraft and four helicopters and No. 3 Reconnaissance Sq. with Cessna aircraft. In the 1960s Britain had gifted five Hunting Jet Provost T51s jet trainers which had gone out of service by 1971.
Beginning at 0900 hours on 5th April the Jet Provost, which were in storage at China Bay, began operating out of this airbase. Armed with Browning machine guns and rockets, they carried out air to ground attacks using 60 lb rockets. The three Bell 206A Jet Ranger helicopters protected by Bren Guns airlifted 36,500 lb of ammunition during April to critical police stations. In addition the Doves carried out supply missions and during the course of April, 900 soldiers and 100,000 lb of equipment were transported by the RCyAF.
The JVP seized parts of the Colombo-Kandy A1 Trunk Route at Warakapola and Kegalle, cutting off the main artery between Colombo and the tea growing highlands. In response the Jet Provost had to mount aerial attacks on the key bridge at Alawwa which led to the downing of a Jet Provost and the death of her pilot.
If not for the premature attack in Wellawaya which resulted in the Police and Military around the country being placed on high alert “the situation would have been very grave for not only would several Police Stations have been captured, but the JVP would have been able to arm itself with modern weapons,” wrote Justice Alles.
Desperate for arms and ammunition in the first days of the rebellion, the Government aware that a Chinese cargo vessel bound for Tanzania with an arms shipment was currently in Colombo Harbour, unsuccessfully appealed to both Beijing and Dar-es-Salaam to make these arms available to Sri Lanka.
International support
As rural police stations fell, the government abandoned others, regrouping its limited forces and anxious to protect the towns and cities. This tactic paid off. The JVP only had equipment captured from police stations. They did not go on to overrun military camps nor capture their more sophisticated weapons. While the JVP did control parts of Kegalle, Elpitiya, Deniyaya and Kataragama uncontested, the Army replenished its meagre stocks of weapons.
Wijeweera had focussed solely on a single decisive blow against the Government. There was no provision to conduct even a short term guerrilla operation, or an attempt to lead a peasant uprising. And during the first 72 hours his strategy appeared to be working. What dramatically altered the balance of forces against the JVP was the immediate and sustained influx of military equipment that flowed in from overseas to enable the armed forces to turn the tide in their favour.
Within four days of the JVP attack, Air Ceylon’s Trident took off from Singapore carrying a consignment of small arms provided by Britain from its base there. The following day the UK agreed to supply six Bell-47G Jet Ranger helicopters armed with 7.62mm machine guns. On 12th April on board a US Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, Washington shipped out critical spare parts for the RCyAF helicopters which were flying twelve hour days. And at Colombo’s request New Delhi on the 14th sent six Indian Air Force Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama utility helicopters with crews to Katunayake Air Force Base, along with troops to guard them as well as arms, ammunition and grenades. They would remain in-country for three months.
On the 17th Air Ceylon flew in nine tons of military equipment which the Soviet Union made available from supplies in Cairo. While on the 22nd a Soviet Air Force Antonov AN-22 transporter arrived with two Kamov Ka-26 rescue helicopters and five Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighters and one MiG-17 high-subsonic fighter. The Soviet aircraft were accompanied by 200 trainers and ground crew.
China, Australia, Pakistan and Yugoslavia would also send arms and equipment. Colombo’s Non Aligned foreign policy which enabled it to source and receive military weapons and equipment from countries across the globe had succeeded. However the disparate array of equipment would pose a logistics dilemma for the military.
The sudden influx of arms and ammunition rapidly altered the balance of power against the JVP. For example the Army took Yugoslav artillery into Kegalle to flush out the rebels. And around 16,500 JVP members were captured, arrested or surrendered. The remaining combatants withdrew into jungle sanctuaries in the Kegalle, Elpitiya, Deniyaya and Kataragama areas.
Meanwhile there were reports that the JVP were endeavouring to bring weapons in by sea. But the Royal Ceylon Navy’s frigate and Thorneycroft boats could not secure the island’s territory nor prevent supplies reaching the rebels. This compelled Colombo to rely on the Indian Navy which sent three of its Hunt-class escort destroyers, INS Ganga, INS Gomathi and INS Godawari to patrol Ceylon’s maritime perimeter. In Sri Lanka Navy: Enhanced Role and New Challenges Professor Gamini Keerawella and Lieutenant Commander S. Hemachandre explain that “Sri Lanka’s dependency on the Indian Navy during the Insurgency to patrol its sea frontier in order to prevent arms supply to the Insurgents, was total.”
