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Viewpoint:
Response to ‘Wistful Words’
U B Elangasinha
I write with reference to the article submitted by Sachitra Mahendra
and Ruwini Jayawardana under the title ‘Wistful Words’ in Artscope,
January 19, and wish to point out a fallacy stated therein in regard to
the selection of the first national anthem of Independent Ceylon in
1948.
The article says “… The government was looking for a national anthem
to celebrate the event. A panel was appointed to work on the task. P B
Illangasinghe, a panel member, suggested a song. The song was later
discovered to be penned by Illangasinghe himself.
The panelists were burdened with the responsibility of searching
another song in haste…” This statement implies that the individual
concerned had deceived the other members of the panel in to accepting
his song as the national anthem and is an insult on him and on the
entire panel.
The truth is that the task of selecting and recommending a suitable
national anthem was entrusted to ‘The Lanka Gandharwa Sabha’ which had
the Director of Education as its Ex-officio President with the committee
consisting of eminent personnel of the time including scholars and
musicians such as S L B Kapukotuwa, Mudaliyar E A Abeysekara, Dr R
Pestonjee, Don Mani Pattiarachchi, P B Elangasinha etc. The Lanka
Gandharwa Sabha called for suitable entries from the public to be
considered for selection as the National Anthem.
The winning entry was to be selected by popular public vote through a
coupon appearing in a national newspaper.
When the entries came in, the Committee members of the Gandharwa
Sabha, not entirely satisfied with the suitability of the songs
submitted, implored upon their fellow member P B Elangasinha, Notary
Public, an outstanding scholar of repute who excelled in music,
languages, astrology, indigenous medicine etc, too to compose a song.
Elangasinha obliged, but first resigned his membership of the
Gandharwa Sabha. This is despite the fact that the winner was to be
selected through independent and transparent means of public vote, and
knew his moral obligations as a committee member.
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