Recreating the stance of the victims of community development

Professor Sunanda Mahendra

FICTION: In the name of 'development', and to use a better term, the 'social and human development', quite a lot of victimisation and hazards of the life style could take place invariably.

These changes could be reckoned as good as well as bad, and could undermine the real value of the life, as aspired by any human being on the earth planet.

The sensitive artist, or the creator could face these challenges in various ways, and recreate them in order to depict the conditions of the world at large, and help clarify the concepts of what is really meant by development, and what was actually achieved in terms of human values in the ensuing changes.

This presumably was the first and foremost feeling I had when I read the award winning Sinhala novel. K Karunadhira Alwis's creative debut titled Kindura Gosin Vatunai Pura Madulle.

The last line of a verse from the well known classical Sinhala ballad Sandakinduru Da Kava by Venerable Vilgammula Maha Thero is alluded to the title of the work, as found in the collection of the Jataka tales [published by Stamford Lake 2006].

Kindura is the name of the protagonist of the novel, whose actual name goes as Kirineris, who is visualised as a folk artist, who played the part of the folk play known as Sandakinduru when it happened to be enacted in the temple premises as a means of religious edification.

Encounters

There are several types of people the reader encounters in this work, who are mostly connected with the temple as a result of the head priest, who happened to be one of the rare strict characters, nevertheless humane in his attitude towards the villagers.

The head priest is also shown as stern as well as disciplined person who will leave no stone unturned to help a villager in need, and opposes any barriers and impediments to the religious development of the community. In this manner, the reader is shown the character of the Priest and the Kindura as two intimate friends, the representatives of one generation.

The second generation of characters consist of the second in command of the temple, the young pupil monk of the head priest, who is shown as more liberal minded than the former.

Though there seems no tug-of-war between the two priests, the reader is made to understand that the younger priest's attitude is more populistic, and attuned to politics than his teacher.

This reaches a climax when a decision is taken for the reformation of the community to build a karmanthapura or an industrial city in the vicinity of the temple where the normal tenor of living conditions of the villagers would certainly be disturbed and result in a new turn of events from the traditional pattern of existence.

The opposing forces as well as the supporting forces emerge making the reader come to grips with some of the high flown concepts in the developmental forums like the 'better living conditions and 'better economic facilities to each and every one' though in reality the result seems the isolation and desolation of some innocent villagers loosing their firm footing making allowance to remove them from their normal living conditions or uprooting them completely from their usual environment.

One of the representative victims happens to be the Kindura or Kirineris, whose cattle are removed from himself made cowshed, and taken elsewhere by a vehicle. Kirineris, shown as a great animal lover, is separated from his breed of cattle out of which he made a meagre living is now dispossessed of them.

Where his cattle are taken, and by whom are they being looked after are some of the factors not known to Kirineris. But as he had the address of the removers officially notified, who live in a far remote place Kirineris makes a long distance journey like a pilgrim in search of his intimate animals.

The trip happens to be so tired and futile that Kirineris is shown as a miserable individual made to be isolated from his only humane possession, the animals with who he had the closest possible dialogue and not with his own kith and kin.

As he is ignorant of the situations or the conditions as to who breeds them now, though indicative of a state farm, the attention to his own health and other living factors are shown as neglected to the point that he becomes an inevitable prey to death, the only solution, which is portrayed as one of the most powerful and sensitive scenes in this creative work.

This is not the end however - the beginning of a new era, where a series of episodes in the life of another man, who is linked with the life style of Kirineris is created. He is one Emis who was one time the caretaker of the temple premises.

When Emis, like an apparition returns from a distant place having lived in the house of his sister whose husband dies, he sees that the changes as found in the temple and his places of liking in the newly moulded city which was a village one time, are not at all conducive to his pattern of living.

Ealthy condition

He too becomes disillusioned, and falls a victim of the circumstances ushered in, in the name of the community development, which to him, is only visible on the surface, but not a very healthy condition for him to live anymore.

He meets some of his old colleagues,[for example the temple mural painter], who recognise him, but there seems a certain degree of distance and aloofness among them despite the age barrier.

This is symbolised as a 'development barrier'. Emis comes to know of the death of Kindura as well as the high priest, who was drawn to a mournful end on similar account. He also comes to know quite a number of factors pertaining to the tragic changes in the name of development.

He perceives the visible changes in the life of people attired in new tinsel dresses with their topsy-turvy movements holding mobile phones in their hands and moving here and there in their luxurious motor cars.

It looks as if he has entered a miserable dreamy world of fantasy unfitted to him at any cost. All he hears now is the sound of the high priest some years ago reverberating from a distant past like a clarion call.

At this high point of illumination, Emis gets up from his reverie to see that the temple is now being controlled by people who are strangers to him and the third generation of the incumbency is in vogue and that he has no say in it.

The novel brilliantly highlights the need for a spiritual innerness in the humans as opposed to their material gains.

The most striking factor is that the novelist is a creator of humane situations mostly via dialogue devoid of long drawn comments offering the reader a chance to ponder over the creation of his inner and outer nature of characters more clinically.

The subtext of the narrative is much more meaningful and sensitive than the actual outer storyline; religious susceptibilities are highlighted.

This novel had been awarded the second prize at the D.R.Wijewardhana memorial literary ceremony for the best Sinhala novel in manuscript stage 2004.

[email protected]

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page