At Anuradhapura the JVP had established a base camp as well as six sub camps in the surrounding jungle where weapons, explosives and food had been stored. JVP operations in the Rajangana and Tambuttegama areas were controlled from this base camp. A platoon of 1CLI armed with 82mm mortars was sent to Anuradhapura in May and participated in Operation Otthappuwa, under 1CLI 2iC Major Jayawardena to take control of this area. By the end of May the insurrection was completely crushed.
Some counter insurgency operations however continued into the following year. A-Company 1CLI established a forward base in Horowapatana as late as November 1972 from where they carried out combing out operations until April 1973 while 1CLI’s D-Company closed its Kegalle operations only in December 1974.
Outcomes
The international media reported that summary executions had taken place. Writing from Colombo in the Nouvel Observateur on 23rd May, Rene Dumont said “from the Victoria Bridge on 13th April I saw corpses floating down the (Kelani) River which flows through the north of the capital watched by hundreds of motionless people. The Police who had killed them let them float downstream to terrorise the population.” The New York Times in its 15th April edition said that “many were found to have been shot in the back.”
Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Ranatunga commanding troops in Kegalle was emphatic. “We have learned too many lessons from Vietnam and Malaysia. We must destroy them completely.” While another officer was quoted alongside him in the International Herald Tribune of 20th April as saying “Once we are convinced prisoners are insurgents we take them to a cemetery and dispose of them.” And the Washington Post on 9th May quoted a major who said that “we have never had the opportunity to fight a real war in this country. All these years we have been firing at dummies, now we are being put to use.”
One of these public executions became a celebrated case, the brutal murder of Premawathi Manamperi of Kataragama. She had been crowned festival queen at the previous year’s Sinhala New Year celebration. Two soldiers, Lieutenant Wijeysooria and Sergeant Ratnayaka would be convicted, but both claimed their orders were: “Take no prisoners; bump them off, liquidate them.” (Jayasumana Obeysekara Revolutionary Movements in Ceylon in Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia edited by Kathleen Gough and Hari P. Sharma)
Janice Jiggins notes in Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese 1947-1976 that “Many in the armed services took the view that the fighting was an expression of anti-Govigama resentment and in certain areas went into low caste villages and arrested all the youth, regardless of participation.”
In the aftermath of the insurgency the armed forces expanded. The Air Force which had 1,400 personnel in 1971 grew to 3,100 by 1976. New units were raised: a Special Police Reserve Force, a Volunteer RCyAF and a new Field Security Detachment targeting subversion. The latter was placed under Lieutenant Colonel Anurudha Ratwatte 2(V) SR, the Security Liaison Officer to the Prime Minister. While a new Volunteer Army unit the National Service Regiment, targeting recruits over 35 years provided according to Fred Halliday “a damning sign that the whole of the country’s youth was in opposition to (the Government).”
The JVP uprising broke the back of the left parties which were trapped politically by the insurrection which they could only denounce at the cost of their long term influence. The SLFP too was isolated from its electorate due to the harsh measures adopted; curfew, censorship, trial without jury, postponement of elections, suspension of habeas corpus and other civil rights. Their Government suffered a devastating defeat at the next elections in 1977.
The uprising questioned the efficacy of a parliamentary system that could not accommodate a generation of educated youth, nor keep politicians aware of their needs and strengths. The decades-old mass national parties seemed to have no place for them. And the JVP charge that the leaders in parliament were of a different class and therefore they themselves of a different sub culture, seemed valid.
When a father becomes a gambler and his obligation to his family takes the secondary place in his mind, he is no longer a man, but an automaton led by the power of greed.
(Tagore, Nationalism, 2018)
(Excerpts of the keynote address at Annual Sessions at the Faculty of Education, The Open University of Sri Lanka––Empowering Minds: Education for New Era.)
As I am coming from the Humanities and Social Sciences and Performance Studies disciplines, I have a close affinity with education and education philosophy. I have also been engaged in the current debate on higher education, writing and presenting my ideas with the academia and the public domains. I have been motivated by the like-minded scholars (Senanayake, 2021; Amarakeerthi, 2013; Uyangoda, 2017 & 2023; Rambukwella, 2024; Jayasinghe & Fernando 2023; & Jayasinghe 2024) who have been continually discussing problems related to our education and the role of humanities and aesthetics within this sphere. Some of the recurrent themes I have raised in these writings are burning issues in our current education scenario.
