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PostWar Sri Lanka Dayan Jayatilleka
The Tamil Buddhist Liyanage Amarakeerthi
Handcuffed to History Ashley Halpé
Reimagining English Studies VA ( Maithree Wickramasinghe
It's About the State, or is it? N Two Views of Global Governance - Kakoli Ray
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CONTENTS
The Tamil Buddhist-Liyanage Amarakeerthi
Reimagining English Studies-Maithree Wickramasinghe
The Returnofthe von Blosses–Walter Perera
Three Poems from ekamatekapitarataka-Translated by Ranji
It's About the State, or Is it? Two Views of Global Governance.
House on the Hill-Punyakante Wijenaike
Liberalization of Service Trade in South Asia-Sarath Rajapati
Handcuffed to History-Ashley Halpé
The Idea of Justice and the Importance of Democracy-Nishan
Excerpt from Mm-Translated by Sumathy
The Schoolmaster and Somasiri-Mick Moore
Counterrealism: a Major Motif-Wilfred Jayasuriya
On Being Hybrid — Lakmali Jayasinghe
Butterfly-Frances Bulathsinghala
Economic Democracythrough Pro-poor Growth — Ramani Guu
Pathways of Dissent in Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism-Nira W
A Story of Homecomings and Discoveries-John Stifler
Postwar Sri Lanka: Prospects for a Durable, Democratic Peace
Taking to the Streets-Kanchuka Dharmasiri
Contributors
Guidelines for Contributors
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EDITORIAL
Nethra continues its journey, after a brief hiatus, reinventing itself as an interdisciplinary journal about Sri Lanka. Its present vision is shaped by a conviction that there is a need for a journal that provides thoughtful comments about books, events, changes, and conditions in Sri Lanka. This journal does not assume a specialist reader, rather it speaks to one who is well-informed and interested in how Sri Lanka presents itself, culturally and politically.
In some senses, this inaugural issue of the refashioned Nethra is an experiment of sorts. Instead of building a frame that is arbitrary and inflexible, we would like to see a process of evolution that is mindful of what readers would like to see. We would like to offer some version of, say, the Harper's Magazine,
We were clear about one thing: all essays, reviews and poems should have a direct link with Sri Lanka. Nethra should be a journal devoted to the Sri Lankan scene. Beyond that, the contours can change. The present issue is eclectic: it includes essays, reviews, short stories, poems, and translations. Our contributors are quite eclectic, and they represent a range of disciplines. We have made an effort to ensure that the essays and reviews are comprehensive without becoming overly detailed or academic. If literature tends to dominate the first issue, it is more a coincidence than a statement about policy or future directions.
We are hopeful that Nethra would remain a journal that promotes sustained analysis and discussion from an inter disciplinary perspective. We hope that readers will find intersections that are illuminating. We would like some future issues to focus on specific concerns or themes. For the most part, we would like to remain openended, publishing material that provides a window to the many challenges and accomplishments of contemporary Sri Lanka.
Chelva Kanaganayakam

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Demala Bauddhaya (The Tamil Buddhist) by Sunil Ariyaratne Godage Publishers, 300 pp.,
Rs.500.00
Before 1983, the University of Jaffna had a separate department for Sinhala language and literary studies and several Sinhala lecturers taught there. When the ethnic conflict turned into a decades-long war, the university closed that department and those lecturers returned to their “native' south. For one of them, coming to the South did not mean an easy life: when political violence erupted in the south he was suspected to have links with Southern rebels. Once he was
forced to live in exile in South
India. During this year of exile he learned his Tamil, and started looking for answers to a question that came to his mind in the midst
of political violence both in the "Sinhala-Buddhist South' and the
"Tamil-Hindu North', was there evera Tamil Buddhistin Sri Lanka
or elsewhere? This lecturer is now
a senior professor and a Wellknown lyricist and a film director whom we know as Sunil
Ariyaratne. Demala Bauddhaya or Th e Ta m ii l B u did h is t
encompasses the answer he gradually found for his question. In fact, the book is the latest in a
series of books the author wrote on
Tamil culture, the first of them being Demala Sahitya İtihasaya or The History of Tamil Literature. His latest book, however, is the most resonant at the present momentin Sri Lanka's history.
The book is the only Sinhala language scholarly work in recent times on the Tamil contribution to
Buddhist culture and Buddhism's
contribution to Tamil culture. In
Sri Lanka, the word “Bauddha” (Buddhist) is often used with the
The Tamil
Liyanage A.
adjective “Sinhala” as if to say that one has to be Sinhalese to be
Buddhist and Buddhist to be
Sinhalese. In popular nationalist rhetoric, the people described with those two words are taken to be the
true creators of Buddhist culture in
the island, regardless of the fact that some of the best classical Buddhist literary texts in Sinhala might have been written by authors who were not ethnically Sinhala'. In popular discourse, every admirable aspect of Buddhist culture is attributed exclusively to ethnic Sinhalese as though being Sinhalese is a historical and ethical precondition for being Buddhist. But the history of Buddhist culture is a wonderful story of cultural diversity and cosmopolitanism. For example, arguably the greatest pre-modern commentator on the Pali canon and the "founder' of
the Sri Lankan mode of Theravada
Buddhism, Buddhagosha is believed to be a Tamil Buddhist
monk. Even though his "Tamilness" may not have been as important as it is today, to recall this history is indeed important to us today. The book goes on to show that Some other Tamil monks
such as Buddhadatta and Dharmapala were instrumental in translating Sinhala commentaries on the Buddhist canon into Pali
and writing commentaries on them - two important events that made Theravada texts accessible
to Buddhists living outside of Sri Lanka who knew Pali, which was an "international' language at that time (p. 130). Ariyaratne shows how Buddhism
Similarly,
has enriched Tamil literary culture

Buddhist
marakeerthi
and how an ethnically Tamil person can be a Buddhist writertwo things that We, both Sinhala and Tamil people, tend to forget in Sri Lanka. The author's discussion of Si lappa di karam and M a n i me k a l a i , t w o Tamil, Buddhist classics, is quite revealing and informative for the
contemporary Sinhalese reader.
Demala Bauddhaya is also a book on how Buddhism enriched modern Tamilliterary culture. The cultural discourses in Sri Lanka during the last few decades were such that there were only a few to acknowledge that Tamil people contributed to the growth and Sustenance of Buddhist culture, and there were equally few to accept that Buddhism has shaped Tamil culture. Dem a la Bauddhaya makes an important attempt to create a space for truly me an ing full dialogue on intercultural cross-fertilizations. Ariyaratne cites Vasudeva Rao to show that "if Buddhists did not come to the Tamil county, Tamil classics such as Silappadikaram, Manimekalai, Jivaka Cintamani
and Kundalakeshi would not have
been produced” (p. 53).
Buddhism has enriched not only classical Tamil and Dravidian literary cultures, but it has significantly influenced those literary cultures in modern times as well. Some Buddhist values and
the character of Bodhisattvas and the Buddha have provided 20th century Writers with a reservoir of metaphors and frames of reference to articulate themes
related to modern South India. All
Nethra Review : June 2010
Dravidian states of modern South India have literature with implicit and explicit Buddhist aspects, and Ariyaratne has examples of such literature from the beginning to the end of the 20th century.
Not only were there Buddhists and the practice of Buddhist culture in "Dravidian' areas of India, the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka also incorporated Buddhist culture(s). According to some modern Tamil scholars, Tamil Buddhism in Sri Lanka could be older than Sinhala Buddhism (p. 217-26) - a point that might surprise many Sinhalese people. It did surprise me. But the book's elaboration on the point is hardly enough to understand the point. The author himself seems to be hesitant in stating the point seriously, and avoids engaging with it by merely translating a long excerpt of the paper in question. One unfortunate factor found in these “revisionist” Tamil historians, however, is the fact that their histories are mediated by present day ideologies of Tamil people. A scholar like Peter Schalk, a writer mentioned in relation to these new histories, is in particular known to have failed in maintaining a critical distance from Tamil separatism and violence". Given that failure, they sound like uncritical promoters of the
'On this see, Rogers, John D. "Early British Rule and Social Classification in Lanka". Modern Asian Studies, 38.3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, Hallisey, Charles. "Works and Persons in Sinhala Literary Culture' in Literary Cultures in History. Ed. Shelden Pollock. Berkley: California University Press, 2003.
There are a quite a few English language studies on the subject. Anne Monius' Imagining a Place for Buddhism. Literary Culture and Religious Community in TamilSpeaking South India, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) in my view, being the best among them.
The author is quoting from a paper written by A. Velupillai and Peter Schalk.
The nature of Schalk's scholarly work and their "criticality" can be best seen in his "The Revival of Martyr Cults among Ilavar in Temenos, 33 (1997).

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Nethra Review ; June 2010
political violence of the LTTE. It is a malady found in most Sinhalese writing as well. It is unfortunate that on both sides of
the ethnic divide, popular rhetoric pass as scholarly observations. This book on Tamil Buddhists has
been published at a point in time when both Sinhalese and Tamil people are beginning to engage in some serious self-evaluation. At
least some sections in the
Sinhalese community have already begun critical selfunderstanding.
Demala Bauddhaya is not a product of "original research” in the strict sense of the word; it is an accessible summary of already available research on the subject. The book is markedly weak in evaluating and drawing on recent scholarly publications on Tamil and Buddhist literary cultures, and the author overlooks some
important a cademic work published during the last decade. For example, acclaimed studies such as Anne Monius's Imagining a Place for Buddhism, David Shulman's The Wisdom of Poets: Studies in Tamil, Telugu, and
Sanskrit, and Norman Cutler's "Three Moments in the Genealogy of Tamil Literary Culture" are not mentioned. One
major scholarly weakness, however, is that the author fails to comparatively engage with some classic scholarly works such as The Smile of Murugan. on Tamil Literature in South India - a book
that traces Tamil literary history through several cultural epochs and regions that we now call India and South Asia, and demonstrates the uniqueness of Tamil as a language having both classical and modern literary traditions. Another scholarly weakness is the lack of critical reading and
treatment of local scholars and
their work. For example, a mediocre "archeologist' and "nationalist ideologue” like Devalegama Medananda's work is cited, but serious archeologists such as Siran Deraniyagala and Sudarshan Seneviratne do not
figure in the book at all, even if they represent the most enlightened scholars on the “Sinhala' side of the divide. The
latter's
Indrapala's book An Evolution of
introduction to K.
Felist Interventions in South Asia
S S SSSLS SS S G MC S | Nimanthi "T"
 

an Ethnic Identity should have found its place in Ariyaratne's book.
With all
infelicities, Demala Bauddhaya is
these scholarly
still an admirable and important contribution to cultural history, literary history, and intellectual history - three branches of historical Writing that are not very developed in the Sinhala language scholarly scene. "History" in the Sinhala language, more often than not, is political history written around centers of political power, such as the king and the state. What we can learn from the
histories of ordinary people's cultures and their ways of being in the world are sometimes much
more rewarding than what we learn from the histories of
powerful people. And when such histories are mediated by various "nationalist power proj ects", CWCՈ the insights we can gain from those histories might end up turning into "blindness”- to recall just the title of a Paul de Man's famous book; Blindness and Insight. Perhaps, more for its intent rather than for its scholarly
Constellations Of Violence: Feminist Intervention in South Asia
Edited by Radhika Coomaraswamy & Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham (ICES. 260 pages, 2008) This volume gathers together some reflections on the complex and shifting dynamics of violence and gender in South Asia. The essays raise important concerns in understanding and confronting violence against women, and interrogate accepted truths on development and agency to flesh out nuances previously ignored. This publication was a result of a project initiated by ICES entitled "South Asia Project on Violence against Women: Review of a Decade."
vigor, Demala Bauddhaya is a noteworthy book to be published in the Sri Lankan academic arena.
One hopes that this book will provoke younger scholars to engage in much more serious research on the subject.
"The nature of Schalk's scholarly work and
their "criticality" can be best seen in his "The Revival of Martyr Cults among Ilavar" in Temenos,33 (1997).
Shulman, David. The Wisdom of Poets. Studies in Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001. Shulman is one of the most important scholars on South Asian and Tamil literature. It is sad that he is virtually unknown in the field of Sinhala literary studies.
"Cutler, Norman. "Three Moments in the Genealogy of Tamil Literary Culture" in Literary Cultures in History. Ed. Shelden Pollock. Berkley: California University Press, 2003. This monumental volume, over a thousand pages, includes several essays that are fundamental to understand South Asian literary cultures and all of those essays are examples of quality academic writing, Charles Hallisey's essay on Sinhala literature is one of the best pieces of academic writing on the subject in English in recent times.
"Zvelebil, Kamil, The Smile of Murtugan: on Tamil Literature in South India. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973.
"Indrapala, K. The Evolution of an Ethnic Identity. The Tamils in Sri Lanka. C300 BCE to 1200 CE. Sydney. The South Asian Studies Centre, 2005.

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Arbiters of a National
Imaginary: Essays on Sri Lanka - Festschrift for Professor Ashley Halpé edited by Chelva Kanaganayakam International Centre for Ethnic
Studies (ICES), 211 pp.,
RS. 2OOOO
Arbiters of a National Imaginary edited by C hel V a Kanaganayakam is a longoverdue tribute to Ashley Halpéone of the leading intellectuals and university dons of our times - by leading writers / academics (from the Sri Lankan Diaspora as Well as from within the country). At a professional level, articles by Tissa Jayatilaka, Thiru Kandiah and Carl Muller discuss some of the contributions and innovations made by Professor Halpé to the Department of English at Peradeniya, and the discipline of English as a whole. At a personal level, the festschrift testifies to a number of anecdotes that commend Professor Halpé as a man who did not allow his
intellect to overshadow his humanity; who did not indulge himself with the luxury of an academic ego; and who did not permit himself to be threatened by the intellectual feats of his peers. These cameos of Professor Halpé delineate a man of great selfreflexivity and mindfulness - that reveal tremen dous insight, sensitivity, self-knowledge and discipline.
I approach this collection of essays primarily as a methodologist - despite the questionable implications of that positioning. To develop this perspective, I have taken Thiru Kandiah's essay in the festschrift "And How Can We Know the
Dancer from the Dance? PostColoniality, the Unified
Reima English
Maithree Wic
Sensibility, Self-Reflexivity, and Ashley Halpé, Man Poet and Much Else' that considers (amongst other issues) Prof Halpé's contribution to English praxis, as a launching point to reflect on the disciplinary and discursive evolution of English
Studies in Sri Lanka.
Prof. Kanaganayakam states in his preface to the collection that the essays in the volume were in no way constrained by narrow disciplinary concerns. In fact, the festschrift reflects precisely the disciplinary and discursive evolution of English Studies - in this country and worldwide. This is, first and foremost, through the inclusion of critical textual work on the canonized literary core of Sri Lankan English Studies. Take Ernest Macintyre's and Chandani Lokuge's work on Michael Ondaatje's conceptualisation of a Sri Lankan identity charted through the ontology of violence that has ravaged the country; or Jill MacDonald's consideration of the poet V i v i marie Venderpoorten's powerful use of silence and understatement; or Aparna Halpé's critique of the possibilities and constraints of gender relations in Chandani Lokuge's work.
Secondly, the festschrift parallels, to a large extent, the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary significance of English Studies. Through its
representations, readings and

ngining
Studies
İkramasinghe
constructions of Sri Lanka's national imaginary from a multitude of political, cultural, and historical perspectives, it signifies the multidisciplinary matrix of contemporary English Studies in Sri Lanka. It reflects how the discipline today embraces a range in aesthetic form - from artworks, poems, film, personal prose to critical essays and theoretical pieces. It conveys the scope of the conceptual subject matter of English Studies: from the historic and legendary, to the personal and the political of the the
specificities of Tamil, Muslim and
here and now; from
Sinhala experiences to the imaginaries of nation, identity, and gender relations; from the technicalities of writing skills and translations, to the realities and metaphysics of war, violence, death, displacement. The collection of
loss, eviction and
essays also alludes to multiple ideological, epistemological and theoretical standpoints - from feminist views to postcolonial analysis; from critical theories to Buddhist perspectives; from neoliberal outlooks to postmodern deconstructions that are supported by the discipline. And finally, it incorporates the array of interdisciplinary methodological practices from visual and literary analysis to creative and critical practice to the translational, and the deconstructive that is currently applied in English Studies.
In fact, the festschrift parallels, to
Nethra Review ; June 2010
the multi disciplinary and
a large e X tent,
interdisciplinary significance of Prof. Halpé's own work in academia. Therefore, through its representations, readings and constructions of the national imaginary of Sri Lanka from socio / political / economic / cultural/literary positionings and perspectives, this festschrift signifies the multidisciplinary / interdisciplinary / or even transdisciplinary interweave in contemporary English Studies.
While those of us working in academia have subscribed to or
p er hap s e V e n r o ut in e ly incorporated these disciplinary trends and movements of English Studies into our syllabi, teaching and research, We are only just beginning to explore, conceptualise and theorise on its full potential for the future of the discipline. In this, we need to acknowledge that there has to be a paradigm shift when engaging with English Studies in Sri Lanka today. Such an epistemological shift cannot ignore the different historical origins and impetus for the establishment of the discipline of English in different countries throughout the globe - given the differences not only in departmental histories but also the country histories of English Studies. For instance, the origins and development of the study of English literature are located in diverse impulses; such as the need bonds,
inculcate language skills, provide
to institute cultural
a common cultural reference, professionalize language teaching, and consolidate the colonial enterprise in some countries. The foci of these disciplines have also responded to internal shifts relating to
epistemology and theorizations

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Nethra Review: June 2010
and the external influences of
ground situations.
In Sri Lanka, as academics, teachers and practitioners of English Studies, we have long engaged with the importance of the national politics of post colonial i s m s and globalisations that often lead to paradoxical relationships of love / hate, liberal desire / nationalist rejection, and elitist proficiency / political vilification vis-a-vis English Studies. At the same time, we cannot reject the local expectations for linkages between knowledge in English and employment. On the other hand, we have to engage adequately with the status of English Departments as progenitors of interdisciplinary scholars and research studies within academia
- from women's studies to cultural studies to socio-linguistics to journalism to peace work. What do these issues and developments mean for the discipline in Sri Lanka?
To begin with, there needs to be institutional acknowledgement of these trends and concerns as well as institutional responses to accommodate such disciplinary diversity in future programs. Moreover, we can no longer overlook the implications of the overwhelming majority of women undergraduates reading English (for the discipline as well as for the students themselves). Do we need to reorganize and gender mainstream English curricula keeping such gender imbalances in mind? Nor can we ignore the fact that a degree in English is - for our graduates - a convenient springboard for professional training and employment - spanning from the Foreign Service and corporate
management, to advertising and development, to community work through NGOs - to indicate a spectrum of employment possibilities. These are some of the issues and actualities that we have to engage with in Sri Lankan universities today.
On the other hand, those of us working in the Departments of English also come under constant institutional pressure from within the education system as well as cultural pressure from outside - to address the craving for English language proficiency in the country (irrespective of the functions of the English Language Teaching Units) - not only as probable avenues of breaching class and income barriers and easing upward mobility, but also, quite logically, as a link language to soothe and heal this nation's
ethnic ruptures.
It is thus my argument that the theoretical turn in English Studies that has held sway over the last few decades must also give way to a focus on methodology - to the extents and parameters to which our disciplinary practice should respond to the smouldering demands and substantial challenges of our times. Not so as to discard the wealth of epistemological and literary dimensions symbolised by critical fel m i n is mis, Marx is mis , postcolonialisms, symbolic interactionisms, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, Semiotics, structural i s m s, and deconstructions. Not so as to abandon thinking, theorisation and critique altogether in the sense ofan “either or' logic warned by Thiru Kandiah in the festschrift, but so as to fuse the fundamental needs of the country, with the political, theoretical, ethical and

aesthetics of the discipline, as well as global knowledge currents and fast-paced developments in Information Technology.
A number of writers in this volume have argued for and stressed the political compass and objectives of the practice of English Studies. Perhaps given the national ethos of silent complicity by many to the atrocities of the body and the violations of the mind that have taken place recently (and are still continuing in Sri Lanka); and in the face of the active collusion, gross arrogance and Vulgar mockery by some of those who are part of the so-called democratic organs of governance and enforcement authorities, the institution of justice and the state and today even the private media, the writers of this volume communicate an equally persuasive interest in the ethics of our disciplinary practice.
We canthus be guided by some of the contributors who stress on the political objectives and relevance, ethical aspirations of social justice that
motiv a ti ons and
underlie and inspire English praxis in today's context. Amongst others, I can refer to Prof Halpé's own integration of Tamil and Sinhala literature into the syllabus of the English Department at the University of Peradeniya (referred to by a number of Writers and contextualised from postcolonial and class perspectives) by Kandiah in the festschrift. And to Nuhman's rousing appeal for Tamil / Sinhala & Sinhala / Tamil
translations of literature (despite its technical snags) as a sociopolitical and literary activity designed to sponsor mutual understanding and local harmony amidst moribund ethnic relations. Or, to Dhanapala's visualisation of
a role for the Sri Lankan private sector in the face of lingering inequities of global trade and shifting regional power dynamics in this moment of globalisation - even though he has not taken the crucial intersection of the ethnic
conflict into consideration. Another pertinent example is that of Crusz's reading of Halpé's poem Concerto - based on an aesthetic of not only beauty and appeal to the senses, but also of a duty to justice.
Thus, taking off from this festschrift, as arbiters of a national imaginary specifically for English Studies, we need to adopt a twopronged approach - one, to amalgamate English Studies with the burning needs of the hour and, two, to institutionally acknowledge the epistemological shifts in the discipline. These may include conceptualising BA degrees in English Language in ways that respond to students' hunger for language skills and degrees in English Language Teaching to develop a carder of proficient teachers at all We would
in terms of
educational levels.
need to think professional Translation Methods,
de grees in
Interpreting, Editing, Pedagogy, Journalism, and Research to assist graduates into jobs that have political relevance as well as to ease them into professions that would further the discipline as a whole. There could be other language-centred, applied and socio-linguistic degrees to examine the progression and prevalence of Sri Lankan English, We would als o need to conceptualise more traditional BA degrees in English Literature or Asian Literature as well as more progressive Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary English

Page 7
Studies - thereby formally acknowledging within the curricular, the dynamic role of English Studies in begetting and promoting research relating to culture,
w om en, gender,
communication, ethnicity, politics, peace, development,
disability and media.
Given the manifold possibilities of future English Studies praxis, there is no doubt that the discipline will outgrow its institutional casings as departments. We would
necessarily have to think in terms of English Faculties that would constitute departments of English Literature, English Language, English Linguistics, Professional English, Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary English Studies, English Pedagogy and Policy Studies, Sri Lankan English and so on. Obviously not “Kadu” programs, but as Faculties that
as exclusive, elite,
offer diversified, but inclusive programs of study that are scholarly and cutting-edge,
$GES
publications
KRAR OG AND COVERNANCE NASA
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies
2, Kynsey Terrace, Colombo 8, Sri Lanka
th94-11-2685,085 267974.5 / 2.698048
email; infoices, Ik
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professionalised and needs-based.
In my view, at this juncture, the potential for English Studies is immense - though perhaps not immediately achievable (given the necessity for policy and structural changes first, and the inadequacy of specialised carder for some of the areas delineated). However, in the not-too-distant future, this may change. But only if we have an inclusive and liberal vision, the intellectual courage and the ethical conviction to plan
Nethra Review : June 2010
ahead; and to re-design and restructure the discipline - not only to meet the local on-ground needs of national concord and individual economics, but also in such a way as to engage with global epistemological movements and knowledge possibilities.
HIERDIES UMMUll
fee
AIIARIZING Sri Lanka
Princimiennes, SL DD D S S ........ స్టోన్లు ܓܲ ̄ܗܿ:ܣܛܔ.

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Nethra Review: June 2010
Maudiegirland the von Bloss Kitchen
by Carl Muller Penguin (Indian), 287 pp., RS.299.00
In his scholarly review of The Jam Fruit Tree, Nihal Fernando rightly declares that
the stress on feasting and sexuality may invest Muller's portrait of the Burghers with a trace of a stock perception of this race, but his account of their life includes, too, a darker dimension that saves it from being crudely stereotypical. The fun and conviviality that figure prominently in the lives of Muller's Burghers are balanced by loss, suffering, brutality, and socio-cultural displacement and fracture. (p. 137)
These S entiments Were subsequently echoed by others, especially Charles Sarvan, who claimed that the von Bloss trilogy constituted "a celebration and valediction” (p.527) of the Burghers in Sri Lanka. Maudiegirl and the von Bloss Kitchen, Carl Muller's latest novel, which is preoccupied with merciless assaults, sex in its many manifestations (including paedophilia, exhibitionism and incest), feasting to the point of gluttony, the tendency to laugh at "Ceylonisms,” and the dispersal of the von Blosses to various parts at the end is very much in this mould; where it differs, however, is the inclusion of introspective moments, more tender exchanges between individuals, the realization that less fortunate members of society need to be cared for, and the
that
characters could be redeemed. It
insistence “de viant”
would appear that sixteen years after publishing his first novel, during which time he had added to the von Bloss lore in three other
books, Muller has discovered
The R the VOn
Walter
ameliorating facets about his ancestors and Burghers in general that allow him to set down a more
balanced account.
If the jam fruit tree was the controlling metaphor in Muller's first novel, it is the family kitchen that serves this function in Maudiegirl. Although individual stories are situated elsewhere, this eccentric, multifaceted, Burgher family regularly returns to Maudiegirl's domain to partake of her healthy fare, discuss familial issues, and decide on courses of action. A fussy reader may object to the many recipes that are brought in but they are consonant with the "hybrid narrative structure” (p.134) that Fernando identifies as a technique in Muller's fiction; the recipes are often linked to the stories, and never interfere with, or distract one from, the narrative
proper.
The spirit of the kitchen is not confined to the von Blosses. In a
novel that is much more inclusive than its predecessors, Maudiegirl encourages the family to interact with others, especially the marginalized. The chapter entitled 'Eels Galore' in Which all the women in the lane pack themselves into the kitchen to learn the intricacies of cooking eels from Maudiegirl shows Muller at his best. Vasuki Walker has identified
Such a characteristic in The Jam Fruit Tree as well (p.96), but there the kitchen was mostly the preserve of Maudiegirl and her family whereas in this novel it is often open to outsiders. Equally significant is the manner in which

turn of Blosses
Peγeγα
the family helps Mrs Neydorf to save her children from starvation and disease in "The Ladies of Charity and Elsie's Engagement". In the course of this story, Muller also contrasts the genuine altruism of the von Blosses with what he
considers the ego-boosting projects undertaken by church societies.
If Muller brought in degenerates and oddballs for their comic
potential alone in his previous fiction, here he demonstrates the
need to understand such individuals and to provide them with a path for While Dunnyboy's exhibitionism is still meant to be
redemption.
comic, readers are made aware that such actions are the consequences of retardation. Father Romeil
informs the despairing Maudiegirl who turns to him for advice in "The
Making of Dunnyboy and the Roast Lamb' after he had been caught fondling his sisters, that “he is driven by the sexual demands that his body makes on him, but, like a child, he is also afraid of his feelings. He does not molest or cause pain. He wants to show himself to others and that, too, to children of his age. Yes, his age, because that is the age he is imprisoned in” (p.54). Such insightful passages were rare in Muller's previous novels. What the priest does is to provide Dunnyboy with distractions (to polish church candlesticks) so that he would leave others alone. The portrayal of the urbane, worldly-wise Mr Quyn, who lives as a recluse so that he
could sodomize young boys, is another example of authorial tact and understanding. This perverthas committed enough offences to be
imprisoned, but Muller, while scrupulously detailing Quyn's Vulgarity, focuses as well on his many acts of kindness, his ability to teach the "lane” people about the World outside, and crucially, his renouncing such ways for a normal life at the end which includes taking in an impecunious widow and her children.
these gestures by themselves do not
One could argue that
absolve Quyn of the heinous sins he had committed before; given that in previous novels characters rarely changed in the course of the narrative. However, even partial atonement is encouraging. Furthermore, the text suggests that restitution was made possible because of his interaction with
Maudiegirlandthe von Blosses.
The other method of dealing with Suchaberrant behaviour, which is to employ corporal punishment, does not meet with Muller's approval, especially vis-a-vis young children. In "A Kitchen Clean-Up and Quyn's Teals for Dinner," in fact, he appeals for a sense of proportion in chastisement by citing an incident that reads like a medieval exemplum. The young Leonard who had been asked to look after his baby brother tries to stimulate the tot sexually. Discovered by his mother, he is locked up in the bathroom and left to the
*ministrations” of his father who, instead of advising Leonard on the errors of his ways, flays him thus:
Mr Duckworth dragged Leonard out of the lavatory. The boy dripped urine, convulsed in terror. The first blow With the
brass-studded belt slashed across
his face and his World blackened. Duckworth sliced at him again and again and, in his fury, did not see the blood that marked his
son's shirt, did not even realize that he was dragging an unconscious boy to the edge of the canal. There, with a huge oath, he flung the boy into the

Page 9
water, then strode home. "Lesson he got never to forget'
he snarled (p. 187).
The boy never internalized this so called lesson because he drowns in
the river, but Mr Duckworth presumably spends a long time learning his own "lesson' in jail for committing manslaughter. In the Jam Fruit Tree, when Sonnaboy rapes his wife Beryl soon after she returns from hospital after ridding herself of a foetus that she had
conceived during an illicit affair, violence seemed gratuitous (p.2078); here it is often used for more complex reasons as the above example establishes.
Muller has certainly not lost his ability to narrate wonderful yarns, or his inimitable sense of humour
(though the latter may still not be to everyone's taste). His claim that Sri Lankan eating houses that are pretentiously named "hotels' and offer “BISSTAKE, FISSTAKE .
CHINIZ ROLLS and SHOW
TITS” (p.65) is one illustration. The author's almost Dickensian ability to capture the oddities and foibles in humanity also remains undiminished although allied with it are some questionable traits. Consider the following description of the people in Colombo during the last stages of British rule which is reproduced at length since the effect is cumulative:
. . . and lo! there in the Pettah and
Wolfendaal and Bloemendaal
and Maradana, indeed all over Colombo and its environs, there sallied the comedians of the Empire. The standing, sitting and walking jokes: Tussore or garbardine suit, white shirt buttoned up to the Adam's apple, luridhandkerchief in the left coat
pocket, carefully folded and
draped Indian sarong held up by
a tie firmly knotted above the navel, a Clod-hopping pair of Mabel Stores paratrooper's and a big umbrella or mahogany walking stick.
Of course, the more monied the yokel the better. Such types did not resort to ties to hold up their sarongs but wore broad black many-pocketed belts that were all the rage. Each pocket had its silver stud and in each was money, toothpicks, a wad of betel leaf, even a small earspoon, loose change, whatever else was necessary. He would then walk the street with a measured stride, part Rabelais, part Winston Churchill and another part a la Mariyakadé, and the dogs would bark and the ayah's hearts would beat faster. Of course, the
handkerchiefs were never used
(p.38).
Some of these dress codes postdated Independence and those old enough to remember will acknowledge that Muller's account is diverting, accurate and evocative. However, the downside of any kind of satire is the patronizing tone or contempt that attends it and the worth of the satire is dependent on the values against which the aberrations are judged. These are decidedly the narrator's views and not those of the obtuse Viva (whose journey through the city, it is, that makes the "revelations' possible). The word "yokel" says it all. While the descriptions capture perceived eccentricities, pretensions and "ignorance' in dress and carriage among locals during colonial rule, the possibility that they were part of a fashion is not referred to
("abnormalities' could be identified in trendy clothes in the modern day, too, Surely depending on the taste of the beholder). More damaging is the author's superior

than-thou stance which is no
different from those of travel
Writers during Empire. The respectable, educated, discerning Burgher observer's views are structured as given truth, and the bumpkins and the nouveau riche "others' are not given a voice but merely ridiculed. In this context, a web reviewer's chance remark
"they Burghers felt superior to the natives but were, in the final analysis, on the margins of society' (Sharma) is significant indeed. Such a perspective ever-so-slightly compromises the text and takes away from the telling, pertinent critiques made elsewhere.
The new trend to bring in moments of reflection though salutary on the whole does sometimes result intrite
philosophising; take, for instance, the authorial ruminations on the
extent to which being sexually abused as a child would affect one
as an adult (134-35) and the chapter "Dinner for the Old Catand Getting Jamis's Goat' which painstakingly describes the manner in which a goat is slaughtered and cut into joints. The latteris as superfluous as is the sequence onboning a chicken in Romesh Guinesekere's Reef which this reviewer has identified
in a previous essay (Perera 68-69). Still, to judge the novel on such supererogatory sequences and the other deficiencies noted above, rather than to consider it as a whole, is futile and self defeating. More to the point is to reiterate that Muller has expanded his horizons in his latest work of "faction' even though some infelicities remain.
One does not need to focus too much on the elegiac final chapter in
which the
Burgher world collapses after the demise of the matriarch of the
"live and let live'
family to realize that Maudiegirl on the whole projects a kinder, gentler
Nethra Review ; June 2010
tone than Muller's previous novels. Here, even the brutish Sonnaboy carries out occasional deeds of
grace, and the lazy Cecil prins who relished being waited on by his wife urges her with some tenderness to reston occasion because he realizes
that by taking on too many duties, Maudiegirl has jeopardised her health. By adding philosophical reflection, remedial action and the possibility of redemption to the other components that fashioned his novels, Muller has generally countered those critics who accuse him of confirming the stereotypical image of the Burghers and has largely succeeded. One wonders whether Maudiegirl is Muller's last testament to the von Blossfamily.
Works Cited
Fernando, Nihal. “Representing the Burghers”. The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XX
1&2 (1994): 133-40.
Perera, Walter. “Images of Sri Lanka through Expatriate Eyes'. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 30.1 (1995): 63–78.
Sarvan, Charles. "Carl Muller's
Trilogy and the Burghers of Sri
Lanka'. World Literature Today 71.3 (1997): 527–32.
Sharma, Ardhika. "Tribute to Grandmother'. The Sunday Tribune. Spectrum. 19 April 2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2009.

