Dr. K.H. Jayasinghe - A Tribute to an admirable teacher

Professor Laksiri Fernando, University of Colombo

On the 3rd of July last year, after admitting to a private hospital with a failing heart and a second stroke, Dr. K. H. Jayasinghe, who was liked by many of his former students for his insightful teaching in Political Science at the University of Peradeniya, passed away at the age of 80.

He outwardly lived for reasonable years, life expectancy for men in Sri Lanka just being 68, nonetheless unfortunate to count his last, not just days or years, but over two decades almost incapacitated after his first stroke somewhere in 1984.

He was fortunate however to live his last days under the good care of his wife, Hema Jayasinghe, former Principal of Visaka Vidyalaya, who also was his friend, companion and supporter. Anyone who visited their home could not miss noticing the kind care that she and children had rendered in maintaining both the body and soul of Dr. Jayasinghe in his last phase of life.

The fragility of life was the picture one could get in comparison to the good old days of this personality, who was one time Head of the Department of Political Science and President of the Peradeniya Campus when the all seats of higher learning were one university in the 1970s.

Background

Dr. Jayasinghe was born in 1927 to a modest village family at Boraluka, Baddegama, far away from urban facilities, and was bread in a period when Malaria epidemic was taking a heavy toll of new born babies. He was lucky to survive. He attended the village school first, and then studied at the Rathana Sara Vidyalaya, Baddegama, up to the JSC (Junior School Certificate).

Rathana Sara of those days was a Buddhist Theosophical School with good teachers and good English education. He entered the University of Ceylon towards the late 1940s, however from Pembroke College in Colombo, as Rathana Sara did not conduct HSC (Higher School Certificate) classes.

At the University of Ceylon, located at the current premises of the University of Colombo, he studied Economics, majoring in Government under Professor Das Gupta and others, graduating in early 1950s with Honours. Das Gupta was prominent as a socialist minded intellectual who contributed to the development of welfare policies in Sri Lanka.

Two of his close contemporaries and friends at the University were Dr. Warnasena Rasaputram, former Governor of the Central Bank, and Stanley Tilekerathna, former Speaker of Parliament. Compared to the other two, KH, as he was commonly called, was a shy man during his university days, especially with the fairer sex.

It was Professor Das Gupta who had supposed to coin the name KH, in tutorial classes, before it became popular among friends and others. Hema Jayasinghe, nee Abeywardena, also was a contemporary of Dr. Jayasinghe, but according to her, hardly knew him during those days, until they met in their later careers at Kurunegala.

After graduation, Dr. Jayasinghe was first a teacher at the Waisaka Vidyalaya, Wellawatta, before joining the public service.

In the public service, he was selected to be an Election Officer posted at Kurunegala in 1953 where he met Hema Abeywardena who was a teacher at Maliyadeva. Both were close acquaintances of Walter Wijemanna who was the principal of Maliyadeva, Kurunegala, at that time, who perhaps was instrumental in bringing the two together. They married each other in 1956 and moved to Kandy and Peradeniya in late 1950s.

Academic Career

It was somewhere in 1959, that Dr. Jayasinghe seemed to have joined the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, as an Assistant Lecturer in Political Science in the Department of Economics. Within two years, he moved on to do his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) completing his thesis by 1965 under the supervision of Dr. William Pickles and Dr. Ann Bohm.

The LSE was the Alma Matar of modern Political Science with great teachers and thinkers like Harold J. Laski being its initial inspirers. Laski died in 1950.

It was a tradition of those days, perhaps following Dr. N. M. Perera, for the Sri Lankan students of political science or economics to seek their doctoral studies at this world famous centre of excellence.

Another reason for the preference of the LSE was its left wing orientation. From its inception, even until today, the LSE expounds - unintentionally though - a unique tradition of social democratic thinking which went very well with the political preferences of many of the Sri Lankan intellectuals. However, Dr. Jayasinghe was one of the last to follow this tradition.

By the time of mid 1960s there were equally or more prominent other centres of learning for political science in the UK and other countries, for the others to seek their doctoral studies.

Dr. Jayasinghe’s PhD thesis was an important piece of research and analysis. The selection of his topic for the thesis reveals how deeply he was involved in his experience as an Election Officer previously. The topic was Some Political and Social Consequences of the Extension of the Franchise in Ceylon and he traced in precise detail the development of the electoral system from its beginning until the two elections of 1960.