Among them, the indoctrination, decline of the arts and aesthetic education in our education sector, and the importance of creative arts in human development were prominent. Hence, in today’s speech, I will continue this discussion and try to broaden the scope of it. The theme of today’s speech can be categorized in three areas of studies: emotions, education, and democracy. What I am going to present today is the role of emotion in education and how this new paradigm of education could lead to the democratic establishments in society. In this speech, I try to build a connection between these key areas of arts and aesthetic education, its vital ingredient of empathy, and how this empathic education supports democracy in the society. This argument will be further elaborated in the course of my talk.
We, as a nation, are on the verge of a transition. This transition has been gradually taking place in our society through the influences of neo liberal economic and political changes happening throughout the region. The glory of our free education system and the heritage we envisioned have also been challenged by the new developments of private educational institutions. These new trends have distorted the true meanings while diminishing the philosophical and moral values of education.
It is the skill acquisition that has come to the fore of the educational discourse. Skills that can be used in the social milieu, and can support the economic growth of the country have been commissioned for our curricula. This mantra has been circulated and supported by the governments which ruled this country for decades. We, as academics, have also adopted strategies to cater these policies to indoctrinate our children to become future entrepreneurs. All the philosophical and moral values of education have been reduced to produce mere labourers. Education is interpreted as a commodity, which is being sold in the market based on supply and demand. We are advised that if we cannot compete in the market, our survival is at stake.
Now, who are we? And, where are we? Where is our society heading? These simple but vital questions are important for us to rethink how we educate our children and what we gain out of it. What kind of society we have created today, as a whole after implementing those educational policies imposed by the authorities? Over the past few years, the world has gone through a myriad obstacles and difficulties facing a worldwide pandemic and devastating wars. After many centuries, we faced the Covid-19 pandemic which challenged us on how we live as a community. Over two years, we were locked down and were isolated from the world. We were locked down in our own houses and the social distancing was imposed reframing ourselves to be connected with each other.
Pandemic, Aragalaya and emotions
Pandemic introduced different ways of learning and teaching in our education sector. The traditional ways of teaching and learning were replaced by the online modes of learning. We started conducting seminars and lectures through online zoom technology and other modes to connect with our students. Students, somehow or other, connected with us through their mobile phones and other devices. The conception behind all these technological advancements implied that the education can be successfully delivered via online mode, and the cost can also be reduced drastically allowing the government to reduce the cost of education and infrastructure.
However, the vital concepts in the educational business, such as corporeality, subjectivity, intersubjectivity, temporality, and spatiality have been redefined and challenged. The learning and teaching were redefined in the virtual reality, reducing the values of interpersonal and corporeal connections between learners. We tend to believe that it is not important for the learner to be present in front of other learners but is enough for her or his virtual avatar to be present.
Soon after the taming of the pandemic situation, our society was shattered with the economic bankruptcy and social upheavals. The financial hardship experienced by the people of the country, resulted in demand for basic needs, cooking gas, petrol, and other important rations. Vigil and silent protests, followed by the mass movements and occupation, ignited the country’s largest non-party people’s struggle, Aragalaya.
Youth of the country encamped the Galle Face Green, and established alternative communal spaces. Cinema, school, community kitchen and even an alternative people’s university were established. Within a few days, many GotaGoGama encampments were established in major cities of the country demanding the President and the Parliament to resign. The new people’s democracy was established by people, for people. This mass movement not only showed us new ways of governing the country but also new ways of living as a community. Human connection and communal living were established until the military actions uprooted the GotaGoGama encampment.
You must be wondering why I am trying to recall this unpleasant past of our social memory. Why is it important for us to go back and see how we passed this phase of time and have come to this point today? As my key ideas are related to emotional education, empathy, arts, and democracy, it is important for us to revisit such a brutal past and learn lessons from it. The pandemic situation taught us how it is important for us, as human beings, to be connected and live with each other as a society.