Muller, Carl. The Jam Fruit Tree. New Delhi: Penguin, 1993.
Walker, Vasuki. “The Image of the Burghers in Carl Muller's Trilogy: Fact, Fiction or Faction". Navasilu 15&16(1998):90-103

Page 10
Nethra Review : June 2010
A New Binding Rhyme
In the garden of my memory there is no fence.
A field of flowers bloom there--
to be touched
to be seen.
A perfumed breeze blows away even forgetfulness.
Between memory and forgetfulness there is no fence.
The colors
SCentS
light of the flowers in my memory-garden seep into a word
clot into a poem.
There is no fence
between memory and forgetfulness,
The Wonder is not that
but that between memory and the
poem
a fence has appeared.
Reader, you are at that fence. You are the brilliantlight that illuminates my rhyme.
අලුත් එලිවLට
මගේ මතකය නැමැති
උයනේ වැටක් නැත
අතට අහුවෙන පෙනෙන දෑසට පිපෙන මල් යායකි. එහි
සුවඳ මඳනල එන අමතකය වෙතටත්
මතකය අමතකය අතරද වැටක් නැත
මතක උයනේ මල්වල
రి 3063
සුවඳ
ආලෝකය
වචනය වෙත උරාගෙන කවියක කැටි ගැසෙයි
එනමුදු මතක අමතක අතරේ වැටක් නැත
විස්මය එය නොවෙයි
මතකය හා කවිය මැද වැටක් වැටිලා ඇත රසික ඔබ ඒ වැට ලග
ඔබය මා කවියෙහි
ප්‍රභාමත් එලි වැටl
Three
Liyanage A. (from ekamate,
Translated by Ran
Hands clasped over books
To turn page after page pickup book after book a hand
created just to hold a book,
Fair, slender, long, fingers.
Can they display a reader's mind?
Soft
finger-tips
that can turn a flower-petal printed page without hurting it?
Our hands halt close to each other on a book. A fresh morning-scent wafts. Can it inspire a poem like the scent of its reader?
Our hands stop
eyes meet. Our love of books, I feelsuch a blessing
These are surely the eyes of a book-lover that have read the best works - not just a young girl swayed by a song.
She showed me, withdrawn from the warmth of her lap
her favourite books. I showed her
my favourites that still leave me breathless.
Our hands halted. Four eyes met. A heart's poem danced. We clutched two copies each of our favourite books -- well-matched as if holding hands.
One lovely evening in a festival month when the book-shop was a field

Poems
narakeerthi ka pitarataka )
jini Obeyesekere
of readers our hands met again, eyes fell on a single, desired, book.
I said that day what I had long been preparing to Say.
"Will you be unhappy if you and I both bought just one book?"
Dumb struck her eyes dropped. All the poems my heart had memorized turned to dead empty lines. But that hand lifted, bracelets played Violin Sonatas, that book we both had held moved in my direction.
“Then you read it and give it to me too.”
That sweet shy half-line was a powerful haiku poem. A song sung by a maestro on a quiet morning. Ajasmine scent wafted on an accidental Wind.
Now in our home there is a special corner for our books. When she lights at evening the lamp for the Buddha it relights in our hearts the day we first met over books. On a special shelf are some books two copies of each.
On certain days when there is conflict in the home and the mind is troubled, we pick up off that shelf each our own copy, read it alone in our separate space.
Her books
and my books have a sweetness beyond our books. Ajasmine fragrance wafted on an accidental wind, a song Sung by a maestro on a Smiling morning.
When secretly I kiss those pages I relive that day my poem was born.
But one day
when I saw her by that book shelf take a book in both hands and kiss it, an arrow cut through my heart.
But dear one, It was a poem-producing pain suffering with a meaning.

Page 11
අතිනත් ගත් පොත්
පතින් පත පෙරලා පොතින් පොත අර ගන්න පොතක් අල්ලන්නටම මැවුනා වැනි
අතකි
පැහැපත
33.5 දිග ඇගිලිය
පිලිබිඹු විය හැකිද
රසික මන
සුමුදු අතහැගිලි
තුඩු මත මල් පෙතිවලින් මුද්‍රිත පොතද නොරිදා පෙරලිය හැකි
අපේ අත් පොත් මත
එක ලග නතර වූයේය අහා මේ මනරම් හිමිදිරි උදය සුවඳකි මතු වන්නට හැකිද කවියක රස රසිකාවියක සුවඳ ලෙස?
අපේ අත් නැවතින අපේ ඇස් එක් විය පොතපතට කල ඇල්මෙන පින් කල බව දැනින
මේ නම් රසික දෑසකි හොඳම කවි කියවා ඇති සිංදු පද උඩ පාවෙන නංගියෙකුට වැඩිය
මට පෙන්නුවා ඈ උකුල උනුහුම රැඳී ඇගේ කැමතිම පොත් ඇට පෙන්නුවා මම තාමත් හද ගැස්ම රැන්දුන මගේ කැමතිම පොත්
අපේ අත් නැවතින සිව් ඇස මුන ගැසින හද කවි නටන්නට විය අප දෙදෙනාගෙ හදගත් පොත් දෙක දෙක බැගිනි
මනාවට ගැලපෙන ගත් මෙනිය අතිනත් අපේ හිත්ගත් පොත්
එක සාහිත්‍ය මාසෙක
මනහර සැඳවකි
පොත්සල රසික යායකි එකම ඉරනම් කවි පොතක් මත අපේ අත් මුන ගැසින අපේ ඇස් එක් විය
මා එදින කිව්වේ කලක් මා සිත ගෙතු කියුමකි: "අකමැතිද අපි දෙන්නම පොතකින් එකක් විතරක් ගන්න?"
ඇගේ මුව ගොලු විය ඇස් බිමට යොමු විය මා හද මතක කවි හුදු වාර්තා බවට පෙරලින එහෙත් ඒ අත එසවින වලලු වීනා ගෑවෙය දෙදෙනාම අත තැබූ පොත මෙවත දිගු වින
"එහෙනo
ඔයා කියවල මටත් දෙන්න"
ඒ මිහිරි ලජ්ජා මදහස මහරුම හයිකු කවියකි සාමකාමී උදයක විහගෙකු ගැයූ ගීයකි සුලඟක අහම්බෙන් ආ සමන් මල් සුවඳකි
තිබෙයි අපෙ ගෙදර දැන් පොත්වලට වෙන් වූ කුටියක් දල්වන ඈ සැදෑකල බුදු සාදුටද පහනක් තිබෙයි අප හද මැදුරුවල ඒ පොත් මුන ගැසුන දවසක් වෙනමම රාක්කෙක
තිබෙයි පොත් වගයක් එකින් දෙක දෙක පිටපත්
ගෙදර කරදර ඇති හිතේ පීඩා ඇති සමහර දවස්වල ඒ රාක්කේ පොත්
වෙන වෙනම ගෙන කියවමු
තනි තනිව නිහඩව
අපිට වෙන් වූ තැන්වල
ඇගේ පොත්වල සහ මගේ පොත්වල අපේ පොත්වල නැති මිහිරකි සුලගක අහම්බෙන් ආ සමන් මල් සුවඳකි සිනාවක් වැනි උදයක විහගෙකු ගැයූ ගීයකි

මා සොඳුරට හොරෙන් ඒ පිටු සිඹින කල විඳින්නේ කවි උපන් දවසකි එහෙත් එක දවසක ඒ පොත් රාක්කය අස පොතක් දෝතින් ගෙන ඈ සිඹින බව දැක මා හද කපා ගිය හීයකි
එහෙත් සුහදිනි. එය කවියක් කරන රිදුමකි අරුතක් සහිත විඳුමකි
ИИhy This?
I understood the river was deeply hurt since the day we gave our vote to that murderer.
Ijust sensed the earth was angry ever since we gave our vote to that miserable miser who broke up and sold off the land, bit by bit.
I instinctively knew that the land felt abandoned ever since We gave our vote to that greedy fraud who land-filled and sold fields ripening with golden
grain.
I heard on the wind that the leaves and trees were heart-broken since the day We gave our vote to that ravager of forests.
But O my mother earth, I do not understand why you got mad and swallowed up
our Small hut.
During that big election, we voted as we did
terrified our boy would be abducted, our girl have done to her such things that a father can't bring himself to Say.
Why then, O mother earth, while I was at work, did you tear off the hillside rain down tears
and with a deadly roar snatch my two children
Nethra Review ; June 2010
--my two eyesAnd leave me my eyes to see that?
They were so young and did not even have a vote.
ඇයි මේ?
මට තේරුනා ගගේ හිත රිදිල කියලා අර මිනී මරුවට අපි චන්දෙ දුන් දා ඉඳලා
මට නිකට හිතුනයා පොලොව අමනාපයි කියලා ඉඩං ටික කඩ කඩා විකුනපු අර ධන ලෝබයට අපි චන්දෙ දුන් දා ඉඳලා
මට ඉවෙන් දැනුනා වෙල් යාය ඇයි හොඳයි අත් ඇරල කියලා සාරෙට පැහෙන කුඹුරුත් ගොඩ කරල විකුනපු අර තන්හා කාරයට අපි චන්දෙ දුන් දා ඉඳලා
මට හුලගොනුත් හැගුනා ගහ කොලෙත් හිත බිඳිල කියලා අර කැලෑ පාලුවට අපි චන්දෙ දුන් දා ඉඳලා
ඒත් මගෙ මහ පොලෝ අම්මේ
මට නොතේරෙයි
අපේ පැල්පත ගිලගෙන ඔබ පරල උනෙ ඇයි කියලා
ඒ මහ චන්ද කාලේ අපි අරෙම කෙරුවේ කොල්ල උස්සන් යයි කියලා පියෙකුට කියන්නට බැරි දේවල් කෙල්ලටත් වෙයි කියලා
ඇයි මහපොලෝ අම්මේ මං වැඩට ගිය වේලේ කඳුවොට කඩා ගෙන, කඳුලුත්
හෙලාගෙන
මර හඬ තියාගෙන ඔබ කඩා
පැන්නේ මගෙ දෙදරු ඇස් දෙක ඇයි ඔබ උදුර ගත්තේ මේවා බලන්නට මගෙ ඇස් ඉතුරු කෙරුවේ
අනේ උන් දෙන්නට චන්දෙවත් නෑ තිබුනේ

Page 12
Nethra Review: June 2010
The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States and the Quest for a Global Nation
by Strobe Talbott
Simon and Schuster, 478 pp., S12.24
Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom
by David Harvey
Columbia University Press, 352 pp., S22.00
Global governance is a term that has acquired a recent, if overexposed, cachet. This is largely owed to the urgent response demanded of World leaders to the planet's economic crisis, which manifested itself first most prominently in the territory of the United States. An entire
world wide industry in the banking sector, it turns out, was
the
environment of most nation
beyond regulato ry
states. Talking about globalization in 2008 and 2009 has really meant the need to build an economic governance regime to avoid the kind of fall out that affected large financial institutions and
individuals. However painful and widespread the financial crisis
was, this is only apartial account.
Another side of the story is how globalization has affected the state regulatory capacity in protecting rights beyond economic ones. For some thinkers, the global reordering entails a reassertion, even if in a different form, of the state. For others globalization has produced weaker states and alternatives to state sovereignty and power. Either way, such new arrangements call for a new moral horizon as a key element in governance. Such thinking has been on the research agenda of critical social theory for the last two decades. The analysis of what that moral horizon might be has
It's About
Or TWO V Global G
Kako
been less well attended.
David Harvey in his latest book Cosmopolitanism and the New Geographies of Freedom offers an account of the problems in that moral horizon that is substantiated
with great detail. He unpacks how for mu la ti on s o f g l o b al governance are rooted in universalism which creates norms
of particular values. Harvey expounds a critique of Kant, current among globalization theorists because of his
O f cosmopolitanism as a way of
un d e r s t and in g
living peaceably With one's neighbours. As an economic geographer, Harvey has a specific if unsurprising agenda. "No one the
implication of Kant's assumption about the geographical structure for the cosmopolitanism he derives” (p. 18). Harvey notes that
has cared to explore
cosmopolitanism has several different trajectories, some which reinforce rather than liberate problems that aspects of The
r e la tio n ship o f l ib e ra 1
globalization cause.
cosmopolitanism to universalist ideologies is what is explored in the chapter on Thomas Friedman's articulation of the world having become flat under globalization. Harvey quotes from Friedman's text on the nature of the planet today as Friedman stands on a golf

t the State, is it? "iews of
OVer 2 Ce
li Ray
course (a sport that senior executives at multi nationals
pursue as a way of doing business) in Bangalore, flanked by glass office complexes belonging to IBM, Microsoft, etc. The equation of finding corporate space in India or key symbols of advanced capitalism there leads Friedman to his famous conclusion. What
Friedman describes as a flatness
of the world, Harvey takes as exemplary of the moral, political and economic erasure of the local
that economic globalization can force.
Harvey anchors his examination
of the interpretations of
u n i v e r s a l i s m and
cosmopolitanisms on questions of
place and space. He interrogates and outlines for us, as many of his
fellow theorists do, the creation of
national spaces and their relationships to territory. He takes the idea of the national as a
naturalized space a step further than most, asserting that territory becomes a device for "simplifying and clarifying something else other than territory, political authority and cultural identity, individual autonomy or rights".
More pragmatically and less cerebrally, Strobe Talbot in The Great Experiment also traces the history of the nation state and he K a n t" S
to O, e v o ke s
O
cosmopolitanism as a way of resolving some of the tensions produced by globalization, inequality and human rights. One reading of The Great Experiment is that it is a record of Talbot's
personal world view. Another is that his text speaks to global governance in the language of foreign policy and statesmanship (outside of the perimeters of the economic crisis) as another way of getting at the question of moral landscapes that the present conditions of globalization can encourage. Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Wilson, Churchill, Kant are given equal due in his historiography of biographies. History for him is also about belief systems and religion. Less direct attention is put on power. Written in a lively, journalistic tempo that keeps readers engaged, Talbot moves from one historical period to another with a speed reflective of an internationalist of the old order.
To give him credit, Talbot is able to move beyond the march of Western history (to which much of the book is devoted) to a genuine concern with how cooperation will work in this new World.
Harvey is a leading economic geographer, author of The Post Modern Condition, and his connection with urban space reflects a long substantive work on how globalization operates. In contrast, but important for engaging with the yet uncharted questions of global governance, is Talbot who as an American
diplomat and journalist holds views that reflect much of the
current action in global policy on governance. In social theory, it is not usual to juxtapose these two types of writers, but I think that other observers of globalization will agree that the world as it
should be is as critical to

Page 13
understand as the world as it is.
Harvey's text is carefully designed and the logic of the work structured in such a way that it is useful to summarize parts of it here. His is a reasonably involved argument in which he introduces
Kant's cosmopolitanism and geography.
contribution til O
He then proceeds to discuss the post colonial critique of liberal cosmopolitanism. Specifically he elicits key thinkers on post colonialism to delineate how the liberal cosmopolitan World view is deeply embedded in the univer sa list notion that deracinates and in important ways de-localizes geography and experience.
Next, Harvey evokes how
neoliberal “flatness” erases geography and anthropology, in contrast to Talbott's formulation of the "global nation' state - a , nation state that is flexible and Willing to participate in various multilateral Without perhaps fully delving into
subaltern studies, Harvey calls for
arrangements.
a subaltern cosmopolitanism that is necessary to capture the local, and as having an appropriate world view. What is important is Harvey's analysis of the implications of the construction of the nation-state. In chapter 8, "by assuming that there is nothing ambiguous and insecure about the territoriality of the state, of sovereignty and of private property, a fictitious world was created that was supposedly unmoveable by say the complex spatial dynamics of commodity, money and people exchanges, capital accumulation in relative space-time... The fixed, imagined world becomes the basis for political decision making" (p. 173). For Talbot, models for global governance have taken
Various forms, from religious domination to empires to the final "raw thinking” on the United Nations. The demands of climate change, finance and terrorism for Talbot require increased international cooperation but not necessarily abolishing the nation
State.
"Geographical theory' is Harvey's push against the erasure of the local and accounting for space and place, within a theory of cosmopolitanism. In the end, while both texts raise important questions, they do not quite satisfy the reader in providing a robust theory on how the local is produced within the global. Certain categories necessary for unpacking and getting at that vital problemareraised but the analysis is not adequate.
Both Talbot and Harvey invoke 9/11 as the particular beginning marker in redefining what global governance is. Harvey contrasts George W. Bush's rhetoric to that of Tony Blair's, nominating the latter leader's as having been more ( b ut "cosmopolitan". Talbot complains
I O perfectly)
of George W. Bush's unilateralism which he sees as the greatest Weakness in American foreign policy of that time. Talbot hints that such unilateralism caused the U.S. to lose its political and to Some extent, moral stature, and much of the liberal establishment in the United States would likely
agree.
Cosmopolitan, as Harvey calls it, the idea that we owe loyalty only to humanity as a whole, and not to any particular faction of it defined in terms of nation, race, ethnicity or religion, sits uneasily with the obvious fact of enormous geographical differences in
wealth, culture, technological and

human endowments and human aspirations. Universal ideals of liberty and freedom, for example, are frequently appealed to as a way to legitimize strategies of political-economic and military domination of other peoples. How, then, can we meaningfully talk of universal ethical, moral and cultural principles and meanings in a world where the neoliberal production of space plays such a key role at the urban as well as at the global scale? Harvey's position is to advance the need to incorporate geographical theory into an understanding of cosmopolitanism. Place, space and how the local is produced need to be seriously investigated.
The local is very present in Sri Lanka. No one looks for the state
or confuses the state with the priorities of multilateral institutions. Practically, it is hard to be convinced of the challenges to place formation and the local relating to a sub altern cosmopolitanism that itself is not potentially oppressive. The Sinhala Buddhist nationalist identity reflects a hyper locality that has within its decisive power the potential to squash other identities. To ask the question of Harvey's sub altern cosmopolitanism, how can one be Tamil and Hindu in Sri Lanka?
There are so far various state based propositions. What are the alternative assemblages (Sassen
2006) that can be asserted?
Moreover, the unfolding social realities that technology, transport and global flows have induced in Sri researched. One key arena that has
Lanka have been under
been overlooked has been an analysis of the proliferation of human rights advocacy in Sri Lanka and across Asia. This is a
process deeply embedded in
Nethra Review - June 2010
globalization. Harvey takes this up in the early pages of his text. He asserts that the growth of human rights movements, citing Seyla B en h ab i b for
demonstrates the contradiction
in Stance,
between the universality of human rights theories and their application in specific cultural (read Harvey, and geographical) situations. There is agreement that
globalization has played an
among concerned theorists
enabling role in human rights advocacy by providing voice and venue (in electronic space to begin with) to groups who otherwise would not have been able to create communities. The exponential growth of advocacy based human rights organizations - resulting in a horizontal community - is a partial reflection of this phenomenon. The growth is not without controversy. On the one hand, the highly problematic promotion of what are viewed as Western in the guise of universal human rights allows for the deeply nuanced application of human rights. Many in Sri Lanka agree with the government's position on this; the fact that human rights organizations in Sri Lanka received substantial funding from sources outside the country merely reinforces this position. On the other hand, certain aspects of human rights are Sorely testedtorture, disappearance, minority rights, tolerance, women's rights, child rights, freedom of movement. This creates a litany of issues that have become the focus of public and international debate in Sri Lanka but remain
unresolved.
There is no disagreement with Harvey's analysis of the flat, universalist project of neoliberal cosmopolitanism. The trouble is to deal rigorously with the real, existing flatness that globalization

Page 14
Nethra Review ; June 2010
produces. Among these is electronic space which permits an equal, unqualified voice to bloggers (another horizontal community) whose views can acquire political power. These can produce deeply local counter hegemonies that may not reflect subaltern cosmopolitanism.
In a much more old fashioned and
perhaps real politik way, Talbott frames the problem of global governance as one of international co operation and public diplomacy. Talbott notes that the term multilateralism was often
substituted for global governance by professionals in the American foreign service. Moreover, in actionable terms, "when the nations of the world take joint
action, they are in both sense of the
v erb, practicing global governance” (p. 4).
Talbott's has a macro view and is probably happily guilty of supporting a liberal modernist View that reflects the hegemonies of universalism that Harvey so deeply critiques. "The idea of being a citizen of the works is still controversial', Talbott declared in a recent interview (April 2009) on his book. At the same time, he had forseen in 1992 that nationhood
as it was known would be
completely different a hundred years forward. As a diplomat and an experienced practitioner of world affairs, his view is important because he reflects world governance as it is. Talbott's global nation does not abolish the
nation-state, but at the same time,
Who am I? How many times - The Moon in the Water
“I seem to remember that we
seemed better here than
It is now establishe
love is pure ~ Wedding
"The rai
"The el OCuti On Clai
there was at fourt
'Sopi akka is a huge Woman ~ Paduma meets the Sunbird
Bringing you the
1.
 
 

ce des some a spects of so vere i gnty. Talb ott's international cooperation paradigm in reality may be more complicated than the prescription suggests. The diffusion of terrorist movements is one example - We (the liberal universalist We) cannot identify the enemy in the traditional way. The different nonstate allegiances that have emerged through electronic space as earlier noted, through private corporate law across borders, through migration, and communication technologies are not addressed in Talbot's rendition
of the global nation.
However, his proposition that global challenges will have to be met with through diplomacy
within the construct of a global
nation do reflect existing mechanisms. Beyond current international policy problems lies a myriad of complex challenges that a global nation construct, if it comes into being, may not be able to handle. The moral horizon that Harvey hopes foris elusive still.
Works Cited
Talbott, Strobe. The Great Experiment. The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States and the Ouest for a Global Nation. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.
Harvey, David. Cosmopolitanism and the Geographies of Freedom. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2009.
do I ask that question?"
came out of a World of Chaos.
It
where we came from so we stayed."
--Mythill's Secret
ad that the madness of ely biology. "
Night
in had different voices . . . "
ܝܐ s tirne܂ 7_Chr ܫܐ
SS boy was all een. ''
~Learning to Flywith a mouth to match her size."
best of Sri Lankan English Writing
Perera Hussein Publishing House books.com e-mail: phi-books Gosltnet. lik
Pn

Page 15
As they descended slowly and carefully down finely cut, but steep stone steps of the hill, they were silent. He led the way with his wife two steps behind him in the customary fashion. When they were half way down the hill he stopped and spoke loudly and clearly knowing that no one in the house they had just left could hear
him now.
"I am telling you straight I am not drawn to my new son-in-law up there. I don't know how other
people feel but for me he does not seem right for our daughter".
Wanting to test his wife's reactions without referring to her directly he called her "other'people.
"She waited for thirty years as your daughter hoping you would find the right man for her. Are you still reluctant to lether go?"
He was angered by her reply. “Did I not try for thirty years with the marriage broker bringing proposals to our doorstep? Did I not match horoscopes, social status, background and religion? Why would I have done all that if I had not wanted to give my daughter to the right one? No, she was stubborn and wanted to make
her own choice'.
"She is a school teacher', his wife reminded him, "unlike us, she is an educated Woman knowing her own mind. That is why she chose a lecturer in a University whom she could respect and look up to. He is a lecturer in something called philosophy which must mean that they understand each other well'.
“Must a man and woman be
educated to understand each
other's needs? There is something strange about him. Something which makes others silent in his
House O)
Punyakant
presence. Silent and uneasy. Even my daughter is silent in his presence'.
They continued to climb down slowly. "He does not smile, that man. He did not come forward to greet us as his wife's parents when we walked into that house. What was the purpose of us climbing this high hill if he did not come forward to welcome us with betel
in his hand? And he answers only when I speak to him. Why did he offer us tea when his other guests were drinking wine, whiskey and soda like foreigners? Did he think we were not used to such things? Why did our daughter marry HIM? He does not fit in with our
way of life".
"Maybe our daughter fits into his way of life. Maybe that is why she is a little distant with us. She does not want to upset their relationship".
"MY daughter still smiles with me, respects me as her father. Maybe she resents his attitude towards us. That is why she keeps her distance from you'.
"Perhaps he finds it difficult to communicate with us". They had reached the last step on the hill. Now it remained only to step onto the common road. They did this and looked up the hill shading their eyes against the glow of the setting Sun.
"Compare their house with those others on the hill. It is just another house on the hill. He is just

n the Hill
e Wijenaike
another man like all those other
men gathered for the homecoming reception. They are all rich with polished floors and wooden stairways and curtains at their windows. But only he closes his windows after the guests have left. Why did she chose HIM to marry, he who acts like a closed
book?'
His wife obediently took her place a few steps behind, shifting the weight of the parcel her Daughter had given heronto her left hip.
"And why did you accept the leftovers of the home-coming? We don't need their food when we
have ours at home'.
His wife remained silent as she
walked behind him to the bus
stop.
"When I asked to look at the
Wedding photographs do you know what he said to me? He said they have been sent abroad to be developed because if they are developed here they won't come outso well'.
Again his wife remained silent.
"And do you know what I said in reply to that? I said, "Well then when you expect your first child she will have to go abroad for the delivery if you want your child to behealthy!”.
They climbed into the bus at last. They had a long way to go to their village. She noted that when he climbed the bus, he had been
Nethra Review: June 2010
unsteady on his feet. Apparently, he had not been happy with drinking just a cup of tea. He must have taken a strong drink without her knowledge.
She kept looking out of the bus Window at the passing scene. Soon it had left the city limits and arrived at the country. The basket of food her daughter had presented her lay heavy on her lap. She kept a tight hold on it as the bus swerved round the hill.
“Why don't you throw that basket of their leftover food out of the
window?' he asked
contemptuously.
"Our daughter gave us this food so that I won't have to cooktonight. I am very tired', she added.
"I tell you again, I am not drawn to that fellow”, he repeated.
"If our daughter is happy with him that is all we need. What matters is her happiness, not ours", she said.
"How can she be happy when he looks down on her parents?” "She will change his ways', she assured him. "Remember their
horoscopes matched".
"In that case, there is a chance that SHE will change, not him. She too may begin to look down on us. From the top of the hill what else can she do but look down?”
When the bus came to their village, they got down and began walking down a narrow earth road to their small house. The Sun had
set and it was dark. He fumbled with the key until the door creaked open. She went blindly into the dark until he found the switch, and a low watt bulb showed her the

Page 16
Nethra Review: June 2010
bare small wooden table in the
centre of the room. Thankfully she placed the heavy basket on it. Now she need not cook for the night.
He sat down stubbornly at the table. “I am not eating their left
יין
over food
"I am not cooking tonight', she said, as stubbornly.
He got up and raised a hand to deal her a blow. He knew his rights as a husband and head of a household.
She stood her ground. "I cannot see our new son-in-law raising a hand against our daughter', she
exclaimed. "He is an educated
man!”
He sat down abruptly as if SHE had dealt HIM a blow for the first
time in their lives.
“So you believe education makes
a man? If I was an educated
gentleman like my son-in-law could I have got down on my
hands and knees and laid the
foundation for this home of ours?
Would you have a roof over your head if I had not been a carpenter and a mason? And that proud sonin-law of yours, would he have a
two storied house on the hill if he
S SS SSSSS S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
 

had not hired ME along with my
men to build them that mansion?
That is why I feel that he should have placed me on a throne instead of seating me on a bench in the back quarters of the grand house we built for him and my daughter!
He should have offered me wine
and whiskey alongside his educated high brow friends. And instead of giving you a parcel of leftover food, they should have invited us to spend a night in the grand house I built for them with
my men”.
He was crying now instead of
shaking with anger.
She came running to him and knelt at his feet. “I will make roti for
you', she said through her tears. "That is the quickest meal to make for both of us.
pancakes with chilly paste rolled
Plain flour
on the stone. Tired though I am, I will cook tonight for the father of the bride'.
And then she took the basket of
leftover food that her daughter had given them, and threw it into the garbage pile for crows, hungry cats and dogs to feast on next morning...
On
Evil
Terry Eagleton (Yale University Press, 192 pages, 2010)
For many enlightened, liberal-minded thinkers today, and for most on the political left, evil is an outmoded concept. It Smacks too much of absolute judgments and metaphysical certainties to suit the modern age. In this witty, accessible study, the prominent Marxist thinker Terry Eagleton launches a surprising defense of the reality of evil, drawing on literary, theological, and psychoanalytic sources to suggest that evil, no mere medieval artifact, is a real phenomenon with palpable force in our contemporary World.

Page 17
Trade in Services in South Asia: Opportunities and Risks of Liberalization
edited by Saman Kelegama Sage Publishers, 306 pp., $35.00
This book of essays addresses the importantissue of liberalization of service trade in South Asia. It
examines seven individual
country cases of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan. In
addition, there are three other chapters, an Introduction by Saman Kelegama, a South Asian Perspective by Rashmi Banga and a final chapter on domestic regulation and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) by Parashar Kulkarni. The ten chapters provide an insightful and clear discussion of issues of services liberalization.
The discussion is somewhat
limited by data availability and some ambiguity of South Asian Governments as to what they are seeking to achieve under the
GATS framework and in
opportunities for both multilateral and regional trade. Little is said about unilateral or (autonomous) liberalization, given the focus of
the Volume on regional issues.
The first chapter by Saman Kelegama does a very competent job of outlining the issues and conveying both the substance and spirit of the discussions that
follow. Services liberalization is a
difficult topic since it is not
confined to transactions at the
border, typical of goods trade. Besides, it is not possible to precisely identify the nature of the service that is offered to its content
and value. It is all the more
creditable that Kelegama takes a more pragmatic approach to the issues under discussion and
clarifies them in a lucid and
pointed manner. Of course his task
Liberali Service Sout
Sarath Ray
is made difficult due to the absence of a single framework of reference for the country, authors and the disparate quality of the the
introductory chapter does credit to a difficult discussion of the central
issues of services liberalization.
papers. Nevertheless,
One small peeve that this reviewer has is that there is no symmetry in the presentation of the opportunities and risks. One gets the impression that risks are exaggerated and the opportunities are under-played. That is not surprising given that South Asia has not been known to be
particularly enthusiastic about trade liberalization. Besides, this position has received support the United Nations
Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), which continues to champion import
from
substitution in a more
sophisticated way compared to its past positions. India was a bulwark against trade liberalization in the past and gave in only in 1991 in the throes of a macroeconomic crisis. Sri Lanka
broke that mould when it
liberalized trade in goods in 1977, but it has not followed it up with a more open agenda for trade liberalization. India reaped many benefits, including raising the GDP growth rate to 6-8 per breaking away from the " Hindu rate of growth' identified by the famous Indian economist, Raj
Krishna in the 1960s.

Zation of
Trade in h Asia
iapatirana
Services are classified into four
modes: services supplied across the border (or Mode 1) such as phone calls. Services consumed abroad (Mode 2) such as tourism, Services that require commercial presence (Mode 3) such as foreign banks, and movement of natural persons (Mode 4) such as consulting services. Trade in services in all these modes is of interest to South Asian countries trying to break into the world market in areas where they have comparative advantage.
Three other chapters in the volume warrant special mention, Chapter two on India by Rupa Chanda does justice to a complex set of issues relating to services liberalization. India has made an
impressive debut in the world markets with information
technology (software), business services (due to out-sourcing by industrial countries) and communication services. Thus, India is relatively more interested in Modes 1 and 4 as it has strong comparative advantage in these sectors. It is in this area that India
takes an offensive strategy. It adopts a defensive strategy in sectors such as retail, insurance
and legal services.
Chapter 4 on Sri Lanka by Deshal de Melhas aspecial interest for Sri Lankan policy makers, market participants and all interested parties in this area. The two large
Nethra Review ; June 2010
areas in services export are transportand tourism. Sri Lankais interested in reducing barriers for its service export in Mode 1 and Mode 4 and is more open to foreign competition in mode 3. The author feels that Sri Lanka has
to follow a defensive strategy given poor data sources, weak regulatory frameworks, and limited language capability in English and in IT capabilities.
These are also areas common to
other countries in the region.
Chapter 9 by Rashmi Banga on "Liberalizing Trade in Services: A South Asian Perspective" provides a well-known analytical approach to the issue. Both the volume and the composition of service trade have changed in the decade to 2003. Services exports from the region are led by computer and information services, thanks to India's dominance. Services imports have been led by computer and information services, construction
and financial services and other
business services. India leads the
region with its revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in computer and information services. Bangladesh leads in RCA in communication services, while Maldives leads in travel
services. Sri Lanka does not lead
in any particular sector in the eight sector classification. However, what matters is the respective comparative advantage and the relative position of a particular country, and not which country leads in which area. Thus, for example, Sri Lanka has greater comparative advantage in construction services compared to other commercial services. In any case, RCA analysis is only indicative. It suffers from three
limitations. First, the period is dated by six years in the past. Second, to be guided by even the

Page 18
Nethra Review i June 2010
RCA of last year is like driving your car by looking at the rearview mirror, and RCAs have limited value in revealing comparative underlying cost structures. Finally, since information technology is implicated in these services, a doubling of memory capacity takes place every two and a half years, such that six years would have produced more than a quadrupling of memory capacity and hence affected relative prices.
Services liberalization is
inherently difficult. That message comes through in all the country and issues discussions in the
Volume. But to add to that
difficulty, is the goal of liberalizing in the context of region, where the seven countries have to agree on what and when to liberalize services trade. There are
the classic trade creation and trade
diversion that Viner identified in
the 1950s as the theoretical
framework within which to
examine economic integration. The Seven countries have different
agenda which makes it difficult to agree on a common front. India
with its enormous size and its
known historical aversion to trade
and service liberalization is a clear
leader in the South Asian context.
Bangladesh as a least developed country has easier access to developed country markets as does Nepal. Bhutan is not yet a member of the WTO and it has not
made any commitments to liberalize trade in either goods or services. On the other hand, the new members such as Nepal made more commitments as a condition
of entry into the WTO. Thus, the task that the book sets for itself is a
difficult one. Nevertheless, these
issues have to be addressed. Data
have to be compiled and examined
With respect to services and policy makers, and the business community must be involved in preparing a services liberalization strategy. This volume of essays makes a good contribution to this
task, but it is still only a beginning.
Beyond the RCA estimates, South Asian countries have a natural
comparative advantage intourism, retail trade, deployment of contract workers, and port facilities among other sectors, Only a limited number of sectors have been committed to
liberalization. As before, the fear (often misplaced) is that liberalization would lead to
greater income inequality and increase levels of poverty. The empirical record is the opposite.
South Asian anxieties have to
confront what China has done in
its Southern and Eastern areas
(coastal areas). After liberalizing the economy at a rapid pace since 1989, China has raised 300 million out of poverty, a unique event in the annals of the World economic
history. It has one of the most liberal investment and regulatory regimes. It is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the World today. And, it has opened itself to competition on many fronts including services.
In light of that experience, the essays in the present volume would be over-cautious and
bashful about contemplating what would happen if South Asian countries followed the China
model or for that matter other
models including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, who have relatively open services sectors that have gained much from the four modes of service delivery.
Going beyond the present volume,
 

the reviewer finds four issues that
could have substantial impact on service liberalization: first, countries considering services liberalization would do well to
focus on unilateral or autonomous
liberalization on the grounds that freer trade yields better results than restricted trade. This basic
conclusion applies to services too. And liberalizing trade by any means is better than not liberalizing trade in goods and services. A corollary is that unilateral liberalization may provide better opportunities than in a regional context. Otherwise, Sri Lanka, for example, would have had to move at a slower pace Within a regional context.
Second, although under GAT provisions, services liberalization is not required to follow the Most Favored Nation principle (meaning no preferences are given to any other country), it is notabad Strategy because primarily, countries liberalize to increase
their own Welfare and not regional Welfare. Regional integration could be a by project of MFN liberalization, and in fact, it could achieve greater integration than through negotiation within the region.
Third, it is also good to be rem in de d that Services
liberalization is a positive sum game and nota Zero sum game. All parties can benefit. Of course, some will derive greater benefit given their advanced regulatory regimes, state of infrastructure, and role of private sector participation. There will be some losses for countries that do not
nave the natural comparative advantage or have not acquired it in some areas. Overall, one can predict that exports will be
intensive in labor content
compared to being intensive in capital. This will support greater employment opportunities compared to restrictive policies that reward capital intensive projects.
Fourth, the bifurcation of services liberalization strategy into offensive and defensive
approaches is neither a good overall strategy, nor does it fit trade liberalization in general. Since all can benefit, including your rivals, by exchange. This military metaphor is more consistent With arms limitation
negotiati o n s t han with negotiations that apply to trade.
Finally, service liberalization will have a profound impact on goods liberalization. Consider the
importance of financial services, transport, and communications technology for trade in goods. All these services are important determinants of comparative costs. Services liberalization by inducing competition will reduce the cost of these services and make
goods trade more competitive. As a corollary, a slower rate of service liberalization will have an adverse
impact on goods trade.
To sum up, this is a volume of essays that makes a very good contribution to the examination of
services liberalization issues. It is
highly informative, analytically well developed, and it fills a much needed gap in our knowledge. It should be required reading for all policy makers engaged in this area, private sector participants
and academics alike.

