{"id":105632,"date":"2020-08-18T15:07:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T22:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105632"},"modified":"2020-08-18T15:11:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T22:11:56","slug":"whos-afraid-of-wimalasurendra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/18\/whos-afraid-of-wimalasurendra\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s Afraid of Wimalasurendra?"},"content":{"rendered":"

B.D. Witharana <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In a\nseries of speeches made at the State Council, especially during 1933-34,\nWimalasurendra identified the broad alliance that worked against the\nHydroelectric Scheme. He used different names at times to identify this\nalliance: \u2018Big Business\u2019, \u2018Oil and Coal Combine\u2019, \u2018Almighty Oil Interests\u2019,\n\u2018Big Business and Alien Combines\u2019, \u2018Imperialistic Element\u2019, \u2018Big Business\nElement\u2019, \u2018Big Business Party<\/em>.\u2019 \u2013 B.D. Witharana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Wimalasurendra came upon the massive waterfall, which he\nbrilliantly named,  Laxapana \u2013 100,000 Lamps \u2013 and engineered\nits hydroelectric scheme, but the English erased his name, claimed it as their\ninvention, and screwed it up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    ee<\/em> highly recommends\nthis week\u2019s story about DJ Wimalasurendra, the founder of hydroelectricity in\nSri Lanka\u201d. His absolutely fascinating contribution to early industrialization\n\u2013 thwarted and delayed to prevent us creating our own energy sources \u2013 appears\nalmost erased. The metanarrative of imperialist suppression and white\nsupremacism continues to this day, to prevent transformation of this colonial\nimport-export plantation farce! (see ee Focus<\/em>)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Censored Story of D. J. Wimalasurendra: Imagining the\nIndustrial Nation of Ceylon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

B.D. Witharana (Part 1)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excerpts from Negotiating Power &\nConstructing the Nation: Engineering in Sri Lanka:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/openaccess.leidenuniv.nl\/bitstream\/handle\/1887\/66109\/02.pdf?sequence=6<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nstreets of Colombo were provided with a few gas lamps in 1872 by the Colombo\nGas & Water Co. Electricity was generated using diesel and was first\nintroduced symbolically to the island in 1882 by illuminating the Billiard Room\nof the Bristol Hotel in the capital Colombo. It was provided on a commercial\nbasis by Boustead Brothers Ltd since 1895 (Phillips 1981). Electricity was\ngenerated on a limited scale by generators of 5-122 horsepower scale for the\nuse of plantations even by 1885\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aberdeen-Laxapana Hydroelectric Scheme (1900-36) \u2013 My main\ninterest is to revisit the idea about the non-emergence of a discourse on\ndevelopmental nationalism in Sri Lanka, as witnessed in neighbouring\nIndia. Why did the demand for an industrially developed independent Ceylon made\nby Ceylonese leaders such as Marcus Fernando, Anagarika Dharmapala and\nCumaratunga Munidasa not evolve into a mature \u2018plan\u2019 leading\nultimately to the establishment of a Sri Lankan developmental nation? Or\nwas there, in fact, such a \u2018plan\u2019 which escaped the gaze of historians for some\nreason? Exploring Land, Labor, Capital &\nSectional Interests in the National Politics of SL<\/em>, in the first\npart of the 20th century, a study on peasantry and agriculture, V\nSamaraweera (1981) observes\u2026 Ceylonese nationalists began to look towards a\nrealistic program of industrialization for the country\u201d only by the 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     By selecting the first mass-scale\nhydroelectricity generation scheme, the Aberdeen-Laxapana Scheme as my\n\u2018worksite\u2019, I discuss\u2026 how a widespread campaign for a Ceylonese developmental\nstate was, in fact, present. The discourse anchored in the Aberdeen-Laxapana\nScheme proposed an alternative future for the island against the romantic\npeasant agriculture based vision that succeeded\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The hydroelectric scheme that was under\ndiscussion for decades during British colonial rule. and began operations in\nthe mid-20th century, was the terrain for a range of important colonial\n\u2013 anti-colonial  \u2013 and nationalistic ideas and counter-ideas that have\nlargely gone unrecorded in the discourse of Sri Lankan nationalism so far. The\nbiography of DJ Wimalasurendra, the key Ceylonese behind the scheme, opens an\navenue for one to visit this hidden past and to observe that a realistic\nprogram of industrialization was present long before the 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