The pandemic taught us the importance of revisiting communal life, which has sustained and enriched our lives for centuries. Aragalaya further emphasised the importance of communal struggle and co-living in order for us to establish a democratic society. Democracy cannot be sustained without human engagement. It is not something that the ruling government or an alien authority donates to us. It is something that is generated through human connections and collective will. If we clearly scrutinise those two phenomena we experienced in the recent past, it is evident that in the first phenomenon, the pandemic challenged our emotional engagement with others. In the second phenomenon, Aragalaya, we witnessed how important emotions are to reconnect with people and demand for democracy.
Anxiety of our time
Today, as educators, we are on the verge of resolving complex issues related to education. Information technology and AI have invaded the traditional teaching and leaning approaches. The role of the teacher is being challenged and also being shifted by artificial intelligence. The question arises, whether we have a key role to play in the lecture theatre or in the classroom when AI invades our positions. With technological advancement and artificial intelligence, our role as teachers and also what we teach are being challenged. Now, the question is what educational philosophy or theory is suitable for us to guide our next generation of learners’ what methods are appropriate for this new generation to learn and become valuable citizens for the country.
The argument that I want to bring forward is that in our education, we lost the key ingredient, which is the affective development in learning. In other words, we have not focused on how our learners should be equipped with emotional educational principles. Affective components of our education were marginalised or forgotten in favour of promoting skill development or manual learning. One of the reasons behind this lack is the way we conceptualised our educational policies, defining education in dichotomous ways.
For instance, as philosopher john Dewey says, ‘theory and practice, individual and group, public and private, method and subject matter, mind and behaviour, means and ends, and culture and vocation’ (Palmer et al., 2002, p. 197) are the ways that we defined our educational principles. Dewey’s educational philosophy is based on the key principle that the children should learn in the classroom where they learn the society through ‘miniature community and or embryonic society’ (Palmer et al., 2002, p. 196). It is vital for the students to learn this communal living, because in the larger canvas, they learn to live in the democratic society as elders. Communal empathy is thus a vital component in developing a healthy, democratic and caring society where each person has a place and respect.
Today, we focus on education, but the truth is we are living in a paradoxical era. Bruzzone (2024) argues that with this pandemic situation, the ongoing conflict between developed nations, and also the advancement of television and online technology, our young generation is in a conundrum. Living in these complex social terrains, our young generation is experiencing complex inner upheavals. He argues that,
The rhetoric of happiness and the entertainment industry keep children and adolescents in a state of intermittent distraction that prevents them from exploring their inner self, including its less appealing, grey areas. Cinema, TV, and video games elicit strong emotions, helping the young to evade the desert of boredom and apathy (Bruzzone, 2024, p.2).
Even though our young people are equipped with devices throughout their livelihood, more or less they are isolated. The media always exaggerates that with mobile technology and other online devices, we are connected to the world and are not isolated.
We also tend to think that we are a part of global citizenship. However, the truth is that most of us are becoming isolated though we are connected with others through technology. Hence, Bruzzone argues that in order to overcome such isolation, existential vacuum and indifference, people tend to experience adrenaline rushes through various risk behaviours, speeding, loud music, and psychotropic substances (Bruzzone, 2024).
Affective life
What I argue here is not to give up our engagements with the new technology or devices but to find ways of reawakening our emotional life within us. This affective life is still hidden in our life that our learners do not know how to find it; or rather, we have not taught them to unlock this emotional life within. Our education, as I argued earlier, does not have such intention or components where the learners can be equipped with emotional intelligence.
We have thrown away all the important aspects of such components in our educational system in favour of developing manual learners. These manual learners do not have such empathic life, affection, or emotional intelligence to deal with their own emotional lives, or they do not have knowledge to deal with others in the society. The result is what we have today: the merciless society where people are competing with each other to accumulate material wealth. Citing Galimberti (2007), Bruzzone further argues how this can create a societal issue when the individual cannot cope with his/her emotional life:
This inability to express and share emotions can sometimes explode, taking the form of uncontrolled aggression and impulsive and maladaptive ways of acting out: when this occurs, unacknowledged emotional experiences (of anger, frustration, a sense of inadequacy, fear, and so on) turn into words or acts of hatred and violence—usually towards vulnerable individuals–,flagging a growing dis-connect between acting, reasoning, and feeling: the heart is not in tune with thought nor thought with action (Bruzzone, 2024, p. 2).