Page 19
In My Kingdom of the Sun and the Holy Peak by Tissa Abeysekera Vijitha Yapa Publications, 200pp.,
RS.799.00
Tissa Abeysekera won the Gratiaen Prize in 1996 for his
novella Bringing Tony Home which was, to quote the citation, "...a poetic transformation of remembered experience where vois memorial, to use Chaucer's wonderful phrase, is heard in counterpoint with a sense of real things' (citation at the presentation of the Gratiaen Prize 1999, given by the present writer who chaired the panel of judges). It is meditated into art where, to quote the citation again, "Fact and fiction blur into each other, and the
author enables us to share in an
interpenetration of imaginative reconstruction, observed event and physical detail, and creative act'. It is the art of a civilized man
literate in the ways of art, deploying an impressive range of skills with what one might call an educated sensibility.
In the present volume, this sensibility engages a different order of reality. To quote the author's note, its three stories are "each located in a very specific time in our island's past of the last two hundred years. They seem, in Salman Rushdie's memorable
phrase, "handcuffed to history" (Author's Note prefacing the 2004 edition published by Vijitha Yapa Publications, Colombo 2004).
Reading the first story, "A White Horse and the Solar Eclipse”, we step into an older and wider World -- the Kandyan kingdom in its last days. It is explored with a substantial re-creation of detail
that has, at the same time, a distinctly mythic dimension. The author modestly gives it the sub
Handc His
Ashle)
title "Myths and Legends of the last Years of a Kingdom', but it is by no means an anthology or pastiche. It is itself a work of creative myth-making, where elements of familiar tales are
glimpsed and echoed in a vital recreation of the spirit of an era. The tale elaborates the enmity of the Pilimatalawes and the Nayakkars, as well as the patient planning of and the final incursion of the
British into a weave of plots, mysteries, murders and revenges with a dense poetic texture.
Dream, imagery and symbol work through and across the surprises and mysteries of the narrative to give the whole the quality of an еріс:
In the sky there were two suns: in the east agentle pink dawn, the delicate, soft and rosy orb of the nikini sun rising slowly through a thin veil of clouds, and in the still nightly west a big and paling full moon lowering itself towards the horizon and the wiry little man sitting cross-legged on the Thispané Rock as he held the rising sun and the sky awash with blood, was like a coiled serpent poised to strike. He was in a trance, the eyes not sharp and fierce as they were at most times but glazed like in death. In his vision, the pale blood of the sky drained slowly and the sun and the moon came together dissolving into blinding white and then into blue, a vast endless dome, and from deep within that dome

uffed to tory
V Halpé
came the horse, a speck of white in the far distance at first, then a rolling expanding cloud that finally became the horse, white, and moving majestically across, legs folding and unfolding in an irrevocable rhythm, forever moving forward like fate, cruel and unforgiving.
References to this seer sitting on the Thispané Rock recur throughout the novella. Perhaps he is meant to suggest the authorial consciousness, aware of the totality of the unfolding work. There is a touch of mystery about this figure; it is one of the mythic elements that occur throughout the novella and are in-woven into
the unfolding of the basic narratives: the collapse of the kingdom from within and its infiltration and finally its annexation by the British.
These mythic elements greatly enrich the texture of the novella
and extend its density of significance. We have the shifting figure of the rider on the white horse, first the penultimate king, the Nayakkar Kirti Sri Rajasinha, Subamma's first lover come to his
as signment with her, an impressive figure, who is assassinated by her son Cunnersamee (Kandaswamy) to become the headless giant on the white horse that gallops through the kingdom and the streets of the royal city during the last nights of the kingdom.
This Subamma is a Malabar
Nethra Review ; June 2010
princess who had been part of the retinue of the queen that had come over when the crown passed to the Nayakkars of Malabar. Her husband had died on the way and the king had settled her on a plot near the ferry. When the young aristocrat Pilmatalawe crosses the
ferry on his way to court for the first time their eyes lock. Five days later, on his way back he was
atherhouse.
After the assassination of the king, the beautiful, desirable Subamma herselfbecomes a mythic image; a speechless, White- haire d apparition at the ferry. She has invoked Kali, the goddess of revenge, and when Pilimatalawe comes to the house again, she stares at him with burning eyes, herself an image of the goddess. The image of the goddess is a baleful presence in the final
Sequence.
Another mysterious touch is the visionary bather, heard but never seen, at Pilimatalawe's private well.
It is a known fact of the history of the period that Pilimatalawe was opposed to the rule of the Nayakkars, and sought to destroy the king. But the king anticipated his move and had him beheaded.
This is linked visionarily to an episode of ancient history when there was Nayakkar rule in the country. Then, too, in Tissa Abeysekera's rendering of that history, the aristocrats rebelled against the king, were defeated, and were punished by being yoked to a chariot and driven around,
with their noses and toes cut off.
This past is linked to the age of the novella by the dream of the Lambakannas, which recurs from generation to generation through a chosen member of the clan, to keep alive the thirst for

Page 20
Nethra Review: June 2010
vengeance. The last survivor is sent for safety to the precincts of the Great Bodhi in Anuradhapura, now surrounded by... forest. Reduced to savagery, he finally lies down in despair to die, but is suckled mysteriously by his mother. The dream recurs, and when he wakes, he begins to march towards the Holy Mountain on "what was going to be a long journey along the route that his ancestors had walked in some
longtime ago until they saw those
mountains".
Particular features of Tissa
Abeysekera's style in fiction are the extremely unhurried pace, which enables every moment to "breathe' as it were, the sustained deployment of detail, and the flexibly poetic medium, all of which meld superbly with subtle variations of pace, rhythm and ebb and flow according to situation; sequences of heightened intensity gain an effect of hypnotic incantation as phrases and sentences flow into each other. For
instance, this whole combination of characteristics gives vivid life to the meeting and mating of Subamma and Pilimatalawa to form a rich experience of
Srungāra rasa - the taste, the
aesthetic savoring of sensuality (There are touches of this in the second story "The Crossing at Dark Point” too, and it recurs strongly in the third story "The Bull, the Cobra and the Golden Swan", while it is an important part of the revision of Bringing 2008). The
"combination of characteristics'
Tony Home,
is found again giving life to the episodes of the last hours of the kingdom - I quote a few sentences from the latter:
The white horse seemed part of everything here which moved as it started to troteasy along the
edge of the lake and now it seemed part of the cloud parapet lining the waters glistening in the morning light. The rotting corpses of the last massacres of the king who drank blood impaled on staves and the dogs become-Wolvesagain moving in circles who did not bark because they were in a trance and the vultures who
were sitting now on the flattiles of the shrines - there were three
sitting on the roof closest to the dead bodies - and the white
horse trotting along the scalloped cloud parapet were all integral, one of the other and nothing alien to that something which had surfaced in the total
absence of men to flee
screaming at the sight of the moving white animal now retracing its steps along some memory-path along which it had come three yearsago.
The vision of Tissa Abeysekera (it is, we realize, a vision), ends there, denying us the satisfaction of a closure. We have to imagine closures for ourselves.
Underlying the whole is the characteristic suggested by the notation "Recounted in
Samudraghosa', which obviously does not apply to the language, but to the structure outlined in the
headnote; "The story is written in Three Movements and each
Movement is composed of four narrative strands complementing each other converging to a point
which takes the story forward".
The second story, "The Crossing at Dark Point', is set in the years 1939 – 1948 (In addition to the title of the story, this part is also called "The Redemption"). It is a mystery story but of an unusual kind, reversing the usual form of
1.

the thriller. Why did the retired police sergeant Silva go back to the scenes of a major crime he had solved nearly twenty years earlier'? As he makes the journey, his imagination replays the events of that journey and investigation twenty years earlier, the two narratives moving in parallel.
The mystery is that he takes all his savings with him in currency notes back to the scene of his investigation. He does this after readingan item of provincial newS in a newspaper:
Freedom for Man, Death for
Woman
The man had been serving a twenty-year sentence for murder, and in his eighth year, which happened to be the year of independence, he was among the hundred prisoners freed to
mark the occasion. He had
returned home to find the
woman with whom he had been
living when he went to jail, and who was not his legal wife but the sister of his legal wife with whom he was estranged, had committed suicide by jumping into the stream which flowed
through the village.
Silva dies during the night on which he goes back. But before he dies, as his host for the night, the returned prisoner (who feels no animosity towards him who states that "you only did your duty') reports to the police saying, "from a linen bag he had with him he pulled out something Wrapped in a cloth and gave it to me. He said there was a lot of money there. He wanted me to open a savings book for my little girl". He hands the money over to the police because he had been to jail and does not ever want to go back there. The mystery is, why does Silva do this? He obviously has some
hitherto unrevealed reason for his
commitment to the man and the
child. Thereason is the Woman:
It was the most beautiful face
Silva had everseen. Women did
not interest Silva... But when
he saw this woman's face
something sprang to life within him. To see such beauty where a dismembered body lay bloated With bluebottles buzzing around and the Smell of rotting flesh hanging over everything and the Vulture circling in the sky hurt Silva in a strange kind of Way..."
As Silva had said to himself many times during his investigation, he was only an instrument of the law. But at some point in time, the implication is fairly clear that between locking up his suspect and his departure from the village, he has enjoyed the woman; he has done exactly what had made the murder happen when her man had heard her scream as the drunken
muda lali came at her. Now Silva
has also gone to her. The details of the solving of the crime follow.
There is another intervening segment of the story. While the man is in jail, the woman sells her body to the carters of the caravans that stop regularly near the village for their mid-journey break. This part of the story is complicated by her falling in love with a young carter, a very tender relationship which is beautifully described.
Not long after this, when she hears
that her husband has been released
in the Independence Amnesty and that he is due to return soon, she goes to the Crossing at Dark Point and drownsherself.
Note: "The king who drank blood"- The king was drunk every night on a rich Madeira, cases of which were gifted to him regularly by the British after they discovered his weakness.

Page 21
Soon after Silva's death in the very house where the original murder had occurred, the only link with those strange events, Sergeant Abeyratna is given a transfer to a better station. Before he leaves, he resolves to go to the Crossing at Dark Point and see the place for himself. "He wasn't quite sure why he wanted to come here, but he felt that the Dark Point held the
clue to Silva's death', that there was another dimension to the
whole affair - some invisible
thread that linked Silva's death to
the woman's suicide at Dark Point, and then to that gruesome murder of a man eight years before. When he realized that he would be gone from the place in two days, Abeyratna decided that "today he would go in search of whatever it was that he felt vaguely. This was his last chance to clear his
mind...'.
"It became darker under the
trees...” From this point to the end of the story, it needs to be read in one unbroken sweep. Quotations can give no sense of the total experience, of the deathly miasma that first Silva felt and now Abeyratna feels. The story and the reader are released from it only when he emerges from the dark Wood; "there came over
everything a great big calm, a wonderful silence...The pilgrim season had begun and it was the end of the year. That was why the Sun was not hard but warm and
comfortable, even closer to high
noon".
Here again there is a mesmeric rendering of detail, both visual and of action. In this tale, it goes with an effect of triple layering. Past and present lie so close that at times one and the other are
couched in the narrative present tense. A third layer comes into the experience when ghosts and symbolic presences haunt the action.
Thus, the story is something more than the story of a murder-mystery in reverse: it is a complex Weave of experiences and emotions giving the reader a rich human experience.
In the third story, "The Bull, the Cobra and the Golden Swan'. The Golden Swan, Rana Hansi, is the name given to Baby Mahattaya's daughter on the recommendation of the High Priest in terms of her astrology. She is the most beautiful baby girl ever. The bullis the huge raging black creature that figures in Baby Mahattaya's
INTROAGENOME Women Challenging Violence in an Aversal State
S
 

nightmares until it is identified by an exorcist. It is a reincarnation of
a boyhood companion of Baby Mahatthaya who was drowned, and now comes from the depths of the ocean demanding a sacrifice - the release often of its kind from the slaughterhouse. When this is done and the cattle donated to poor families, the dreams stop instantly.
In this tale too sexuality figures prominently. Baby Mahattaya's apartment in Colombo is well stocked with porn journals and Videos, and he teaches his wife
Kumari to fulfill his substantial
demands, which include entering her as she lies back against a table and again from behind. When he goes to his worksite where he has rooms, he has set up Sarojini there and there are graphic descriptions of sexual adventures with her.
When his political career burgeons, Sarojini realizes that she is to be abandoned. It is then
that we discover the identity of the
cobra. It is not a snake but a twopronged syringe with which she has already killed her husband and
"Uncle'.
With this volume, beautifully done by Vijitha Yapa, Tissa
Nethra Review ; June 2010
Abeysekera consolidated the territory he marked out for himself as an important new voice in Sri Lankan creative writing in English.
As my final response, I am impelled to make a comparative The
three tales are not all of a kind.
and evaluative comment.
They engage with reality at different levels and are of three
levels of art. It seems to me that
"The Bull, the Cobra and the Golden Swan' is essentially a melodrama, plentifully spiced with sensuality and mystery. "The Crossing at Dark Point” goes deeper. It explores the dark fringes of human action and motivation
and the author sees a mysterious, surreal darkness lying adjacent to the events of reality. Hence, it is a powerfully evoked journey of the imagination. In the novella, In My Kingdom of the Sun and the Holy Peak, the artist is at the top of his powers, weaving together the mythic, the epic and history in a complex triumph of the creative imagination.
Before his death in 2009, Tissa Abeysekera brought out two other works of literature in English, Roots, Reflections and Reminiscences (2007), the title of which speaks for itself, and a revised version of Bringing Tony Home in 2008, which greatly extends the scope of the first version.
Interrogating the Norms: Women Challe ng ing Violence in an Adversarial State
Farida Shaheed (ICES, 145 pages, 2007)
This work examines the effects of the Zia political regime on women and minorities, and looks at its impact on Pakistan's women's movement, and how it sets it apart from concurrent movements in South Asia.

Page 22
Nethra Review ; June 2010
The Idea of Justice
by Amartya Sen Allen Lane, 496 pp., £25.00
The Bhagavad Gita section of the Mahabharata records a timeless
debate between two epic heroes: the great warrior Arjuna and his Chariot driver - who is none other
than Krishna. The occasion is the
battle of Kurukshetra.
Arjuna does not doubt that their's is the right cause, and that they will definitely win the battle. But he is concerned that so many people will die in the battle. He wonders if it might not be the lesser evil to concede rather than
fight. Arjuna is disturbed that these deaths will also become his
doing (as he leads the army), and he is also moved by the fact that many of those killed, on both sides, are persons with whom he has some affinitive connection.
Krishna counters, and eventually prevails, with the certain conviction that justice is on their side and Arjuna must simply do his duty, no matter what the consequences. The epic is certainly a great tussle about the demands of right action and the concerns of justice.
In the run-up to May 18, 2009, when the Sri Lankan military was facing off the LTTE with about
three hundred thousand civilians
trapped in between (and held as a human shield by the LTTE) - a similar debate simmered beneath the surface of Sinhala society. Even though the Krishna-esque government view was what prevailed and got the most airing, the moral instincts of many resonated with those of Arjuna and his three part concerns (1) The relevance of what happens to actual human lives in the process, not just the end result in terms of "winning the war" or "defeating
The dea and the r of Dem
Nishan
the offending army'. (2) The recognition that tragedy inflicted on so many civilians would be inflicted by "our" representatives, making Sri Lankans represented by its army personally responsible in a special way (in contrast to the burden of responsibility had the same been done by “other” nonrepresentative actors). (3) The relational concern that came from
personally knowing those who would likely be killed.
In May 2009, ICES hosted a discussion on this issue between
myself and Michael Roberts titled "Killing Civilians in War an Analysis of Moral Reasoning". There, Michael Roberts took up a Krishna type argument, but a nuanced one - where the
deontology (obligations of duty) was derived from the projected tragedy on future human lives, if the LTTE was not "finished off right then and there (in effect, a Utilitarian argument for the “lesser evil'). The differences between the voices of Krishna, Arjuna and the Utilitarian bent of Michael Roberts, are an indication of the plurality of moral reasoning that can govern the choices of a
Society.
After I had taken some pains at this debate to explain the importance of differing moral reasons, I was accosted by an editor of an English weekly demanding that Ipin myself to just
2O

of Justice importance
Ocracy
de Mel
one position. The whole point of my presentation had been missed! If Amartya Sen's The Idea of Justice (2009) had been published then, I would have pointed it in his direction. Because, if there is one
thesis that is foundational to The
Idea of Justice, it is that, with regard to decisions of justice and right action, there can be a plurality of reasons to which we should pay attention, both as individuals and as a society - Without idly burying our commitments to justice in singular reasons which might be severely parochial.
The Idea of Justice is fundamentally a framework for navigating this plurality of moral reasoning that impinges on the question of justice. In developing this framework, Sen draws not just on the story of Arjuna and Krishna, but on a wealth of justice enhancing ideas and actions through time and space: from the Indian Ruler Asoka in third
century B.C.E. (who sent the message of Buddhism to Sri Lanka through his son and daughter: Mah in da and Sanghamitta), to the Muslim Emperor Saladin in twelfth century Cairo; from Athens of ancient Greece to South Africa of
Nelson Mandela; from the Asian Buddha to the Middle-Eastern
Jesus; from the classical Indian philosophy expressed by the likes of Kautilya and the Mughal Emperor Akbar, to the modern liberal tradition expressed by the likes of John Rawls, Robert
Nozick and Thomas Scanlon.

Page 23
Sen sees this available plurality as largely positive, enabling us to enrich the reasons of each other
from different social and cultural
positions; but he also recognises the limitations: that there may be much upon which we could reasonably and yet irreconcilably differ. The most widely cited
illustration of this book is on this
last point: there are three children and one flute, who should have it? Depending on our priorities and which child we heard, we may be swayed by the claim of the first who is the only one who can play the flute; or the second who has never had a single toy, whereas the others have always had plenty; or the third, who is the one who actually made the flute. Quite reasonable arguments tending towards economic egalitarianism, utilitarianism, strict libertarianism can leave us with
Ο Τ.
very different resolutions.
The Idea of Justice insists on this realism: that we have little hope of agreeing on any holy-grail of perfect justice or perfect reasons. In the absence of "perfect solutions', the failure to
communicate and understand Our
differing reasons is often the source of divisiveness within
society, and over time can loosen the bonds of social cohesion with
v i o l e n t c o n s e qu e n c e s . Recognising this difficulty and danger, Sen sets out to demonstrate constructively a path by which we may still make progress on advancing justice and reducing injustice, which is a pressing and practical need in the
world.
Justice: Concerned with the
Consequences on Human Lives
Epic debates, as between Arjuna and Krishna, on codes of morality and theories of justice are ever
present, throughout history, in diverse societies and cultures. As
Sen notes in the closing chapter "the general pursuit of justice might be hard to eradicate in human society, even though We can go about that pursuit in different ways” (p. 415). In this treatise, Sen identifies the analytical underpinnings of this Widespread concern for justice as having two broad approaches – also reflected in the debate
between Arjuna and Krishna. One is an arrangement focus: concerned with having the right institutional, organisational and deontological arrangements, and the other is a realisation focus:
concerned with the actual lives
that people manage to have. This is a distinction Sen finds reflected
in the Sanskrit terms niti and
nyaya of Indian intellectual
debates.
The position of Krishna is also reflected pithily in the fierce and famous maxim of Ferdinand I, the Holy Roman Emperor in the sixteenth century, “Fiat Justitia et pereat mundus” (Let Justice be done, though the World perishes); and it is against this arrangementfocus to justice - inadequately attentive to the actual lived consequences on human lives (the three concerns of Arjuna) - that The Idea of Justice makes its first foundational argument.
Many theories of justice emerging from the enlightenment project in Europe are arrangement-focused. Sen calls them transcendental
theories because they aim to describe the nature and rules of a
perfectly just society. Sen's critique of these theories is not just that they are too focused on the institutional arrangements, to the exclusion of lived-outcomes, but that such descriptions of perfect justice may be of little help in

21
deciding between the merits of actual available alternatives: "the
fact that a person regards the Mona Lisa as the best picture in the World does not reveal how she
would ranka Picasso againsta Van Gogh” (p. 101).
On 6 June 2007, first the city of Colombo and then the country Woke up to an extraordinary act of h u b r i s by th e d e fe in c e establishment of Sri Lanka. Tamil
people born in the war zones of the country and residing in temporary lodgings of Colombo had been summarily rounded up in the Wee hours of the morning and packed offin buses, back to the war-zones from which they had extricated themselves. Ostensibly, the bureaucrats were not satisfied that
these people had a "good reason' to be in Colombo. Remarkably, the bureaucracy couldn't even recognise that these people, at the very least, certainly had a "good reason' to be outside of the war
zone. This humiliation of citizenry identifiable by a particular ethniccategory and spatial-geography raised united cries of "foul” from
the full spectrum of social and political groups in Sri Lanka: from the opposition UNP to the government aligned JVP. from the rural poor to the urban rich, from liberal ideologues to ultra nationalists. The government
action echoed the shameful
incarceration of Japanese Americans by the US government in the pre-world war II era, and it was mostly the government sponsored mouthpieces and their paid lackeys - the regimemercenaries (some of them masquerading as "independent journalists") - that tried to defend the brazen act of irresponsible
government.
It was not necessary to argue against this action on the basis of
Nethra Review ; June 2010
theories about the freedom of
movement or Human Rights. In fact, it may not even have helped to do so. Many who objected to this action would not have
supported the transcendental The
widespread objection to this
claims of such theories.
action drew, instead, on plural values within Sri Lankan society. There was a convergence of from plural standpoints that this bureaucratic
a SS e SS ment
action was manifestly unjust. The positive focus of The Idea of Justice is to explore the means by which such manifest injustice is confronted and reduced - even
while any notion of perfect justice might continue to elude, as it always does.
As I complete the final editing of this article barely two weeks since the Presidential election of 2010
in Sri Lanka, the losing candidate, General Fonseka, has been arrested by the military with the threat of military Court Martial. The government has argued for the rightness of its actions on the basis of niti. They have claimed, though it is impossible to verify (and indications are to the
that
investigative and administrative
C on tra ry), p r o p e r
procedures have been followed and that the arrest can be
reasonably explained in terms of "due process'. The importance of the nyaya focus is explained by Sen in terms of the Indian legal theorists who spoke about the overwhelming importance of avoiding matsyanyaya (the unpleasant reality of "justice in the world of fish' - where big fish can devour Small fish at Will). The central recognition of this tradition, also reflected in the mounting public protests against the current government of Sri Lanka, is that justice must be seen in the outcomes that emerge. It

Page 24
Nethra Review: June 2010
cannot be defended simply by the claim that institutions are functioning properly - even if
they were.
Social Choice is not just Majority Rule
Locating the concern for justice around a realisation-focus allows the means of advancing justice to be guided by insights of social choice theory, the principle area of Sen's contribution in economics. Despite its enormous usefulness, social choice theory has generally escaped popular recognition - due perhaps to the extensive use of symbolic logic in how it's written down. The approach of social choice theory is concerned with comparative assessments. It is a than
transcendental framework,
relation a l rather
concerned with guidelines of practical reasoning for decision making within a group. Adopting this framework enables decision making without demanding agreement on all the underlying principles. This is important, because, for example, while it is very hard for any society to decide exactly what collection of things should count as a full specification of Human Rights, it is quite easy to agree that people have a right not to be brutalised or assassinated for voicing criticism of their government. While it is hard to agree on the full set of freedoms that should be guaranteed to every member in Society, it is quite easy to agree that for the large numbers of civilians confined to IDP
camps, the restriction on the freedom of movement had to be
removed as soon as possible. The social choice route of comparative assessments allows progress on questions of enhancing justice and removing injustice without being over-burdened and side-tracked
by the quite separate task of describing the requirements of perfect justice.
In Sen's description, it would be quite wrong to think the social choice route to justice as underwriting a crude idea of majority rule. Majorities do invariably exert a major influence in a framework of social choice.
But formulations of social choice, if they are to advance justice, must consist of means that enable people to be concerned for more than their private interests, to be tolerant of different preferences, and to have some degree of ethical objectivity - the ability to see things from others' points of view and justify their decisions to those who are in a different position. In other words, a society marked by democratic values.
In the absence of democratic values, majority decisions are in fact a very poor route to achieving justice. In his seminal work The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal (1972), Sen proved that majority rule can be inconsistent with even minimum space for individual liberty. The point of such illumination is not to argue against majority decision making (what should we replace it with, a dictator?), but to recognise the various factors needed for majority decisions to be consistent with minority rights and justice. It would be a serious mistake to
think that a decision is correct or justifiable simply because it is the decision of the majority.
To take an example from Sri Lanka, in 1989 the then elected President Ranasinghe Premadasa was ruling Sri Lanka with the majority support of the population. Yet, in that year, the methods used to suppress JVP
uprising against the government
22

were utterly repugnant and illegal. It was common to line the Streets
with dead bodies of people arbitrarily executed by illegal paramilitary operations, and also to kill and float bodies of potential JVP supporters on public rivers. The numbers killed in this way, with majority support, have been estimated at an astounding sixty thousand. The actions and consequences could not be justified either in terms of niti or nyaya, but only in terms of the narrow self-interest of the class of
people who found their life styles protected and preserved through such brutality. In any situation of such illegality and brutality towards a minority, that the protected classes are in the "majority' does not take away from the fact of manifestinjustice.
Democratic Values through
Social Choice
When Sen won the Nobel Prize for
economics in 1998 the major work cited in favour of the prize was his thesis on famine published in the 80s. There he showed that famines
had never occurred in functioning democracies. The evidence
showed that famines were symptomatic not of an absolute shortage of food, but of a structural crisis of access and
distribution- and therefore, it was quite within the power of responsive governments to avert famines. Typically, famines affect at most only 10% of a country's population - often, far less. The refore, government responsiveness ("democracy”) based simply on majority rule could well afford to let famines
run their course - the dead, in any case, don't vote; except sometimes (with well organ is ed malpractices) in favour of the
government. The reason famines
are prevented in a functioning democracy is not just because of majority rule, but because of the attendant public outrage of those who are not starving. That is: the tendency of the many to be upset by injustice to the few; the tendency of the strong to be concerned for the weak; the tendency of those who can, to speak out for those who can't. Without such tendencies of care
and decency any form of majority rule reduces to a form of tyranny.
The argument Sen makes, then, is that the Social choice route to
justice can be very productive, provided that the society can reflect the concerns and values of
democracy. Sen sees these as universal and civilisation values
that are deeply resonant in humanity, and which have a tendency to emerge and flourish in Societies that manage to achieve the freedoms necessary for people to engage in informed public reasoning.
Sen's optimism on the existence of such basic human decency is rooted in a wide variety of popular philosophy and moral teaching. He refers extensively to the teachings of Gautama Buddha. For instance, referring to the Sutta-Nipata, Sen argues that the Buddha shows that humans have
some responsibility towards other animals precisely because of the enormous asymmetry of power between us, not because of any benefit that would result from it
for the human race. A similar
widening of concern beyond oneself, and one's community, is cited by Senthrough the story told by Jesus in response to the question "who is my neighbour?" The story known as "the good that
neighbourly feelings must not be
Samaritan suggests
confined simply to our family and

Page 25
relatives nor to our religious, ethnic and national communities, but to even those that might share in the identity of our enemies - to those in communities we have
learned to suspectand despise.
The inspiration for widening our concerns beyond the "self does not come only from religious traditions. The utilitarian case for
widening our moral concern has perhaps been best defended by Peter Singer starting with his Oxford Ph.D. thesis in 1972.
Kant's codification of the moral
imperative as "a commitment to act according to those principles that which we could will to be
universal law' is an anchor point of European enlightenment philosophy. More recently, Timothy Scanlon has formulated What We Owe to Each Other
(1998) as the "shared willingness to modify our private demands in order to find a basis of justification that others also have reason to
accept" (p.199).
The point is not that we must agree with
metaphysical foundations of Buddhism, Christianity, Utilitarianism or any other
the ep is temic or
philosophical tradition. But, that the prevalence of these diverse traditions all highlighting a need to widen our concern beyond the narrow confines of self-interest, presents a real opportunity to move forward in advancing justice, rather than postponing that project while we quarrel about the validity of the competing
foundations.
Many theories of justice in the western liberal tradition have been
based on the idea of "social
contracts'. That is, instead of appealing to the natural human ability to entertain a wider
concern beyond the self, they have
appealed precisely to "selfinterest” in order to support structures that allow the interests
of others to be taken account of on equal terms. This is true of even the most popular treatise on justice from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to John Rawls. But Sen
does not see the need to remain trapped only within those possibilities. The Idea of Justice does not depend simply on the power of such "notional contracts' supported by actual laws, but draws on the further possibility of evolving social norms to contain those wider interests - recognising that without those social norms laws
can become meaningless or toothless.
There is a lesson here for Sri
Lanka as well. "ethnic
power sharing" to "good
From
governance" the attempts have largely been to change laws and constitutions at the very top in favour of positive change. And yet, from the 13" amendment to
the
constitution the lesson seems to be
17" amendment to the
that these changes alone don't deliver the goods, as they don't seem to have the required support ofa wide social consensus, andare thus easily subverted in the service of power politics. A culture of appreciation and respect across ethnicities in Society may deliver more benefits to minorities
than the formal sharing of political power, and basic professional values in public service may be greater protection against abuse of political power than the 17" Debates about
implementing new laws and
amendiment.
constitutions need to recognise these instruments not as an end in
themselves but as means of
evolving our social norms: formal sharing of political power with
minorities in Sri Lanka must be

also a steppingstone to a culture of
respect.
The Role and Reach of Public
Reason
the
foundation for advancing justice
Public re as o n ing is
through social choice - because advancing justice cannot simply be about furthering the wishes of a majority, no matter how perverse or prejudiced those wishes might be. For instance, slavery and the denial of education to women, have, in their day, enjoyed wide support before being vigorously critiqued through public reasoning as being severely unjust. Indeed, overcoming the parochialism and partiality of “group-think” is the principal challenge for any initiative for advancing justice, whether it be through social choice or not. The efficacy of social choice as a means for advancing justice, therefore, is predicated on an environment that can support ethical objectivity through public reasoning - where the voices and concerns of some are not always arbitrarily prioritised over others, and there is an ability to get beyond the power of vested interests.
The problem of vested interests is illustrated by Sen through the words of Philip the Bastard, in William Shakespeare's King John.
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I
will rail
Andsay there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be
To say there is no vice but
beggary (Act 2. Scene 1.612)
Vested interests are difficult to
Nethra Review ; June 2010
overcome even through reasoning not simply because that seems to be in the nature of the individual
human condition, but because the interests are often vested not just in individuals but in groups; giving them the illusion of being objective points of view. The tendency for groups (either as the rich and the poor, or in Sri Lanka, as English, Sinhala or Tamil speaking) to look down on the other is symptomatic of what Sen calls positional objectivity (a point of view easily shared by anyone in that position - but not by those in other positions, eg. "the Sun is travelling around the earth'). A particular view, though thoroughly parochial, can nevertheless gain the illusion of being an objective view because of the wide agreement on that View amongst the cohort of association and communication.
Overcoming such position based "objective illusions' is an important part of progressing towards justice. An example from Sri Lanka, of such positional differences, is the oft-repeated claim and counter claims that ** Tamil pe o p l e fa c e n o discrimination in Sri Lanka' and
"Tamil people are subject to severe discrimination in Sri Lanka". Since such positional differences are also supported by vested interest, they can be doubly difficult to dislodge. The difficulty of positionally un bias ed comprehension makes a strong case for paying attention not just to the perceptions of "my own eyes' but also to the "eyes of
others'.
The test of ethical objectivity or fairness, therefore, is the ability of a view to stand up and be persuasive not only in the face of public reasoning but also in the face of public reasoning - that cuts