       Both Marcus\nFernando and Cumaratunga Munidasa were influenced by the ideas\nforwarded by Wimalasurendra. The initial ideas of industrialization presented\non a ground of Sinhala nationalism, eg by Dharmapala, seem to have\ntransformed into a clear narrative of developmental nationalism by 1920-30s,\nthanks to the contributions made by Wimalasurendra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Anagarika Dharmapala, who had a\nmore radical approach in comparison to most of the political and social\nelite, loyal to British at the time, was the leading figure who mixed social\nmorality with Buddhist agitation and was hence instrumental in politicizing the\nmovement. Dharmapala contrasted Buddhist values with the moral failings of\nmissionaries, e.g. meat and alcohol consumption and lack of a norm against\nkilling animals\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     DJ Wimalasurendra (1874-1953)\ndedicated his entire life, from the days of his early career as a District\nEngineer of the Public Works Dept to his later life as a politician in the\nfirst State Council of Ceylon, to seeing the Scheme pushed through, amidst\nnumerous obstacles. In the early 20th century\nhe investigated in detail the possibility of developing the hydro potential of\nthe island, made important contributions to design\u2026 The paper he presented in\n1918 at the Engineering Association of Ceylon, Economics of Power Utilization\nin Ceylon\u201d which linked hydropower with the development infrastructure for\nindustrialization, can be considered as the first draft of a vision for a\ndevelopmental nation, that evolved further during the following decades.\nWimalasurendra who, out of frustration, took early retirement from the\nDept of Electrical Undertakings in 1930, tried his best to campaign for the\nrecommencement of construction of the Scheme, as a member of the first State\nCouncil 1931-36. Speeches made by Wimalasurendra at the State Council are a\ntestimony to the advanced imagination of a Ceylonese developmental\nnation underpinned by the industrial potential provided by the\nHydroelectric Scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\ncan argue that this delay of almost half a century in implementing the Laxapana\nScheme, which under normal circumstances would have taken just 4 years, could\nhave prevented a possible early industrialization of Ceylon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Wimalasurendra was born in 1874\nas a member of the Navandanna, the caste that historically specialized in\n\u2018engineering\u2019, according to the division of labour defined in the local caste\nsystem\u2026 His father, Don Juan Wimalasurendra, earned recognition for his\nmaster-craftsmanship and was awarded the title \u2018Mudaliyar\u2019 by the colonial\ngovernment. His family tradition can be seen as the original influence on\nWimalasurendra\u2019s practical skills. After completing his secondary education at\nthe prominent Sinhala Buddhist school, Ananda College, Wimalasurendra received\nhis initial education in engineering at the Ceylon Technical College. [He\nbecame] a Chartered Civil Engineer and Chartered Electrical Engineer, a\nrare achievement even by today\u2019s standards. In 1924 he was appointed Head\nof the Electrical Engineering Section of the Public Works Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     A detailed discussion of the evolution\nof the Hydroelectric Scheme is required to appreciate the nuances of the\nimagination of a technologically advanced Ceylon \u2013 an imagination in which\nWimalasurendra takes centre stage\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A closer look at these sources spread over the span of half a\ncentury leads one to identify 2 rather incompatible narratives\nthat highlight the important tensions that defined the final shape of\ndevelopmental nationalism in the first half of the 20th century.