Thus, our education has created this person who is struggling to connect with the heart; heart with the thought and thought with action. This dislocation of the heart with thought and action has resulted in developing antipathy towards the society. This antipathy also destabilizes the democratic social value systems. If we really need to re-establish a democratic society, we should first focus on our existing education system.
It is not all about how we integrate new technology and equipment to facilitate our learners but it is about how we allow our learners to first unlock their emotional life, and secondly think how they reconnect with the society. A new educational approach should be tailored to facilitate this vital objective. Hence, let me briefly discuss how creative arts and aesthetics can be useful for developing such individuals who will be empathic as well as critical towards the social changes taking place in this millennium.
At this juncture, it is important to revisit one of the key thinkers and an educational philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore is one of the few philosophers who have been thinking and developing an alternative learning approach through his Vishva Bharathi concept. He established Shanti Niketan where this new approach was primarily being tested. Encapsulating his philosophy of learning, he argued,
For us, the highest purpose of this world is not merely living in it, knowing it and making use of it, but realizing ourselves through expansion of sympathy and not dominating it, but comprehending and uniting it with ourselves in perfect union (Bhattacharya, 2014, p. 60).
As this statement clearly indicates, Tagore’s vision of education is developed for cultivating sympathy towards other humans and the environment alike. This education does not persuade the learner to think about his/her environment as something that can be commodified and utilized as material. The environment where the individual is living is also a living entity that is intertwined with human beings. Therefore, the individual should think in a different way to converge with the environment and find a place for co-living. In order to establish such an empathic educational approach, we need a different mode of educating young people. This Tagorean approach to education clearly emphasizes the value of the affective nature of education. It is the emotional life of the individual which is focused and cultivated through various means of teaching and learning.
Emotion and democracy
As of today, we lack this vital emotional component in our education. One of the fallacies behind this situation is that we tend to believe that emotions reside within ourselves, and they are private and personal. This is a misconception that is being sustained through our existing systems of education. However, on the contrary, emotions do not only provide richness to our own personal lives but they are also the primal tool that connects us with the outer world. In other words, we connect with other human beings in the society through our emotional arc. If the individual disconnects the communal engagement, this can result in destructive mannerism.
‘This disintegration of reciprocity, which weakens the social fabric, effectively leaves the individual isolated in a state of loneliness and uncertainty’ (Bruzzone, 2024, p. 13). This isolation and uncertainties of individuals can also have a negative impact on the healthy relationship with communities and, largely, on the democratic institutions. As scholars argue, this can be resulted in sustaining endogamous, xenophobic and violent neo-tribal grouping that have mushroomed in our society. This is what we have seen in the form of various nationalist upheavals in our society for the last few decades.
This tendency, therefore, leads us to further think about the value of emotional education and also its role in communal living. Further, emotions and emotional competency lead us to engage with other subjects, and also emphasizes that it is a bridge that is built between you and me and the world. When this bridge is broken, our connections between myself, you, and the world could be destabilized and shattered.
That is why scholars such as Bruzzone argue that ‘affectivity is also an ethical and political issue’ (Bruzzone, 2024, p. 12). It is ethical in the sense that my engagement or disengagement with the social beings are formed and developed through the emotional desires that I have inherited. Further, it is political, because, when the individual assumes that his/her existence relies on the communal existence, this assumption leads to political action of individuals. Hence, emotional education is vital for the healthy existence of a society. Cusinato, therefore, states that ‘emotional education is at the core of democracy’ (Cusinato Cited by Bruzzone, 2024, p, 13).
Finally, I would like to highlight one of the brilliant minds of our time, Prof Martha C. Nussbaum and her ideas on why arts education is vital for a continuation of democracy, and also how emotional education is important to achieve this (Helsinki Collegium, 2024). Today, as a civilization, we are confronting various and complex issues threatening the continuation of the human race. These key issues are not limited to countries or nations. They are applicable to all human beings currently living in the world.
Environmental crisis, global warming, food security, poverty, and war are some of the recurrent issues we face today. In order to focus on these larger humanitarian crises, how could we equip our students to think in broader ways to tackle these complex issues? Nussbaum provides us some important points to think on how we could design our education system where the individual can be more empathetic and passionately engage with worldly phenomena. According to her, we need citizens who have the capacity to think and see the world as other people see the world; need to develop the capacity for genuine concern of others, near and distant; teach real things about other groups in the society and learn to reject stereotypes; and promote accountability and critical thinking, ‘the skill and courage it requires to raise a dissenting voice’ (Nussbaum, 2016, p. 45-46).