Page 26
Nethra Review ; June 2010
across different social, economic and language groups. Public reasoning then is the primary restraint on partiality and parochialism in the pursuit of justice through social choice, even if these limitations may never be entirely overcome. The linguistic s eparati o n o f rea s o ning
in Sri Lanka indeed a very serious impediment
communities is
to expanding the reach of public reason, and as long as it remains the case, may result in constant roadblocks for the advancement
of ethical objectivity and justice. The commitment of this Journal
Nethra Review to review in
English works written in Sinhala and Tamil attempts to increase the reach of public reason in one important direction - complementary efforts are needed in the other directions as well.
Open Impartiality: “Eyes of the Community' vs. "Eyes of the
World'
The process of public reasoning, by exposing the positionality of particular view points, and the natural requirement of appealing to others on the basis of reasoning that they cannot reasonably be rejected, can take us a long way towards overcoming parochialism and vested interests and
unearthing decisions that can be supported as being fair or impartial. Sen distinguishes between two kinds of impartiality: closed impartiality and open impartiality. The first form asks the reasoning process to address itself only to those "others" that are inside that political community. Much of political philosophy based on the notion of social contracts has this feature, including the notional contract of Rawls, which is situated behind
the veil of ignorance, asking only
for within-group agreement. Sen argues, however, for an open impartiality that allows reasons to be tested beyond the confines of one's own community. This is the basis on which Sen pays attention to ideas and consideration
emerging through history from all
parts of the world.
The idea of open impartiality dra w s on the V a lu a b l e
contributions of Adam Smith, the
father of modern economics.
Adam Smith prefaced his ideas in economics with a Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), which remains under-appreciated, much to the detriment of theory and practice in economics. The Smithian formula
for ethical objectivity or fairness is based on the idea ofan impartial observer - who is essentially an "outsider', not a participant that will be affected by the decisions under debate. Introducing the perspective of an impartial observer adds an additional dimension to fending off parochialism and partiality. This widening of perspective from just the "eyes of the community" tO include the "eyes of the world" gives public reasoning a constructive scope that can allow for a positive engagement and learning from the whole universe of human experience. When the Taliban in the 1990s cut off its ties
with the world, they were able to forge local agreement with regard to extremely narrow minded actions such as destroying the Bhamian Statue of the Buddha.
Approaches to public reasoning that are more open to the "eyes of the world' help to prevent such impoverishing parochialism.
Open impartiality can further help to overcome cultural blind spots. Consider the cultural tendency towards nepotism. People are in a special position towards their
24

family members and as such, in their role as parent, child or sibling are expected to show special care and concern for their family. But when a person assumes public office, say as a Minister or a President of a country, he or she is expected in his or her role as public servant to treat all citizens equally - and not to confuse their positional obligations as family member with the positional obligations of public office. When this confusion is not overcome those in public office can become quite brazen about favouring kith and kin at the expense of others' entitlements. As with religious intolerance, such confusion could also have
cultural support; in which case, open impartiality can go a long way in shedding light on a blind spot that may not be detected simply by reasoning that is within the community only.
The potential wealth in the "outsiders' perspective is underscored by Sen in the following anecdote (which illustrates also the easy, entertaining and accessible style in which Sen communicates rigorous and demanding ideas in this highly readable book):
As Alexander the Great roamed
around north-west India in 325 B.C.E., he engaged in a series of battles against the local kings in and around Punjab and won them all. But he was notable to
generate enthusiasm among his soldiers to take on the powerful Nanda imperial family that ruled over the bulk of India
from their capital city Pataliputra in eastern India (now called Patna). Alexander was not, however, ready to return quietly to Greece, and as a good student of Aristotle spent some considerable time holding relaxed conversations with
Indian philosophers and theorists - religious as well as social.
In one of the more vigorous debates, the world conqueror asked a group of Jain philosophers why they were neglecting to pay any attention to him. To this question, he received the following broadly democratic reply:
*"King Alexander, every man can possess only so much of the earth's Surface as this we are
standing on. You are but human like the rest of us, save that you are always busy and up to no good, travelling so many miles from your home, a nuisance to yourself and to others!... You will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of the earth as will suffice to bury you" (p. 87).
Alexander the Great was more able to appreciate a good argument than be changed by it. But opening channels of communications between
"insiders' and "outsiders' - the essence of open impartiality - can go a long way towards not only advancing justice, but also towards cultural vitality, as has been the case for much of the
World.
The Importance of Democracy
and the Media
While it can rightly be claimed that the institutional aspects of democracy owe their genesis to social and political innovations in a handful of western countries,
Sen demonstrates that the
deliberative, discussion based, public reasoning aspect of democracy - clearly the more foundational aspect - cannot be

Page 27
l i ke w i s e c u l t u Ir a l 1 y o r geographically sequestered. Even before elected representation in local government was adopted in Ancient India - Greek influence
arriving there (with some help from the exploits of Alexander the Great) before taking root in the "west" - there was a history of public reasoning and deliberation: quite famously in the so-called "Buddhist Councils", beginning with the sixth century B.C.E., where the adherents of alternative
points of view got together to argue out their differences. In discerning the diverse cultural roots of democracy, Sen also cites Nelson Mandela from his
autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (1995), where Mandela recalls how impressed and shaped he was as a young lad, by seeing the nature of the local meetings that were held:
Everyone who wanted to speak did so. It was democracy in its purest form. There may have been a hierarchy of importance among the speakers, but everyone was heard, chief and subject, warrior and medicine man, shopkeeper and farmer, landowner and labourer... The
foundation of self-government was that all men the likely exclusion of women may have remained a cultural blind spot were free to voice their opinions and equal in their value as citizens (p. 332).
In the first of its series called
Dialogues on Democracy, ICES hosted in Kandy an exchange between Sumanasiri Liyanage and Arjuna Parakrama, at which I also presided with some summary remarks. I took from the
fascinating analysis of Sumanasiri Liyanage the valuable point that it was important not to allow
democracy to be merely a vehicle
of neo-liberal capitalism - and the concerns of government need to be more sharply focused on the problems of poverty in Sri Lanka. I disagreed, however, on the suggestion that there might be a trade-off between more
democracy and more concern fol the poor. This latter suggestion has gained some currency in Asia. with oft repeated and poorly constructed analysis making an e c do tal r e fer en c e to
authoritarian periods in some countries that experienced high economic growth. Sen, however, examines and rejects this view as being a case of "muddled thinking" that is neither historically, empirically nor analytically sustainable.
At the same discussion Arjuna Parakarama argued against equating democracy with symbolic practices, insisting instead that the nature of
democracy should be evaluated on the lived reality of an "enabling space'. This argument resonates profoundly with Sen's position in The Idea of Justice; prefaced with the concern for niti (realisations) and not just nyaya (arrangements). S en contrasts the se
understandings of democracy as the exercise of "public reasoning" and the exercise of "public balloting". Democracy cannot be the basis of
institutional arrangements, which
claimed on
widely miss their mark with regard to the realisation of a democratic space - where decisions arise from informed, deliberated, inclusive public reasoning.
On the day of the Presidential elections in Sri Lanka, in January 2010, the hugely dominant state television networks ran a
misinformation campaign, suggesting that the main

25
opposition candidate was not eligible to contest the elections, because he had not been registered to vote. The election
commissioner's rejection of this point was not carried by that network, but by a single private channel that had limited coverage, and that too, only minutes before polling closed. It was a case where the exercise of public balloting became an occasion for
with
misinformation, the exercise of
under m in in g,
public reasoning. Without space for public reasoning, public balloting becomes a largely meaningless exercise. As Sen
StatCS.
Balloting alone can be thoroughly inadequate on its own, as is abundantly illustrated by the astounding electoral victories of ruling tyrannies in authoritarian regimes in the past as well as those in the present, for example in today's North Korea. The difficulty lies not just in the political and punitive pressure that is brought to bear on voters in the balloting itself, but in the way expressions of public views are thwarted by censorship, informational exclusion and a climate of fear, along with the suppression of political opposition and the independence of the media, and the absence of basic civil rights and political liberties. Indeed, a great many dictators in the World have achieved gigantic
electoral victories even without
any overt coercion in the process of voting, mainly through suppressing public discussion and freedom of
information, and through generating a climate of apprehension and anxiety (p. 327).
Nethra Review ; June 2010
A false concept of "Asian values' is sometimes used to justify repressive political climates, when in fact, Sen makes the point, the functioning of such societies are better understood as the
of modern
(p.337).
Workings
authoritarianism
A fuller public reasoning view of democracy, rather than the anaemic public balloting description, implies that a free and
vibrant media is central to the
practice of democracy. Sen outlines four ways in which the media plays an essential role in preserving democracy and advancing justice:
First, is the direct contribution to the quality of human life, in a society where the ability to freely communicate and understand
each other is adequately protected. A high GDP can be a means to a higher quality of life, but less so when basic freedoms are eroded.
Second, it has an informational role in disseminating knowledge and allowing critical scrutiny. It enables discovery and accuracy about facts, without which public reasoning becomes confused and misled. Third, it has a protective function because it gives voice to the disadvantaged and the neglected, from which the rulers of a country tend to be insulated. F o u rith , it the unregimented formation of
enables
values, which arises from open communication and argument. It is open public discussion that allows individuals and Societies to
benefit from “the eyes of the other', and be affectively moved by concerns of justice and consequences that are outside of themselves.
Fascinatingly, Sen also finds an unlikely defender of the dual importance of democracy and the

Page 28
Nethra Review ; June 2010
media, in Chairman Mao speaking in his later years to a gathering of 7.000 cadres of the communist party, in the aftermath of much failure and famine in the failed
Great Leap Forward:
Without democracy, you have no understanding of what is happening down below; the general situation will be unclear; you will be unable to collect sufficient opinions from all sides; there can be no communication between top and bottom; top-level organs of leadership will depend on onesided and incorrect material to
decide issues, thus you will find it difficult to avoid being be
impossible to achieve unity of
subjectivist; it will
understanding and unity of action, and impossible to achieve true centralism.
Chairman Mao's defence of
democracy is limited to the informational role and protective function - which are unlikely to be
a chie ved without also a
functioning and free media - but it is, nevertheless, a decisive recognition of its value and importance for society - not least with regard to ensuring justice of those whose voices are suppressed by the absence.
The incongruence of the proclaimed US project of building democracy in Iraq was seen not
only in the actions surrounding the military invasion, but also in the way that Iraq became a most dangerous place for journalists, and independent media were thoroughly manipulated and suppressed in the aftermath. In recent years Sri Lanka has also achieved the status of becoming a country that is amongst the most hostile in the world to independent m e di a a n d j o u r n a li s t S . Government media ha s
effectively become the private propaganda outlets of those in power. Alternative news websites are blocked at will, over 10 journalists have been killed since the last parliamentary elections, and many more have been abducted and beaten within inches of death - with a chilling effect on the rest in the profession. The Press of independent Sunday Leader was torched, and the main studio of the private broadcaster, MTV, was destroyed with explosives in a commando style attack. The functioning private media does so with periodic reinforcements of a clear message - that its independence ends where the nose of the ruling regime begins.
Re-launching itself in this unfriendly media environment, it is the intention of Nethra Review
to be a space that opens up a small chink
environment of communication
in this suppressed
and thought. To open its readers,
 

through reviews and through commentary, to the "eyes of others' and to the "eyes of the World'. If Sen's analysis is right, Such "openings' are important not just for the expansion of freedom, for better public reasoning, and for the practice of democracy; but through all that, it is vitally important for the fundamental goal of building a healthier society and for achieving practical improvements injustice.
References
Andersen, Dines, and Helmet Smith, Eds. The Sutta-Nipata. Pub. for the Pali Text Society by Oxford University Press, 1948.
Bible (New International Version), Luke 10.25-37. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.
Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. H.J. Paton. New York:
Harper, 1964.
Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom. The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. New York:
Little, Brown & Company, 1994.
Mascaró, Juan, and Simon Brodbeck. The Bhagavad Gita. London: Penguin Books, 2002.
Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University, 1999. Scanlon, Thomas Michael. What
We Owe to Each Other.
Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1998.
Sen, Amartya. “The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal'. The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Jan.- Feb., 1970): 152-157.
Sen, Amartya. Poverty and Famines - An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Shakespeare, William. King John. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth
Editions Ltd., 1996.
Singer, Peter. "Famine, Affluence, and Morality'. Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Spring, 1972): 229-243.
Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. New York:
Prometheus Books, 2000.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. The Social Contract. Trans. Maurice
Cranston. London: Penguin, 1968.

Page 29
M
Translated
Mm (Chennai: Karuppu Pirathihal, 2004) is the second novel of the write
Tamil nation through the turbulent times of the 1980s in Jaffna and in ther
nationalism. Narrated in the voice of its protagonist Nesakumaran, the no
of age story. It is stark, harsh, unsentimental and honest.
When I first read the novel I was compelled to reread it in my own way, e
shakthi", which I included in my recent creative work, like myth and mothe
Work still in progress, I take part in rewriting that experience of Wonder a
have posed different and difficult challenges of experimentation of trans
novel, and provide a glimpse of the dare and devilry of its undertaking,
bonding, and offear, hope, loss and betrayal.
time
plaCe
black woman
Once upon a time
Sixteen Tamil members of parliamer Organization (TELO), Tamil Congr. with Kalpana Sharma the Secretary t appealed to the Indian governmentt spoke with concern and appreciatior contrary question? When is the LTTE
Meanwhile, Christina Rocca, a colleague of the
than the American air force to Jaffna.
Again,
The 20th anniversary of July '83. Ee black deeds of July '83. 1316 lives lo 7000 incidents of assault on persons, koothus, and bharathanatyam perfor
At that time, in a little green green to
There was no sign of any movement the north east of the capital city. Int Waiting in the waiting room.
A white woman of 40-odd years. Sh Bible in her hands. The two women I fourth woman. She strikes me as a li peaceful. Her long hairlay in loopso for her. She sat there like a blackang glances at this young woman now an The fifth one in the row, a red hea something. At one point she turnedt back without hesitation and with a SI only black woman among the seven.

Nethra Review ; June 2010
m
灰 Sumathy
who uses the pseudonym of Shoba Shakthi. Mm narrates the story of the
est of the country, and traces the tortuous path of the rise of militant Tamil
vel is a tour de force and a radical subversion of the conventional coming
Xpressing it in the poem, "on reading the astonishing novel mm by shoba
"r, apolitical autobiography in poetry and prose. In translating the novel, a
ind delight in all its horror and honesty. Its subversive style and language
lation. Here, I wish to share with the reader the first two chapters of the
capturing and memorializing the fraught ethos of a time of conflict and
it, led by the TULF, and including members of the Tamil Eelam Liberation ess (TC) and EPRLF, marched to Colombo as a force to have an audience othe Indian High Commissioner, Nirupam Sen. They had a mission. They o repeal the proscription of the LTTE by the Indian state. Kalpana Sharma 1. "We will certainly reevaluate the ban on the LTTE. But may I ask you a Egoing to remove its ban on you all people?" she asked in turn.
American Secretary for Defence, Colin Powell, was airlifted by no less
lam Tamils from all over Europe were busy observing the sad days of the st or murdered; 600 women raped; 80 babies sexually abused; more than They commemorated the event with a variety of entertainment: concerts,
TT13 f1C{ES.
wn in Europe there was something else unfolding.
in that little city, set deep within a forest of cherry trees, 126 kilometres to he centre of the city there is an abortion centre. There were seven women
he sat in silence, with her eyes unmoving staring hard at the pages of the next to her, their faces close together spoke in low and laughingtones. The ttle girl, child, about 14 or 15. Her face looked pure and serene. It looked nherlap. She wore fitting and clean clothes that had been carefully chosen al. Except for the woman with her eyes on the Bible, the other women stole d then. She smiled back at them whenever she caught them looking ather. aded woman looked greatly agitated and was always mumbling about o the young woman and asked, "How many months?” The response came mile, "56 days', as though she was always counting the days. She was the Her name is Nirami, woman of colour,

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Nethra Review: June 2010
nirami
premini
nirami
is pregnant
lauren
praSатта
paedophile
panaithivu
Crib
Niramiis mychild, my baby, I cami year after, in a civil marriage in the refugee.
One dark midnight, I woke up with a crying silently, I went down to her C pregnant with child. My body shra looked hard at Premini's face in the di my husband. What is it? Is it ou Kunchiyaahcchi for advice, to kno' Screaming she shook me hard, I sat flames all around me.
One day Nirami fainted at school. W “Who is responsible for this? A fri suspicions were aroused by her actic in a frightful scream to the hospital Premini slapped herin front of the nu her a severe warning. With her hands who was responsible for the pregnan
"Don't they teach the children abc understand even such simple things' drinking cup after cup of tea and disc Nirami's present condition. My wife brought him home a couple of times.
Prasanna comes to our house at lea occasions. When Premini heard of Nirami those days. We both set outt and another woman attached to so. Nirami refused to speak about her co lover, who will be called in legaltern
Languishing in the prison dump oft begins with the birth of a god.
TTT
1982 A.D. Preparations were under way for th
Panaithivu, the island of palmyrahs about half a nautical mille from the shrine of our Virgin Mariyal, withm
In happier times, to greet the baby J way before dawn to the shores of th tree with its pine like sloping stems." them back to Panaithivu by sea. The Then the work on the creche of baby Navy established it base, stationir Karaithivu. They slowly expanded i
treeS.
This year, the youth invaded the shru of the Sevarallitrees to create the cre grass dugout from the sandpits. The The balloons and tiny coloured bulb. obscene light. They hung the angels and Soosaiyappu were placed inside the dolls. A shooting shaft of light

e to Europe in 1987 as a refugee and married Premini, another refugee a town hall. Nirami was born to us the following year. She was born as a
start to find Preminion the floor, dashing her head on the edge of the bed, on the floor and held her close. She then broke the news that Nirami was nk. And my heart shuddered; it stopped; my body tightened, shrinking. I lark. "I was hoping I would not have to do this, breakthis horrible news to r land, to go running to the Women folks, elders, Periyaachchi and w what to do? To who else can I tell this? Aiyo, my man's gone mad!" | still, numb and frozen. The pit of my stomach burned. There were hot
then she was taken to the hospital they discovered that she was pregnant. end?", a doctor had asked her. Nirami refused to speak. The doctor's n, s/he had called the police. When the police called Preminishe had run . She slapped Nirami who was lying on the hospital bed, wan and pale. Irses. For this, the nurses had once again called the police, who had given : clasped together and with tears in her eyes, Preminibegged Niramito say cy. Niramidid not open her mouth. She did not speaka word.
put condoms and pills? I've given birth to an idiot child who cannot Premini wailed, her face on my shoulders. We sat together that midnight, 2ussed the ways and means of finding out the name of the guy who caused : Suspected Lauren, a white boy, who lived close to our house. Nirami had When Preminipressed me, Isaid I suspected her brother's son, Prasanna.
1st four times a week. He frequently stays over, at least twice on those my suspicion she calmed down a little. Our thoughts were always with o discover the identity of the person responsible. A woman police officer cial work with children began to frequent our house to talk to Nirami. nception, the pregnancy. My wife and I tried to speak to Nirami about her ns, apaedophile.
his wint'ry town, I've begun to write my baby's, Nirami's story. The story
he birth of God's son on a chilly December night in the tiny village of . It is one of the seven islands floating about in the northern seas and is Dutch Fort. The populace of Panaithivu was engaged in decorating the lch festive ado, in eager anticipation of the arrival of the Saviour.
esus' birth, the people, the young, would set out in a crowd in row boats e Casurina beach in Karaithivu, where row upon row stood the casurina They cut down a wholeheap of branches, tied them to the boats and towed casurina branch would then be carved in the spitting image of ax'mastree. Jesus, on the pillars of the church, and the white walls began. But then the g the 26th and 27th regiments there, making it impossible to enter into Karaithivu, eventually swallowing up the rows and rows of casurina
bjungle surrounding the government school and chopped down branches che of the baby. They layered the floor of the creche with the long stalks of 1 they placed a few blades of straw inside the creche, the ends sticking out. hung about on the sevaralli, red cactus plant, giving it a bright, garish and high above the crib on strings of thick rope. The puppets, Virgin Mariyal the crib. A star cut out of the thin foil of an empty tea box hung right above
carved out of the tin foil, came right down from high above, parting

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the messiah
|Sé277ZOP!
sirillumbini
tha veethu
lasser
tigers
таinathivи
buddhist
viharai
nesa kumaran
Mariyaal and Soosai. The three wise gold, myrrhandfrankincense.
For the past four years, the Joint Fo Terrorism Act) has held the reins of forces, forever circling the island, t navy might invade their land. It was light this year.
The bells for the sacrificial mass be Mariyaal. The melody was stolen fi was a slim, fair-faced man; so paleth incandescent light of the burning ca. flame. Moved by the spirit, inatranc
Priests today preach in all manner "Behold, the advent of a momentou its brightness grow. Behold, today, Saviour we had been waiting forth tied to the yoke by the shoulders, sincerity”. The priest began his exh his own rhetoric, he punctuated his s for a conquering race to dream of co Church began to disarray.
The Padre closed his eyes and raise news spread like wild fire among t Padre broke the bread, there was no scatter along the streets and alley.W. fences breakingapart the homes oft place of fire first: The Buddhist scho
Folks who lived around the Baudd building at night. But today they ha act. On this particular night, old Tha Church. They had dragged the sick schooldousing it with kerosene oil.
Old Thaveethu was in a state of tota glazed over with fear and panic. It w had attacked or tried to attack the Ka Panya seeka Bauddha school. Maybı thought the inquiring young men. L Appa, who setfire to the school built
The oldman, rolled his eyes in panic Lasserinsisted. "Are they tiger boys
In the ensuing silence, the beams o splintered and crumbled in a heap. T convey the news to the residents o continued: "There were two people. one who is going to be a priest'.
"Who, Nesakumaran'? That no go Iranguthurai, threatening the monk Pouring water on the fire, they put it sworn enemy from now on. They wi festivities to come. As the fire went ( the Church of Thomaiyappar of Pana

Nethra Review : June 2010
2 men from the east were suspended in the motion of opening their gifts of
rces of the Sri Lankan Defence, operating under the PTA (Prevention of law in Thamil Eelam. The people feared drawing the attention of the naval o the village. They feared lighting up in their usual festive fashion. The understood then that the Messiah would be born in diminished middling
agan to peal in an uproar. The Magnificant was sung by the followers of rom a well-known Sinhala baila. The priest began his sermon. The priest hat just a flick on the skin would make him turn red like a blood-clot. In the ndles at the altar, his mouse-like reddish face, cleanly shaven, burns like a 'e like state, he preached to the masses below in athunder of exhortation.
of fashion, using innuendo and satire, reduplication and euphemism. stime. In the far distance, you see a tiny point of light, burning bright. Let we have good news for all people, which I bring to you. Do not fear. The ousands of years has arrived. The days of liberation are near Ye, who are arise! The days of slavery are over. I bring to you these words in true ortation with great gusto, feeling, and poetic manouvre. Carried away by sermon with that goosebump raising slogan of Kasi Anandan, "Is it Wrong nquest once again?” At that very same moment, the left hand pews of the
d the cup. "The blood of Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for you'. The hose kneeling at the pews on the right. Pallathikku is on fire! When the body in the pews on the left. In panic, raising a howling cry, they ran in a ays in the direction of the leaping sparks of fire. The youth jumped over he villagers and raced across the fields, finding shortcuts, and reached the Iol, "Siri Lumbini Vidyalaya' was inflames.
la school, many of the youth and some of the elderly, slept in the school dall gone to the Nativity Mass. This is a carefully planned premeditated veethu was alone in the school building. He cannot walk all the way to the old man out of the building, tied him to a palmyrah tree and set fire to the
1 collapse. Struck speechless, he lay drenched in a pool of sweat, his eyes as a time of spreading stories. Some true, others rumours. Tamil militants raveddy Narada Bauddha school, Alvaai Somahe Bauddha School, Puttur e this school too had been set on fire by some band of freedom fighters, so asser took the old man by the shoulders and shook him, "Tell, Thaveethu ling? Do you know them? Did they say they were from the Tigers?"
'. He had notheard of the Tigers in his whole life. He mumbled something. '?' The oldman opened his mouth, slightly. "No, Vellamboys".
if the roof of the canopy at the entrance caught fire, cackled, spluttered, wo of the youth took offin a boatin the pitchblack night to Naina Thivuto f the Buddhist Vihara there. Gulping down some water, old Thaveethu I have no idea of who one of them is. The other is Ernest Master's son, the
od scoundrel lying on top of his mother! He did this once before in s. I swear before God, I will tear him to pieces". Sebarathinam wailed. toff. Two of them made a vow, a secret pledge. Nesakumaran is their first ill avenge this deed on him, cutting him down before the end of the Easter out, the parai drum of citizen Vaithi, the village drunk, could beheard from aithivu, announcing the birth of our Saviour.

Page 32
MO Fins
தன் கைகளிலே விரித்திருந்த பைபிள் புத்தகத்தையே பார்த்த வாறு இருந்தாள். அவளின் பச்சை விழிகள் இடமோ வலமோ புரளாமல் குத்திட்டு நின்றன. அவளை அடுத்திருந்த * • இரண்டு பெண்களும் கன்னத்தோடு கன்னம் இழைத்து மெல்லப் பேசிச் சிரித்துக்கொண்டிருந்தனர் நான்காவதாக அமர்ந்திருந்த இளம் பெண் அவளைச் சிறுமி என்று கூடச் சொல்லத் தோன்றுகிறது பதினான்கு அல்லது
நிர்மலமாய் இருந்தது அவளது கண்களில் சாந்தம் ஒளிர் கிறது. அவளின் நீளமான தலைமுடி அவளின் மடியில் புரண்டது மிகவும் பொருத்தமான், கவனமாகத் தேர்வு செய்யப்பட்ட தூய ஆடைகளை அவள் அணிந்திருந்தாள். அவள் தன் இருக்கையில் ஒரு கரிய தேவதையாக வீற்றி கறுப்பிருந்தாள். பைபிள் புத்தகத்தில் கண்களைக் குத்தியவளைத்
களால் கவனித்தனர். அவர்களின் கண்களைச் சந்திக்கும்
வதாக அமர்ந்திருந்து உதடுகளுக்குள் பதற்றத்தோடு எதையோ முனுமுணுத்தவாறேயிருந்த செந்நிறமுடிகொண்டவள் ஒரு கட்டத்தில் எத்தனை மாதம் என்று இவளைக் கேட்ட போது இவள் எப்போதுமே நாட்களை எண்ணிக் கொண் டேயிருப்பவன் போல 56 நாட்கள் என்று கூறிப் புன்னகைத் தாள். அந்தக் கூடத்தில் காத்திருந்த ஏழு பெண்களிலும் இவள் மட்டுமே ஒரு கறுப்பி அவள் பெயர் நிறமி
நிறமி என் குழந்தை நான் ஆயிரத்துத் தொளாயிரத்து
எண்பத்தேழாம் வருடம் அய்ரோப்பாவுக்கு அகதியாய்
வந்தேன். மறுவருடம் பிறேமினி என்ற அகதியை நகரமண்ட
நிறமி பத்தில் பதிவுத்திருமணம் செய்து கொண்டேன். அடுத்த
வருடம் நிறமி பிறந்தாள். அவள் பிறக்கும் போதே அகதியாய்ப் பிறந்தாள்.
ஒரு நடுநிசியில் நான் இடுக்குற்றுவிழித்தபோது பிறேமினி
மோதி மெளனமாய் அழுவதைக் கண்டேன். நான் கட்டிலை விட்டிறங்கி தரையில் உட்கார்ந்து அவளை அனைத்துக்
பிறேமினி செய்தியை எனக்குச் சொன்னாள் என்னுடல் சிறுத்துப் போனது இருதயம் நடுங்கி நின்றது. பிறேமியியின் முகத் தையே இருளில் உற்றுப் பார்த்துக்கொண்டிருந்தேன்.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

அப்போது தமிழர் விடுதலைக் கூட்டணி முதற்கொண்டு ரெலோ, தமிழ் கொங்கிரஸ் கட்சி ஈபிஆர்எல்எல் ஈறாக உள்ள தமிழ்ப் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்கள் பதினாறு பேர் படையெனத்திரண்டு சென்று கொழும்பிலிருந்த இலங்கைக் கான இந்தியத் தூதுவர் திருடம் சென்னின் செயலர் கல்பனா சர்மாவைச் சந்தித்து இந்திய அரசு தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் மீது விதித்திருக்கும் தடையை விலக்கிக்கொண் டேயாக வேண்டும் என முறையிட்டார்கள் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்களுடன் மிகுந்த பரிவோடு பேசிய கல்பனா சர்மா புலிகள் மீதான தடையை விலக்குவது குறித்து நாங்கள் நிச்சயமாகப் பரிசிலனை செய்கிறோம் அது சரி புலிகள் காலம் உங்கள் மீது விதித்திருக்கும் தடையை எப்போது விலக்கிக் கொள்வார்கள்? எனப் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்களை எதிர்க்கேள்விகேட்டார். அப்போது அமெரிக்காவின் யுத்த மந்திரி கொவின் பவலின் சகா கிறிஸ்டீனா ரொக்காவை அமெரிக்க வான்படையே அழைத்துவந்து யாழ்ப்பாணத்தில் இறக்கிவிட்டது அப்போது ஆயிரத்துமுந்நூற்றுப் பதினாறு உயிர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டும் அறுநூறு பெண்களும் எண்பது குழந்தைகளும் பாலியல் சித்திரவதை செய்யப்பட்டும் ஏழாயிரத்துக்கும் அதிகமான தாக்குதல் சம்பவங்கள் நடத்தப் பட்டதுமான ஜூலை 83 இனப்படுகொலையின் இருபதாவது வருடக் கறுப்பு நினைவுகளை அனுட்டிப்பதற்காக அப்ரோப்பா முழுவதும் ஈழத்தமிழர்கள் பாட்டுக்களையும் கூத்துக்களையும் பரத நாட்டியங்களையும் நடத்திக்
தலைநகரத்திலிருந்து வடகிழக்காக நூற்றியிருபத்தாறு கிலோ மீற்றர்கள் தொலைவில் செர்ரி மரக் காட்டிடையே சலனமற்றுக் கிடந்த சிறுநகரத்தின் மையத்திலிருந்த அரசு இடம் மருத்துவமனையின் கருக்கலைப்புப் பிரிவின் காத்திருப்போர் கூடத்தினுள்ளே வரிசையாக ஏழு பெண்கள் காத்திருந்தனர் முதலாவதாக அமர்ந்திருந்த வெள்ளைப் பெண்ணுக்கு
ஷோபா சக்தி 11
அய்யோ என்னுடைய மனுசனுக்கு இதைச் சொல்லக் கூடாது என்றிருந்தேனே, இது என்ன நம்முடைய நாடா?
அரற்றியவாறு என்னைப் பிடித்து உலுக்கினாள் நான் ஆடாமல் அசையாமல் விறைத்துப்போயிருந்தேன் என் அடிவயிறு பற்றி எரிந்தது.
நிறமி பாடசாலையில் மயங்கி விழுந்திருக்கிறாள். அவள் வைத்தியசாலைக்கு எடுத்துச் செல்லப்பட்டபோது நிறமி கர்ப்பமாயிருக்கிறாள் என்பது கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டது இதற்கு ஒரு நண்பனா காரணம் என வைத்தியர் கேட்டி ருக்கிறார் நிறமி எதுவும் பேச மறுத்திருக்கிறான் வைத்தியர் நிறமியின் நடவடிக்கைகளில் வித்தியாசங்களைக் கவனித்திருக் நிறமி கிறார். அவர் பொலிசாரை அழைத்தார். பொலிசார் பிறே மினியைத் தொலைபேசியில் கூப்பிட்டுத்தகவல் சொல்லிய மாகியது போது பிறேமினி அலறியடித்துக்கொண்டு ஆஸ்பத்திரிக்கு ஒடியிருக்கிறாள். படுக்கையில் வாடிப்போய்க் கிடந்த நிறமியைத் தாதிகன் முன்னிலையிலேயே பிறேமினி அறைந் திருக்கிறாள் நிறமியைப் பிறேமினி அடித்ததற்காகத்தாதிகள் ம் பொலிசாரை வைத்தியசாலைக்கு அழைத்திருக் கின்றனர். பொலிசார் பிறேமினியைக் கடுமையாக எச்சரித் இருக்கிறார்கள் பிறேமினி கைகளை கட்டிக்கொண்டு நின்று கர்ப்பத்துக்கு யார் காரணம் என நிறமியைக் கேட்டு அழுதிருக்கிறாள். நிறமி வாய் திறக்கவுமில்லை. ஒரு சொல் பேசவுமில்லை
இங்கே பாடசாலைகளில் ஆணுறை மாத்திரைகள் குறித்தெல்லாம் சொல்லிக் கொடுக்கிறார்கள் தானே, அது கூட விளங்காத ஒரு மக்குப் பிள்ளை என் வயிற்றில் வந்து
நிறமியின் கர்ப்பத்துக்குக் காரணமானவனைக் கண்டுபிடிப்பதற்குச் சில வியூகங்கள் வகுத்தோம் என் லோரன் மனைவிக்கு லோரன் மீது சந்தேகம் இருந்தது அவன் வெள்ளைக்காரச் சிறுவன். எங்கள் அயல் வீட்டுக்காரன் அவனை இரு தடவைகள் நிறமி எங்கள் வீட்டுக்கு பிறேமினி எனக்கு யாரில் சந்தேகம் என்று கேட்டபோது பிறேமினியின் அண்ணன் மகன்