\nThe clarity of the \u2018facts\u2019 that are relatively clear in retrospect, may not\nhave been so apparent in the heat of the controversies that surrounded this\ndevelopmental imagination at the time\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Almost all the officials who held\nhigh office during the first half of the 20thC were\nBritish. Some of the post-independence sources\u2026 reflect some features of this\nfirst narrative as a result of their dependence on the colonial sources from\nthe first half of the century. The 2nd narrative that contests the 1st\ncolonial-narrative draws mainly from local sources and is interwoven closely\nwith the life story of engineer DJ Wimalasurendra. Information can also be found\nto strengthen this second narrative in official colonial sources. However, when\nthey are from colonial sources they do not appear in the main text but in\nthe annexes produced by locals. There are also some colonial texts produced by\nEnglishmen that can be used to strengthen the second narrative when they were\nwritten especially for the readership of locals (e.g. motions presented for\napproval of the Legislative Council, dominated by Ceylonese members).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The important feature that differentiates the 2 narratives from\neach other is the place reserved for Wimalasurendra. While narratives that\nuse colonial sources underplay the role of Wimalasurendra, the 2nd narrative\nhighlights it. 1910 is given as the date of the origin of the Hydroelectric\nScheme in the first narrative: \u2026Nov 1910, that FB Rylands, the Government\nElectrical Engineer attached to the PWD, reported, sufficient hydropower was\navailable near Laxapana for the total electricity requirement of the\ngovernment. The 2nd narrative, however, marking an extended history takes the\norigin of the Hydroelectric Scheme further back to the year 1901, and hence\ntransfers the credit from Rylands to Wimalasurendra and the time when the idea\nof generating electricity from the Laxapana falls was conceived by Wimalasurendra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     While involved in a government\nassignment to search for minerals and particularly gold, Wimalasurendra, as an\nacting District Engineer, is said to have found the new \u2018mine of gold\u2019 in 1901\nwhen he saw by chance the falls of Laxapana and realized their potential to\ngenerate electricity. It was this thought from 1901 that had led to his\ninvestigation of the hydroelectric potential of the island, which he published\nas a technical paper in 1918. Interestingly some of these important\nyears do not appear as milestones in the colonial narrative on the\nScheme\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     After being appointed on 22 Aug 1904 as\nan Acting District Engineer and posted to Diyatalawa, a small town in the\ncentral hills, Wimalasurendra was assigned with 2 tasks: to build camps to\nhouse the South African Boer prisoners of war, and to search for prospects for\nminerals in the island. A Boer prisoner Ian Van Geyzel, who was an\nengineer himself, was selected by the government to accompany him on\nexcursions in search of minerals. Wimalasurendra gives credit to his companion,\nwho had the opportunity of traveling worldwide and experiencing hydroelectric\npower generation, for suggesting the possibility of tapping Laxapana for\nelectricity generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The waterfall which was known till then\nas Kiriwan Eliya Falls was renamed by Wimalasurendra as Laxapana to\nmean 100,000 light bulbs\u201d. Arumugam finds this new name as a proof of\nWimalasurendra\u2019s engineering genius. Based on the overall water-head (520m) and\nthe installed capacity (100MW) of the present scheme, Arumugam calculates\nbackwards to estimate the possible installed capacity of the water-head (129m)\nWimalasurendra must have observed in 1901\/4. The figure 11.6MWs Arumugam\nderives as the installed capacity is, in fact, equivalent to illumination of\n116,000 of 100W light bulbs\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Another interesting contrast between\nthe 2 narratives becomes apparent when the reasons for the delay in\nconstruction are discussed. The first narrative avoids discussion by just\nattributing it to \u2018various reasons\u2019 without further explanation, or just refers\nto the \u2018unsatisfactory position\u2019 with regard to the status of the Scheme. The\n2nd narrative, however, adds clarity to the \u2018mystery\u2019. While some describe the\ndelay within a framework of a personal conflict between Rylands and\nWimalasurendra or between the white colonial government and\nWimalasurendra, others point to a larger picture of institutionalized\nracism at work in the government service at that time. Wimalasurendra\ntook it even further to position the delay in a discourse on the business\nand economic interests of the British imperialist project<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

see also<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/openaccess.leidenuniv.nl\/handle\/1887\/66109<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who\u2019s Afraid of Wimalasurendra?<\/a><\/blockquote>