Choice between changing society and adaptability

Pansa Casi
Author: Amela Boyagoda
Publishers - Godage Brothers, Colombo 10.

Review: Jayantha Senevirathna

CULTURES AT WAR: "We are facing our own extinction," warns Jayathilaka, before cheering up the villagers with hopefulness. Ridden of their ancestral land on either side of the ancient Kandyan Kingdom, these innocent villagers had been worrying about the existence of their civilisation, and every year, it loomed larger.

They did well at keeping alive their traditions and the dreams of returning their ancestral land. But many prospects had been making those dreams fade. The foremost was the imminent dangers posed from the fast growing population of Indian Tamils. The pace of immigration of Indian Tamils was picking up and, villagers, already a minority in the estate sector, may simply be swamped.

Jayathilaka enjoyed command over villager's loyalties, he is asking not for independence, but merely a genuine economic freedom for villagers, and further, he prohibits violence.

But the British colonists, having crossed many miles and mountain passes thousands of feet high, when gazed for the first tie on the hill climes of Kandy, little knew that they are looking through a window of another world.

Fertile terrain

Consequently, at the end of the awful trek, stretching over decades, they mercilessly overran the fertile terrain rich in culture and tradition.

For many a writer, in such a backdrop, the hackneyed themes are heroism, cowardice and betrayal. But, Amela Boyagoda, the author of Pansa Casi, chooses to go against the grain, and opts out sagacity, prudence and reunion as her themes.

Amela does not focus more on the harsh and unpleasant side of the ensuring conflict with colonial invaders, but pays more attention towards the subsequent social transformation, choice between the changing society and the adaptability of the rural folk.

In this backdrop, Jayathilaka, a member of the Kandyan elite, and his wife Punchi Kumarihamy relied more on commonsense than their elitist obsessions. Jayathilaka was a visionary leader, who rebelled against his own kith and kin.

He ventured off the beaten track in search of a new path for survival. As a consequence, the traditional upcountry feudal system has been subjected to a gradual social transformation.

In search of economic slaves, colonists increased the pace of migration of Indian labourers. Kandyans were not only ridden of their own land, but also forced into serfdom.

At the initial stages, Kandyans did not budge and Indian migrant labourers were encouraged to settle down. Rural folk, led by Jayathilaka, resisted colonial invasion that had engulfed free Sinhalese people at the outset, but later made up their minds to adopt into circumstances.

Adverse situations

But, under the visionary leadership of Jayathilaka, they were more organised, and did not succumb into adverse situations. This is where Amela, the author, comes out with her own innovations.

From there on, Amela's eloquent descriptions of ongoing social, economic and political changes taking place starts a scintillating conversation between the characters and the readers.

The social elite lost their privileges and found themselves in equal footing with the rest of the society. This was unpalatable for an aristocracy which was parochial in attitude.

The society was thurst into a money economy and many social evils crept into Kandy. The Kandyans had been learning fast to cope with the changes, and in the new order of society, they had to resort to something for their own survival.

Moreover, we should not forget the fact that this is a woman author. Throughout the pages, Punchi Kumarihamy plays as one of the most influential, and sometimes mythologist, woman in the novel. She haunts throughout the novel and influences each and every moment from near or far. She is a wonderful creation depicting a traditional radala upcountry wife in grief and agony.

She uses all her womanly influences in the way we expect from a loving dedicated mother. She helps herhusband in all his endeavours both physically and spiritually.

Rural folk

Invariably, readers will admire the way she loved Jayathilaka so patently in adversity. Punchi Kuma was as ambitious as Jayathilaka. As she grew more confident, she relaxed and charmed many of the rural folk with her sparkle.

The title, Pansa Casi, conveys the whole spirit of the novel. For the balancing of Indian Tamils and the Sinhalese and their different ways of life and of politics is all the title suggests.

It is about the choice between changing society and changing ourselves, and the gulf between ideals and day-to-day practicalities. Ask any reader or critic to nominate the most influential characters in Pansa Casi, and two names will invariably come up.

