Appreciation: Nimal Horana

The Old Brigade Passes

by Ajith Samaranayake

The death of Nimal Horana at the age of 75 is redolent with memory for he represented and in his own way sought to embody an era, which has all but vanished from the memory of contemporary Sri Lanka. There were two principal traits in Nimal Horana who belonged to a pioneering generation of old idealists who were committed both to radical politics and innovative journalism.

Although Nimal Horana led much of his later life in Kelaniya his early breeding was at Dehiwela and he has recalled how as a young man living in Karagampitiya he sometimes used to walk all the way to Colombo because public transport was rather rare those days. The contacts he made among the people of Dehiwela helped him to become a member of the Dehiwela-Mt. Lavinia local body and he has also recalled how he had to resign because of the paltry pay, which would have induced him otherwise to surrender to the temptress of corruption.

A second generation member of the LSSP Nimal edited an array of LSSP publications including the 'Samasamajaya' the party's theoretical journal and later the two more popular mass circulation newspapers, the 'Janadina' and the 'Janasathiya.' Later with the LSSP's alliance with the SLFP Nimal gravitated to the SLFP's 'Sirilaka' and the 'Dinakara' having always believed in the need for a confluence between the two parties. Nimal Horana belonged to a generation, which loved this land without being crippled by primordial prejudices. This was most manifest in his love of Sinhala poetry of which he was no mean exponent. He belonged to the second generation of the Colombo School of Poets and has recalled whimsically that Mrs. Wimala Wijewardene, the controversial Health Minister of the 1956 MEP Government had come to him to get instructions in composing poetry!

Much later Nimal Horana joined Lake House and was Editor of the 'Silumina' but perhaps his shining moment as recalled by contemporary colleagues was when the Police had come to seal the 'Dinakara' office during the dispute within the SLFP in the late 1970s following Mrs. Bandaranaike being deprived of her civic rights. The then Government Agent of Colombo had already come and sealed the party office but no one had any inkling that the newspaper office, which was next door but had a separate entrance, was also to be sealed. When the Police came Nimal was in his sarong editing copy but the senior officer in charge recognised him and between them they were able to come to a diplomatic bargain that the office would only be sealed after that night's newspapers, which were already ready for the press, were printed!

The death of somebody like Nimal Horana brings us back to the fact that there were people in Sri Lanka who did not surrender their deeply held convictions for passing gain. Nimal Horana was quite clear in his mind of where he stood and he died in harness writing to the last to Lake House Sinhala newspapers. A mild-mannered but large-hearted man who never threw his weight around he will be greatly missed among progressive journalistic circles.