Page 33
பிரசன்னா மீது தான் எனக்குச் சந்தேகம் தோன்றுவதாகச் Garigai.
பிரசன்னா கிழமைக்கு நான்கு நாட்களாவது எங்கள் விட்டுக்கு வருவான் இரண்டு நாட்களாவது எங்கள் விட்டில் தூங்குவான். இதைக் கேட்டதும் பிறேமினி ஓரளவு அமைதி Liffereiranir பானாள் அவளும் நானும் அடுத்து வந்த நாட்களில் நிறமி குறித்து மட்டுமே சிந்தித்தோம் இருவருமாக நிறமியின் கர்ப்பத்துக்குக் காரணத்தைத் தேடியலைந்தோம் ஒரு பெண் பொலிஸ் அதிகாரியும் குழந்தைகள் தொண்டு நிறுவனத்தைச் சேர்ந்த ஒரு பெண்மணியும் எங்கள்"விட்டுக்கு அடிக்கடி வந்து நிறமியோடு பேசிக்கொண்டிருந்தார்கள் நிறமி தன்
நானும் என் மனைவியும் நிறமியின் காதலனைக் குறித்துஒரு சட்டச்சொல்லில் தொல்ைவேனெ எனச் சொல்லலாம் நிறமியைப் பேச வைக்க முயன்றோம் நான் குளிர் நகரத்தின் பாழும் சிறையில் அடைக்கப் பட்டிருக்கும் இந்தக் காலத்தில் என் செல்லக் குழந்தை நிறமியின் கதையை எழுத ஆரம்பிக்கிறேன். கதை கடவுளின் பிறப்பிலிருந்து ஆரம்பிக்கிறது.
சோடிக்கப்பட்டன. பின் பாலன் கூட்டின் உச்சியில் அம்மனதானவரைச் சணல் கயிற்றில் கட்டித் தொங்கவிட்டார்
பாலன் கூட்டினுள் வைக்கப்பட்டன வெற்றுத் தேயிலைப் பெட்டி அலுமினியத் தாளில் வெட்டப்பட்டிருந்த வால் நட்சத்திரம் மரியாளுக்கும் சூசையப்புவுக்கும் நட்டநடுவாகக் குத்திட்டு இறங்க வால் நட்சத்திரத்தின் பின்னால் வந்து சேர்ந்த கீழ்த்திசை இராசாக்கள் மூவரும் தங்கள் பொக்கிசங்களைத் திறந்து பொன்னையும் துபவர்க்கத்தையும் வெள்ளைப் போனத்தையும் காணிக்கையாக்கினார்கள்
விழாக் காலங்களில் தேவாலயத்தைச் சூழவும் தொங்க விடப்படும் நிறங்கள் ஒளிரும் வெளிச்சக் கூடுகளைக் கடந்த நான்கு வருடங்களாகவே தமிழீழத்தின் சட்டம் ஒழுங்கு
சனங்கள் அவித்து விட தன் அந்தத் தீவைச் சதுர கால்மும் சுற்றித் திரியும் கடற்படைப் படகுகள் பெரும் வெளிச்சங்களைக் கண்டால் தீவுக்குள் நுழையக்கூடும் என அவர்கள் அச்சமுற்றிருந்தார்கள். ஒரு தெற்தெட்டான வெளிச்சத்தில் தான் மெசியா இன்று பிறக்கப்போகிறார்.
பலிப்பூசையின் ஆயத்த மணிகள் கிளர்த்தப்படAnTunas. தொடர்ந்து மரியாயின் சேனை வருகைப் பாடலைப் பாடியது அந்தப் பாடலின் மெட்டு ஒரு பிரபலமான சிங்கள பைலாப் பாடலின் மெட்டிலிருந்து திருடப்பட்டிருந்தது. பின்பு பாதிரி பிரசங்கிக்கத் தொடங்கினான். அந்தப் பாதிரி நடுத்தர வயதுள்ளவனாகக் காணப்பட்டான். அவன் ஒல்லி
இருந்தான் க்க அவனது செக்கச் செவேவென்ற் சிறிய மூஞ்சிபலிப்பிடத்தில் எரிந்துகொண்டி ருக்கும் மெழுகுவர்த்திகளின் ஒளியில் சுவாலையாய்க் கனல் கிறது. அவன் உருவேறி சனங்களுக்கு ஆவேசத்துடன் பிரசங்கித்தான்
பாதிரிகள் இப்போதெல்லாம் சிலேடை அங்கதம் இரட்டைக்கிளவி இடக்கரடக்கல் எனத் தமிழ் மொழியின் எல்லாப் பொற்பங்களையும் பிரயோகித்துப் பிரசங்கிக்கத் தொடங்கிவிட்டார்கள். இது என்னே ஒரு முக்கியமான
காலம் தொலைவில் வெளிச்சம் புள்ளியாய் ஒளிர்கிறது.
ہلال
y
பிரசங்கம்
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Nethra Review ; June 2010
ஷோபா சக்தி 13
கிறிஸ்துவுக்குப் பின் ஆயிரத்துத் தொளாயிரத்து எண்பத்து இரண்டாம் வருடமும் டிசம்பர் மாதத்தின் ஒரு பணிக்காலச் சாமத்தில் கடவுளின் குமாரன் அந்தப் பனைத் தீவில் பிறப்பதற்கு ஏற்பாடாகியிருந்தது. வட சமுத்திரத்தில் அலைந்துகொண்டிருக்கும் ஏழு சின்னத் தீவுகளில் ஒல்லாத் பனைத் துக் கடற்கோட்டையிலிருந்து அரைக் கடல் மைல் எட்டத் தீவு தில் மிதந்த பனைத்தீவில் மீட்பனின் வருகைக்காகப் பெருத்த ஆரவாரத்துடன் கன்னிமரியானின் பீடத்தைச் சனங்கள் அலங்கரிக்கலானார்கள்
முன்பெல்லாம் ஏகபாலனின் பிறப்பைச் சோடனை செய்வதற்காக அதிகாலையிலேயே ஒரு கூட்டம் இளைஞர் கள் தோணிகளில் காரைதீவு ககரினா கடற்கரைக்குப் புறப் பட்டுப் ப்ோவார்கள் ககரினா கடற்கரையில் வரிசையாக நிற்கும் சவுக்கம் மரங்களின் கொப்புகளைத்தறித்துத் தோணி
சவுக்கம் கொப்புகளை அச்சு அசலாக நத்தார் மரங்களைப் போலவே நுட்பத்துடன் சிதைத்துப் பாலன் கூட்டையும் ஆலயத்தின் தூண்களையும் வெண்ணிறச் சுவர்களையும் அலங்களிப்பார்கள். இப்போதெல்லாம் காரைதீவுக்குள்ளேயே போக முடியாதபடி இலங்கைக் கடற்படையின் தளம் - இங்கே 26, 27 மற்றும் 34வது படையணிகள் நிலைகொண்டி ருக்கின்றன - காரைதீவுக்குள் மெல்ல மெல்ல விரிந்து
காடு பற்றிக் கிடந்த செவ்வரளிப் புதர்களிடையே புகுந்த இளைஞர்கள் செவ்வரளிக் கொப்புகளை வெட்டி வந்து பாலன் பாலன் கூடு வனைந்தார்கள். மண்குழிக் குட்டையில் வெட் டிப் பெயர்த்தெடுக்கப்பட்ட பசும்புகள் பாளம் பாளமா கூடு கப் பாலன் கூட்டினுள் அடுக்கப்பட்டன. ஒரு மெல்லிய வைக்கோல் கற்றை பாலன் கூட்டின் உள்ளும் புறமுமாகப் பிய்த்தெறியப்பட்டது. பலூன்களாலும் சிறிய
மின்குமிழ்களாலும் செவ்வரளிக் கொப்புகள் ஆபாசமாகச்
ஷோபா சக்தி 115
அது பிரகாசிக்கட்டும் இதோ எல்லா ஜனங்களுக்கும் மிகுந்த சந்தோஷத்தை உண்டாக்கும் நற்செய்தியை உங்களுக்கு அறிவிக்கிறேன். பயப்படாதிருங்கள்! ஆயிரம் ஆண்டுகளாய் நாம் காத்திருந்த மீட்பர் தோன்றிவிட்டார் விடுதலைக்கான
திரியும் ஜனங்கள் எழுவீர்! அடிமையாய் கிடந்த நாட்கள் மறையும் என்று மெய்யிலும் மெய்யாகவே உங்களுக்குச் சொல்கிறேன் இப்படியாக ஆரம்பத்திலிருந்தே சிலேடை பேசிய பாதிரி கதையோடு கதையாக ஆண்ட பரம்பரை மீண்டும் ஒருமுறை ஆள நினைப்பதில் என்ன குறை என்று காசி ஆனந்தனின் உணர்ச்சி நறுக்கொன்றைத் தனது பிரசங்கத்துக்குள் சொருகிய கணத்தில் ஆலயத்தின் இடதுபுற வரிசைகள் கலையலாயின.
பாதிரி கண்களை மூடி மதுக்கோப்பையைத் தூக்கிக் காட்டி இது உங்களுக்காகச் சிந்தப்படும் என் இரத்தம் என்ற போது தேவாலயத்தின் வலதுபுறத்தில் முழந்தாளிட்டு சிறி நின்றவர்களிடையே ஒரு செய்தி பரவியது பள்ளதிக்கு பற்றி லும்பிளி எரியுதாம் பாதிரி அப்பத்தைப் பிய்த்தபோது ஆலயத்தின் இடதுபுறத்தில் யாரும் இருக்கவில்லை. அவர்கள் தெருக் களாலும் ஒழுங்கைகளுக்குள்ளாலும் தீ நாக்குகள் எழும் திக்கை நோக்கி அரற்றியவாறும் குழறியவாறும் ஒடிக் கொண்டிருந்தார்கள் வீட்டு வேலிகளையும் தோட்டக் காணிகளையும் தாண்டிக் குதித்து குறுக்கு வழிகளால் ஓடி வந்த இளைஞர்கள் தான் முதலில் வந்து சேர்ந்தார்கள் பவுத்த பாடசாலையான சிறிலும்பினி வித்யாலாயா பற்றி எரிந்துகொண்டிருந்தது.
விேக்கும் இளைஞர்களில் பலரும் சில முதியவர்களும் இர வில் பாடசாலைக் கட்டடத்துள் படுப்பதுண்டு இன்று எல்லோரும் நத்தார் பூசை காணக் கோயிலுக்குப் போயிருக் தாவீது
பற்ற வைத்திருக்கிறார்கள் இன்று தாவீதுக் கிழவர் மட்டும்
இருக்கிறார். அவரால் ஆலயம் இருக்கும் தொலைவுக்கு நடக்க முடியாது அந்த நோயாளிக் கிழவரை இழுத்துவந்து பனை மரத்தோடு சேர்த்துக் கயிற்றால் கட்டிவிட்டுப் பாடசாலையை மண்ணெண்ணெய் ஊற்றிக் கொழுத்தியிருக்கிறார்கள் لارو 3.
ぷべ
31

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Nethra Review ; June 2010
தாவீதுக் கிழவர் நடுங்கிக் கிடந்தார். அவருக்குப் பேச நா எழுவதாய் இல்லை வியர்வையில் பஞ்சைத் தேகம்
கரவெட்டி சிறி நாரதா பவுத்த பாடசாலை அல்வாய் சேமஹே பவுத்த பாடசாலை புத்தூர் பன்யாசீக பவுத்த பாடசாலை ஆகியவற்றைத் தமிழ்ப் போராளிகள் தாக்கினார் கள் தாக்க முற்பட்டார்கள் என்றெல்லாம் உண்மைகளும் வதந்திகளும் பரவிக் கிடந்த காலமது. ஆகவே இந்த பவுத்த பாடசாலையையும் யாராவது போராளிகளே கொழுத்தி விட்டுச் சென்றிருக்கலாம் என இளைஞர்கள் சந்தேகமுற் றனர். லாசர் தான் தாவீதுக் கிழவரைப்பிடித்து உலுக்கினான்
சொல் தாவீது அப்பா யார் பள்ளிக்கூடத்தைக் கொழுத்தி பவர்கள்? நீ அவர்களை அடையாளம் கண்டாயா? தங்களை அவர்கள் புலிப்படைப் பொடியள் என்று சொல்லிக் கொண்டார்களா? கிழவர் அலங்க மலங்க விழிகளைப் புரட்டினார். புவிப்படைப் பொடியன் என்ற சொல்லையே தன் வாழ்நாளில் இப்போதுதான் அவர் முதல் முறையாகக் கேட்டிருக்கக்கூடும் தாவீதுக் கிழவர் வாயினுள் ஏதோ முணுமுணுத்தார் லாசர் மறுபடியும் கேட்டான் யார் புலிப்படைப் பொடியளா? கிழவர் மெதுவாக வாயைத் திறந்தார் இல்லை வெள்ளாம் பொடியள்
சடாரென ஒரு நிசப்தம் எழ பாடசாலையின் முகட்டுச் சலாகைகள் தீயில் சடசடவென ஒலியெழுப்பித் தெறித்து வீழ்ந்தன. இரண்டு இளைஞர்கள் இரவோடு இரவாகத் தோணியில் கிளம்பி செய்தியைச் சொல்ல நயினாதீவு புத்த விகாரைக்குப் போயினர் தண்ணீர் குடித்துவிட்டு தாவீதுக் கிழவர் சொன்னார் இரண்டு பேர் வந்து கொழுத்தினார்கள் அவர்களில் ஒருவனை என்னால் அடையாளம் கான முடியவில்லை மற்றவன் ஏர்னஸ்ட் வாத்தியாரின் மகன் அந்த சுவாமிக்குப் படித்த பொடியன்
யார் நேசகுமாரனா? அந்தத் தாயோளித் தறுதலை முன்பும் ஒரு தடவை இறங்குதுறையில் வைத்து ஆமத்துறுக் களை மிரட்டியுள்ளான் அம்மட்ட சிறி அவனைக் கொத்தா மல் விடுவதில்லை என செபரத்தினம் பதறினான் இளைஞர் கள் தண்ணீர் ஊற்றித் தீயை அனைத்துக்கொண்டிருக்க அவர்களில் இருவர் நேசகுமாரன் தான் தங்களது முதலாம் எதிரி என்பதாய் இரகசியம் பறைந்தார்கள். அவர்கள் எதிர்வரும் ஈஸ்டர் பண்டிகைக்கு முன்னதாய் நேசகுமாரனை
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S LS S S S S S S S S S SS SS SS
GEORGE A. A KER IL OF
R ΑΟ Η Ε.Ι., Ε. Κ. R. ANTON
 

ஷோபா சக்தி 17
வெட்டிச் சரிப்பதாகச் சபதம் செய்தார்கள் சிறி லும்பினி
வித்தியாலாயா தனிந்த போது மீட்டர் பிறந்துவிட்டார்
என்பதற்கு அடையாளமாகப் பனைத்தீவின் தோமையப்பர்
ஆலயத்தில் ஊர்க் குடிமகன் வைத்தியின் பறைமேளம்
ட்டப்பட்டது.
L)
dentity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being
George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton Princeton University Press, 200 pages, 2010)
dentity Economics bridges a critical gap in the social sciences. It brings identity and norms to economics. People's notions pf what is proper, and what is forbidden, und for whom, are fundamental to how hard they work, and how they learn, pend, and save. Thus people's identityheir conception of who they are, and of who they choose to be - may be the most important factor affecting their economic ives. And the limits placed by society on people's identity can also be crucial leterminants Of theiT eCOmOmniC Wellbeing.

Page 35
The battle on the bund took place around the time of the 1965
The details were disputed when we first heard about it in 1976, but the outlines On the one side was
general elections.
were clear. the Schoolmaster's extended family: his father, three brothers, and their offspring. Somasiri and his father were prominent members of the opposing group. The parties exchanged blows on a narrow paddy field bundless than 100 yards The Schoolmaster's party came from
long.
the eastern end, where the bund connected to the only motorable road in that part of Wellepollewa. Somasiri's party came from the western side: a block of highland where about a dozen modest little houses, connected only by narrow pathways, were hidden among tall cinnamon bushes. Access to their piece of highland was closed off on the other side by the fencing of a small rubber estate; the path across the bund was the only direct access to almost every place they were likely to go. Somasiri's people had been pressing for the bund to be widened, so that they could reach their homes by cart or The area had
strong traditions of leftist politics
motor vehicle.
and of "self-help' in getting or keeping control of increasingly scarce land. Election fever probably emboldened them: one day, they assembled with hand tools and set about widening the
bund into a cart track.
A sliver off a paddy field of mediocre quality might seem a Small price to pay for giving a dozen families access to their houses by wheeled vehicle. But the paddy land belonged to the Schoolmaster's father's brother. It would have been totally out of character for any member of that family willingly to give up any of their property for the benefit of
The Sch and S
Mick
In the
muscular environment of local
their poorer neighbours.
politics, the family strategy was not to use their modest wealth to cultivate goodwill and grateful dependents among the local poor, but to maintain a reputation for striking back hard in the face of provocation. In 1976, one of the Schoolmaster's cousins had just been released from jail. He had killed a man who refused to re-pay money loaned to him, bribed his Way out of police custody, and later assaulted a police officer. As
explained that his family would always rally round one another, the Schoolmaster's father seemed positively proud of his nephew. With his kondu (top-knot), betelchewing, willingness still to in his 70s, and confrontational attitudes, the old
labour even
man conformed to one image of a traditional peasant. He was not rich, but, like his three brothers, he was well off compared to most locals. He owned over 7 acres of paddy land and a couple of dozer acres of highland. He claimed that his family had been the first to settle in that part of Wellepollewa They had moved in the 1930s, as the older centre of Meegama Village, a mille or two away, hac become increasingly crowded Other families, he said, hac followed only in the 1940s anc 1950s. by a single caste. You did not have
Meegama is dominatec
to go back more than a couple o generations to find kinshi connections between familie who now regarded themselves a

Oolmaster Omasiri
Moore
33
And the Schoolmaster's family were
very different.
insistent on status differences. His father was not ashamed of his own peasant lifestyle and persona, but had ensured that his children would not share them. By 1976, when I took up residence in Wellepollewa, the Schoolmaster was the Principal of a large secondary School a few miles away. Already in his late 40s, but unmarried, he was in immaculate white national dress as he set off for Work each morning on his bicycle. His younger sister was also a teacher, also unmarried, and also living at home with their parents. Brother and sister were educated enough to shyly try
speaking a few words to me in
Nethra Review ; June 2010
English. The Schoolmaster's brother, who visited occasionally from his senior post in the Survey Department in Colombo, was fluent. The family had done well for themselves. The old man at least intended to keep things that way, and saw family solidarity and a reputation for Willingness to use
force as essential instruments.
He had paid a price for that willingness on that day in 1965 when the family mobilised to drive Somasiri's people away from their path-Widening enterprise. Blows were exchanged, and the old man received a bad cut to his stomach. But his family won the battle. The bund was not widened. For the next few years at least, the attempt was unlikely to be repeated. The United National Party (UNP) won the 1965 general elections. Anyone who knows rural Lanka may already have guessed that there was a strong party political The
Schoolmaster's family were
dimension to this conflict.

Page 36
Nethra Review ; June 2010
strong UNP supporters, as were most property owners in that locality. predominantly leftists: supporters of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the Marxist LSSP, or later the insurrectionary leftist JVP.
Poorer people were
Somasiri's father had spent time as an estate labourer, and had represented the LSSP on the Village Council.
When the UNP lost the next
general elections, in 1970, local politics hotted up. The housecum-shop that had served as the UNP's Wellepollewaheadquarters was burned to the ground. The houses of several UNP-ers, including from the Schoolmaster's family, were attacked and
More violence was
In 1971, JVP (People's Liberation Front)
damaged. soon to follow.
launched their first Insurgency. The Meegama area was a JVP stronghold. It took several weeks for the army to regain control. Somasiri, his father and a brother were among the several thousand young men held in army custody for several months. Another
brother had been killed during the fighting. The detainees were apparently all beaten, but grateful not to have been captured by the police, from whom worse was expected. The police were alleged to have captured and killed the local JVP leader after the area had
been pacified; his daughter was married into Somasiri's family. It was also whispered that information on the JVP had been
provided to the security forces from the Schoolmaster's house.
Did it come from his belligerent
father?
reserved Schoolmaster himself?
From the rather more
Or was it just another one of the many false allegations that political opponents made about
one another?
When we arrived at Wellepollewa in mid 1976, Somasiri was rehabilitated politically. He was an active member of the SLFP, and
was elected Chairman of the local
branch in October. I liked him. He
was a big, bluff, straightforward man with considerable charm -
but also a rather short temper. He was in some ways a good politician, and certainly tirelessly Like his father, he was schooled in the language of
active.
revolutionary class politics. To her regret in later life, one of his young daughters was named Leila Khaled, Palestinian plane hijacker and
in honour of the
poster girl. This was a bold choice in that totally Sinhalese Buddhist
Like all local
politicians, Somasiri was the
environment.
subject of allegation and innuendo. One woman told us
that he was trying to force her out of her house. Another said that he had seized by force the piece of paddy land he currently was cultivating. I respected in particular the opinion of a veteran member of the LSSP who ran a
small cycle repair shop in Schooled in LSSP
traditions of party debate,
Meegama.
discipline and loyalty, he had a low opinion of the political opportunism of Somasiri's family. Just before the 1977 election, the Meegama LSSP office was burgled and robbed. Somasiri's
name was mentioned.
In 1976, the Lankan economy was at a very low point; imports, food and foreign exchange were scarce. There were far too many people in the village, especially children and Women, who were not even getting enough calories. Complaints of theft were rife. There was no unpleasantness in Somasiri's suggestion that, if my three research assistants and I
were going to spend a lot of time
34
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here asking questions, then We ught to do something for the eople in return. He did not try to et anything from us for himself, or did he seem at all impressed or timidated by the white foreigner. e was candid about some of his
He hoped that the eylon Petroleum Corporation
Wn plans.
ould build a petrol station in feegama and that his work for the
LFP would enable him to
ecome the manager. That never The SLFP-led
was already
appened.
O V CTI IT el
npopular and out of steam. omasiri had only a few months in ost as local SLFP Chairman
afore the UNP won the general ections in July 1977.
'ith the UNP backinpower, there ‘emed little likelihood that the
:hoolmaster's family would need gain to turn out inforce to defend eir little sliver of paddy land. 'ealth and power seemed hysically embodied in the :hoolmaster's substantial family buse, that Stood near a motorable ad overlooking the disputed und. All three siblings were in cure government employment. addition to the main house, their Impound contained a small spare use suitable for visiting searchers, a sealed toilet; a solid, 'ep, reliable well for drinking ater located just outside the tchen; and the best bathing well I er enjoyed in Lanka. On the her side of the paddy field, masiri's people lived in small uses hidden among the nnamon. Few had more than 'o rooms, and many were partly Their drinking ater sources were not always
ade of mud.
ove suspicion. The air was not ways free of the smell of
Like most of the
ople in Wellepollewa, their
Crement,
ain sources of livelihood were
sual labour, Wood sawing,
peeling cinnamon when there was little else to do, and work as masons and carpenters on building sites in Colombo.
By the late 1970s, the national economy was growing again and job opportunities were opening up in the Middle East. The
repressiveness of the UNP government does not seem to have had much direct local impact in Wellepollewa. The Schoolmaster had strong political views, and was a believer in rules and order, but he was not an active politician. If retaliation or revenge for the battle on the bund was on his mind, it was not a priority. Despite being in the political opposition, and remaining an active member of the SLFP. Somasiri somehow got, and kept, a job as a bus driver with the Ceylon Transport Board. If it were not for the Second JVP
Insurgency of the late 1980s, the conflict between the families
might have faded entirely. This time, Meegama was not a JVP stronghold. However, as in much of Lanka, the JVP was for a while
the dominant source of local
authority. They collected identity cards and money from the villagers and enforced strikes and curfews. The JVP came close to
success nationally, but over
From mid 1989, they suffered a devastating Death squads were formed from within the
armed forces, the UNP and other
Thousands of
suspected JVP-ers were taken,
reached themselves.
counter-attack.
political parties.
sometimes tortured, killed and burned. One night, a vehicle came to Wellepollewa and parked by the Schoolmaster's house. A couple of nights later, a group of masked JVP-ers broke into the house and
stabbed the Schoolmaster to death
in front of his father and sister.
Why? A cousin of the

Page 37
Schoolmaster says it was all a mistake. The police came to the village searching for JVP-ers, and for some reason parked their vehicle by the Schoolmaster's house. The JVP wrongly thought he had been helping the police, and murdered him in retaliation, just as they killed the Grama Sevaka and a couple of other people in the locality. Somasiri's family tella different story. It was not the "police' that parked by the Schoolmaster's house, but a death squad. They came over to Somasiri's house because the
Schoolmaster had told them that
Somasiri was hiding a JVP-er there. Fortunately, a member of the squad somehow knew Somasiri, and did not believe that he was helping the JVP. One JVPer from Meegama was killed and his body burned. Several others are still missing. But the death squad left Somasiri safe with his family.
Somasiri died, of natural causes, a
His tiled
grave sits conspicuously between
couple of years ago.
the remnants of the little house I
remember from 1976 and the
spacious, high ceilinged new building in which the family now live. Four members of the family currently work in the Gulf. Dropping in without notice on the last day of 2009, we find one of his daughters, a returnee from the Gulf, in a rather elegant black Western dress. It is the turn of this
family to shyly speak a few words in English. Schoolbooks are all around. In this household as
elsewhere in the village, job opportunities in the Gulf or in the armed forces seem to have
induced an energy and optimism
that was not there in 1976. And
there is another very tangible change: a motorable road now passes in front of the Somasir family house. It takes off from the older road that passes the formel Schoolmaster's house, and crosses the paddy field exactly where the battle on the bund took place 44 years ago. And right there, where the two roads join, is a large new solid concrete block with an
official inscription, in Sinhalese: The SLFP
majority on the local Divisional
Somasiri Road.
Council paid their tribute to the political opportunist who turned out to be a long term party
stalwart.
And what of the Schoolmaster's
house? After his murder, the household began to disintegrate. The Schoolmaster was buried
according to the minimalist rites that the JVP prescribed for their victims. In contrast to Somasiri, he has no visible grave. The Schoolmaster's father passed away a few years later. His sister moved to a less hostile locality by the main road in Meegama. For a while, the house - and the adjoining researchers' house - were being used for a furniture assembly business run by the Schoolmaster's brother, now retired from the Survey Department. Both houses are now locked and empty. The vegetation in the compound is closing in over them. And that beautiful bathing well has been concreted over.
I like to think that Somasiri's
people eventually won the battle on the bund. It is partly a matter of fairness, but also because I generally found them more likeable. But, with hindsight, I wonder how much that reflected
the ways in which poverty and
 

relative lawlessness motivated
different groups of Villagers to behave differently? Because they
were never far above the bread
line, Somasiri's people were always potentially in need of help and support from nearby families. Sociability was perhaps to some degree a material necessity. In contrast, the Schoolmaster's family had enough property to feel the need to defend it against their less fortunate neighbours, but not enough wealth or connections that they could reliably call upon politicians, the police or other government agencies for help and support. Solidarity with other propertied family members, and belligerent defence of every last Square inch of land made sense. Theft was a constant feature of
life, and intimidation, violence
and murder never seemed far
away. I recall the evening when
the Schoolmaster burst white
faced into our little house, with his forearm slashed open. He had just disturbed a young man stealing his coconuts, and been attacked with a knife. I knew the boy responsible, and was fond of his parents. His father had been working for years on the estate of a large landowner. He was legally entitled to the status of a permanent employee,
The
landowner, nominally a politician
with pension benefits.
of the left, was enjoying a sinecure political post in Colombo. When I had attempted to intercede on behalf of his employee, he had sent me away with a large flea in my ear. We did persuade the local police not to beat up the thieving son while he was in custody. That
earned us a lot of kudos with the family and with people like No doubt the
Schoolmaster and his family knew
Soma siri.
Nethra Review : June 2010
that we had in effect taken sides
against them; they were good enough never to mention it.
The battle on the bund was not an
historical inevitability. But the kinds of conflict it reflected did
seem to have structural roots in the
Ways in which groups of people with different amounts of property sought security in that rather lawless environment. If
behaviour and attitudes in the
Schoolmaster's family were driven more by these structural
factors than by bloodymindedness, we should not be grudge the m their achievements. The successor
generation - the four children of the Schoolmaster's brother from
the Survey Department - have indeed done well. All are Well
educated. Two live in Colombo; one is settled in America and the
other in Australia. Were he still
alive, their grandfather would have been proud of their success, probably not too disturbed by the empty house and the buried bathing well, and perhaps not entirely enraged at the sight of Somasiri Road. The prosperity of his family is rooted in his hard
It is
Surely progress that they have opportunities to enjoy prosperity
labour and belligerence.
Without needing to continually watch and warn off their
neighbours. The quality of social life in the Wellepollewa that I It is
probably a more civilised place
remember was not good.
now, since material poverty is not quite so pressing now. And don't even beginto talk to me about "the harmony of the traditional Sinhalese village' - or at least do the body count before you start.

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Nethra Review ; June 2010
Counterrealism and Indo
Anglian Fiction by Chelva Kanaganayakam Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 213pp., CDN$53,55
Chelva Kanaganayakam's book titled Counterrealism and IndoAnglian Fiction deals with a much larger subject than Sri Lankan literature in English. It connects literary theory with literary products with great finesse, and is quite a difficult book for the lay reader, unversed in the jargon of specialist literary writing. Its basic thesis is that fiction, as written by Some major Indian writers, not only holds a mirror to the age, as Shakespeare's dramas were said to have done, but that the mirror created its own images through the method of counter-realism, or, as we more usually call it "magic realism'. The technique of magic realism as practiced by Gabriel García Márquez in such celebrated novels as Love in the Time of Cholera intensifies emotions by creating situations, which are almost epic and certainly poetic in content. Thus, the lover in Love in the Time of Cholera spends every day of his youth waiting for the loved one to pass through the center of the town, never speaking to her. When her husband dies, he marries her, and his devotion to her remains
unabated in the face of cholera and
death. Love takes on almost mystical proportions like the love of the mystics for God. Physical love is subsumed into mystical love. One would think that this kind of emotional angst is related to the Latin American practice of Catholicism, which believes in the real presence of Christin the bread and wine of the Eucharist. In our own literature, Patrick Fernando, in poems such a "The Fisherman Mourned By His Wife", has created such em o ti on al
intensities.
What Chelva Kanaganayakam
Counterr Major
Wilfred Ja
does is to apply this concept of magic realism or counterrealism to works by the great Indian writers of fiction such as R.K. Narayan, G.W. Desani, Anita Desai, Zulfikar Ghose, Sunil Namjoshi and Salman Rushdie, the best known of them all. We have seen this technique used in the cinema in Slumdog Millionaire where al phantasmagoria is created through the clashing Worlds of wealth and poverty in modern Indian cities. In our own Sri Lankan literature, we have seen its most recent p r a c t i ti o n e r i n J ag ath Kumarasinghe's stories in Kider Chetty Street, which takes off from Narayan. In this review, I wish to refer specifically to two authors (Wije s in ha and Selvadurai) from Sri Lanka who are described by Kanaganayakam (and two others, Sarathchandra and Kumarasinghe) as practicing counterrealism as a major motif in their work.
Allegory and Counterrealism in Rajiva Wijesinha, Shyam Selva durai, Ediriwe er a Sarathchandra and Jagath Kumarasinghe
Though 1832 (abolition of fe u d a 1 is m ) a ni di 1947 (independence from colonial rule) are well known watersheds in the development of the Ceylon polity, in our own day, by the referendum of 1982, one and a half centuries after the abolition of feudalism and the introduction of partial self rule, the peoples' right to choose their rulers was effectively controlled and diminished in a
36

ealism: a
Motif
yaSuriya
series of steps. If one were to think of the growth of democracy in Ceylon as a climb up a mountain from 1832 to 1977, then the failure of democracy can be visualized as a downward process, from 1982 to the present day ("coming down the mountain when she comes, singing Aye, Aye Hippee Hippee Aye!"). This is hardly a controversial statement now, but then do we agree on democracy"? Because of the controversial nature of democracy as perceived by various sections of the people (was it absolute rule by the majority etc.), it was no longer possible to accomplish a consensus of rights and duties. At Such a time, those who felt the need to protest against the Way things were going had to do so indirectly, through fiction and allegory.
Rajiva Wijesinha's Acts of Faith and Days of Despair were published in 1983. The Referendum of 1982 abolished the
General Election that was due in July 1983. There was a shocked response, but no effective opposition because it was a novel move. Instead of the General Election, that should have been held in July 1983, the ethnic pogrom of July 1983 took place, when Tamils in majority Sinhala areas were attacked by Sinhala mobs, directed by men in shorts carrying electoral registers to identify Tamil households by householders' names. Was it a government-inspired event to divert attention from the loss of the most valuable right of the people, the franchise, the right to choose their rulers? Was it like
Hitler's burning of the Reichstag and blaming it on the Communist party of Rosa Luxemburg? The timing of the pogrom, and the Way it was created, threw suspicion on the Prime Minister, J.R. Jayawardene, who had arrogated presidential status to himself by changing the constitution, and his Minister Cyril Matthew. The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, senther Foreign Minister, Narasimha Rao, to Colombo to meet J.R. Jayawardene, who called Cyril Matthew to the presence of the Visiting Indian Minister and asked him whether he (Matthew) had instigated and organized the pogrom, which Matthew promptly denied. During these frightful days of state sponsored terrorism, no voice was raised due to fear. However, at this time, Rajiva Wijesinha, himself a person very close to the powers that be, but not in alliance with them, published in India the two novels mentioned above. It was a
satire on the behaviour of the President and his Ministers during the crisis, which they had failed to bring under control or avert. At that time, it was not apparent that it was a crisis created by the government itself, fearful of an uprising against it for depriving the people of their most treasured right. It appeared, rather, to be an attack on the government So skillfully was the event cloaked by its perpetrators. Wijesinha's novels therefore focused on the ineptitude of the government in dealing with the crisis.
In that climate of fear and lawlessness, the events were masked in description or in counter realism. A scene in Acts of Faith presents the president J.R. Jayawardene hiding under his bed with a cloth covering his face and head, and his ministerial friends are gathered around the bed, under which he is hiding. One of them is Matthew (the name of the alleged chief organizer of the pogrom), and the others are Mark, Luke and

Page 39
John-clearly a satirical portrait of the ruling clique, an unholy group, unlike what their names indicate. Further, the President himself was known familiarly as Dick (since his name was Junius Richard Jayawardene, and since the British pet name for Richard was Dick), and his brother, who was his legal adviser and confidante, was Harry Jayawardene (a well known lawyer). So, apart from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there are also Tom, Dick and Harry. In the story, the President is not Dick but Tom, a typical displacement:
Despite any enthusiasm he might have displayed at first towards the rioting, it is more than likely that as time passed and the mayhem increased, Tom was totally overwhelmed by the destruction. He, the President of his country (and an Executive one at that), the father of his nation, as he used fondly to think of himself while contemplating his vasectomy, could not have viewed with equanimity the wholesale and retail devastation of so many of his people. He must at the very least have been prostrate with grief for a time.
We can see him then lying on the large iron four-poster bed of his ancestors, clad in the nightshirt belonging to his father that he wore on many ceremonial occasions of
retirement. He does not Wear the matching nightcap with the bobble on top that he uses at more intimate moments, but rather his father's grand old fullbottomed wig, Which he understandably thinks is more appropriate when there is a minister in attendance albeit in a personal capacity. This, of course, is Mark who is used to being summoned at such moments of stress, and who holds Tom's hand tenderly as he lies propped up on his pillows, gazing blankly at the colourful
mural on the wall ahead. Occasionally, Mark bends low over the fevered brow to mop it with the Eau Sauvage that Tom adores. It is at one such moment that he hears the whispered command, weak but determined, that a curfew be imposed.
Yet now we have to explain why, though a curfew was imposed, it was not enforced. The simple answer will not do, that the proclamation was issued tongue in cheek. The seething mass of humanity that flooded in and out of Colombo and all over, bearing with it at one moment an erratically bobbing Red Shadow (to be sunk for ever soon by officious authority), may have been equipped with curfew passes from high officials, but certainly not from the highest. Tom, we can emphatically declare, is not that sort of person. Rather, whether it is a question of chickens coming home to roost or not, we see him now rendered impotent in the face of new forces and unsustainable passions.
It is fear now that grips him, not simple grief. We see John at this stage rushing in hysterically, with horrifying stories of inaction by the police and encouragement from the army, covert support from the air force and a navy band marching brassily by. Tom leaps from the bed, the wig knocked askew in his haste, and cowers underneath. Mark crouches
down on one side and beseeches him to emerge and take command. John bends down on
the other side and croaks dire warnings that the army will not obey him, that the police will baton charge him if he steps outside, that the mob will tear him limb from limb, or at least the clothes off his back, if he ventures to open his mouth.