It is Jayathilaka, the revolutionary and the elitist, and Punchi Kumarihamy, the wife who supports with blind dedication.

Linked artistically during their lives, their diverse but seminal contributions towards a changing society always come to attention. They were complementary personalities. Jayathilaka was a man on a mission, and Punchi Kumarihamy was the most fervent unquestioning supporter.

Amela displays in Jayathilaka the futility of inherited wealth, fragility of an elitist's dreams, and the persistent strength of a family's love. Throughout her work, her Darwinian message was consistent: "It's not the fittest which survives, but the adaptable." And, her characters are not invincible. They are seldom that strong. Law, economy, politics, fate and disaster often overwhelm them.

Novel depicts communicative competence

Amavila Dutu Pipasitaya
Author: Sunanda Mahendra
Fast Publishing (Pvt) Ltd, Colombo 10.

Review: Dr. Senarath Tennakoon

FICTION: It may be possible to break a physical entity into its constituents and reconstitute it to its original form. But in the case of a literary products which is already in human circulation, deconstruction for the sake of breaking it up to its component parts-characters, events, concepts, linguistic parts, etc., alone would result in a bizarre ending.

In such a venture whether one likes it or not reconstitution links with creation, recreation and imagination so that the new product is innovative, fresh and even different from the original resource material.

Social environment

Broadly speaking, the original context and the social environment might remain unchanged but the text, its form, approach and vision may reach different levels and the readership could perceive the differences between the old and the new literary products.

Sunanda Mahendra has made creative use of the text Pujavaliya Ariya Paryesana Sutraya and Jinaraja Vansaya in which the story of Upaka Ajivaka is enshrined. The historical context goes back to the days of the Buddha.

The language used in Pujavaliya and that in Amavila Dutu Pipasitaya (as expected by any reader) is quite different, particularly in metaphorical use as well as in shades of linguistic and communicative competence.

Grey area

To know how a word is used is to know the context representation of that word. In Section 1, Sunanda commences in a narrative style which is apt to describe the meeting of the Buddha and Ajivaka. The Buddha's rare features are revealed in clear and simple unambiguous poetic terminology. He easily shifts to Section 2, where Ajivaka expresses his feelings about the Buddha.

Here, Sunanda uses the traditional simile and metaphor (p 18). The conversation between the Buddha and Ajivaka ends in section 3 and the reader enters a grey area as to why Ajivaka did not become a follower of the Buddha at the first encounter itself. This situation reminds us the Buddha's meeting with the Dohna Brahmana.

Section Five to Section 40 cover the life of Ajivaka beginning as a hermit and his sensual entanglement with a pretty lass (Javi) and finally becoming disinterested in lay life.

He remembers the meeting with the Buddha and decides to go in search of Him. In these Sections, Sunanda uses vivid strategies to keep the attention of the readers. There are conversations, dialogues and speculations. A psycho-analytic technique is adopted to examine the working of Upaka the Ajivaka's mind. Introspection and intuition go together.

Sensual thirst

Upaka who thought of Javi as an Amavila that could quench his sensual thirst has become a mirage and he becomes a weak, downtrodden worthless brute morally and physically.

Javi giving birth to a son creates a suspicion as to the fatherhood of the son as Upaka knew Javi's secret relationship with her former lover. Javi's lullabies sung to irritate and demoralise him are quite effectively and efficiently carved by Sunanda. In Section 21, the author himself appears to be stepping into the narrative in the first five lines.

Second encounter

This feature is observed in Section 40 at its start. From Section 40 to 43 Sunanda describes how Upaka goes in search of the Buddha, their second encounter and finally Upaka becomes Upaka Thera. One question has to be asked. What is the relevance of Section 42? No doubt it presents a nutshell vision of the Buddhist doctrine, but the entire section is just a narrative devoid of poetic luminosity.

