Magical pull of the Blue Black and Blue
Like the serpent keen and wise,
Harmless as the dove……..
In the field of intellect
Many a prize we’ve won,
And upon the field of sport
Thomians yield to none
Be it work, or be it play,
We will do and dare
To the College therefore sing
For all we have and are
|
Dr. Indra de Soysa |
Established in 1851, S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia is one of the
oldest and one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the
country. Now the reins of control of this great institution have passed
into the hands of its 18th Warden, Dr. Indra de Soysa,
“I think I had a pretty standard childhood. I grew up quite close to
the school here on Hotel Road, so I always felt special living close to
the school. It meant that I could always come for extra-curricular
activities to the school. My friends could always gather at my house for
meals sometimes and after school. It was special growing up next to
college. My attachment to the school is quite strong from that aspect as
well,” said the Warden.
Asked as to what memorable recollections of his college life he has,
Warden de Soysa says that he had memories of watching some great
cricketers play, not just Thomians but also from other schools. He
recounted seeing the supreme wielder of the willow, Duleep Mendis,
flourishing his bat along with Rajan Saravanamuttu.
“Memorable moments are always something either very bad that you
can’t admit to, or something very good which were always good fun. The
Thomian Fair belongs to the latter. I remember my first Thomian Fair
which was an incredible event for me as a young boy and today it has got
even bigger. Those kinds of events that college put on were certainly
memorable and helped to build a kind of college spirit that led to the
idea of the school, as something bigger than just the classroom that you
are in,” stated the Warden.
School spirit
Warden de Soysa who has been living in the West observed that there
is very little pride and school spirit in those countries. “I have lived
in the West where children just go to school. School is school, and
everything else is outside the school. They can be private clubs and
other things so that sense of school pride and school spirit never
really builds up like it does here.”
De Soysa, who was in school from 1971-1984, recounted the Royal
Thomian match. “The Royal Thomian is a memorable event. And I can’t pick
any particular Royal Thomian as being great, but certainly the hundredth
Royal Thomian - the Centenary Royal Thomian - made an impression on me,
in terms of what my school really meant to the world,” added the Warden.
Warden de Soysa did his A/Levels in the Arts stream, doing History,
Political Science, Greek and Roman Civilization and English. Having an
illustrious career in the academic field, Warden de Soysa said that
after he left college he went straight to the USA for his studies. “I
went on to study Political Science and History, but of course in the
USA, the first degree is very general and then you specialize in the
later years.”
Higher studies
Having entered the University of Alabama after his A/Levels, he
studied for his Bachelors degree and went on to complete his M.A., as
well as, Ph.D. “I did all of them at the University of Alabama largely
because I had scholarships that I had to have; if not, I would not have
been able to sustain myself financially.”
College life at Alabama was always fun. You are around people who are
very smart and very well motivated. “That combination was a huge pull up
factor for me. Our culture is a very laid back and “let’s do it
tomorrow” sort of culture. I had to adjust myself to a culture where
everything had to be done extremely well; if not you simply don’t
survive. It was a learning experience - typing on computers, as well as,
being meticulous about how you do your papers to the point of checking
if every punctuation and full stop is in place. Because you get marked
down for the tiniest little thing. And the competitive spirit is such
that pretty soon, you develop an attitude of taking on something and
doing it precisely and perfectly on time and doing it well enough that
you survive into the next semester,” elaborated the Warden.
He pursued his graduate studies in Political Science, and for his
Ph.D., he specialized in a subject called Political Economy. He
maintains that his interest was driven by his own experience as a Sri
Lankan during the Civil War. “I wanted to understand the failure of
governance; the failure to address the issues of the ethnic problem. So
these are standard questions in Political Science: governance under
conditions of pluralism and what kind of constitutional arrangements
would best serve the country and under what conditions. ”
Crowning glory
One may add that the crowning glory of his student life was winning
of the best dissertation award after finishing his Ph.D. And he was the
first Political Science student to do so. “Usually a subject like
Political Science never gets it, because a dissertation in a subject
like Physics or Chemistry has something very concrete which is easy to
mark and evaluate. So I was very proud to be the first Political
Scientist to get the best dissertation award. And almost immediately I
was hired. While I was doing my Ph.D., I had a United Nations
Scholarship to finish writing my dissertation at the United Nations
University in Tokyo.
"It was a one year scholarship even though I finished it in eight
months. And then I went back and even before I finished my Ph.D., I had
a job offer from the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo".
On issues of ethnicity and civil war, he has challenged some of the
established premises on violent conflicts. He has also published several
papers together with some famous academics at the World Bank and the
University of Oxford. |