Tom begins to shake violently,
It is with difficulty, both Mark and John having crawled in after him, that they draw him out from under the bed and lay him on it again. Hot chocolate is made, and liberally laced with whiskey and vallium, and Mark and John sit on either side of him and gently get him to sip it down. Finally, the nightcap having been brought out at his earnest request and placed on his head, he settles down to sleep, wrapped up in several sheets. Mark and John take it in turns to sit with him, the others valiantly holding off all wouldbe-intruders by pleading urgent consultations. All phones naturally have been taken off their hooks; but Matthew too has had to be informed, and he obligingly arranges for the Black Shadow to cut all the telephone wires leading in so that Tom's sleep can be absolutely secure (Wijesinha, Acts of Faith).
As the Singlish saying goes, "knowing people know", and the references were not “allegorical”, but simple ways of saying something with referential data, understood by the audience as direct references. However, they have the required atmosphere of phantasmagoria, which the occasion demanded; an unreality, which conveyed meaning about the real, which may be subsumed under the name of "magic realism'. In an extensive account of "magic realism' as a narrative method used by Indian and Sri Lankan writers, Chelva Kanaganayakam in his book Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian Fiction refers to Wijesinha's novels as employing this method, of which the best exponent in India and in English writing is Salman Rushdie.
More interesting, however, than the novels themselves, is the
Nethra Review ; June 2010
narrative method, which Wijesinha expounds:
In the sort of society under consideration, the flow of information is generally restricted. As such, rumours proliferate. In the absence of credible monitoring systems, the exaggerated version of a story has as it were parity with th e b a r e es s e n t i a l s . Correspondingly, the organs of the state arrogate to themselves greater license because there are no objectively authoritative media restraints. Consequently we live in a context where
excess has become the norm (Wijesinha, Inside Limits p.39 - 4 0 ; qu o t e d Kanaganayakam).
in
Kanaganayakam's own comment is:
Hence according to him Wijesinha) the tendency of "political' writers to gravitate towards Rushdie allows them to adopt a mode which encapsulates the valency of gossip and rumour as a way of interpreting the political scene. The qualities of exaggeration, parody, discontinuity become extensions of a particular social and political ethos.
Discerning words, indeed!
Writing on Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy, Rajiva Wijesinha, in a newspaper review, stated that the homosexuality which separates the boy from his playmates is also an allegory of the separation of the Tamils from the Sinhalese, the other theme of the book. Allegorical writing in India and Sri Lanka is part of the theme of Chelva Kanaganayakam's book Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian Fiction. His general theme is that, deriving from Salman Rushdie, the use of "magic realism' as a literary device is widespread

Page 40
Nethra Review : June 2010
among Indian writers. Magic realism involves exaggeration and distortion, a departure from the conscious to the unconscious, which is a familiar aspect of literature. The child in Funny Boy dresses himself up as a girl and enjoys it, this being a poignant symbol not only of his personal deviance and non-conformity, but also of the unavoidable difference of identity, between races, that seems to be the cause of the troubles. "Is such conflict
inevitable'?” the novel seems to
Suggest.
Selvadurai's other well-known novel, Cinnamon Gardens, celebrates the past, before the First World War, around the 1930s. In this novel too the hero is a homosexual young man, who belongs to the Tamil elite in Colombo, which played a major role in civic and political life in the halcyon days of British rule - the long period of peace, which changed the society of Ceylon from a feudal to a modernizing one. The connection with Jaffna, the original place from where the Ceylon Tamils came to Colombo, is retained through the pater familias, the Muda liyo a r, maintaining a separate family in the ancestral village back there, while ruling the roost in Colombo. The novel is also about the hegemony of a patriarchal order and its subversion in various forms. Word pictures of characters, locales and customs are lovingly created, and the State Council days, when colonial culture bloomed, are celebrated. Much research has gone into this su p e rb r e c r e a ti o n. Kanaganayakam states that expatriate writers like Selvadurai (who lives in Canada) face an anomalous self-image.
“We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerestlaughter
With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.” (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
This may generally be true of all human beings, but it is more true of those who have sought refuge in another country, another world. Clearly Selvadurai feels the need to write about a home "which is the source of identity but not necessarily a repository of c on S c i o us n e S S '' (Kanaganayakam, p. 164). He must use a language that is virtually his mother tongue, but one that has limited currency in Sri Lanka. He must write about the East for readers who belong to the West. For those who left fairly late in their lives, the consciousness is largely Sri Lankan. So Selvadurai writes about the land of his birth for readers in the Englishspeaking World.
This sense of being an expatriate writer and what it means are not limited to those who live abroad. E.R. Sarathchandra, with his complex east-west alignments, also began to write in English in later life, remaining in Sri Lanka but addressing a larger audience. He won the Magsaysay Award given by the Philippines for work done in Ceylon / Sri Lanka. His novel Foam Upon A Stream about a Sri Lankan professor in Japan, is clearly autobiographical. It is also a skilful fantasy of love and death written with superb narrative art. Sarathchandra dramatized his life experiences in fiction written in English, as well as Sinhala, which, because they are overshadowed by his a chievements in nationalistic drama such as “Maname” and “Sinhabahu,” have not received much acclaim. His novels in English also include With the Begging Bowl (a satire on a Sri Lankan ambassador's role abroad as an emissary of the state for foreign aid) and Curfew and the Full Moon, which is the most
 

comprehensive artistic presentation of the 1971 JVP insurrection (See Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka's Modern English Literature). When I asked Dr Sarathchandra whether he felt circumscribed when he rewrote the novel in English (it was originally written in Sinhala and titled Malagiya Attho), he said quite spontaneously, "On the other hand I felt liberated” (Jayasuriya, personal interview). He went onto say that it freed him from the constraints of the Sinhala language audience, and it opened up an audience which was much more wide spread and Sophisticated.
The latest of the writers to affect the counter-realism mode in Sri Lanka is Jagath Kumarasinghe, who uses a clustering technique, which circles round a topic, evoking associations with other discordant realities, subliminally fusing them with the main idea. This is from a short story titled "Popeye is a Yankee", which ends with these words that pass through the mind of a female vegetable Seller, Liyanage Sumanawathie; "However, mind you, I am not Olive Oyl. Not even a Brigit Bardot or a Nutan or a Rukmani Devi, but I am a poor woman mounted on a running greens truck on each Friday night while some boys continue to hoot at me'. We approached the scene of Jagath Kumarasinghe's magic realism by reading the last paragraph of the story first, because it rounds up the thoughts of Liyanage Sumanawathie. How does it start?
Beef never become bulls. The bulls become the beef. As you knifed that calf for more tender beef, would you knife Baba'? B a b a who lo v e S Popeye-while Popeye loves spinach. Because Popeye depends on spinach. As those bulls depend on greens and
grass. Spinach is an expensive item, among all the greens that Baba's grand mom sells. Her greens are varying. Say Gotukola: those leaves are round as little cart wheels. That is how Baba feels. And the other greens? Mukunuwenna: those leaves are long and look like spikes. However the drumstick leaves?-- by nature they are laxative. Those leaves have the ability to purge you as grand mom says: 'as river Mahaveli inundates." The drumstick leaves could purge you in tremendous bubbling yellow” (Kumarasinghe, 85).
Magic realism or counter realism is embedded in literature but it is more prominent in some authors. Chelva Kanakanayagam's book focuses our thoughts on that aspect when we read such Seemingly realistic writers as Narayan, while pointing to the more obvious aspect in others like Salman Rushdie. The book also has drawn our attention to the way in which the use of fantasy or the unconscious has become more obvious or prominent in South Asian fiction, including Sri Lankan fiction. It presents a cleverly argued thesis and it stimulates our appreciation of the art of writing.
Works Cited
Jayasuriya, Wilfred. Sri Lanka's Modern English Literature. New Delhi. Navrang, 1995.
Kanaga na ya kam, Chelva. Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian Fiction. Waterloo, Ontario: W i f r i di L a u r i e r University Press, 2002.
Kumarasinghe, Jagath. Kider Chetty Street. Colombo: Sooriya Publishers, 2005.
Wijesinha, Rajiva. Acts of Faith. New Delhi: Navrang, 1985.

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The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai Penguin Books, 336 pp., $14.00
Monsoons and Potholes
by Manuka Wijesinghe Perera Hussein Publishing House, 374 pp., Rs.690.00
"... Certain moves made long ago had produced all of them: Sai, judge, Mutt, cook, and even the mashed-potato car" (Desai, 199).
The "certain moves made long ago" which affect Kiran Desai's
characters in The Inheritance of
Loss play a similar role in determining the fates of the protagonists in Manuka
Wijesinghe's Monsoons and
Potholes. Published in 2006, the
two novels narrate how two
nations attempt to come to terms with their post-colonial, antiimperialist, pro-nationalist
identities (consequences of
"certain moves made long ago"), while their peoples are painfully caught up in the economic, cultural, political and social transitions. The two texts deal
with similar themes such as the
i mp a ct o f c o l o ni al i s m , nationalism and expatriation.
Desai focuses on Kalimpong, a hill station in the Himalayan foothills where the GNLF
revolutionaries are agitating for a separate land for the Gorkahs. The novel reflects on the overall
predicament of Indians who still function within the colonial frame
of mind, of those who vehemently reject the colonial identity to embrace a reactionary nationalist
identity, and of expatriates of
Indian origin. Such identities are the outcome of the colonial
experience, which led to a redefinition of individual identity. In Desai's portrayal, colonialism has left an irreversible mark on the
On
Hy
Lakmali
inhabitants of Kalimpong Jemubhai Patel, a retired judge c the Indian Civil Service
personifies the colonial outlook After completing his studies a Cambridge, he returns to Indi carrying the baggage of what M. Aluko calls a "Black Whit
Man'. Obsessed with what h
feels are the "authentic' ways C the English, Jemubhali, “the fac powdered pink and white overth dark brown' (Desai, 176), rarel consumes any local foods. Hi meals consist of "soup after th main course" (Desai, 33), O cakes, Scones, Ovaltine, Marmite Oxo bouillon cubes, Knorr soup cream horns, French beans, Esse: sausages, macaroons, fried chees toast, Snap peas, and chees straws. Even parathas are eate with forklandspoon. On his retur to India, Jemubhai develops sense of shame and dislik towards his family, especiall towards his "unsophisticated Wife Nimi Who faces domesti
violence due to her lack o
westernisation. Other character
who share a similar colonialis
attitude are Lola and Noni who
believe that Marks and Spence underwear epitomise "th essence, the quintessence, O Englishness” (Desai, 47). Sai having being educated at St Augustine Convent, shares thi outlook to a certain extent as Well.
Although Wijesinghe's character are not as victimised as Jemubha
by the colonial mindset, most o Wijesinghe's characters hav inherited the colonial attitudes to

Being brid
Jayasinghe
39
certain degrees. The protagonist Manuka and her family are portrayed as westernised and thus upholding the "colonial baggage'. For instance, Ammi and Nenda
elocution classes, thus preserving the colonialist language and pronunciation: "Aney, those goday teachers from the village don't know how to talk proper English”, retorted Nenda angrily. Living in a Colombo household had given her an overload of the Queen's English from the colonial masters who had left their ghosts
in the souls of dark-skinned
natives living in the city. We were
(Wijesinghe, 29). Thus, Miss Nandamalini's English was eclipsed by Miss Wendy Wellesley's and Miss White Ratnayake's English. Manuka attends an "English speaking missionary school” (Wijesinghe, 53, 272), and is horrified at her father's suggestion of taking her friends to watcha Sinhala play: "If I took my English speaking missionary school friends for a Tower hall play, I probably would have to look for new friends'
(Wijesinghe, 272). Furthermore, the depiction of Manuka's birthday party complete with DJ and dance floor, accompanied by the music of Englebert and Jim Reeves, evokes the atmosphere and sentiments of similar Scenes
from classic Western movies such
as "Dirty Dancing" or "Grease'. As Harrex argues, the depiction of such hybrid characters reveals the impact of "moves made long ago"
Nethra Review : June 2010
on the present generation: "Underlying facets of the modern World is a complex process of cultural hybridisation, whether enforced or Voluntary, which has historical roots in such
phenomena as the tragic "fatal impact' of imperialism"
(Harrex, 23).
In contrast to these neo-colonialist
attitudes, characters such as Gyan and the GNLF revolutionaries
embody the stirring nationalistic identity in Kalimpong. The episode where the revolutionaries arbitrarily appropriate the land belonging to Lola and Noni to establish huts for themselves is
symbolic of the emerging forces of resistance on the part of those who had been marginalised and exploited because of colonialist policies. Nonetheless, the actions of these revolutionaries are
depicted as Violent and reckless which lead to anarchy and chaos in the area: "forest inspection bungalows all over the district were burning... the circuit house was burned... Detonators set off
landslides as negotiation went nowhere. Kalim pong was transformed into a ghost town, the wind tumbling around the melancholy Streets, garbage flying by unhindered. Whatever point the GNLF might have had, it was severely out of hand: even one man's anger, in those days, seemed enough to set the hillside alight” (Desai, 280-281). Furthermore, the "boys' are dismissively portrayed as "unconvincing", screaming "like a bunch of schoolgirls' (Desai, 4), and as a group of adolescent boys "taking their style from Rambo, heads full up with kung-fu and karate chops, roaring around on stolen motor cycles, stolen jeeps, having a fantastic time. Money and guns in their pockets. They were living the movies' (Desai, 294).

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Nethra Review : June 2010
It is in a similar vein that Wijesinghe depicts the JVP insurgents, christened “the red fungus chimpanzees' or the “free educated Saronged man in trousers” (Wijesinghe, 131, 106). Although Wijesinghe's satire hardly spares any of the political factions and their corresponding leaders who feature in the novel, the depiction of the "chimpanzees' throughout the text is marked with intense
derision and condemnation. Their
Sinhala Buddhist chauvinistic ideology is set against their rampant violence, exposing their hypocrisy and empty rhetoric: "Nearly all these kerosene-oil carrying chimpanzees were Sinhala Buddhist youth with a free education. Buddhism taught compassion and that one should not kill. I wondered whether free education Buddhism taught something which we did not learn” (Wijesinghe, 133). Nationalistic politics or the "political myopia", negatively affecting all spheres of life, is portrayed as a veritable curse on the country:
She came like a seven-year-itch. Mrs.
widow...she held a nation and
Bandaranayake, the
its people hostage for the termination of her husband's
life... The future was bleak and
we were not even able to itch. Malnutrition. Of body and soul... Sinhala language, Sinhala literature and Sinhala history was condensed to the new government's condensed
milk tin (Wijesinghe, 76-77).
Both Desai's and Wijesinghe's portrayals of expatriation reflect the social, political and economic conditions which determine the nature of such displacement. Expatriation, for Desai's
characters, is to a great extent a
means through which one's future prospects can be enhanced. The reason why those such as Biju, Saeed Saeed, and even Jemubhai, Mun Mun and Pixie decided to settle abroad, even for a short period, is linked with "certain moves made long ago", which is made obvious through Achootan's (an illegal emigrant Working with Biju) accusation of “white people': "Your father came to my country and took my bread and now I have come to your country to get my bread back' (Desai, 135). Parallel to Biju and emigrants such as Saeed Saeed, even Jemubhai's expatriation stems from a desire for upward social mobility. Although the reasons for Bijus and Jemubhais expatriation differ from one another, both undergo similar discriminatory treatment abroad. The experience transforms Jemubhai into a silent and surly individual while he develops an acute inferiority complex: “he grew Stranger to himself than he was to those around him, found his own skin odd-coloured, his own accent peculiar. He forgot how to laugh, could barely manage to lift his lips in a smile, and if he ever did, he held his hand over his mouth, because he couldn't bear anyone to see his gums, his teeth" (Desai,40).
Biju, on the other hand, seeks employment abroad. Yet, he exp er i en ces a s e n s e o f displacement and loss despite his material gains: "Year by year, his life wasn't amounting to anything at all; in a space that should have included family, friends, he was the only one displacing the air”
(Desai, 268). His expatriate life in
the States consists of a series of
temporary positions in a variety of restaurants such as Pinocchio's, Freddy's Work, Queen of Tarts Bakery, Brigitte's, Baby Bristo
40

and Le Colonial. However, irrespective of the continuously shifting Workplaces, his status remains rigid; "on top, rich colonial, down below, poor native” (Desai, 21). Being an illegal, on-the-run emigrant, and thus possessing no legal documents to demand even the minimum labour rights, Biju is portrayed as one of the many whose labour is exploited for a me agre salary. However, oblivious to the various hardships and injustices an illegal emigrant has to undergo, Biju's father and acquaintances in India believe Biju to be a "manager of a restaurant, living a comfortable life. Yet, as Biju notes, "it was horrible what happened to Indians abroad and nobody knew but other Indians abroad. It was a dirty little rodent secret” (Desai, 138). Thus, Desai highlights not only the discriminatory tre at ment expatriates have to undergo, but also how such dislocation affects individuals in the long run, irrespective of their class and
background.
In Wije si ng he's novel, expatriation is largely a result of political transformations. Irrespective of personal choice, repatriation forces Podian to leave for India abandoning his livelihood and acquaintances. The politics of Sirimavo, the "seven year itch" and "minimisation" force Mrs. Adonis's children, Aunty Lydia and family, and Uncle Buddhi's wife to emigrate to more plentiful lands. Most of the Burghers leave the country as nationalist politics and Sinhalaonly policies jeopardize their existence. Echoing Jemubhai's departure, T. M. Mozart emigrates to America to pursue higher studies while the rest of Manuka's immediate family leave for Africa. Manuka herself remains in self
exile for more than a decade although the text concludes with her return to her old home. Yet, it is Podian's fate which best captures the tragedy of displacement. By the time he returns to Sri Lanka having survived repatriation, Tamils have been re-identified as the threatening "other' preying upon the land and resources of the Sinhala Buddhist majority. Being an estate Tamil, one can say that even initially Podian was, ironically, an expatriate within what he calls his "own country'. What befalls Podian after the experience of repatriation is therefore doubly ironic and tragic. As Satendra Nandan remarks, "that this fate should have befallen the grandchildren of indentured labourers is both tragic and ironic' (Nandan, 67). Even after his return, he is compelled to become the redundant Tamil who is reidentified as an expatriate within his own country, and who is brutally eliminated.
The titles The Inheritance of Loss and Monsoons and Potholes carry similar implications. In Desai's text, the experience of "loss" is the predominant fate of most of the characters. As Desai mentions at the very outset of her novel, "Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss?" (Desai, 2). In both the novels, loss is interconnected with the postcolonial ethos. Jemubhai loses his sense of dignity and constructed respect, while he is emotionally crippled by the loss of his dog Mutt. Biju loses all material possessions as well as his sanguine nature, while the cook, through Biju's loss, loses his hopes for a better future. Sai and Gyan's fall romantic paradise leads to
from their
frustration and dissatisfaction. Lola, Noni, Uncle Potty and Father Booty lose their selfesteem as well as their property.

Page 43
Each individual is portrayed as an inheritor of loss at some level.
Potholes depicts loss at the national as well as the personal level, the title symbolizing the continuous and seasonal obstacles which paralyze the nation's and individuals' development. Parochial politics, self-centered chauvinism and the hybrid yet confusing identity resulting from colonialism are revealed as the
monsoons and potholes which block the route to prosperity and force the nation to rove on "The
Road to Nowhere'. Personal loss, such as Podian's murder, and the breaking up of families and communities due to self-exile, are depicted as being immediately linked to prevailing politics.
Both texts, to a certain extent, can
be considered as semi
autobiographical texts. In Carl Muller's terms, they can be termed
as "faction”, being a mélange of both fact and fiction. Desai has
admitted in recent interviews that the book is close" to her own
family's history. Having spent her childhood in Kalimpong in her aunt's house by the name of Cho Oyu, Desai, like Sai, attended a convent school in a Himalayan town. Similarly, Wijesinghe skillfully fuses Manuka's personal narrative with the actual Social, political, economic and cultural transitions Sri Lanka underwent
since independence. Monsoons and Potholes can be considered as a bildungsroman tracing Manuka's as well as the country's development. In addition, it can also be the narrative of Manuka
the Writer. Another significant fact is that both Writers are female
expatriates, who crafted the novels while residing in their adopted countries. Having Nepali origins, Desai migrated from India to the United States as a teenager,
why translation matters
 
 
 

while Wijesinghe of Sri Lankan origins is settled in Germany. Both belong to the Westernised, English-educated, Englishspeaking upper class, and certain elitist attitudes are revealed
through both their writings. Both texts incorporate satire, wit and humour with political and social commentary, although Monsoons and Potholes triumphs over Desai's novel with its acidic
sarcasm on post colonial politics. Reflecting the lives of the authors, The Inheritance of Loss and Monsoons and Potholes capture within its pages the hybridist existential predicament of nations and individuals who have
grappled with multiple cultural, political and economic
transformations.
Works Cited
Desai, Kiran. The Inheritance of
Nethra Review : June 2010
Loss. London: Penguin Books,
2006.
Historical Sense: New Bearings in the New Literatures". Colonial
Consciousness in Commonwealth
Literature. Ed. G. S. Amur and S.
K. Desai. New Delhi: Somaiya Publications Pvt. Ltd, 1984. 23
57.
Nandan, Satendra. "Islands and Continents: Exiles of Paradise'.
Perspectives on Post-Colonial Literature. Ed. D. C. R. A.
Goonetilleke. London: Skoob
Books Ltd, 2001. 67-72.
Wijesinghe, Manuka. Monsoons and Potholes. Colombo: Perera
Hussein Publishing House, 2006.
Why Translation Matters
Edith Grossman (Yale University Press, 160 pages, 2010)
Why Translation Matters argues
for the cultural importance of
translation and for a more encompassing and nuanced appreciation of the translator's role. As the acclaimed translator Edith Grossman writes in her introduction, "My intention is to
stimulate a new consideration of
an area of literature that is too often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented.”

Page 44
Nethra Review ; June 2010
The butterfly disappeared into the cupped palm of soldier Kasun Dissanayake, alone within the girdle of green-painted sandbags. Tips of the creature's wings flared through his fingers.
Behind him, a few metres away, the frothing sea rushed to and fro, trussing up its waves on the sand where the seashells slept, their tiny heads buried in a deep and Sorrowful slumber.
Trooper Dissanayake ran the tip of his finger over the rim of one wing, coloured up in blue and red chalk. He then propped up the seashell butterfly on a sand-filled bag and scanned the empty road ahead.
He knew - there would be no children today. For the last three weeks there had been no children running towards the beach with their cardboard boxes. Almost every evening they dashed past him, their bare feet raising little sprays of sand, each trying to outrun the other and returning hours later laughing and dragging their collection, to be taken home. For their parents to perform the miracle. Seashells to be turned into birds, flowers and wideskirted ladies - all of which would be perched on carefully cut pieces of glass or wood and sent forth to various destinations in Trincomalee. And there would be food on the table for those who
fashioned them.
But now, with the earth vibrating and the sky exploding, hundreds of families had scurried off, miles away, to other areas of temporary safety.
The soldier knew his seashell children too had fled.
A heavy breeze as strong as a
Butt
Frances Bul
clenched fist knocked his butterfly to the ground. As he picked it up one wing came away in his hand trailing a small piece of hardened glue.
Abolt of sadness found its way to the core of his heart and a pain which he thought could not be very different to that caused by a bullet wrenched at him so badly that he put his hand to his chest to ease it.
He placed the dismembered butterfly in front of him and heard the tremulous voice of its little
CTeatOT.
“Veand-dd-am ennai sudathai”
"Don't...don't... shoot me'
That was the first day four yearold Ajini had joined her gang of brothers and boy cousins on their seashell-collecting mission.
Her dress was too big for her and one sleeve hung loosely nearly up
لأي
42
 

Page 45
cardboard box in the air, Ajini would scamper after her sweating, chocolate-brown brothers and
cousins down the pebbly road leading to the sea. Close towards the checkpoint she slowed down, approached the soldier with hesitant steps that gradually became bold, and held out herbox for her dues. Then, with tinkling sounds the shells were poured in and Ajini clapping her hands, giggled, the small dangling gold eardrops swinging Wildly.
Soon, Ajini began giving her orders.
*Sinnach chipieeillai.*
"Not Small shells.”
"Appa makes a lot of things with big shells. You collect for me big shells."
The trooper would nod meekly and follow the command. The
next day there would be a heap of shells the size of Ajini's palm.
Then came the order to secure
some coloured chalk. Ajini wanted to make her own creations.
"I want to make butterflies. First
one for you. Give me coloured
chalk to put on Wings,” she ha said.
When he went on his leave, th first thing he bought from bookshop in his hometown c Ratnapura was a crayon set. An then the blue and red-winge butterfly appeared, and it flitte from Ajini's hand to the soldier's,
When he next went home, h bought her a tin of Multibond an another smaller set of crayons.
Soon, the butterfly was joined b another, its wings coloured bright pink. The second butterfl. followed him to his home an
settled on a small cane bookcasei
his bedroom.
Now as he turned towards the Sea
it seemed as if a million pin butterflies had flocked around th
sinking Sun.
The earth trembled violentl
under his feet.
"They must be shelling closer,”h thought as he carefully wrappe
the broken red-blue wings in a old handkerchief and put then into one of the pockets of his arm
SriLankan MUISTS Endentity. With Cultural Dest
MANUhman
 
 

knapsack.
From a larger pocket he pulled out
the small cloth doll with button
eyes and thin curved up mouth. It Wore a colourful dress through which its pale brown sausage-like arms and legs hung loosely. Alittle cap made from the same material as the dress was perched on its head, and upon its stuffed shoulder woolly brown strands of hair hung stiffly.
The soldier gripped the doll tightly as once again the earth swayed frenziedly under his feet. The earth was rocking as if its roots were being tugged at by hundreds of giant, iron-ridged hands.
The ferocity of the thunderous Spasms made him nervous. The war was inching closer. Maybe he
would be called to the front.
He checked his watch. His duty hours would end soon. With one
hand he held the cloth doll in a
sitting position on the sand bag, facing the empty road, and with the other, placed the knapsack on the ground. The army bag was heavy. The heaps of seashells he
Nethra Review ; June 2010
had collected for the past three Weeks had kept growing.
The soldier buried his face in the
soft comfort of the doll he had
bought for Ajini. The woolly hair tangled about his face and he closed his eyes.
As the minutes passed, the rhythmic breath of the heaving sea, the sharp cry of the gulls as they flew upwards to the sky, and
the rumble in his heart as it echoed
the noise of the shelling, became liquidized sound. Into the great vacuum in his heart, this sound was poured first intrickles, then in giant splashes, and swirled itself into a pool, into which Ajini slowly Waded, extending her hand
for seashells. And his wakefulness
drowned.
And days later, facing an inquiry for military negligence, for falling asleep when the enemy was within sight, the sea shells in his bag and the cloth doll which he was still
holding onto when they shook him awake, would give him the name by which he was to be known for a long time in the army. Gaanu |Lатауа.
Sri Lankan Muslims: Ethnic Identity within Cultural Diversity
M.IN. Nuhuman (ICES, 236 pages, 2007)
The book examines the history and nature of the Sri Lankan Muslim identity; a politico-cultural ideology that has been constructed and that has evolved in relation to and in response to Sinhala and Tamil ethnonationalisms from the late 19" century. This publication was a result of a project initiated by ICES entitled “Sri Lanka Studies Program.”
43

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Nethra Review ; June 2010
Economic Democracy through Pro-poor Growth edited by Ponna Wignaraja, Susil Sirivardana and Akmal Hussain
SAGE Publications, 361pp., S17.00
Reference to methodologies such as "putting people first', "participatory approaches to poverty reduction', "social mobilization for pro-poor growth” and "participatory action research' have become routine, obligatory, and sadly, token, in development discourse. But many people who use them are probably unaware of their origin and import, and of the tremendous intellectual contribution made by South Asian scholars to poverty reduction methodology by developing these innovative, home-grown techniques as an alternative to the technocratic
mainstream approach which emphasized economic growth and the
beneficiary of the process from
alienated supposed
the process itself.
Economic Democracy through Pro-poor Growth, the eighth in the series of studies by SAPNA - the South Asian Perspectives Network Association - is a timely reminder of what learning from the poor is about, what these methodologies are, and what they Like its
predecessors, the book elaborates
aim to achieve.
the development approach first pioneered by G.V.S. de Silva, Ponna Wignaraja, Wahid-ulHaque, Niranjan Mehta, and Anisur Rahman (see de Silva et al. 1977), and later enriched by the contributions of scholars such as
Susil Sirivardana. There is little
doubt that the methodology that these intellectuals pioneered revolutionized the landscape of poverty reduction methodologies in the region and possibly
EcOn
Democrac Pro-poor
Ramani G
elsewhere.
The movement's most important innovation was the technique of socially mobilizing the target group of poor people by a trained catalyst so that they become selfreliant and able to act collectively to change the terms on which they engaged in unequal production relations with the rest of the
community. Trainers are trained through participatory methods and posted to central village locations where they select and in turn train young people as change agents or catalysts. The catalytic process evolves through awareness-raising surveys and analyses of the production structure of the village to mobilizing the po or and catalyzing them into groups to act collectively. As the methodology conceives the rural household
both as a production and consumption unit, it utilizes traditional forms of non-monetary capital accumulation (for example, group savings and pooling labour) to catalyze collective action.
The methodology has been particularly effective where weak transport at i on and communication links segment rural markets and give rise to monopsonies where the single firm or trader is a price maker (Gunatilaka 2001). In such
circumstances, if workers or Small

Omic y through Growth
unatilaka
Suppliers are mobilized to act collectively, they can reduce the monopsonist's excess profits and deliver a more socially optimal outcome. In Sri Lanka the method was pioneered through the Change Agent Programme implemented in the late 1970s which
generations of successful and poor
inspired subsequent
imitators in both the government and non-government sector. For example, the government's Janasaviya Programme of the late 1980s, as well as the Samurdhi Programme of the mid-1990s onwards included so-called social mobilization components to varying degrees of success.
Catalysed groups have the greatest chances of survival where group members are involved in the same economic activity in which they already have skill advantages, and homogeneous in terms of the nature of the problems that members face (Gunatilaka 2001). Group-initiated collective action also appears to work better if the economic activity is the principal source of income, and it is broadly in line with economic sectors favoured by the macroeconomic environment.
Even so, when economic growth rates speed up and economic opportunities open up due to external factors, the process of income differentiation makes it difficult to maintain group cohesiveness and the impetus for
collective action. Consequently, the method is more effective in very slow-growing regions with large concentrations of the poor.
Nevertheless, such interventions
can also become the victims of
their own success. Sooner or later, group-based approaches to mobilization and empowerment challenge existing social hierarchies and organizations, and trigger coalitions of countervailing forces that work to maintain the status quo. These can be critical for programme survival where the poor are in a numerical minority relative to other income groups. For example, when the process of mobilization catalyzed by the Change Agent Programme led to conflict between the poor and the middlemen, vested interests conveniently interpreted the forces of Social mobilization
as the forerunners of a Marxist uprising. This was anathemato the pro-capital, pro-market stance of policy makers and politicians of the day, and the programme was forced to reinvent itself as a poverty-oriented development Strategy that incorporated participatory techniques. The methodology, too, was transformed from an actionoriented programme aimed at changing production relations in Villages, to an activities-based programme which aimed to economically empower the poor, without, however, challenging established social hierarchies (Gunatilaka 2001).
The contexts in which the methodology works best need to be recognized and acknowledged in order to further innovate, develop and adapt it to deal with different poverty contexts. Unfortunately, the proponents of the approach appear to have painted themselves into an