In the entire composition, Section 41 converges and focuses on the reality of life. The vision of this creation is enshrined in the few lines that describe Uapaka self-actualising the reality of life. His thirst has changed and he has come near the real Amavila. The symbol of purity, detachment, free from defilements and a life of religious harmony is the signifier Amavila.

Apart from the collocations, syntactic contexts, semantic contexts the pragmatic context should be examined and perceived by the intelligent reader to appreciate Sunanda's Amavila Dutu Pipasitaya.

After the Big Wave

RESEARCH: After the big wave combines the results of two separate studies conducted by Social and Human Re-source Development Consultants on the impact the December 2004 tsunami has had on the lives of Sri Lankan families affected by the loss of either a mother or a father.

The two studies were carried out with the financial support and encouragement of UNIFEM at two separate junctures of 2006. The first, 'Coping Strategies of Widowers and their Families' was completed in march 2006 and its results prompted the researchers and UNIFEM to explore the issue of single parent families further and broaden the focus to include a study on widows.

'Coping Strategies of Widows and their Families' was therefore completed in November 2006.

The book compares the two studies and aims to provide in one source the rich data and analysis of the issues, concerns and possible solutions which may inform decision/policy makers to bring substantial differences in the lives of single parents, especially those newly single parents post-tsunami, and that of their children.

The study highlights a number of issues that should be seriously taken note of considering the many disasters both natural and man-made Sri Lanka has experienced so far and may face in future. The uniqueness of the study is the need to focus on the emerging models of families that need to be highlighted in policy and planning.

Further, there was a total lack of sensitivity towards a gendered approach in disaster intervention and it is hoped that the information presented in this book would add to other existing information in this area.

Another expectation is that the present lack of family focus in the intervention to disasters will be addressed in future interventions.

The research team consisted of D.C. Nanayakkara, Anberiya Hanifa and Annie V. Kurian.

The book is a joint venture by the United Nation Development Fund for women (UNIFEM) and social and Human Resource Development Consultants (SHRDC) 47 S.D.S. Jayasinghe Mawatha, Kohuwela, Nugegoda, Email [email protected]

Philosophy for the beginner

The Crystal and the Flame - A primer for the young thinker
Author: Delaine Weerakkody
Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Publications, Colombo, July, 2007.
120 pages

Review: Sterling Perera

PHILOSOPHY: The Crystal and the Flame, written by Delaine Weerakkody, is a delightful introduction to philosophy.

The book is meant to be a 'primer for the young thinker' despite its wide coverage inclusive of the very serious core issues of philosophy such as Argumentative Fallacies, the Nature of Knowledge and the Nature of Man.

This wide coverage of the concepts of philosophy, given through the use of simple examples should make the book serve as a popular introduction to the subject and is recommended for compulsory reading.

This need is particularly relevant at a time when the objectives of the recent education reforms which include the development of generic skills, such as, 'critical and divergent thinking' (National Education Commission, Proposals, 2003), and the associated methodologies developed to realize these objectives, such as School Based Assessment, are downplayed.

These objectives were amplified in 2004 as Guiding Principles to be compulsorily observed in Curriculum Renewal/Revision, under the leadership of persons such as Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe, particularly by way of; The treatment of the subject is refreshingly novel and use is also made of ordinary situations to illustrate the principles of philosophy.

The coverage is quite comprehensive extending even to applied ethics in the form of medical ethics, business ethics and environmental ethics and there are exercises at the end of each chapter which will help the reader to check whether the topics exposited have been mastered. The book begins with an indication of the scope of the coverage together with a time line.

Coverage of philosophies

This way of treating a subject is educationally sound as recommended by David Ausabel by way of the use of an advance organizer. As regards the coverage of philosophies and philosophers, the inclusion of philosophers of the East beginning with the Buddha and extending to Swami Vivekananda and Ananda Coomaraswamy through Avicenna, Adi Shankara and Al Gazali is gratifying. But Nagarjuna, founder of the Madyamika school of philosophy could have been included. Similarly the contribution of the philosophers of the Zen school, could have further improved the good treatment already seen.

