Nimal Horana, the invincible writer sharpened by leftist movement

That was the period many argued that the LSSP Convention following the 1952 General Election became highly decisive owing to the conspicuous class phenomenon apparent throughout the party. The proposal engineered by P. H. William Silva, T. B. Subasinghe, L. W. Panditha, V. A. Samarawickrema, K. P. Silva, and my father Henry Peiris, the former MP for Panadura, suffered an utter defeat by a large majority making my father along with a large number of party men to bid goodbye to the "everlasting Lanka Sama Samajaya Party".

The event brought about a broad void in the Editorship of the "Samasamajaya" paper. My father, was the Chief Editor of the papers "Samasamajaya", "Satana" for three decades and "Samasamaja Satana". He was a man who rendered an invaluable service as the editor of the print media of the original Lanka Samasamajaya Party, which later became the Bolshevik Samasamajaya Party.

The responsible task of finding an editor for the Samasamajaya paper fell on the shoulders of the party Secretary Leslie Gunawardena. He approached Nimal Horana who was by then an English Teacher in a school in Athurugiriya and who was known to be a popular Colombo era poet and also a good Samasamajaya loyalist.

Nimal Horana, readily gave up his post of English Teacher and with confidence joined the editorial staff of the "Samasamajaya" paper as the Editor, from the very next day. He had the capacity to take forward the paper in good stead with dignity.

I can precisely recall to date one of the headlines he used on a lead story in the Samasamajaya paper. "Alu Yatin Gini Pupuru Mathuwanne Hetai" to mean "Tomorrow is the day for sparks to rise from the ashes". That was the banner headline on the "Samasamajaya" paper of August 12,1953.

"Kaha Uvadura Hisa Osawathi" meaning the "Yellow menace raises its head" was another headline by Nimal Horana that caused a stir. He wrote that with pain of mind when a large crowd disrupted the Samasamajaya Party organized meeting at Colombo Town Hall in the year 1955 to explain the party stance on the language policy.

Whatever said and done, Nimal Horana, the humanitarianist as he was, viewed with disdain the attitude of certain chauvinistic clergy men who opposed proposals to solve the ethnic problem from its very inception during the Bandaranaike regime. During this period the poet Batuwandara Gunawardena was his contemporary sub-editor.

He was a regular contributor to Sinhala poetic magazines like "Suwanda", "Dedunna" and "Meevadaya" of the Colombo era and earned a reputation as an undaunted leftist journalist since 1953.

The year 1975 marked a turning point in his political career. He played a key role to bring about the victory of 1970 General Election won by the United Front, which was formed by the late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the year 1968. He witnessed with disgust the fissures that appeared on the progressive unity of the United Front Government following certain steps taken in 1975 as a result of the Samasamajaya Party over estimating its strength. In his capacity as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Lanka Samasamajaya Party he started pointing out the shortcomings at the party meetings.

Ultimately, of the 19 LSSP Members in Parliament, 17 crossed over to the Opposition to topple the United Front to the utmost joy of the reactionaries who cheered as if they had won a kingdom.

A number of progressive writers like Nimal Horana who foresaw the consequences of the reactionaries returning to power continued to take forward the cause of the United Front, resolutely.

That was the story of Nimal Horana's linkage with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the People's Alliance in 1993.

Nimal Horana was a dauntless writer who abandoned party affiliations when they stood in the way of his independent ideologies.

He held the editorship or deputy-editorship of papers "Janadina", "Jana Sathiya", "Dina Resa"(daily), "Siri Laka" and "Dinakara" the press organs of the SLFP led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike. His mentor in journalism was D. W. Wickremaratchi, the Editor of "Swadesha Mithraya". Just before taking to teaching, Nimal Horana was a sub-editor of the "Peramuna" paper for some time.

- Janadasa Peiris - Chairman, ANCL