{"id":63500,"date":"2017-02-17T14:22:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T21:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=63500"},"modified":"2017-02-17T14:22:42","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T21:22:42","slug":"glory-days-of-gazette-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/02\/17\/glory-days-of-gazette-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Glory days of Gazette Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

February 17, 2017, 9:57 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

Has the price of rice come down in the market?<\/p>\n

Why\u00a0what makes you think it will come down?<\/p>\n

Why\u2026because the prices have been gazetted, that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

You had better think a lot more about the power or impact of the gazette.<\/p>\n

Then what will happen to the National Heroes Declaration that will be gazetted soon?<\/p>\n

Nothing much, it will remain in the gazette…that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

But what about Veera Keppetipola \u2013 Monaravila Keppetipola Dissawe \u2013 will he not be recognized as a true National Hero?<\/p>\n

C\u2019mon, what makes you think there is the need for a Gazette to declare him a National Hero?<\/p>\n

Well, that is the plan, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

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That may be the plan of those who are trying to get glory for themselves through the bravery and heroism of others. But just remember this. Who began the Gazette?<\/p>\n

Well, the British, who else?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right\u2026the British colonial rulers. Keppetipola Dissawe was gazetted as a traitor by the British 199 years ago. Do you think that gazette made us think of him as a traitor?<\/p>\n

No, no. He has always been our Veera Keppetipola.<\/p>\n

There you are.\u00a0 Has he become a bigger hero after that gazette notice was recently rescinded by our President?<\/p>\n

No, he remains Veera Keppetipola, as he always was.<\/p>\n

Well, do you think he will become a much bigger hero \u2013 Jathika Maha Veera Keppetipola, with the new National Heroes Declaration to be announced soon?<\/p>\n

Not likely. We will continue to remember him as Veera Keppetipola, and that\u2019s how he will always be in our hearts and minds.<\/p>\n

Talking of gazettes and other official declarations and notifications, it looks like we will soon have many more national heroes to honour and remember.<\/p>\n

What makes you think so?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you know? The families of all the 16 others whose names were in that “traitor gazette\u2019 by the British in 1818, since rescinded, are also calling for recognition.<\/p>\n

You mean we will soon have new families and generations of national heroes?<\/p>\n

Looks like it\u2026 it could be even more than that\u2026many more descendants of those who fought in the Uva Rebellion are calling for recognition.<\/p>\n

Do you think we will soon have an Uva Hall of Glory?<\/p>\n

Quite possible the way things are moving \u2013 but there will also be a call for a Kandyan Hall of Glory, too.\u00a0 Surely you can\u2019t leave the glory to Uva alone, although the big battles were fought there\u2026could you?<\/p>\n

Shall we do a turn\u2026and talk of all those who were the victims of the British brutality following the Uva Rebellion.<\/p>\n

Well, why not\u2026<\/p>\n

I have read one writer who says that “most writers, who write to commemorate the Uva Rebellion, forget the ordinary commoners who joined the aristocrat in the rebellion. To be fair to their descendants, who live to-date, mentioned must be made to those heroes as well. They were Madulle Aruma, Nindegama Dinga and Paliya Maha Duraya, Badulla Kiri Naida and Ganitha, Diyakele Pinhele and Helegiri Menikrala etc\u2026”<\/p>\n

There you are that\u2019s many more heroes to remember.<\/p>\n

But there is even more. Here\u2019s what Herbert White, a British Government Agent wrote after the rebellion in the Compendium of the Uva Journal\u2026”If thousands died in the battlefield, they were all brave fighters\u2026 If 4\/5 of the remaining population after the rebellion is considered as children and the old, the damage done is unlimited. Not only the lives of people, but all their belongings have been devastated. I doubt when Uva can recover from this catastrophe”.<\/p>\n

C\u2019mon\u2026 you must not get so serious \u2026 that was nearly two centuries ago.<\/p>\n

Do you think the new Declaration of National Heroes will consider all these people who were killed, and suffered in the rebellion?<\/p>\n

Well, why not. It is so simple\u2026 Issue a Gazette Notification, stating that the descendants of all those fighters and victims of battle or British brutality will be recognized as National Heroes. It is so simple.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget. We are living in the Age of the Gazette.<\/p>\n

There is another angle to this too.<\/p>\n

Well, what is that?<\/p>\n

Will there be another gazette notification declaring all those prominent persons in the then Kandyan Kingdom, who bent down and supported the British rulers as traitors, unlike Keppetipola and several others such as Madugalle and Pilimatalawe, would be declared traitors with retrospective effect?<\/p>\n

The problem is that we may run short of paper for the gazettes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake\u00a0Courtesy The Island February 17, 2017, 9:57 pm Has the price of rice come down in the market? Why\u00a0what makes you think it will come down? Why\u2026because the prices have been gazetted, that\u2019s why. You had better think a lot more about the power or impact of the gazette. Then what will happen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63500","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=63500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}