I would have personally liked a mention of contribution of the Alexandrian (Hellenic) school, particularly as regards the freezing of the progress of science and philosophy with its destruction and the consequent emergence of the Dark Age of Europe within the ancient time line.

Going through the list of philosophers (not unique to this book) one may conclude that philosophy is an exclusive masculine pastime. As a teacher I found that the mention of the brave Hypatia of the Alexandrian school was able to correct this to some extent.

With regard to 20th. century philosophers, I would have liked to see the inclusion of Thomas Kuhn of 'the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, fame.

These last remarks are not made with a view to detracting from the value of the book which is excellent in terms of its purpose, but only as a suggestion for consideration when new editions of the book are issued, which should inevitably happen through the demand it should stimulate and create.

The author quite correctly brings together Socrates and Arahat Mahinda in expositing what is known as the Socratic method, with an example from Socrates to evoke new and illuminative ways of looking at a topic and with the classic example of testing the preparedness of King Devanampiyatissa to learn the teachings of the Buddha. It is a pity that politicians are exempted from such tests now!

Need for objectivity

The example from Socrates is used to illustrate very pointedly the need for objectivity, consistency and relevance in an argument, while that from Arahat Mahinda illustrates reasoning.

The author exposits the tools of philosophical analysis; concepts, statements and arguments, together with their use in deductions and conclusions through the use of situations currently familiar to students. The author quite correctly devotes several pages to Argumentative Fallacies.

The section on the Nature of Knowledge is treated in such a simple manner that one may think that the topic of epistemology, so important in philosophy, has been omitted through an oversight.

Ms. Weerakkody again quite correctly devotes separate chapters to the Nature of Science, Methods of Science and Limitations of the Scientific Method. It is here that I would like to see a reference to Thomas Kuhn as indicated above.

The time line depicting the evolution of the atomic concept from Democritus all the way to the current situation is a very good illustration of adapting our theories to reflect new discoveries although the discarded theories may have been philosophically sound at various stages in the development of our knowledge.

Here too I would have liked (may be owed to my own prejudices), a similar and more illustrative time line in the development of the models of the universe from the Ptolemaic, through Copernicus , Galileo, Kepler, Newton to the modern times.

In my view the break from the Ptolemaic through Copernicus and Galileo was very important. Galileo proved Aristotle completely wrong by recourse to experiment and not in the way of scholars by recourse to quotations from authorities.

Application of logic

The inclusion of the application of logic to what comes as data and statistics, in the Chapter, 'The Tyranny of Numbers - Truth, Lies and Statistics' is very pertinent when numbers churned out by opinion, surveys etc. are used to supplement logic in place of complementing logic.

The author quite admirably extends the applications of philosophy, in a substantial way to very pertinent topics linked to Ethics, Morals and Values; and Governance, to Ethical issues in Science and to Emotion versus Reason, by the use of everyday examples. Ms. Weerakkody aptly concludes the book by adding a chapter devoted to 'a Philosophical Attitude - an Examined Life'. Here items such as reflection, retrospection, learning from mistakes, not resorting to stock responses and self questioning are included.

This is important as mere knowing and knowledge does not automatically ensure practice; which she correctly concludes as "knowing what is right does not mean that we will consistently do what is right". She has been able to weave in quotations from the Buddha, Capra, Yeats among others, quite creatively to illustrate various points she has brought forth in the wide coverage of the subject.

By way of an evaluative comment I am pleased to add that I found the book informative while being pleasantly readable. The book can be recommended without reservation to all, ranging from those who would like to obtain a simple introduction to the most fascinating subject of philosophy to those well versed in the subject, particularly to see how simple examples can be so creatively used to exposit the subject.

The writer is the former Commissioner of Examinations and Director, Planning and Research, Ministry of Education.