Conclusion
Nussbaum’s recent works largely focus on how human emotions are connected to the establishment of democratic societies in the world. Arts, culture, and humanities play significant role in promoting positive emotions amongst participants. It also promotes wellbeing and happiness which are vital for a healthy society. Today, we have a new government. This government often emphasizes the importance of investing in education, from primary levels to higher education. They have shown the commitment to change the existing stale education systems which need drastic and constructive criticisms to change for a better system. Thus, we, as educators, thoroughly believe that it is time for us to revisit what we have taught and how we have taught our younger generation for decades. It is time for us to rethink new ways of tailoring our education system where we could promote empathy and develop empathetic citizens who care about others and the environment we live in.
Thank you.
References
Bhattacharya, Kumkum. 2014. Rabindranath Tagore: Adventure of Ideas and Innovative Practices in Education. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Bruzzone, Daniele. 2024. Emotional Life: Phenomenology, Education and Care. Springer Nature.
Harshana Rambukwella. 2024. “The Cultural Life of Democracy: Notes on Popular Sovereignty, Culture and Arts in Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya.” South Asian Review, July, 1–16.https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2024.2380179 .
Helsinki Collegium. 2024. “Democracy and Emotions– a Dialogue with Philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum.” YouTube. June 6, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xdcfbE3KA.
Jayasinghe, Saroj. 2024. “Arts and Humanities in Medical Education: Current and Future.” Jaffna Medical Journal 36 (1): 3–6. https://doi.org/10.4038/jmj.v36i1.202.
Jayasinghe, Saroj, and Santhushya Fernando. 2023. “Developments in Medical Humanities in Sri Lanka: A Call for Regional and Global Action.” The Asia Pacific Scholar 8 (4): 1–4.https://doi.org/10.29060/taps.2023-8-4/gp2878.
Karunanayake, Panduka. 2021. Ruptures in Sri Lanka’s Education: Genesis, Present Status and Reflections. Nugegoda: Sarasavi Publishers.
Nussbaum, Martha C. 2016. Not for Profit Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton University Press.
Palmer, Joy, David Cooper, and Liora Bresler, eds. 2002. Fifty Major Thinkers on Education. Routledge.
Uyangoda, Jayadeva, ed. 2023. Democracy and Democratisation in Sri Lanka: Paths, Trends and Imaginations. 1st ed. Vol. 1 and 2. Colombo: Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies.
Short bio of the speaker
Saumya Liyanage (PhD) is an actor both in theatre and film and also working as a professor in Drama and Theatre at the Department of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance, Faculty of Dance and Drama, University of the Visual and Performing Arts (UVPA), Colombo, Sri Lanka. Professor Liyanage was the former Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, UVPA Colombo and currently holds the position of the Director of the Social Reconciliation Centre, UVPA Colombo.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Himansi Dehigama for proofreading the final manuscript of this keynote speech.
This keynote is delivered at the annual sessions of the Faculty of Education, Open University of Sri Lanka on the 6th of February 2025.
by Professor Saumya Liyanage
(BA Kelaniya, MCA Flinders, Australia, PhD La Trobe, Australia)
Department of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance
Faculty of Dance and Drama
University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Review of Prof. N.A. de S. Amaratunga’s book:
‘A COMPARISON OF BUDDHIST AND WESTERN PHILOSOPHY’
Prof. Asoka Amaratunga is well known to the readers of The Island by his regular contributions on many topics, including Buddhism, but what is less well known is that he has authored several books on Buddhism. He seems to have well used his retirement from the Faculty of Dental Science, University of Peradeniya in 2006, as he has published four books titled; “Controversies related to Buddhism”, “Ancient Buddhist Philosophers”, “Buddhism on the Silk Road” and the latest “A Comparison of Buddhist and Western Philosophy” which is the subject of this review. A fifth titled “Maithreyanatha, Asanga, and Vasubandu – Their Life and Philosophy” is already in print.