It is a valuable background piece of work for the current discussions on the electoral reforms in Sri Lanka. What it says in hindsight is to ‘assess the social and political consequences of an electoral system or a device before unleashing it.’ What may appear as exemplary in a text book sense might not be good for the country. His thesis however was not published and he did not seem to take any interest in publishing it either.

As any human being, or an academic as a human being, Dr. Jayasinghe was not without any failings or weaknesses. He gave us an example as a conscientious teacher; but not as a researcher.

There was a group of academics those days (or even today) who believed that the PhD was the ‘highest form of knowledge’ and there was a stubborn refusal to do anything beyond in terms of post-doctoral studies or serious writing. Dr. Jayasinghe unfortunately was a victim of this thinking.

He hardly contemplated serious writing, focusing only on teaching. Two of the other political scientists who strongly deviated from this myth of PhD were Professor A. Jeyeratnam Wilson and Professor Wiswa Warnapala who excelled in post-doctoral writing and publication apart from teaching.

Exemplary Teacher

As a teacher, Dr. Jayasinghe was extremely admirable during our days. He taught me both Social and Political Theory and Advanced Political Thought for two years during 1966 and 1968 in the Sinhala Medium. Another course he partly taught was Comparative Government.

His close associate, an equally admirable teacher, who taught us Commonwealth Constitutions and part of Comparative Government, was Professor Ranjith Amerasinghe who was an assistant lecturer at that time.

I never had the opportunity unfortunately to learn from Professor Wiswa Warnapala, the Minister of Higher Education at present, as he was on study leave completing his PhD at the University of Leeds.

Unlike the present semester system, an academic course for the special degree those days spanned not only for one year but for two marathon years after the special qualifying examination.

However, the classes were never bored. Dr. Jayasinghe had a good grasp of political thinkers and their political theories. He never read out from a written note and all details were at his finger tips.

Perhaps it was his careful preparation before the lecture that gave us the impression that he could remember every detail of names, events and dates almost by heart. The most impressive was his interpretation and explanation of theories that we never could easily forget.

I was fortunate to read major in Government under Dr. Jayasinghe in an Economics special degree with late Dr. Gamini Abeysekera (Central Bank) and Ansumali and Chandrakanthi whose full names I cannot regrettably remember.

Our parallels in the English Medium were present Professor M. L. A. Cader (University of Peradeniya) and Lalith Chandresekera who were mostly taught by late Professor A. J. Wilson. We had considerable admiration for both Wilson and Jayasinghe as teachers who were good friends during those good old days.

I in fact came closer to Prof. Wilson when he inducted me to do my MA under him at the University of New Brunswick where he was both Professor and Chair in Political Science.

At Peradeniya those days, the teacher-student relationship was very close, friendly but extremely respectful from our side.

At the height of student activity, I was usually not in class but on the parapet wall in front of the Arts Theatre and just opposite the department building where our lectures were conducted. I remember very many times both Prof. Wilson and Dr. Jayasinghe watching us and sometimes laughing.

I immediately used to get down from the wall, cutting my verbal political barrage short. We had great admiration for both and they were like father figures given the age gap.

We (Gamini, Ansumali, Chandrakanthi and I) were extremely touched when Dr. Jayasinghe invited us for a meal towards the end of our fourth year (not before) at his apartment.

His apartment was at the picturesque Upper Hantane facing the Hindu Kovil. He was staying alone during the week as his family resided in Colombo, travelling back and forth during the weekend. He cooked a meal for us himself with the help of a male domestic.

He broke loose the teacher-student barriers and allowed us to feel free - a touch of ‘liberty’ that he was talking about in class.

Referring to On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (Longman, 1869) he used to tell us that ‘liberty is constrained not only by the state but also by the society.’

He added however that constraints are necessary and liberty cannot be taken as an absolute value without responsibility. Dr. Jayasinghe’s personal library was massive and we were allowed to browse through the books.

It contained a large number of books on political theory, philosophy, classics, geography and fiction, reflecting his intellectual makeup. Dr. Jayasinghe was an admirable teacher not only because of his teaching but also because of his personal qualities. May he attain Nibbana!