R Chandrasoma

In the Late Colonial Period, that cultural variant known popularly (and graphically) as a ‘Kalusuddha’ dominated society and was accepted as the ‘avatar’ of future cultural greatness. When Sir Oliver Gunatillaka spoke famously on the future Sri Lanka as ‘a little bit of England’ he was the archetypal Kalusuddha. It was widely believed that Kalusuddhas became extinct with the new wave of nationalism that that swept over our country with the great victory of SWRDB over those representing Western life-styles and neo-colonial norms of thinking. But history is perverse and we face the challenge today of a resurgence of a Kalusuddha mentality that was supposed to be roundly defeated decades ago. Let us look briefly at the Kalusuddha view of what is good and wholesome for our country. The first is that we are a lost nation unless we adopt the political strategies and outlook  of the Big Players in the World.

In brief, we need a kind of ‘replacement therapy’ wherein our old ways are discarded and our populace attuned to the great cultural innovations of the West. This includes a recognition that ancient styles in commerce, education and public affairs must be given up – we must become a ‘cultural copy’ – however faint – of those domineering players in global affairs. In recent prognostications by the latter-day Ruling Kalusuddhas of our country, England has been replaced by that cosmopolitan hodge-podge called Singapore.  Indeed the current Crown Prince of the Kalusuddha Brigade – none other than Ra-Wick – is desperate about refashioning Lanka by a kind of commercial confederalism that he calls the ‘Dubai-Colombo -Singapore Axis’. As the with the earlier generations of Kalusuddhas, the primal impulse is to distance the born native from his indigenous heritage by cultural swamping. The word ‘modernization’ is the camouflage word to mask the deception.

The great question to ask is this – Why this resurgence? The answer is that carriers of the inherited Kalusuddha genes have resurfaced and are going great guns today. Their growing fancy for Two-Piece Suits is emblematic of their non-native tilt. Like their ancestors, the current generation of this group sees their greatest enemy as the native (and entrenched) religio-cultural tradition which they are unwilling to tackle head-on but are confident of undermining through political deceit and propaganda. In this nefarious campaign of ‘denationalization’ they have a formidable phalanx of supporters – including the en-rooted fissiparity of the Tamils  and – more importantly – on International Power Groups that are determined to ‘downsize’ Sri Lanka as a ‘player’ in future shenanigans in the unstable but strategically important Indian Ocean Basin. The desperate attempt to draw up a New Constitution is part of this concerted strategy by the kalusuddhas to downsize and diminish Sri Lanka. A final point – why is this papered and well-fed group so Anti-National?. The answer is obvious – they have been ‘denationalized’ through upbringing, education and an aberrant sense of class-superiority.