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| Thursday, 18 March 2004 |
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33rd death anniversary of D. B. Dhanapala A historic event took place one day in 1946, the venue being the Pagoda Tea Rooms as it was known then. The late Mr. P. A. Ediriweera described it thus: "Ulick de Mel, Rex Koelmeyer, D. B. Dhanapala and I were chatting over our day's activities. D.B. who had been greatly influenced by Rev. Anagarika Dharmapala was feeling the need for a cultural renaissance in the country.
According to Mr. Ediriweera the printing presses of the day that used to print the "Morning Leader", "Independent" and "Lakmina" were outdated. At this discussion Ulick is reported to have told D.B., "Dane why not get the job done at the Times? Even in England many newspaper proprietors do not have their own printing presses." This remark of Ulick germinated an idea in the mind of D. B. Dhanapala. He went on relentlessly pursuing this idea which historians regard as a turning point in the island's history. The road to establishing a Sinhala newspaper was not easy. D.B. faced the first obstacle when he met Mr. Tomlaison, Managing Director of the Times of Ceylon Ltd., who refused to publish a Sinhala newspaper by the Times of Ceylon. The situation changed with Mr. K. C. Thangarajah taking over the duties of Mr. Tomlaison, who went on leave. With the blessings of Mr. Thangarajah D.B. laid the foundation for the first ever evening Sinhala daily in Ceylon under the distinguished editorship of the late Mr. Julius de Lanerolle. Thus on 27.10.1947 "Lankadipa" the six-column tabloid was born. Dhanapala was not satisfied with an evening tabloid. He saw to it that by 16.05.1949 the evening tabloid became the then standard seven-column morning daily. Immediately prior to the 1952 General Election the UNP was feeling uneasy about the extent of influence Dhanapala was wielding through the "Lankadipa." As the election campaign was hotting up one night Mr. Justin Kotelawala then Treasurer of the UNP had summoned Mr. Ediriweera to the former's Ward Place residence in Colombo. When Mr. Ediriweera arrived on the scene he was greeted by not only Mr. Kotelawala but also by no less a person than Sir Oliver Goonetilleke. Mr. Kotelawala suggested to Mr. Ediriweera to bring to bear his influence on Dhanapala so that his newspaper would refrain from being so critical of the UNP knowing Dhanapala well Mr. Ediriweera stated that Dhanapala would not change his stance. But they some how managed to send out Dhanapala on a pre-election survey round the country in the guise of getting a feel of the pulse of the people but thereby silencing his pen during the most crucial time. He toured the island and came back and forecast the election results dead right except for the Northern and Eastern electorates. Even in the 1956 General Election when the Government realized that Dhanapala through his Lankadipa was supporting Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sir John Kotelawala wanted Mr. C. X. Martin of the Times of Ceylon to invite Dhanapala to undertake of tour a the United States of America lasting a couple of months. Mr. Martin was not the sort of person who would want his lieutenant to leave the battle field. He politely refused to accede to the request even without consulting Dhanapala. Sir John the great man he was, had the matter dropped. But the irony of the situation was that at that time Sir John was an influential shareholder of the Times of Ceylon Ltd. Journalism was then an esteemed profession and was so respected. While we today salute the late D. B. Dhanapala a genius of a journalist a newspaper man par excellence - in fact one of Asia's best known - and the senior most editor in Sir Lanka when he died thirty-three years ago, we also see in the backdrop of this drama three great Tamil leaders in Messrs. Sangarapillai, Thangarajah and Martin following in the footsteps of Sirs Ramanathan and Arunachalam and helping Sinhala breakthrough a hostile cultural milieu. - V. K. Wijeratna |
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Produced by Lake House |
He was regretting that what was wrong with Ceylon was that a few
families considered the island as a part of a dowry bestowed on them. He
said this situation could be changed if only he were to have a suitable
press to print a real Sinhala newspaper."
