The colonization of the Tamil areas became an obsession of the Sinhalese politicians inspired by the concept of Sihaladipa..!!!

Getting the readings of history correct....by Arjuna Hulugalle

Mr. Lyn Ockersz has written a comprehensive review of the book "Pathways of Dissent – Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka published by SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. Edited by R. Cheran" in the Mid Week Review of the Wednesday Island of 28th October 2009. Mr. Ockersz summarizes his review by stating:

"All in all, Pathways of Dissent meets a long-felt but neglected need in Sri Lanka’s efforts to more fully understand what went wrong in the island’s post-independence political history, from the point of view of the articulate sections of the Tamil community. It helps greatly in coming to grips with the ‘other side of the story’.

As I have not read the book I cannot give an opinion about it. My comment in this article is restricted solely to only one paragraph in this review which reads as follows:

‘However, the colonization of the Tamil areas became an obsession of the Sinhalese politicians inspired by the concept of Sihaladipa. This is evident in the biography of D.S. Senanayake entitled Sri Lanka’s First Prime Minister, Don Stephen Senanayake (D.S.) written by H.A.J. Hulugalle (1975). He states how D.S. Senanayake followed the model of Jewish settlements planted in traditional Palestine territory in order to deprive the latter of their homeland.’

I assume this was a quotation from Nationalism, Historiography and Archaeology in Sri Lanka by S.K. Sitrampalam, Emeritus Professor of the University of Jaffna and this was included by Mr. Ockersz to make a point.

This quotation can be, however, misleading because the only reference to Jewish settlements, in my father’s biography of D. S. Senanayake, was in the context of a section where he elaborates on how D. S. Senanayake’s masterwork Agriculture and Patriotism came to be written.

He wrote in Chapter 17 page 121 in the 1st edition and page 132 in the second edition:

"Sir Arthur Ranasinha has disclosed in his memoirs the genesis of the book "Agriculture and Patriotism.

"As his agricultural policy became crystallised", writes Ranasinha, "I suggested to him that it would be desirable to outline his ideas in a series of Press articles. The suggestion came to my mind when I saw in the Press some articles on the development of arid Palestine by men and money of the Zionist Movement. ‘D.S.’ accepted my suggestion with enthusiasm, and we began thinking out, discussing and writing a series of articles to be published in a newspaper. These articles were later collected and published as a booklet entitled Agriculture and Patriotism "".



Hulugalle continued.

"A series of articles was written by the present writer (sic H.A.J.Hulugalle) in the "Ceylon Daily News" after a visit of several weeks to Palestine at the beginning of 1935. I lived in the Jewish settlements such as Rehovath, Givat Brenner and Emek. During this trip I was sent to Golda Meir, who was then in charge of a labour office and she invited me to her home in Tel Aviv on the sand dunes."

"Later she was Prime Minister of Israel, which was previously a part of the British Mandate of Palestine.""

"I brought back to Ceylon with me a book in English called The Fellah’s Farm, by a Mr. Villeani, one of the agricultural experts. He had taken an Arab farmer and put him to work on an allotment of land. A neighbouring land under the same conditions was cultivated by methods used in modern farming. The Arab’s Land was worked under the supervision of the Superintendent and all his work was indexed in detail. Villeani had gathered interesting material enabling him to compare both methods of agriculture."

"I gave this book to Senanayake who was attracted by this kind of research and I have been told by Sir Arthur Ranasinha, who helped Senanayake with the book entitled Agriculture and Patriotism, that the idea of writing it came from The Fellah’s Farm".

The impression conveyed by Mr. Ockersz is that S.K. Sitrampalam, Emeritus Professor of the University of Jaffna, implies that D. S. Senanayake was obsessed with the colonization of "Tamil areas".

By quoting from the book totally out of context, one gets the impression that H.A.J. Hulugalle, too, endorsed a Jewish model for Sri Lanka.

A careful reading of the biography Sri Lanka’s First Prime Minister, Don Stephen Senanayake (D.S.) published in 1975 and later republished by me in 2000 will dispel the reader of these erroneous and what one sadly and painfully concludes, shallow thoughts, which have riddled academia and journalism in this country and have misled it over the years to communal disharmony.

Mr. Ockersz is a senior and distinguished journalist and I am sure Professor Sitrampalam is an erudite scholar. They have in this instance fallen to a mental trap which one would not expect from such eminent men.

To understand D. S. Senanayake, I give two assessments, one from Mr. S. J. V. Chelvanayagam and the other from Sir Arthur Ranasinha. These throw light on the stature of the D.S. Senanayake and why he came to be called the Father of the Nation.

The leader of the Tamil Federal Party, Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, said of him: "It was the personal qualities of the man that helped him to achieve so much success in the very high office that he filled in the affairs of the country. Differences of opinion did not in any way diminish my respect or regard for Mr. Senanayake and I admired the love he had for his people. He had a strong faith in their future greatness and, according to his lights, he worked for its achievement untiringly and consistently. Many a time I have wished that in the ranks to which I belonged there were to be found one like Mr. Senanayake, so consistently loyal and so full of hope of ultimate success".

Sir Arthur Ranasinha, wrote in his autobiography "I am fully convinced that, but for the tragic accident that took him away after a bare five-year period of power, he would have stamped out the canker of communalism which since his death has unfortunately spread itself throughout the land and had sadly frustrated-let me hope only for a brief while-the sense of being together to our mother country that it was his endeavour to foster and develop".

These are only two samples from two outstanding personalities of the period D.S.Senanayake dominated. Senanayake was not a small man. He had three pivotal pillars in his career. They were national unity, economic development of the country and nurturing of the country’s agriculture. He was by no stretch of imagination a petty racialist.

To understand Senanayake and his contribution a study of his biography will be valuable, although the author prefaces the book as not a definitive work. He does also say that this is a modest offering of a contemporary. He writes Faute de mieux il se contente de pain: (In the absence of something better one has to be satisfied with bread).

Of my father Mr S.Sivasubramaniam wrote: "Hulugalle’s services to the country merit a full biography with collection of extracts from his writings of varied character on different subjects covering a long period of time, when modern Sri Lanka was in the making. He was the very embodiment of modesty, goodness, and public spiritedness and disinterested service to the country. He knew no distinction of race, creed, community, caste or party and did his best for the common weal according to the best of his lights in a detached, silent and fearless manner. It is difficult to find his equal".

(See Selected Journalism – H.A.J. Hulugalle published by me in 2004, page 478. Mr Sivasubramaniam, a senior Proctor and Notary in Hulfsdorp, was President of the Vivekanda Society and father of the former Federal Member of Parliament S. Kathirivellupillai and of the eminent Tax authority, S.Ambalavanar. )



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