{"id":54172,"date":"2016-04-28T11:36:07","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T17:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=54172"},"modified":"2016-04-28T03:40:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T10:40:36","slug":"former-ag-shiva-pasupatis-perspective-on-sivagurunathan-memorial-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/04\/28\/former-ag-shiva-pasupatis-perspective-on-sivagurunathan-memorial-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Former AG Shiva Pasupati\u2019s perspective on Sivagurunathan Memorial Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Shiva Pasupati<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I had the rare privilege of attending Ananda College and Jaffna Hindu College. They were both institutions which were established in colonial days to impart education in a non-Christian and a non-western atmosphere. No doubt, the establishment of these two institutions was inspired by two galvanizing figures, Anagarika Dharmapala and Arumuga Navalar, who saved the country from a religious and cultural collapse. Both these institutions soon became leaders in their field and remain so to this day. Numerous old boys of these schools have become leading personalities in all walks of life and have brought credit to their alma mater. The old boys owe their success to many outstanding teachers who served with exceptional dedication, at great personal sacrifice. We also enjoyed the comradeship of fellow students of all communities and denominations.<\/p>\n

Mr P de S. Kularatne, who assumed duties as Principal of Ananda College in 1919, not only ensured academic excellence but also promoted racial harmony. He required Sinhala students to learn Tamil and Tamil students to learn Sinhala. He invited Mr C.Suntharalingam to be the Vice-Principal and he remained in that position until he was appointed as Professor of Mathematics at the Colombo University. He also appointed Dr. T.B.Jayah to the staff. Dr Jayah later became Principal of Zahira College.<\/p>\n

It is ironic that a century later, we are now renewing efforts to emulate the far-sighted vision of Mr Kularatne and the founders of the institution. It is fundamental that the prosperity of Sri Lanka is dependent on racial amity, tolerance and recognition of merit, irrespective of race, caste or religion. It is heartening that Ananda College and Jaffna Hindu College have come forward, not only to build bridges between the two leading institutions, but also between all communities. We must, in this connection, also acknowledge the outstanding contributions of Mr Thilak Karunaratne, Past President of the Ananda College OBA, Mr Deva Rodrigo, Convenor of the Match Organising Committee in 2012 and Mr S.Raghavan, Patron of the Jaffna Hindu College OBA (Colombo Branch).<\/p>\n

The unique cricket encounter between the two beacons of Hindu and Buddhist educational institutions in Sri Lanka will be held on Sunday, May 1 at Nalanda College Grounds at 9:30 a.m. This year, the English debate for the \u2018Panikkar\u2013Thanabalasingham Challenge\u2019, will be held in connection with the tournament along with the celebratory banquet where the presentation of awards will be held.\u00a0 The debate is scheduled to be held on Saturday, April 30 at the Lakshman Kadiragamar Institute at 5:00 p.m. The celebratory banquet dinner is scheduled to be held on May 1 at The Kingsbury at 7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

Written by Shiva Pasupati –\u00a0 Attorney General of Sri Lanka from 1975 to 1988, the longest serving Attorney General in the 131 years since it was established. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Shiva Pasupati I had the rare privilege of attending Ananda College and Jaffna Hindu College. They were both institutions which were established in colonial days to impart education in a non-Christian and a non-western atmosphere. No doubt, the establishment of these two institutions was inspired by two galvanizing figures, Anagarika Dharmapala and Arumuga […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}