NATIONAL ANTHEM SHOULD BE SUNG ONLY IN SINHALA
Posted on January 21st, 2020

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane 

 Our National Anthem should necessarily be sung only in Sinhala. Sinhala language is  the defining element of our nation’s culture and heritage, from historic times. Sinhala language and literature originated in Sri Lanka. All salient aspects of our national culture – tangible and intangible, either grew or evolved within the borders of our country. The Sinhala language grew out of Indo-Aryan dialects and exists only in Sri Lanka and has its own distinguished literary tradition. Sinhala is one of the world’s oldest living languages. All other languages used in Sri Lanka originated in other countries.  It is significant to note that the overwhelming majority of people of Sri Lanka are distinguished by their language – Sinhala, which even today has a strong unifying effect in our motherland helping to reinforce the solidarity of our people as a unique cultural entity in the world. Almost all place names of the country from historic times, are in the Sinhala language – in the North, South, East, West and Central regions. Indigenous national sovereignty of a country is an inalienable right based on profound justice. Sovereign national rights of Sri Lanka rests with the Sinhala people who are indigenous to this country, forming its dominant majority community for over 2500 years. Sri Lanka is the only national sovereign motherland of the Sinhala people. Their culture, way of life

and their Sinhala language originated and developed in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s National Anthem should necessarily be sung only in Sinhala.

Tamils are a small non-indigenous minority community of Sri Lanka amounting to a mere 15.4% (including the 4.2% of Indian Tamils), and the Muslims account for about 9% of the total population of Sri Lanka. The Sinhala community who form the historic mainstream community of Sri Lanka amounts to more than 75% of the island’s population. Tamils and Muslims are small communities in Sri Lanka who settled in the island at different times in the past, coming from their own motherlands. The Tamils came from their motherland, the Tamilnadu where their culture and language originated.

In many sovereign nations of the world, non-indigenous communities have settled down and have merged with the dominant, mainstream host nation into a single file. Those settling down in host countries have a bounden duty to merge with the host nation as a single coherent nation. This is facilitated by their learning the language of the host nation, and actively participating in singing the national anthem in that language. Sri Lanka wants all minority communities -Tamils, Muslims and others of whatever label, to become a part of the mainstream Sinhala Buddhist Nation, just the way minority communities are expected to do in all other countries in the world, especially in places like Canada, Australia, USA, UK, Norway. All Sri Lankans irrespective of their ethnic origin, or other differences should sing the country’s well- established national anthem only in Sinhala, the authentic language of the island. .  

4 Responses to “NATIONAL ANTHEM SHOULD BE SUNG ONLY IN SINHALA”

  1. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    FULLY AGREE WITH YOU DR.

  2. DAYA HEWAPATHIRANE Says:

    ජාතික ගීය යනු ජාතික අනන්‍යතාවයේ වන්දනීය ප්‍රකාශනයක් ….
    ලoකාවේ ජාතික ගීතය ගායනා කල යුත්තේ සිoහල බසින් මිස වෙන කිසිදු බසකින් නොවේ. මෙම දිවයින සිoහලයාට ලොව ඇති එකම රටයි. සිoහල සoස්කෘතිය, සිoහල භාෂාව ලoකාවට අනන්යතවයක් ගෙන දන ලක්ෂනයන්ය. මෙරට ජාතික ගීය රචනා කරනු ලැබුවේ රටෙහි මව් බස වන හරවත් සිoහල බසිනි.
    ජාතික ගීය යනු ජාතික අනන්‍යතාවයේ වන්දනීය ප්‍රකාශනයක්

  3. Vaisrawana Says:

    It is only Tamil racists who demand to sing the national anthem in Tamil. They don’t want to sing any national anthem at all with the Sinhalese because they know this is not their original homeland, they don’t want to protect the country; they want to possess it as their exclusive possession if they can. They make this demand because they want to interpret the certain objection to that demand that comes from the Sinhalese (based on the reasons that Dr Hewapathirane and others explain) as the racism of the Sinhalese and discredit them in the eyes of the ignorant outside world. LET’S DEMAND THAT THE GOVERNMENT STICK TO ITS ORIGINAL DECISION NOT TO SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM IN TAMIL, ENGLISH OR ANY OTHER LANGUAGE THAN SINHALESE!

  4. Charles Says:

    National Anthem should not be made a tool for reconciliation. By its use a National anthem becomes a psalm for the praise of what is most sacred to a native , his land of birth or adopted as its citizen. The words of the National anthem should not be changed from what they were in the original song. It also denotes the respect for all those who reside within the country and the National of the country living outside, or chosen country as their own. It unifies all those who live in the country without distinction of colour, religion they adhere to, and the language they speak. In Sri Lanka the National Anthem which had been written in Sinhala should be recited in Sinhala. If not it is an insult to the country as well as to the Nation in honour of which it is sung.

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