Page 47
ideological cul de sac which has closed off opportunities to recognize, engage with and
innovate in an environment of
rapidly integrating domestic, regional and global markets for commodities and resources such
as capital, labour and technology.
For example, the achievements of the "technocratic' (read market and economic growth-oriented) approach in reducing poverty are tossed aside in a sweeping generalization as follows: "In South Asia, the attempts at liberalization and global competitiveness have led, as elsewhere, to further polarization of society with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer' (Wignaraja 2009, p.8). On the contrary, there is substantial empirical evidence to show that liberalization has seen incomes
rise and poverty reduce, even if the rate of poverty reduction has not been steep enough to bring down the total number of poor in the region. For example, Chen and Ravallion (2008) show that in South Asia, the $1.25 poverty rate has fallen from 52 per cent to 40 per cent over 1990-2005. In India, the poverty rate as a share of the total population went from 52 per centin 1990 to 42 per centin 2005, but the total number of India's
poor which stood at 436 million people in 1990 rose to 455 million in 2005, while the total number of poor people in the region stood at about 600 million in 2005 (ibid.). In Sri Lanka, poverty rates have declined significantly from 36 per cent in 1985, excluding the northern and eastern provinces (Gunewardena 2007), to 15.2 per
in 2007 all
(Department of Census and
Cent is land
Statistics 2009). Mean incomes have also risen across expenditure deciles between 1981 and 2002, even if inequality has also
increased (Gunatilaka and Chotikapanich 2009).
Wignaraja (2009) also believes that the technological revolution has to be primarily internally achieved because borrowing foreign technology smothers the growth of appropriate local technology. He writes in the introductory section in Economic Democracy through Pro-poor Growth, that, "The masses of the people must not be alienated by a transplantation of elitist technology not rooted in their lives', and that, "Technological development has to be based on local resources, and on people's own initiative and felt needs'
(p. 15). How would the rapid spread of the mobile phone technology and its proven economic benefits among even unskilled Workers, sit with assumptions such as these? Wignaraja als o se es the effectiveness of collective action
as based on "group spirit", and that South Asia is particularly placed to benefit from it as "This spirit of sharing and caring is fundamental to South Asian cultures ... the greater the group spirit generated in individuals, the greater will be the social output available for distribution'
(Wignaraja 2009, p. 13). Such Sweeping assumptions are questionable. A more realistic assessment would allow that
South Asians are as kind, as generous, as selfish, as meanspirited and as violent as any other group of people anywhere else in the world, given the right conditions.
In common with many povertyreducing strategies pursued by governments, donors and nongovernmental organizations, the participato ry, pro-poor
methodology advocated by

Wignaraja et al. , assumes sedentary rural populations and designs interventions that keep people that way. This kind of static approach to rural powerty alleviation misses the point: it is not areas that need to be developed but people, and poor people may be constrained from getting out of poverty because they are trapped within resource-poor regions and a low-skills, low-returns occupational matrix; and/or they are locked into exploitative power-relations with others. While SAPNA's approach is geared to address the last two constraints, its effectiveness will be limited where the poor are constrained by a resource-poor environmentor where they remain Vulnerable to reprisals by corrupt and exploitative political and other elite who have the backing of national power structures. In contrast, if we were to adopt a dynamic approach and define the poor as being occupationally, spatially or socially constrained and immobile, then we can better identify the policy interventions that are likely to enhance their mobility along any of these dimensions and reduce poverty more effectively in the long-term. And the methodologies developed by SAPNA can surely, with further innovation and adaptation, play a critical role in increasing the occupational, spatial or social mobility of such poor, whichever is most necessary in the context they find themselves in.
The nature of rural bias in
SAPNA's approach also needs to be questioned. For example, while Wignaraja (2009) writes that "Rural South Asia has depended too long on the city” (p.14) and implies that the city has exploited and sapped the energy of the village, it can be argued that the lack of connectivity between
Nethra Review ; June 2010
slow-growing rural areas and the more dynamic urban sector is one reason why rural South Asia remains poor. Moreover, while it is certainly true that most poor people live in rural areas, poverty reduction rates have been highest in urban areas. In fact, as the experience of developed countries show, urbanization and the structural transformation of the
workforce from a predominantly rura l-based, agricultural workforce to one working in the manufacturing and services sectors, is fundamental to poverty alleviation. Facilitating ruralurban connectivity and migration through supportive infrastructure including transport and housing can reduce rural poverty and at the the
proliferation of urban slums.
same time prevent
There is much work to be done in
adapting and developing the social mobilization and
participatory poverty reduction technologies that SAP NA pioneered, to deal with the challenges of these dynamic and increasingly important urbanising
ContextS.
While the book has much to say that is interesting and useful, particularly the chapters on methodology and application, it is not an easy read for the uninitiated. The introductory material in Part I describes the historical and policy context of the methodology and argues for its continued relevance, but its tone is retrospective and its expression lofty and abstract. Younger generations of readers are likely to be confused by the frequent policy-related flashbacks. But the operational and practical terrain of the later chapters is easier to negotiate. In particular, Susil Siri var dana's graphically illustrated and energetically argued contribution on the

Page 48
Nethra Review ; June 2010
methodology of Social mobilization is interesting and instructive, as are the case studies on the application of the techniques by Shrikrishna Upadhyay (Nepal), Akmal Hussain (Pakistan's Punjab), Madhu Subramanian (Kerala) and Shaikh M. a q so od Ali (Bangladesh). But a little more than a third of the book is taken up by an extensive case study of sensitization and training of facilitators by Wignaraja and Subramanian in the form of a compilation of project reports which sits oddly with the conventional chapter formats of the rest of the book. This results in the repetition of material, such as the sections describing the core methodology of rigorous social mobilization. An abstraction of the main messages emerging from this particular case study may have been more useful and appropriate in a book of this
nature.
In Economic Democracy through
Pro-poor Growth, the pioneers of the po Vert y re duction methodology that "put poor people first", offer many interesting insights and much food for thought for the development practitioner. Perhaps a new generation of development workers and scholars may take up the challenge of innovating and pushing the frontiers of this unique poverty reduction methodology to make it as effective and relevant in dynamic situations of rapidly integrating markets and urbanizing populations, as in its slow
growing village home.
Works Cited
Chen, S., & Ravallion, M. The Developing World is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful. In Its Fight Against Poverty. Washington D.C.: World Bank, 2008,
de Silva, G. V. S., Wahid-ul
ELECTORAL PROCESSES AND GOVERNANCE NSOUTH ASA
Dushyanta Mendis
S
46
 

Haque, Mehta, N., Rahman, A., & Wignaraja, P. Towards a Theory of Rural Development. Uppsala: Dag Hammarskjold Foundation,
1977.
Department of Census and Statistics. Poverty in Sri Lanka. Colombo: Department of Census and Statistics, 2009.
Gunatilaka, R. "Reducing Poverty Through Self-organization: Outstan ding Issues of Sustainability and Relevance". People's Bank Economic Review, September 2001.
Gunatilaka, R., & Chotikapanich, D. "Accounting for Sri Lanka's 1980
R e g r e s s i o n – b a s e d
Expenditure Inequality
2002: Decomposition Approaches'. Review of Income and Wealth, 55 (2009): 882–906.
Gunewardena, D. Consumption Poverty in Sri Lanka 1985-2002. Colombo: Centre for Poverty
Analysis, 2007,
Wignaraja, P. "The Point of Departure: Understanding the Reality, Constructive Dissent and Moving from Lessons on the Ground to Sustainable Policy'. Economic Democracy Through Pro-poor Growth. Eds. P.
Wignaraja, S. Sirivardana & A. Hussain. New Delhi: SAGE,
2009. 7-26.
Wignaraja, P., Sirivardana, S., & Hussain, A. Economic Democracy Though Pro-poor Growth. New Delhi: SAGE, 2009.
Electoral Processes
and Governance
in South Asia
Edited by Dushyantha Mendis (ICES,
479 pages, 2008)
Based on the papers originally presented at the International Conference on Electoral Processes and Governance in South Asia organised by ICES in 2002, the book seeks to examine electoral processes as they actually operate in South Asia. It discusses the reasons for flaws in these systems, and the degrees of success or failure in attempts at
reform.

Page 49
Pathways of Dissent: Tamil Nationalism in Sri Lanka edited by R. Cheran SAGE Publications, 332 pp., S20.00
After the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and at a moment in time when any struggle for justice by Sri Lankan Tamils, even of a nonviolent nature, is castigated as treason in the public discourse and in the media, it is important to cast a scholarly eye on the various paths taken by Tamil nationalism especially in the last thirty years. For the war weary peoples of the south of this island, Tamil politics will remain for long synonymous with separatism and the violent politics of the LTTE. For them the term "nationalismo is anathema, to describe what they feel are
invariably confers parity of value to the Sinhalese and Tamil claims to statehood and sovereignty. In the scholarly arena too there is today a reluctance on the part of mainstream scholars to describe Tamil politics as an aspiration to nationhood. As publishers championing national interest increasingly call the shots, it is a new breed of terrorism specialists who have answered the state's need for useful data. Most of them have produced works of unequal quality that cast the emergence of LTTE as a barbaric excess in a
historical and cultural vacuum. It is as though there was no context, not before and not after the LTTE.
This collection of essays edited by R. Cheran, who teaches sociology at the University of Windsor in Canada, is the result of a entitled "Transformations: A Conference
conference
on Sri Lankan Nationalism” organized by the International Center of Ethnic Studies,
Pathway in Sri La Natio
Νίγα Wία/
Colombo. It comes twenty yea after the last serious but somewh flawed attempt at explaining th rise of Tamil nationalism in S Lanka since the 19th century b A.J. Wilson in his Sri Lanka Tamil Nationalism. Its Origin and Development in the 19th an 20th Centuries (1999), an includes some of the mot interesting and recent writing O the subject.
The essays in this book inviteust reflect more deeply in a spirit C curiosity on the contemporar politics of the Sri Lankan Tamil while moving to and fro fror present to past. It departs from an easy identification of Tam: nationalism with the LTTE, an leads us gently on "pathways C dissent" to understand th multiple facets ofa cultural, socia and political movement that ha spanned more than a century Tamil nationalism is understoo here minimally as a collective wi on the part of people to liv together, an amoeba-lik consciousness that takes man shapes overtime.
The nine chapters of this edite Volume and its annex penned b Santasilan Kadirgamar address i a multi-disciplinary perspectiv questions which previous work have only partially succeeded i answering; can we speak of
continuum, of a unifying narrativ that includes in its fold a Navala brand of Tamil/saivite reformism

S
of Dissent kan Tamil
pnalism
tramasinghe
rs the elite/ secular/ non-violent at politics of the 1950s-60s and the he LTTE brand of Tamil nationalism
ri and its mass and transnational ly appeal? How did the Tiger In Version of Tamil nationalism Is become hegemonic in the Tamil 'd national discourses of Sri Lanka d and the diaspora?
St
in The authors of the essays that compose this volume have more or less ambivalent approaches to o the frame "Tamil nationalism' as f an explicatory device. Rather than y Tamil nationalism, Sidharthan is Maunaguru in his "Brides as in Bridges?" writes of the y construction of Tamilness by a tl variety of actors, through d documents and the notion of lf "anticipation”. Drawing on the e luminous work of Achille Il Mbembe, he advocates that Tamil S identity is best understood in the I. practices of the self. The same d point is made in another way by T. l Shanaathan in his essay "Painting e the Artist's self. He shows how in
e the 1990s "the older y consciousness of belonging and recognition that construct the Tamil nation was replaced by the i realities of surreal and collage” (p.
47
101). He concludes with Stuart Hall that cultural identity is not an essence butapositioning.
Other writers adopt more The question of origins of Tamil
conventional frames.
nationalism is dealt with in a number of the ess ay s.
Nethra Review : June 2010
S.K. Sitt rampalam's essay “Nationalism, Historiography and A r c h a e o 1 o g y ” e n li s t s archaeological research by Siran Derany agala, Sudarshan Seneviratne and others to debunk claims made by Sinhala nationalist historians that Tamils are interlopers or late migrants to the island. But in so doing, he remains within the same paradigm as them by answering their questions about Tamil claims to territory and authenticity with "verifiable facts' rather than contesting their questions or right to question. It is nevertheless important for more people in Sri Lanka-most of whom have never learnt of a pre-historical Sri Lanka -to accept that South India and Sri Lanka belonged to the same cultural Zone, the Megalithic cultural zone around 1000 BC. V. Nithiyanandam's politically engaged ess ay entitled “ E c o n o m ii c s o f Ta' m ii 1
Nationalism' draws from the
work of Pathmanathan to trace the genesis of Tamil nationalism to the Jaffna Kingdom where the economy thrived, based on agriculture, trade and industries until its collapse in 1 6 19. R. Cheran circumspect when he qualifies pre-1970s Tamil
"Tamil ethnic
is more
collective
sentiments as
consciousness' leaving the term nationalism for the modern idea of aspiration to create a sovereign nation-state in a given territory.
Many of the chapters in this book refer to the way collective identities are embedded in territory, land, landscape and a particular way of life shaped by the constraints of space. Chelva Kanaganayakam shows how in recent decades, as territory became a Tamil national claim, Tamil literature played an
important role in constructing and

Page 50
Nethra Review: June 2010
legitim i z ing nation a list sentiments among Tamils in the country as well as in the diaspora. In a parallel fashion emerges a literature of grief and loss that sketches an absence and questions the celebratory project of Tamil nationalism.
The most compelling issue dealt with in a number of these chapters is the fractured nature of Tamil militancy. Cheran's introductory chapter sets the tone charting the transformation of Tamil
nationalism to a full scale
liberation movement in the late 1970s. He provides us with a sharp analysis of the diverging ideology (nationalist or Marxist-Leninist) and political orientation of the initial 42 groups, eventually dominated by five major outfits; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), the Eel am Revolutionary Organizations (EROS), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), and the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). Reference is made to the inclusion of Muslim and depressed caste populations in EPRLF and EROS, two organizations that attempted to broad base the concept of Eelam from a Left perspective. Cheran explains how alternative visions were gradually destroyed by the LTTE. Ravi Vaitheespa's "Towards Understanding Militant Tamil Nationalism' confronts
interpretations that have described
continuities between the nonviolent struggle of the Federal party and the post 1970s militancy. His chapter, like Cheran's introductory essay, highlights discontinuities, especially the class and caste dimensions of the "liberationist programme” (p. 51) using Tamil sources to argue that the battle was not only against the Sinhala dominated state, but also against collaborative structures and
agents, namely, the Tamil Vellala
caste elites.
The nexus between gender and Tamil nationalism is explicitly dealt with in the contributions by Cheran, Maunaguru, and Coomaraswamy and PereraRajasingham. We learn for instance of the strong masculinist agenda of the Tamil Eelam Penal Code that mirrors the wider LTTE nationalist project. In an elegantly written and composed article, Coomaraswamy and Perera-Rajasingham argue forcefully that nationalism can only be at variance with feminism as it ultimately confines women within the boundaries of tradition. They also show that during the satyagrahas of the 1950s and 1960s, a space opened up for women in politics with many of them participating actively in the movement, while in the 70s and 80s more women were brought into the Tamil resistance groups albeit initially in conventional roles. In their final section, the two writers cast light on the LTTE's
approach to violence, sexuality
48

and citizenship.
An issue dealt with thinly in this volume is the political economy of Tamil nationalism. Two chapters address the issue. The one by Nithyanandam makes very polemical assertions about Sinhala colonialism without supporting them with much evidence. Rajesh Venugopal provides us with an interesting paper on the dissonance between the two ways in which Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism conceptualizes the State: the 1950s and 1960s Conceptualization of the state as a moral Socialist State and today's version of statehood shaped and reshaped by institutions of global governance. His analysis would have been sharper had he evokeda third version, namely the diasporic imagination of the Tamil national State.
This book does not provide the last word on Tamil nationalism but in
all fairness neither does it striveto.
One regrets the absence in the narrative of other Tamil speaking minorities such as Muslims and
the Veddas of the eastern province, and of other modes of being Tamil, either regional or diasporic. Bass's fine analysis of Up-country Tamil (Malaiyaka Tamil) identity politics that point o dissenting paths from the dominant discourses of Tamil
nationalism could have been :omplemented with other similar studies on Muslims, Eastern province Tamils etc. Furthermore,
one misses the Wider
Subcontinental dimensions of Tamil nationalism. The process of linking and delinking with Southern Tamil-speaking India Over the last century could also have featured more in this volume, given the editor's expertise in this field. One is finally left wondering why Kadirgamar's informative essay on Jaffna Youth radicalism, though devoid of any footnotes and references, is inserted as an annex to the book.
These caveats apart, this book can be considered an important contribution to Sri Lankan studies as it challenges earlier approaches to Tamil nationalism as a reaction to rising Sinhalese nationalism, and proposes a more nuanced and textured reading of Tamil nationalism. It stresses the importance of the post-1977 the
"continuities, discontinuities and
period and shows
contradictions on contemporary Tamil nationalist discourse'. It helps us understand the transformation of Tamil
nationalism from victim's voice to a voice of power and force where the Tamil longer a "paraiihah” Tamil but a "Pulithamil” (Tiger Tamil).
is no
This volume gives us a taste for a definitive single authored book that will bring together and synthesize both new and older writings on Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Page 51
The Moon in the Water
by Ameena Hussein Perera Hussein Publishing House, 239 pp., Rs.750.00
For a moment, judge this book by its cover. Whatever model posed for the photo, her navel is too perfectly placed, and the fabric of her belly-dancing costume too perfectly bright pink, to ignore when displayed on a bookshop
table.
Most intriguing about the anonymous figure on the cover of The Moon in the Water, however, is that the protagonist of Ameena Hussein's first novel is a Muslim
woman, but not at all an inhabitant of either the cultural traditions or the classic physical sensuality implied by the illustration. Rather, she is an American-educated Sri Lankan who, at the beginning of the story, lives in Switzerland with her African boyfriend and favors T-shirts andjeans oversaris, Veils, dancing skirts or the social norms that go with them.
The novel, however, takes place mostly in Sri Lanka, and, given its European opening, it is inevitably a story of homecoming and discoveries (mostly disturbing) about the main character's family. That theme itself is ancient, but the predicaments and at least two of the people in this story are engaging enough to keep the pages turning quickly. Moreover, the book is a Sweet, poignant portrait of the country - not vastly comprehensive, as some larger works in both Sri Lanka and India
have tried to be, but carefully specific on a small, fine scale, with its constant focus on how a terrorist bomb, a switching of bridegrooms within an arranged family marriage, an old tea plantation, and the 2004 tsunami, all swirl around the life of one
A St
Homec0] Disco
John
young Woman whose father has beenblown up, and who discovers only after his death that she herself was an adopted child.
Khadeeja, the protagonist, interrupts a romantic sojourn in Spainto fly home when her father dies in an explosion that was intended to kill soldiers in Colombo. She spends part of the story watching her mother - once a feisty, progressive young woman herself - fight against standard expectations of how a widow grieves, and part of it breaking away from the family in order to slip off to an old tea plantation when she discovers her particular role in the family secret,
 

Dry of ming and Veries
Stifler
Enter the other best character in the story, Arjuna, who turns out to be the other half of that secret. Khadeeja Sneaks up on her newfound brother under false pretenses, invades his space, and renders him immensely angry when he discovers who she is and
how she has concealed the fact. Then, by and by, they form a new alliance in which they further sort out how their respective adoptive families have raised them and tried unsuccessfully to protect them from the poignant truth of their shared parentage.
This story is richly populated with Supporting characters: the tongue
Nethra Review ; June 2010
less servant who tried to stand up to the JVP; the imam who suffered horribly in a seminary in Pakistan, then shrugged off his personal traumas to minister to the poor about him at home; Khadeeja's adoptive sister and brothers, with their memories of childhood and
their conflicts about their father's will; Khadeeja's upstanding, warm erstwhile fiancé. The list
goes On.
At least one reader in my hearing has complained that the large number of characters and locations and plot events in The Moort in the Water is a flaw in the book. That particular criticism applies to many first novels, whose authors seem to overflow With things to say, bringing them in from all directions, piling them on, and scattering the intensity of what could otherwise be a deeper story. In this regard, Ameena Hussein has certainly touched lightly – or, one might better say, delicately - on many experiences, any one of which might deserve more depth of treatment. A different novel could have focused, for example, entirely on Khadeeja's mother's ambivalent position between being married to her cousin (traditional) who has rejected the marriage originally planned for him (less traditional), and being more distressed by the mourning ritual than by the death itself (not traditional). Or on the latent ambiguous sexual attraction between siblings. Or on being torn between independence and family.
Then too, the elements of this plot seem to surprise the characters more than they surprise the reader. Yes, discovering that one is adopted is often traumatic - but the experience is widespread and well known nowadays. Yes, if you're on a beach when a tsunami

Page 52
Nethra Review : June 2010
hits, your chances of survival are small. Yes, it's strange to meet a relative one did not know one had.
And yes, y es, y es, ne w generations in Sri Lanka have grown up in times of terrible uncertainty and political danger. (But yes, too, that this theme is urgent and likely to remain so, given its recurrence in any number of contemporary Sri Lankan
writings ofevery genre).
On the other hand, what gives shape and strength to The Moon in the Water is precisely Hussein's ability to interweave these and other themes into a tight latticework of a plot. Hertechnical execution is still developing, and in places she explains more than she needs to, noting in the narration what is already clear from her concrete description or her characters' own words. In this regard, she shares a quality of redundancy that continues to mark much contemporary Sri Lankan prose, both fiction and nonfiction.
Yet, nothing seems to have been thrown into the mix gratuitously, and nothing seems to have been inserted out of self-indulgence. A few moments could be standalone pieces - Khadeeja's memory of climbing the lighthouse at Galle Face in the days before security patrols is one example - but Hussein ties them snugly into the larger story, including the deeper
exchanges between Khadeeja and Arjuna. We see each of these two people separately, often, but one of the best things about the book is the scenes they share. Indeed they do not know each other well, having only just met, yet their affinity is immediate and natural, and their crisscrossing lives are the backbone of the novel.
Hussein's plotting is sure-handed and well paced, with elegant, subtle shifts of point of view. A particular example is the episode where, sitting on Galle Face Green, Arjuna talks to Khadeeja about the political violence of 1989. conversational, with pauses where
His narrative is
he struggles to remember a detail precisely, but then he recalls a threatening letter that was circulated by a patriotic Sinhala youth front. His recollection comes in the form of the entire
letter verbatim, in italics on the book's page, rather than pieced together from memory as he talks. The point of view shifts from Arjuna's face and voice to the awful words as if on a separate sheet of paper, cinematically taking up the whole screen.
It should be noted here that
Western and Subcontinental
audiences alike will sooner or later find themselves watching a good Sri Lankan story turned into a film (Elephant Walk in the 1950s was entertaining, but it doesn't
in
TO
at
TT
50

ount). If The Moon in the Water ecomes such a piece, its delicate nd revelatory quality should put in the category occupied by Mira sair's adaptation of Jhumpa ahiri's Namesake - and not
t all in the Slick
tollywood/Bollywood style of lumdog Millionaire.
must be possible to write a good
ri Lankan novel that does not sfer to the past three decades of olitical horrors, but the main
haracters in The Moon in the 'ater are too socially awake for ussein not to have included that
hduring, sad, necessary theme. ome conversations - notably the he between Arjuna and a young nglish woman who is a volunteer acher in a village - are indeed 'cognizable as political musings ansferred to fiction. But Hussein
akes them natural, not didactic polemical. Arjuna's reflections 1 violent elements of recent Sri ankan history enhance the scope ld depth of the novel while zeping it a goodstory.
a modest way, this quality of the ook recalls something of The ong Day Wanes, a late-60s novel Anthony Burgess, set in alaysia in the last years of ritish rule there. Burgess' novel much longer, but, like The Moon
the Water, it offers intense mantic relationships, loss, and mospheric color, combined with any characters whose own
stories are told briefly, and whose lives illustrate real history.
Near the end of The Moon in the
Water, the tsunami hits. Hussein's description of the calamity is superbly understated and utterly local-just one spot on the beach at Unawatuna - and it includes three pages of the nervy arrangement of one drowning character's last thoughts into a series of spirals of distorted print. Such visual tricks in writing usually seem like gimmicks, cheap imitations of late 19th century French poets (the cubist poet Guillaume Apollinaire is a prime example), but Hussein gets it exactly right, and the effect is moving.
Having lived in Sri Lanka since December, and feeling what I hope is an understandable
measure of self-consciousness
combined with fascination for this place, I can see handing The Moon in the Water to an American who
has never been here and saying, "Read this. It will answer many of the questions you ask me about what Sri Lanka is like". At the
same time, Ameena Hussein's novel is not at all a sociological study but rather, mostgratifyingly, a piece of contemporary craft and art, sketching in clean, distinct lines some moments of life that lie
beyond either politics or passion. The effect is deeply beautiful.

Page 53
The most intense and high profile aspect of the Sri Lankan conflict has just been resolved: the deadly conflict; the mid-intensity war. What remains is the postwar crisis, the delay or inability to reap the peace dividend by making the transition to a stable and just framework for durable peace and successful nation building.
There are three axial routes of the
Lankan crisis or three pillars between which Lankan political development takes place and the crisis continues. I refer to three
thematic problems or issue clusters, namely that of the NorthSouth axis, the ethno-national question, of power sharing between centre and periphery or the constituent communities of the
island; the rich-poor axis, the socioeconomic question, that between the haves and have-nots, the elites and the mass; and the country-world axis, that of the island and its relationships with the world. The first and third
issues are to do with various
dimensions of identity, internal and external.
It is my settled conviction that none of these three problems can be successfully addressed without addressing the other two. An attempt to resolve the ethnonational without sensitivity to mass deprivation and nationalist or patriotic sentiment only makes that attempt vulnerable to a populist or plebian backlash. This is also why I am of the view that
neither an elitist neoliberal
cosmopolita n iis m n or the neoconservative populism that is currently the dominant Lankan ideology will be able to resolve the problem of reconciling Sri Lanka's collective identities. That
will require a centrist, Social democratic or progressive liberal
perspective rather like that of
Postwar
Prospe Durable,
Pe
Dayan س
India's Congress party or the US
Democrats.
The crux of the issue was most
pithily stated in 1926 by the young SWIRD Bandaranaike, (who, ironically enough, Was to be the Prime Minister who introduced
the controversial Sinhala only policy thirty years later), when he Warns prophetically of impending crisis, pointing out that a centralized form of State
presupposes a homogenous society while no society anywhere in the world as "communally' heterogeneous as that of Ceylon
to his
Successfully sustained a centralized state form. In sum, the young Bandaranalike pointed out
has, kn o wledge,
the dysfunctional asymmetry
the
'substructure', the underlying
between "base' or
social formation of the island with
its poly-ethnic mosaic, and a centralized political "superstructure'.
This contradiction remains unresolved eight decades after its embryonic articulation by him, but it does not remain unaltered.
Inasmuch as the recently concluded Thirty Years War arose out of this contradiction and
insofar as that war ended in the
decisive victory of one side, the state, and defeat and destruction of the other, the underlying contradiction itself cannot but be

Sri Lanka : !cts for a Democratic
2 Ce
ayatilleka
drastically altered by the new politico-military balance of forces in which the strategic military hegemony of the state is in all probability, unas sailable. However, the decisive, and to my mind, wholly Welcome, military defeat of the LTTE can alter the
contradiction but cannot abolish
it. Sri Lankan Society seems
divided between those who assert
that the underlying problem remains despite the outcome of the war and those who claim that
the problem itself has been resolved or effaced. Too few seem
to transcend the se dual
dogmatisms to comprehend that there is a complex mix of continuity and change, the ratio of which is difficult to determine: the
but has
changed; the problem has
problem remains,
changed, but remains.
One of the fundamental aspects of the Sri Lankan crisis today is a Government that is alienated from the minorities and an Opposition that is alienated from the majority, A majoritarian approach cannot sustain, while a minoritarian
approach cannot succeed.
There seems to be an assumption that it is inherently contradictory to wage a War and push for
reforms such as devolution of
power. The notion that waging a necessary War against terrorism and the implementation of
Nethra Review ; June 2010
reforms are in herently
contra di ctory, posits a dangerously dogmatic dichotomy shared by the neoliberal pacifists and the neoconservative
populists. Realists (Russia's Putin) know that a successful strategy against separatist terrorism organically links devolution – power sharing with the local community or local allies with a military campaign, whether devolution precedes, parallels or
follows military victory.
There are three alternatives out
there in the discussion on postwar Sri Lanka. The first
accommodation on the basis of
is
power sharing, or what I call the (to the accompaniment of much
Che che n model
shuddering among liberals) or the Putin model. This involves a full
on military offensive to destroy separatist terrorism, followed by a modest but very real local autonomy and rule of the liberated or re-taken area through partnership with the local leaders (or what a cynic might call local proxies). The second model is that of equal as Similation, assimilation which can be
successful only on the basis of equality of citizenship and nondiscrimination, in which the Sri Lankan Constitution changes in such a manner that no community, be it ethnic, linguistic or religious, has a Constitutionally entrenched privilege. The third model is of Оссир a tiо п; of и п e q и a l assimilation at the centre and
internal colonialism at the periphery. I am not saying that the Sri Lankan state is attempting this. What I am saying is that these are the ideological options out there in society. I for one do not consider the third op ti on to be diplomatically viable or strategically sustainable.

