More on books in English
Uninterested readers might ask whether there is such a thing as
‘Lankan Tamil Literature’. Yes there is, that’s why this column
concentrates on this topic every week.
Is there any material in book form to know anything about this kind
of literature in English? Yes, there are at lest two booklets on this
subject available in English.
Is it not that by “Lankan Literature”, we mean Sinhala Literature and
may be anything written in English that comprises the Lankan Literature?
Well, this may be the view of patriotic nationalists who think that
the Tamils in this country have their own literature in Tamil Nadu and
that they could go back to India to develop their own culture and
language. In fact some politicians really think that way.
Worse still is that the English media too do not bother to know about
knowing anything about Lankan Tamil Literature because they wouldn’t
know Tamil.
However the hard truth is that Tamils and their language cannot be
ignored for the simple excuse of not knowing Tamil. If a Tamil could
write about Sinhala writers and literature gathering information through
English, why not a writer in English who belongs to the Sinhala
community, at least try to write about or interview Lankan Tamil writers
and thus educate the academics who write books on Lankan Literature?
 This columnist was happy to read a column in the Artscope about
Thiruvalluvar and his famous Thirukkural. Although the columnist did not
write about a work by a Lankan Tamil writer, he has made an attempt to
introduce a Tamil work. I hope the patriots would have read daya
dissanayake’s column.
Earlier in this piece we mentioned the existence of two booklets in
English on Lankan Tamil Literature. They were Tamil Writing in Sri Lanka
(exclusively on Lankan Tamil writing) and Aspects of Culture in Sri
Lanka (includes a lot of information on Sinhala, English and of course
Tamil writing in Sri Lanka). Although these two books were written
decades ago yet they give a bird’s eye view of literary pursuits up to
the 1970s and 1980s. I would like to quote a few excerpts from the
Forewords in the first book – Tamil Writing in Sri Lanka published in
1974.
The late Prof K Kailasapathy, a Lankan Tamil intellectual and scholar
wrote:
“One of the exciting stories waiting to be written is the evolution
of an indigenous Tamil Literature in Sri Lanka – the creative and
critical activities of the writers- whom made this growth possible. Such
a history will be a record of tribulation and triumph, and I feel it is
time that some one attempted writing it. Most of the Tamil writers who
have contributed to this development and advancement were, and are,
fully engrossed in their work and problems that they have very little
time for their introspection or elaborate documentation.”
“Under the circumstances the history of Ceylon Tamil Literature has
hitherto largely been neglected. It is true that, in recent years, a few
University teachers have evinced some interest in the subject,
especially in the history of the 19th century Tamil Literature. Some
recent studies have endeavoured to probe into the provenance of the
Modern Movement. But the min body of Contemporary Tamil Writing in Sri
Lanka remains to be critically evaluated. Here is a rich field awaiting
explorers.” This was written in 1974.
The rest of the Foreword speaks about the writer of the booklet Tamil
Writing in Sri Lanka. I avoid quoting it because t6he writer happens to
be the present columnist.
But in the same book what the late intellectual journalist-editor,
Mervyn de Silva is worth quoting even now for its perceptiveness:
“Disraeli’s dictum about “Two Nations” needs amendment here. We are
three nations, culturally speaking. If there is little communication
between the exclusively Sinhala-Speaking and the Tamil-speaking, the
English educated tend to be a community apart.
With the post -1956 winds of change, the more enlightened sections,
of the English Educated, it is true, have attempted a conscious,
sometimes painful adjustment.. Nonetheless the largely linguist’s
barriers to communication remain. While the danger of mutual isolation
to basic considerations of national well-being such as national unity is
too obvious to require reiteration, few among the English –educated, who
re also fluent in either Sinhala or Tamil, have realized that this
cultural situation offers them a challenging opportunity. They could act
as productive links, as agents of communication.”
Here too I leave out what M de S has said in the latter half of his
Foreword as it speaks about the writer of the book referred to.
So, genuine readers interested in knowing at least something about
Lankan Tamil Literature should make it a point to pick up these two
books from the libraries at least to know what had been written in Tamil
during the better part of the last half a century in Lanka in Tamil as
told in English by this columnist.
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