No sooner had I started reading this valuable work than I realised what an arduous task it would have been to write, as I found great difficulty in grasping the meaning of the multitude of terms used in philosophy! Fortunately, he has taken the time and the effort to explain these terms making this book an excellent introduction to philosophy for novices, myself included. However, the scope of the work is much more significant in that it illustrates how Buddhist philosophy has heavily influenced late Western philosophy; an inference I have drawn by reading the book, though the author is less emphatic, perhaps leaving the reader to come to own conclusions based on the facts presented, which I consider a great strength of this book. It is a painstakingly crafted book which goes in to detail and, by the very nature of the subject, a difficult read but appropriate repetitions make the job of the reader easier.
Though there are similarities in the thinking of early Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle with the teachings of the Buddha, Prof Amaratunga argues against any influence and states:
“If we consider the comparable periods of the life span of these philosophers it is seen that Buddha lived from 624 – 544 BCE which is the accepted dating in Sri Lankan and South Asian tradition. On the other hand, Greek philosopher Socrates’ life span was from 470 – 399 BCE. Socrates was born more than hundred years after the death of Buddha. On the other hand, Thales of Miletus who is considered the father of philosophy lived during 624 – 546 BCE which closely match the Buddha’s life period. However, there would not have been well developed means of communication between East and West in those early times. Greece was positioned between the west and the east as it were and may have acted as a conduit for transmission of culture and knowledge in either direction but for this to happen roadways had to be built connecting these regions which may not have happened during Buddha’s and Socrates’ time. The oldest global trade route is believed to be the Silk Road which came into partial existence in the 300 BCE and was connected to the West in the 200 BCE. Active trade between the two civilisations began in 100 BCE. Cultural exchanges between the West and the East would have happened since 100 BCE”.
Though in this paragraph, commencing the final chapter of the book, Asoka mentions that the Buddha lived from 624 to 544 BCE and that Socrates was born more than hundred years after the death of the Buddha, in the preceding pages he refers to Socrates as a contemporary of the Buddha and that Buddhism started in the 5th century BCE. Perhaps, this happened because the date of birth of the Buddha is a continuing argument, some authorities opining that it is hundred years after the date accepted in our tradition. Though some speculate whether some of the ideas of Socrates were influenced by the teachings of Buddha, as there are similarities, lack of means of communication makes it unlikely. Interestingly, some experts have opined in the past that the Buddha was influenced by Socrates!
I must point out another error; in reference to Christianity he states: “Christianity began as a sect of Judaism and remained so for centuries until it perceived itself as a separate religion in the 4th Century AD. It spread widely and grew to be a world religion in the 21st Century.”
Perhaps, he meant that Christianity spread widely to be the most embraced religion and continues to do so even in the 21st century, despite dwindling numbers.
The book starts with a chapter on the influence of ancient migration on the development of philosophy, followed by several chapters on the development of Western philosophy up to modern times. He then progresses to Indian philosophy including Buddhist philosophy followed by a chapter on Epistemology. Several chapters then follow comparing Buddhist and Western philosophy dealing with the subjects of Reality, Mind and Psychology, Morals, Karma and Rebirth, Causality, God and the origin of the Universe, Evil, Freedom/Salvation, Idealism, Matter, Universe, Truth, Logic and concludes with a chapter drawing parallels between Buddhist and Western philosophies.
He refers repeatedly to similarities of William James’ views to that of Buddha but Dr Upali Abeysiri, retired Consultant Surgeon who has also written many books on Buddhism, comments:
“The Buddha also showed that the psyche is not a permanent entity but consists of a stream of units arising and ceasing. However, Western scientists attribute the first description of the momentary nature of consciousness to William James, the nineteenth century American philosopher who is considered the father of American philosophy.” (Many firsts of the Buddha; The Island, 3March 2025).
It is a shame that Westerners do not give credit to the pioneering efforts of the Buddha but books of this nature continue to highlight the fact that the Buddha’s thinking was far ahead of times and relevant even today; perhaps, for ever!
Asoka has done a great service by bringing out this analytical publication which should appeal to anyone from novices to philosophy, to those interested in Western philosophy as well as advanced aspects of Buddhist philosophy, which seems to have developed further after the Parinibbana of the Buddha, as well explained. I have educated myself and would highly recommend this book. The hard work put in to compiling this, in meticulous detail, justifies the concluding remarks:
“It is seen that there had been philosophers both in the West and in the Indian Subcontinent and in ancient times as well as modern who held contrasting as well as similar views on most of the important subjects of philosophy like epistemology, reality, mind, creation, God, morals, truth, universe, matter etc. There were and are empiricists and rationalists, realists and idealists, theists, and atheists. There were philosophers who thought origin of morals, knowledge, truth, matter, salvation etc. was God and there were others who thought the opposite. Theists attempted to justify evil as it is a creation of God according to their belief.
