The State and Thamil culture

It's a sad story that the State's Department of Culture, which is supposed to look after the development of not only the Sinhala culture but also other minority cultures did not have funds to present trophies and certificates to the winners of the recently conducted National Thamil Drama Festival. Let me digress a little.

When the cultures of the Thamilians and the Muslims were looked after by politicians of the respective communities in the capacity of ministers or deputy ministers, there was some kind of development. But today in the name of National Integration, there is a partisan preoccupation with the predominant culture. Hence this lopsidedness.

This is partly due to the Sinhala only known staffers in the Department who do not seem to understand the good intentions of those at the top who are trying to at least show a semblance of accommodating the 'other'.

I have had bitter experience earlier in communicating with the staff even when they have asked me to serve them in some specific assignments. You cannot blame them because they are the product of a climate influenced by sections of the Sinhala media and the textbooks prescribed for children where anything other than Sinhala is treated as scum or 'alien'. This is a reality.

Whatever peace process is pursued, nothing is going to happen materially, so long as the attitudes of the major communities towards each other change in understanding the 'other'. Some of the radical 'patriots' of motherland are doing a lot of damage not only to the young people in this country, but also to the country at large.

If not checked and amends made as early as possible, all of us are going to be perished and lose our country. This may sound very pessimistic, but the reality slaps us very visibly.

Let's come back to the National Thamil Drama Festival - 2005 Award Presentation Ceremony held at the John de Silva Memorial Theatre on August 27. This function was organized by the Department of Cultural Affairs and National Drama Panel of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka.

I did not know how many total members were there in the panel, but for certain I knew there were only three Thamil speaking people knowledgeable in the theatre and Drama. They were Kalaichelvan (a Muslim theatre-person of vast experience and dedication), Anthony Jeeva (an enterprising dramatist and literati) and Thangavelayutham (I do not know much about him, but he seemed to be an enthusiastic worker).

Thanks to them they revived Theatrical activities in Thamil after half a century or so. I salute them for remembering the past contributors to indigenous drama in Thamil, even though the list was not exhaustive. Those forgotten players and new finds were recognized at the festival.

You might ask from where the Department got the money spent on the plaques. Well, a connoisseur and a philanthropist who belong to the Memon community came to the rescue spending Rs. 40, 000 from his own pocket.

While Thamilian businessmen do not seem to care fostering Lankan Thamil arts and Literature, it is Al Haj Hashim Omar, (who is very fluent in Thamil) who liberally spends promoting the Thamil writers and artistes. Most others will spend lavishly in getting down third rate movie stars, singers and poets and speakers from Thamilnadu, as if we don't have talented people amongst us. It is a pity.

There is now new Minister - Mr Mahinda Yapa Abeywardhana. He was present at the function and assured development of Thamil culture in this country. Two other ministers were invited to show their patronage, but they didn't come. They were Minister Douglas Devananda and Minister Ferial Ashroff. Mr. Devananda was represented by his consultant attorney Ms. Velayutham.

Another notable absentee was Henry Jayasena (an adorable dramatist/actor in both Sinhala and English theatre and Sinhala films and presently a columnist in English). Even if they were not present, the show went on with the dedicated contribution by attorney Douglas Siriwardhana, Chairman of the National Drama Panel. I know personally that Douglas Siriwardhana (a successful dramatist) is genuinely interested in forging communal harmony.

The president of the Arts Council is Mr Charles Dayananda. Mr. E.M. Abhayaratne, we learnt is the Director of Cultural Affairs. I was happy to see him at the entrance of the auditorium adoring a Kunkumam and Sandana Pottu in his forehead, smiling and munching some Katkandu (Candy). At once I felt that I won't be treated as an 'alien' at least by him.

There were cultural interludes of dancing- first by Sinhala girls dancing to Sanskrit slogans in dedication to Goddess Saraswathi. There was movement but not suitable to the context in the lines. Then students of Vasugi gave some colourful oriental dances which were very appreciable.

The announcers in Sinhala and Thamil introduced the items fairly well.I have seen the Sinhala announcer in Sinhala telefilms, but could not remember his name. He was highly professional. The Thamil announcer, Dharshani, comes over the air over the SLBC and appears in the Eye Channel programme. He was alright. The translator of Sinhala speeches messed up with the statements and names.

Even against odds, the programme was successful and the credit goes particularly to Kalaichelvan, Anthony Jeeva and Tangavelayutham for making "Thamil" also felt amidst "National" culture.

Because of this event, I missed out on "Konjum Salankai", the debut dance of two sisters on stage: Aaranya and Maithreyi, daughters of Manoranjan Rajasingham and Shanthi Sachithanandam (two well known politicized activists).These young girls were students of Sivakumari Gnanedran. The recital took place on August 27,2005 at the Bishops College auditorium.

Thirai Thoothu

Frankly, I do not know whether the National Film Corporation comes under the aegis of the Media Ministry or Cultural Ministry. However, there was an official (Hilmy Mohammed) from the Media Ministry speaking on censorship at the monthly talks on Cinema organized by the Thamil unit of the NFC. Mr. Thevathasan functions there without any infrastructure facilities provided him, but he is in the Board of Directors.

Even here it is the sad affairs that are discouraging. Anything Thamil seems to be an unwelcome presence. Despite good intentions by the former minister, JVP's Vijitha Herat (in spite of JVP's spiting manoeuvres towards the Thamilians of this country) and the Chairman's genuine concern over the task ahead, Thamil activities are minimal.

Thevathasan is trying his best to keep it going. He has produced a 16 page magazine called "Thirai Thoothu" (Screen Messenger). The cover picture shows Sumitra feeding Lester with a piece of cake probably on his birthday and smaller pictures of foreign and local movie stars.

The two local players are Uthayakumar and Helen Kumari. Inside middle pages have colour photos of films. There are many advertisements and a few notes and short articles on subjects related to films. The publication is priced at Rs. 15.

Marxists on Marxists

N.K. Raghunathan, a Lankan writer in Thamil now lives in Canada. He has written a fiction with some realistic anecdotes titled "Panancholai Eluchi" (The Rising of a Palmyrah Orchard). Raghunathan was considered a Marxist writer when he was here. But critics of Marxist persuasions of varying shades discussed this book rather critically.

I was surprised because usually critical assessments of Marxist writers were not forthcoming earlier. The event took place at the WERC Auditorium on August 28, sponsored by writer Neervai Ponnian, himself a Marxist writer. M.M. Sameem (a history specialist and educationist) chaired the discussion.

He seems to be still resting on orthodox Marxist canons of criticism. But Thayaparan, who appreciates leftist ideals but asserted that he was not a Marxist and Jeyaratnam (a former SLAS officer) and Siva Subramaniam editor of Thinakaran seemed to have come out of the box and were very critical of the book, even though they welcomed the publication. I enjoyed the session as I felt that a second look is now being undertaken on the so-called progressive literature.

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