Page 54
Nethra Review ; June 2010
Why has there been no peace dividend? Not only because of a global economic downturn but because we have not overcome the policy landmines that lie between us and that peace dividend. These policy landmines and roadblocks have not been removed because they are not seen as roadblocks but as desirable by some sectors of the power bloc and the ruling coalition.
This brings us to a more crucial question: Why are we in a postwar crisis? Because we are deadlocked
as to the direction in which we
want to head and the destination we wish to get to. There is no informed open discussion about the nature of the postwar order.
This too is only one aspect of the matter. The truth is that We are agreed with the un stated proposition of Never Again, by which is meant that there should never again be a separatist challenge and that our military victory must be irreversible. The predominant, if invisible, subterranean perspective in the state and (Southern/Sinhala) society seems to be that Tamil separatism should not only be uprooted but that the soil in which its seeds may germinate should be upturned. This view is one of permanent roll-back and counterreformation, targeting or diluting even the 13th amendment to the Constitution (resulting from the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987), which gives limited autonomy to the provinces, and redrawing the map of the North and the East. It is a hard-line neoconservative
perspective.
There is a contrary view, which is that Tamil separatism can be preempted only by a more liberal approach which goes beyond the 13th amendment to explore
federal or quasi-federal alternatives.
To both these approaches there is an alternative third approach, which is one I hold, hopefully not in isolation. This is a policy mix that recognizes the need for a long term and secure military presence in those areas as well as certain security red lines, which, however, must be broadly parametric rather than narrowly prescriptive, strictly professional rather than ethno-religious. This recognition is coupled with another, namely, that Tamil nationalism cannot be stamped out and if there is a perceived threat to their collective identity we shall face blowback. This may not take the form of the renewed insurgency, which our military can handle easily, but a civic conflict, which it cannot and must not be forced to. Sri Lanka does not enjoy the superpower umbrella that Israel does, and the recent remarks and moves by the US, UK, EU, and UN together with the visit of MPs neighboring Tamil Nadu
from
demonstrate that our treatment of
the Tamils is under international scrutiny (partly driven by the Tamil Diaspora). Therefore, we must combine security measures with political devolution within a unitary state, and improvement on and
the human rights
humanitarian fronts. This is a
Realist approach.
Sri Lanka's postwar crisis is one of the inability, unwillingness or delay in making the transition from a Just War (in content if not always in method) to a Just Peace. Had we done so, there would be no crisis. There are those who will say that we cannot make the transition because the war was not just and that the absence of a Just Peace is evidence of the unjust
52

'haracter of the war. This is simply Intrue. The Sri Lankan Final war
2006-9 metall the criteria of a Just Waras did those wagedagainst the Cigers from 1987 onwards. The Six Day War of 1967 provides the :lassic example of a Just War which failed to move on to a Just
Peace.
in a related feature, the postwar :risis also results from the livergence of external and internal pressures and State's nability to balance optimally and successfully between the two. External realities - not only the EU but more importantly the US; not only the West but also Indiawill not let the State implement a West Bank model in the North.
The state feels it cannot eschew
such a closed model and the drive owards it, because of hard-line lomestic pressure groups which form part of the constituency of he ruling coalition. Failing to hart a Middle Path and balance petween these contending forces, he State finds itself deadlocked.
A distinguished Sri Lankan archeologist and former ambassador to UNESCO, Prof Senaka Bandaranalike discerns a pattern in Sri Lankan history of sometimes being ahead of the rest )f the Subcontinent but never being able to achieve a decisive breakthrough and sustain it. This happened at least three times, he nce said in a lecture I attended.
Sri Lanka now has a second
:hance. It is as if we have obtained | second Independence, when we were ahead of the game in the rest f Asia but we then blew it. Let's hope we do not not blow it yet Igain.
Sri Lanka cannot defend its overeignty against all comers rom all points of the compass, North and South, West and East.
Sovereignty not only has to be asserted, it has to be defended and defensible. It can defend its Sovereignty only by power balancing in a multi-polar world. Starkly put, if we lose India, we even lose the Non-aligned Movement, and (as we saw in 1987 when Delhi dramatically impinged) we would be left naked.
This brings us to the impact of co-ethnics in a neighboring state and overseas (in the so-called Diaspora) as factors in complicating conflict resolution. 70 million Tamils will not go away from the demographic makeup of India, a significant percentage of them will always be concerned about the fate of their ethnic kin in Sri Lanka, constituting a political factor that no government at the centre will ignore. Furthermore, no government at the Centre will risk a significant degree of alienation of Tamil Nadu from the Centre, on the basis that the latter
does not care about the fate of Sri
Lanka's Tamils. Sri Lankan Sinhalese could very well argue that it is none of their or anybody else's business but our own, but that is just not the way the world works. As a respected Sri Lankan journalist and editor Mervyn de Silva wrote "in the age of identity, ethnicity walks on water'. Look at the intervention or counter
intervention of Russia on behalf of
the South Ossetians in the face of Georgian action (of which the perfect precursor was the Indian conduct of 1987).
My unit of analysis is the world system taken as a single whole, a complex unevenly structured totality, and this is all the more relevant, now that we are faced with the threat of a global protracted struggle with Tamil secessionism, driven by the Tamil Diaspora. If the battlefield is

Page 55
global, the analysis cannot be
Sri sovereignty must be defended
purely local. Lanka's
mainly by its own efforts, but cannot be defended solely or exclusively by them, and must be defended by a broad united front or concentric circles of alliances.
While Tamil separatism must be overcome, Sinhala and Tamil nationalism have to be contained if the country is to build a Sri Lankan national identity and consciousness. They can be contained only by being accommodated to some degree. Tamil nationalism can be contained only by a sufficiency of devolved power and resources. We must share power with one another so as to build a nation with
and forus all.
PowerSharing as Solution
No devolution or too little, and communities will breakaway. Too much devolution and they will do the same. The degree of devolution at the periphery depends on the character of the mainstream. If one implements a strictly secular Republicanism as does France, and one is a French citizen with equal rights irrespective of ethnicity, then the need for substantive devolution at
the periphery is virtually nonexistent (though Corsica would doubtless disagree). However, ifa Society insists that the culture, language and civilization of its majority must have some built-in preference as is the case in Sri Lanka, then it is unrealistic to expect that those who do not belong to that culture but are inhabitants of the country would feel themselves fully integrated Full integration can only take place on the basis of full equality, and a citizenship that is blind to ethnic
and un-alienated citizens.
origin, religion and language. If the State and citizenship are not blind or even-handed but biased,
then it is unavoidable that there
will be demands by minorities for their own political space at the periphery. A moderate, rational political program containing a progressive vision for Sri Lanka's post-war future is a necessary component for bringing this conflict to a successful close.
Xenophobia, cultural or otherwise, is profoundly counterproductive for winning the peace. Scholarly and scientific research has shown that creativity and innovation in all fields takes place not so much from within the bowels of homogeneous and unchanging cultures but precisely where cultures interface, interact, exchange and cross-fertilize. Sir Arthur C. Clarke correctly observed that Sri Lanka contains the greatest cultural diversity in the most compressed space, which is a source of conflict but potentially also of great creativity. Unless we embrace pluralism, learn to celebrate the treasure that is our own diversity, and tap into it as an energy source for advancement, we shall certainly be unable to compete regionally or globally. Worst of all, we shall not be using all our cultural capacities, making the best of our endowments, or making the best of ourselves.
If ideologies of resentment and closure prevail over those of conciliation and openness, Sri Lanka will be unable to manage the problem of the hemorrhage of quality human resources, which in turn will decide whether we shall develop ordeclineas a country.
Having won the war, Sri Lanka can lose the peace by one of two errors. The first would be to permit
5

the separatist project to continue to function, for separatist political agencies to function unchecked. We could thus peacefully jeopardize that which the armed forces have won on the battlefield.
This could generate a seriously destabilizing nationalist-populist backlash. The equal and opposite error Would be a lack of
flex ib i li ty, enlightenment and wisdom, due to
ge ne r o Sity,
which we fail to expeditiously remove the discrimination, frustration and alienation felt by the Tamil minority. That would cause the reactivation in one way or another, of the Tamil separatist struggle. Either outcome would betray the gains of military Victory and continue to torment us.
The Obama Paradigm
Speaking to the two hundred thousand strong crowd in Berlin's Tiergarten on July 24th 2008, Presidential candidate Barack
Obama said:
"...The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew
cannot stand. These now are the
walls we must tear down... Our
allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of
ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from
want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we
choose and worship as we please".
Obama points the way for Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims.
Nethra Review ; June 2010
For the Tamils, the relevance and example should be clear: abandon projects of separatist Walling-off, integrate into the mainstream, fight against discrimination and for equal rights, regard oneself as a Sri Lankan and compete as one. The African-Americans
experienced slavery and segregation and still encounter racism, but Barack Obama's example is to transcend that experience, which was historically far worse than anything suffered by Tamils. His is the model of our martyred Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamilian (whose oration for devolution in the Parliamentary debate on the August 2000 Draft Constitution is cunningly ignored by Sinhalese chauvinists). It could come to the forefront only now that Kadirgamar's assassins, the
Tigers, lie defeated.
What is the lesson and example for the Sinhalese? Barack Obama, perhaps the most intellectually gifted politician in today's world and potentially a philosopherpresident in the Platonic sense, ushers in a new model of cultural
globalization and globalized culture of and for the 21st century. He is the modern, Multi-ethnic, Multi-Cultural Man, emerging from the melting pot meritocracy that is America. However, this is not an exclusively American Dream. It is not essentially different from the multiracialism
of Cuba's Fidel Castro and South
Africa's Nelson Mandela, or that of Jawaharlal Nehru, without whose inclusive, pluralist, secular, rational, modern leadership vision for an ancient, culturally rich society, India would not be the Asian success story and the 21st century miracle it has become.
Some states and societies are a
hybrid, such as India, which has a

Page 56
Nethra Review ; June 2010
secular Constitution, a pluralist society (the Prime Minister is a Sikh, the most powerful politician is of Italian origin, the most powerful political family is of mixed race), but also provides sufficient space for its constituent communities in the form of a quasi federal system and linguistic
StateS.
Sri Lanka is far from a situation in which society is integrated, discrimination is aggressively tackled and the state is neutral
between communities. In such a
context, where one individual is not the equal of the other and one community has more privileges than the other, it is the case the world over, that collectivities with their distinctive identities and in habiti n g r e c og ni za ble geographic areas over long periods, tend to seek some political space and measure of self rule/self governance. I cannot think of any state in the world, and at the UN in Geneva II worked among 193, that does not hold that Sri Lanka's Tamils deserve and require equal rights in practice, as well as some autonomous political space, beit devolution of power to autonomous regions or provinces (as in Britain or China), or
something more.
A result of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, the 13th
amendment to the Constitution of
STi devolution of power and
Lanka makes for the
provincial autonomy within a unitary framework. It is the most modest and economical of these arrangements as far as the majority goes. Even purely do me stic political accommodation between the
communities/ethnic collectivities is impossible other than on the basis of the 13th amendment at the
minimum.
Full if graduated implementation of the 13th amendment, i.e. the fullest possible devolution of powers within our Constitution, is an essential part of the minimum political programme on which such a global united front can be built and sustained.
Prabhakaran took a grave risk and waged his second war, this time against the Indian peacekeeping force, because he knew that provincial autonomy as envisaged in the Indo-Lanka Accord and
contained in the 13th amendment a year later, was a death trap for Tamil secessionism. This is
because authentic moderate reform is a death trap for extremism anywhere, anytime.
There is nothing that the Tiger international network and the pro
Tiger, pro-Tamil Eelam Tamil
 

Diaspora would like better, than to See a gap open up in the partnership between Sri Lanka and India; a gap that they will seek to manipulate in consonance with their Western patrons and friends. The non-implementation of the 13th amendment will open up Such a gap.
Why compromise on the basis of the 13th amendment, ask the extremists on both sides of the
ethnic divide. The answer is that anything else would be too risky. Open up the issue again and the Sinhalese may offer less, the Tamils may ask for more and the World may see an even more dividedisland.
Historically, this is the best time to effect a political reconciliation between the Sinhala and Tamil
communities in Sri Lanka. If we do not do so internally, space opens for external interference. If a minority anywhere in the World remains disaffected and domestic reconciliation is not forthcoming, it is natural that it would look to
co-ethnics elsewhere and to outside powers for support.
Today is the best time to draw or re-draw our political contract in a way that brings the communities together. The Sri Lankan armed forces have reunited the entire territory of the island. The Tamil
extremists are weakened to an unprecedented extent by the destruction of their vanguard, the LTTE. They can no longer sustain hard-line positions. President Rajapakse has the trust of the Sinhalese to a degree that none of his predecessors had, thanks to his leadership of the liberation war against terrorism and separatism. He can therefore carry the Sinhalese with him into a settlement of the underlying and pre-existing issues. Thus, this is the best time for a moderate compromise.
We shall need to pay heed to the views of our friends, local and foreign, as it be comes increasingly obvious that the Tiger army is destroyed but the Tiger movement or global network is still alive, a wellplaced new generation of Tamil Secessionists have been born overseas and have come of age, and though the war is decisively won, the protracted struggle with Tamil Tiger separatism on a world scale is hardly over. A long Cold War may have just begun.

Page 57
An unexpected event occurred in a population conference sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Sri Lanka in 1975. A
new street theatre ensemble called
The Wayside and Open Theatre had been engaged to entertain the international and local delegates as they sipped cocktails at the Foundation Center in Colombo, where the conference was held. Yet, their performance turned out to be anything but light entertainment. Arrayed in black tailcoats and demon masks, the company enacted a dark satire of the FAO's World Food Conference
which had been held in Rome the previous year.
The piece opened with actors representing Western superpowers devouring food like animals and then gradually eating With more and more decorum but no less
rapacious appetites. Then came the hungry delegate from Bangladesh, begging with his hat; he only got the discarded chicken bones and the leftovers from the
wealthy nations. Meanwhile representatives of the powerful countries - still engrossed in their Sumptuous meal-decided that the solution to the world food and population problem resided in a pill: a pill to be given to the developing nations. The performance ended with all the performers crying in unison in a
to the
accompaniment of drums, "food
rhythmic chant
for them, pills for us. Food for them, pills for us.” As the performance unfolded there was an uncomfortable realization on the part of the conference attendees that the performance they were witnessing was in fact about them. In his recollection of
the e V ent, G a m in i Haththotuwegama, who led the Wayside and Open Theatre for
Taking to
Interse Space, Au POWe Wayside Th Kanchuka
more than three decades, characterized the audience
reaction as one of silence, discomfort, and anger. The group had managed to break into the comfortable space of the powerful of the
organization and subvert it from
r e p r es e n t a t i v e s
Within, calling the entire situation into question as well as highlighting its inherent performativity.
My intention in this article is to explore this sort of innovative use of space and audience on the part of The Wayside and OpenTheatre. I will investigate how this group appropriates spaces and, through their performances, transforms them into transgressive sites where existing power structures are questioned and subverted. Using Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s and Safdar Hashmi's contentions about space, performance, and power, I will examine how Haththotuwegama and his group use public spaces - by which I mean, train stations, bus stops, beaches - to address questions related to class, capitalism, economic liberalization, and neocolonial exploitation. I will analy ze how their work contributes to the debates around

the Streets: ctions of dience, and
r
in the
and Open eatre
Dharmasiri
space and power. What exactly occurs when performances are taken outside of the conventional enclosed proscenium theatre and brought out into the open? What is particularly powerful or thre a te ni ng ab o ut such
performances?
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, speaking of the conflict between the interests
of the artist and the state in
The
Politics of the Performance Space" (1997), affirms that "the nation-state sees the entire
"Enactments of Power:
territory as its performance area; it organizes the space as a huge enclosure, with definite places of entrance and exit" (21). In such a configuration, theuse ofabus stop or a train station for the purpose of a performance, rather than as a passive place to wait for the bus or the train, conflicts with the state's conceptualization of the territory as its possession. The performer reconfigures the use of public space and thus could appear un containable with in the regulations of the state. Safdar Hashmi speaks about this issue in detail, and he points out how "Groups of street theatre people are detained by the police almost every week in one part of the
Nethra Review ; June 2010
country or another' (4). He also goes onto show how this tendency of the police to arrest street theatre artists has escalated over the years. A factor that one should keep in mind here is that Ngugi and Hashmi are speaking from their practical experience in the field. Both artists faced state violence - Ngugi was imprisoned in 1977 and later more or less forced into exile; Hashmi was murdered in 1989 - as a result of their work which sought to create a critical and di a logic performance space for groups traditionally excluded from more mainstream theatre spaces. Haththotuwegama too has had his share of encounters with state authorities in his attempts to take theater to the streets.
To a certain degree, the desire to contain the use of outside spaces goes back to the colonial era, where any gathering outside was regarded with suspicion. In The Right to Perform, Hashmi states that, "Since there is no law to prevent a dramatic performance in a public space, the police use antediluvian laws continuing from the British days' (4). In the precolonial era most of the performance spaces were open spaces and Ngugi asserts that one of the first steps taken by the British was to ban gatherings in public spaces. He examines how British colonizers violently repressed traditional performances that took place in open spaces in Kenya and points out the continuity of that repression on the part of local governments. The apparent fear of the brown or blackbody has taken a more classed nature in the present with the rise of the postcolonial nation state. The crowds that gather with the intent of an outside performance can be seen as a potential threat. In a

Page 58
Nethra Review ; June 2010
d is cus s i on a b out Haththotuwegama's, Hashmi's or Ngugi's work, a consideration of colonialism, post-colonialism, neo colonialism, nationalism, formation of a classed society, and the formation of a national theatre
is necessary.
What had occurred in Sri Lanka with the establishment of the
national theatre was a dislocation of theatre from the village into the cities, into well-structured buildings, mostly built by the British; in short, a move away from the circular performance space where people came and Went as they pleased, where the spectator-audience interaction was different to the one that occurred in the proscenium theatre. Haththotuwegama thus asks in relation to the modern Sinhala theatre, "How "popular' has this new theatre been? How
"national” i.e. in terms of its audience - reach?” (p.133). Since the creation of a national identityby extension, a national theatre - becomes an activity of the bilingual elite classes, an entire segment of the population is excluded from this enterprise of
nation-building.
The Wayside and Open Theatre came into the scene at this specific juncture. The group formed together as an alternative, nonformal theatre in 1974. Moving away from the predominately middle class bourgeois proscenium theatres, they performed in the streets, factories, temple premises, universities, and in urban slum areas. In reaction to theatre having been an exclusive activity enjoyed by the middle classes, it was the group's stated goal to cut through this specific dynamic and make theatre a part of the people. The group's first performance was in a school
playground in Anuradhapura where not many theatre groups tour. On their way back from the show, they also performed on the train station platform for passengers waiting for their trains. The concept of the audience changes drastically with a performance in a train station. It is almost a mobile audience.
The Wayside and Open Theatre is particularly critical of the capitalist and consumerist ethos that has encroached into everyday living. Their short piece titled "The Open Economy' functions as a parody of compulsive commercialism. The piece was first performed in 1978, a time Lanka had started minimizing state control over
when Sri
economy, while promoting "free trade” and large scale foreign imports. Hence, their choice of the Galleface beach - a popular venue for merchants selling a variety of commercial goods - as the site to perform the short piece was significant. The group set themselves up on the beach and started selling the following items: machines to scratch one's back, Snow boots, and imported packaged air. They were in fact parodying the performative and absurd nature of consumer capitalism. The actors recall how during the performance, an undercover policeman tried to get into an argument and provoke them by asking why we need snow boots in a tropical country. The performance - a parody of consumer capitalism – created discomfort in the policeman. Why? Was the policeman angered and rendered uncomfortable by the presence of a crowd that kept gathering around the performers? Did he detect in the performers a specific threat that he did not find in the numerous other vendors
who were on the beach'? What in
5.

fact is the difference between the performing bodies and the vending bodies? Does one help establish the consumer capitalist status quo while the other disrupts it? Ngugi argues that "The war between art and the state is really a struggle between the power of performance in the arts and the performance of power by the state - in short, enactments of power" (p. 12). This sort of a dynamic is apparent in the incident that occurred during the performance of "The Open Economy" because the police officer, a representative of the state, has the power to decide who is allowed to utilize public space and for what purpose. The group manages to point out through their performance and choice of words, the performative nature of consumerism, and this act poses a threat to the establishment.
The subversive dimension of the work of the Wayside and Open Theatre often results from the combination of the space in which their performance is enacted, and the language strategies they deploy in relation to that specific location. In Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Drama and the Kamiriithu Popular Theater Experiment (2007), Gichiringiri Ndigirigi criticizes the tendency on the part of the critics to study alternative theater merely as a political form and to not pay attention to the intricacies and subversive dimensions of language usage, especially when it comes to studying Works in local languages. I agree with Ndigirigi's contention and perceive the strategies in language employed by Haththotuwegama and his group as a significant device used to approach various audiences. The song, "Dream world of Sri Lanka' captures the group's ardent critique of consumerism and
shows how "human, spiritual ideals and meanings are violently destroyed by materialist and c O m mercial valu e s ' (Haththotuwegama, 155): Everything Oyou can sell Business going on very well Country flowing milk and honey
- We are rolling money money
In Homi Bhabha's terms, the group turns "the discursive conditions of dominance into the grounds of intervention” (p.35) at many levels: first of all, an altered local form of the colonizer's language is used to comment on neocolonial power structures such as the exploitation of labor by multinational companies, tourism, and the child sex trade that has become a major concern. Likewise, an allusion is made to selling children for adoption. While the tourists come and go, "come and go" again a transformation of English to accommodate a popular idiom in Sinhala, figures such as Erik Solheim also come and go. Through the careful use of language and signs, Haththotuwegama and his group manage to show the connection between everyday life and global
politics.
The signifier “the dream world of Sri Lanka” flower of paradise” goes through
or "The loveliest
multiple levels of signification and "an infinite number of signsubstitutions (come) into play” (Derrida, 197). These two lines taken directly from a travel brochure intersect with and make an ironic comment on the nationalist discourse that constructs the image of the country as a paradise. The Vocabulary of tourism and nationalism is juxtaposed with c on S u m e r i s m a n d multinationalism. The reference

Page 59
to the land as a "peace Zone” is blatantly contradicted by the civil war that has devastated the island for decades. The song thus is a commentary on the various power structures that intersect and have
inscribed their mark on the postcolonial nation state. Thus, in the context of Haththotuwegama's poem, tourism, consumerism, politics, and the child sex trade and the idea of paradise are intricately connected; an infinite number of meanings are created and "the domain or play of signification...has no limit” (Derrida, 198).
The significations of the word "sell" keep on differing/deferring as well: since we can sell everything, we are selling children to foreigners and the country to multinationals. Even the well
known Sinhala idiom of
prosperity, flowing with milk and honey, which is traditionally associated with reaping a good harvest or being content, is used ironically in relation to the modern day idea of prosperity focusing on commerce. The ability to sell everything becomes the defacto condition that makes
EndNotes
Everything O you can sell Business going on very well... Country flowing milk and honey... We are rolling in money money.
Lanka is a dream world... The loveliest flower of paradise...
This is how sons of gods are born. In this peaceful zone...
the country prosperous. The official nationalist dictum of the country extols the prosperity of Sri Lanka, but in the context of the song "DreamWorld of Sri Lanka" the signification of this prosperity keeps on differing.
To conclude the article, I would like to revert to the performance I mentioned in the beginning, the one that took place during the seminar organized by the World Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. There, the audience was different. In a space that was neither the streets nor the well
structured theatre, the group performed for a crowd of local and international delegates affiliated with the population conference. This piece also illustrates implicit trajectories of colonial, neocolonial and local powers. In the interaction between the
international organizations and "third world" nations, the “third
World" nations often benefit the
least. To use the group's own metaphor, they have to eat the leftovers. By literally enacting this metaphorical interpretation of the international power structure, the
Tourist coming and Tourist going Solheim also come and g We are buying we are sel In our paradise Zone...
Country flowing milk an Human wealth increasing This is how sons of gods In this peaceful zone.
 

performers shocked their audience and disrupted the performing space of the conference itself, turning active policy makers into a captive audience. With the audience's
comfort thus disturbed, and the pow er dynamic at least temporarily shifted, the performance opens up a space for discussion. It is, therefore, precisely because of the types of spaces in which they choose to perform that the group makes a significant impact on their audiences, operating a critical intervention that both questions a n d s ub v e rts c o l o n i a ll, neocolonial, class, and state
power structures.
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi. "Signs Taken for Wonders". The Post-Colonial
Studies Reader. Eds. Bill
Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, & Helen Tiffin. London: Routledge,
1995.
Derrida, Jacques. “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the
Nethra Review ; June 2010
Literary Theory. Eds. Philip Rice & Patricia Waugh. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Hashmi, Safdar. The Right to Perform. Selected Writings of Safdar Hashmi. Delhi: SAHMAT,
1989.
Haththotuwegama, Gamini K. “Un resolved Contradictions, Paradoxical Discourses and Alternative Strategies in the PostColonial Sinhala Theatre'. Abhinaya. Battaramulla: Ministry of Cultural Affairs, 1998: 130-69.
Ndigirigi, Gichingiri. Ngugi Wa Thiong 'o's Drama and the Kamiriithu Popular Theatre Experience. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2007.
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. “Enactments of Power: The Politics of
Performance Space.” The Drama Review. 41.3. Cambridge: The MITPress, 1997.
Human Sciences'. Modern
Buddha's footprint up above. Gods are watching
O. From the sky.
Illing... We will sell ourselves today.
And our flesh and blood
We are selling flesh, blood, or bones.
d honey. Or sacrificing daughters and sons.
g greatly... In the market we are puppets made to dance.
are born. Country is going to multinationals
Country is going to multinationals

Page 60
Nethra Review : June 2010
Liyanage Amarakeerthi was presented the award for the Best Novel (2008) and the award for the Best Collection of Short Stories (2000) at the National Literary Festival of Sri Lanka. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sinhala, and a Sinhala Instructor of the ISLE Program at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. His academic interests include a range of areas such as modern drama in Sinhala, translation theory and practice, the modern short story, western literary theory and criticism, and social/cultural studies of literature.
Maithree Wickramasinghe is a senior lecturer at the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She is also a visiting lecturer on gender and women's studies at the University of Colombo. Her teaching interests include literary / critical theory, and Sri Lankan women's poetry. Her research work has explored a number of diverse issues including women and development, sexual harassment and violence against women, feminist research methodology, and gender in disaster management as well as gender in organizations/workplaces.
Senath Walter Perera obtained his MA and PhD from the University of New Brunswick, Canada, and is currently Professor of English at the University of Peradeniya. Though his postdoctoral research was on Indian, Kenyan and Caribbean fiction, he now focuses on Sri Lankan writing in English, especially the Sri Lankan Novel of Expatriation. Perera is the recipient of several Commonwealth and Fulbright awards and has served as Chair of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Eurasia). He was an Articles Editor for Postcolonial Text, is the Bibliography Representative in Sri Lanka for TheJournal of Commonwealth Literature and a member of the Gratiaen Trust. He has also been Editor of The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities since 1996,
Ranjini Obeyesekere taught in the Department of Anthropology, Princeton University till her retirement in 2003. She has previously taught in the Department of English at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and at the University of California, San Diego. Her publications include Sinhala Writing and the New Critics; An Anthology of Modern Writing from Sri Lanka (co-edited with C. Fernando), Jewels of the Doctrine Stories from the Saddharma Ratnavaliya, and Sri Lankan Theatre in a Time of Terror and
Yasodharawata.
Kakoli Ray is a senior researcher at the .
International Centre for Ethnic Studies where she works on globalization, migration and human rights. She is a scholar and also a practitioner of international migration issues. Prior to joining ICES, Dr. Ray has held
Contri
leadership positions in the Caucases, Central Asia and the United States for international organizations. She has a doctorate in social sciences from Columbia University, USA.
Punyakante Wijenaike won the Gratiaen Prize in 1994 for her novel Amulet. She was also the winner of the State Literary Award for The Unbinding (2001) and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Anoma (1996). Her novel Giraya was adapted for television by Dr. Lester James Peiris. The rank Kalasuri Class 1 (literary achievement) was conferred on her by the Government of Sri Lanka in 1988, while the special title of Sahityaratna was conferred on her at the State Literary Festival in 2003. Her most recent publications include That Deep Silence (2009) and Coming to Terms (2006).
Sarath Rajapatirana is Vice President (Research) of the Institute of Economic and Institutional Development. Previously he was with the World Bank for twenty-five years, where he was an Economic Adviser, a Division Chief for trade and industry for Latin America and the Director and Team Leader of the 1987 World Development Report. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka where he was Chief of Money and Banking Research. He is the author/co-author of six books and more than forty papers published
in refereed journals,
Ashley Halpé was appointed Chair of the Department of English at the University of Peradeniya in 1965. A scholar, artist, poet, and translator, he was the founding editor of the journal titled Navasilu and the author of numerous research articles. His publications include volumes of poetry such as Silent Arbiters (1976), Homing (1993) and Sigiri Poems (1995), a translation of the Sigiri Graffiti. His paintings have been exhibited in several countries, and he has produced and directed a number of plays in Sri Lanka and in the West,
Mick Moore is a political scientist and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, UK, and specialises in governance issues. He completed his first research in Sri Lanka in 1975, and has returned to the country many times. His book The State and Peasant Politics in Sri Lanka (Cambridge University Press, 1985) was republished in 2008.
Nishan de Mel, A.B. Hons. (Harvard), M.Phil (Oxon), D.Phil (Oxon), is an Economist. He has held several senior policy and research appointments in Sri Lanka. He was a Member, Presidential Task Force on Health Reforms (1997); Member, National Steering Committee on Social Security (1998-2000); Member, Presidential
58

butOrS
Committee on Tobacco and Alcohol (19972000); and Member, Board of Directors of the Sri Lanka Foundation (1997-2000). He was a lecturer in Economics at Oxford University 2002-2007) and a researcher at the Institute of Policy Studies Sri Lanka (1996-2000). He served as Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (2000) and Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (2009).
Sivamohan Sumathy is attached to the Department of English, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her interests are critical theory including Marxism and Feminism, performance studies and film theory. Her work ranges from studies of the nation state and militarism, Tamil and Muslim women's expression of survival and resistance, displacement, to film, media, theatre practice and translation studies. She has also been involved in bringing different ethnic communities together into dialogue.
Wilfred Jayasuriya teaches literature at the American National College, an extension campus in Colombo, of a consortium of US, British and Australian universities. His publications include Sri Lanka's Modern English Literature-A Case Study in Literary Theory, The Libyan Episode, Christine's Story and Time Traveller
Lakmali Jayasinghe is a Researcher at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, and is a first-class English Honours graduate of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Herresearch interests include comparative literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and gender studies. She is also an editor, a writer and a photographer.
Frances Bulath singhala, at the cost of attention to other "important" matters of childhood such as mathematics and science, became addicted at an early age to daydreaming in general, and Writing poems and stories in particular. As an adult, she took to journalism and covered the 1998 - 2005 phase of Sri Lanka's war-peace scenario for various newspapers in Sri Lanka and abroad. Having left mainstream, journalism for a more humanitarian line of work, she is at the moment pursuing creative Writing.
Ramani Gunatilaka is an Adjunct Research Fellow of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, and works as an independent consultant in Sri Lanka. She holds a BSc in economics from University College London, an MSc in development economics from the University of Oxford, and a doctorate in applied econometrics from Monash University. She has published in the areas of income distribution, poverty alleviation, rural development and labour market issues in Sri
Lanka, and on the determinants of subjective well-beingin ruralandurban China.
Nira Wickramasinghe is attached to the Department of History and International Relations at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has been a World Bank Robert McNamara fellow, a Fulbright senior scholar at New York University, a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and more recently, a British Academy Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford. Among her publications are Civil Society in Sri Lanka: New Circles of Power, Dressing the Colonised Body. Politics, Clothing and Identity in Colonial Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities.
John Stifler is a writer and teacher of writing. Since 1984, he has taught in the Junior (3rd year) Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts, and he regularly leads workshops for writers at many levels, ranging from high school to professionals and multi-talented people in many walks of life. He has written numerous feature articles for magazines and newspapers, on subjects ranging from music and literature to sports and nutrition. As a Fulbright Scholar, he taught at the Department of English, University of Peradeniya in 2008.
Dayan J ay a tille ka is form er Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, the Chairman of the Governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Vice President of the Human Rights Council (HRC). He is the author of Fidel's Ethics of Violence. The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro, published by Pluto Press (London) and the University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor). He is also a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka,
Kanchuka Dharmasiri is currently reading for her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her areas of interest include theatre, particularly street theatre and Sinhala theatre, postcolonial studies, translation, visual culture, and early Buddhist women's writing. Kanchuka is a theatre director and a
translator.
Chelva Kanaganayakam is professor of English at the University of Toronto and Director, Centre for South Asian Studies. He has published several books including Structures of Negation: the Writings of Zulfikar Ghose, Configurations of Exile. South Asian Writers and their World, Dark Antonyms and Paradise, the Poetry of Rienzi Crusz, and Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian
Fiction.

Page 61
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Page 62
Nethra Review : June 2010
Liyanage Amarakeerthi was presented the award for the Best Novel (2008) and the award for the Best Collection of Short Stories (2000) at the National Literary Festival of Sri Lanka. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sinhala, and a Sinhala Instructor of the ISLE Program at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. His academic interests include a range of areas such as modern drama in Sinhala, translation theory and practice, the modern short story, western literary theory and criticism, and social/cultural studies of literature,
Maithree Wickramasinghe is a senior lecturer at the Department of English at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She is also a visiting lecturer on gender and women's studies at the University of Colombo. Her teaching interests include literary / critical theory, and Sri Lankan women's poetry. Her research work has explored a number of diverse issues including women and development, sexual harassment and violence against women, feminist research methodology, and gender in disaster management as well as gender in organizations/workplaces.
Senath Walter Perera obtained his MA and PhD from the University of New Brunswick, Canada, and is currently Professor of English at the University of Peradeniya. Though his postdoctoral research was on Indian, Kenyan and Caribbean fiction, he now focuses on Sri Lankan writing in English, especially the Sri Lankan Novel of Expatriation. Perera is the recipient of several Commonwealth and Fulbright awards and has served as Chair of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Eurasia). He was an Articles Editor for Postcolonial Text, is the Bibliography Representative in Sri Lanka for The Journal of Commonwealth Literature and a member of the Gratiaen Trust. He has also been Editor of The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities since 1996,
Ranjini Obeyesekere taught in the Department of Anthropology, Princeton University till her retirement in 2003. She has previously taught in the Department of English at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and at the University of California, San Diego. Her publications include Sinhala Writing and the New Critics; An Anthology of Modern Writing from Sri Lanka (co-edited with C. Fernando), Jewels of the Doctrine Stories from the Saddharma Ratnavaliya, and Sri Lankan Theatre in a Time of Terror and
Yasodhara wata.
Kakoli Ray is a senior researcher at the .
International Centre for Ethnic Studies where she works on globalization, migration and human rights. She is a scholar and also a practitioner of international migration issues. Prior to joining ICES, Dr. Ray has held
C
leadership positions in the Asia and the United State organizations. She has a
Sciences from Columbia Ui
Punyakante Wijenaike 1 Prize in 1994 forher nove
also the winner of the Sta for The Unbinding ( Commonwealth Short Stor (1996). Her novel Giraya television by Dr. Lester . rank Kalasuri Class I (lite was conferred on her by til Sri Lanka in 1988, while Sahityaratna was confert State Literary Festival in recent publications incl Silence (2009) and Coming
Sarath Rajapatirana is (Research) of the Institute Institutional Developmen was with the World Ban years, where he was an Ec Division Chief for trade
Latin America and the D
Leader of the 1987 Wo Report. Prior to joining th was with the Central Bankc
he was Chief of Mont
Research. He is the autho books and more than forty in refereed journals.
Ashley Halpé was appoil Department of English at Peradeniya in 1965. A scl and translator, he was the the journal titled Navasilu numerous research articles include volumes of poeti Arbiters (1976), Homing Poems (1995), a translat Graffiti. His paintings have several countries, and he directed a number of playsi
the West.
Mick Moore is a politi Professorial Fellow at Development Studies, UK, governance issues. He co research in Sri Lanka in returned to the country mar The State and Peasant Pol (Cambridge University Pre published in 2008.
Nishan de Mel, A.B. ) M.Phil (Oxon), D.Phil
Economist. He has held sev and research appointments was a Member, Presidenti Health Reforms (1997); M Steering Committee on
(1998-2000); Membe

Page 63
Guid f Contri
Nethra Review invites Submissions from interested contrit the following:
Literary studies Cultural studies Popular culture Political / sociological studies Gender Studies
Visual arts
Book reviews
Film reviews Creative writing Interdisciplinary studies
* This is not a comprehensive listing. Contributors are end clarifications on potential submissions.
This biannual journal seeks to create a forum for social co exchange. It hopes to accommodate a space for a spectrum expressions. The journal expects to feature book reviews,
events, and translations of Sinhala and Tamil writing.
Contributions may span across the disciplines, but should Writing.
Nethra Review does not consider manuscripts that are und
Manuscripts should not exceed 3500 words.
All Submissions should follow the MLA citation format. Example: Rushdie, Salman. The Satanic Verses. Delaware. The Cons
Page references should be included after the quotations.
Please submit your manuscripts and contact details to the Nethra Review
ICES,
2, Kynsey Terrace,
Colombo 08.
Sri Lanka
OR submit your manuscript through email: nethrasalices.lk

elines
O
butOrs
butors from different disciplines and interest areas such as
Couraged to contact ICES through nethra(a)ices. Ik for any
mmentary, cultural, literary and artistic expression and 1 of issues, ranging from social commentary to creative review articles, commentary, reviews on films and cultural
have some relevance to Sri Lanka and / or Sri Lankan
er review elsewhere or that have been previously published.
sortium, 1998.
following address:

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