Buddhism based its beliefs in most of these philosophical subjects on its foundation of “anicca, dukkha, anatta”. Suffering which resulted from this natural state of the world and life formed the main focus in Buddhism. Buddha had found the cause of suffering, and the solution as discoursed in the Four Noble Truths. The path was based on a foundation of moral practice and there was no god or any other agent involved in the individual effort. Buddha and other Buddhist philosophers who followed him grounded their philosophy on Buddhist morals. Further Buddhism does not see the world as evil but the self-ego of human beings which distorts perception may create evil. Human craving is caused by this wrongful perception and craving in turn causes suffering. Several Western philosophers have been influenced by and, also, agreed with aspects of Buddhism.”
By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana
Herbert Allan Aponso, a true legend, the doyen of Paediatrics / Child Health, Professor Emeritus celebrated his 100th birthday on the 25th of March 2025, thus becoming a centenarian.
What a rare and glorious moment of anyone’s life!
I simply cannot recall any university academic achieving this exceptional milestone in Sri Lanka.
Born on the 25th of March 1925 in Lakshapathiya, Moratuwa, Professor Aponso has witnessed and thrived through a century of immense global change. It is fascinating to reflect on the world and Sri Lanka as they were in 1925. At that time, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was still a British colony, 23 years away from independence, with a population of just 4 million and an average life expectancy was below 40 years.
The world political map in 1925, was vastly different from that of today. One single large India without Pakistan and Bangladesh, one single Korea, no official Israel, and it was just three years after the fall of Ottoman Empire.
In the medical field, too, no United Nations, no WHO, no antibiotics, no blood banks, and no organised immunisation programmes. Diseases such as smallpox posed a dire threat to humanity, and devastating epidemics, such as the malaria outbreak in Ceylon in the early 1930s, resulted in negative population growth for the first time in history. Professor Aponso has survived through all these extreme challenging threats over the past one hundred years!
In 1964, he joined the Department of Paediatrics as a Senior Lecturer at Sri Lanka’s (then Ceylon) newly established second medical faculty, Peradeniya thus becoming a pioneer academic staff member of the Faculty of Medicine. He played a very vital role in teaching many a generation of doctors.
His brave decision to leave the position as Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Medicine, Colombo and relocate with his family to Peradeniya, is truly beyond belief as he left his birthplace and the more affluent Colombo life. At the time, the small town of Peradeniya was considered distinctly remote and less privileged.
He then became the quintessential ‘Peradeniya Man’, getting involved in the establishment of Kandy Society of Medicine (KSM), Peradeniya Medical school Alumni Association (PeMSAA) and in consolidating both the Department of Paediatrics and the Faculty of Medicine.
He retired from university service in 1993 after three decades of dedicated and remarkable service to the Faculty of Medicine and to the medical fraternity at large.
All staff members of Faculty of Medicine, Peradeniya and elsewhere who graduated before 1993 have invariably had exposure to his teaching, including myself and my wife Chandrika.
I also had the privilege of serving as Registrar in Paediatrics between 1985 and 1987 under his wing.
He is also blessed with three very caring children – Ajith, (Dr) Heshan and (Dr) Charmalie and many grandchildren and great grandchildren, all of whom care for him and look after him very well.
Professor Aponso is truly amazing and is perhaps the most complete man we can ever imagine, as he is a combination of numerous rare features moulded into one person. He has an attractive and gentle yet commanding personality, authority of a different kind, intelligence, kindness, passion, calm mind, commitment, high social standing and blessed with happy and exceptionally high-quality long life along with his gracious late wife (sadly passed away in 2017) Mrs Vimala Aponso and three caring children,
A devout Christian, Professor Aponso’s faith has been a guiding force throughout his life. At the same time, he has always recognised and respected the values of other faiths, particularly Buddhism. He often quoted the Buddhist scripture:
“Pûjâ ca pûjanîyânam” (Honour those who are worthy of honour) – Khp 5, Maṅgala Sutta.
This is well and truly appropriate and relevant to him.
He is a true legend of our time and above all a great human being.
I wish him a HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY!
Ananda Jayasinghe
(Retired Professor in Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya)
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