{"id":88171,"date":"2019-05-04T23:14:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T05:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88171"},"modified":"2019-05-04T05:23:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T12:23:16","slug":"eurocentrism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/04\/eurocentrism\/","title":{"rendered":"EUROCENTRISM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gamini Gunawardane\u00a0<\/em><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

Vinod Munasinghe has\nin his letter of Monday 31 March to \u2018The Island\u2019 touched a raw nerve in all of\nus when he referred to  the eurocentrism\nof Cassandra who had shrugged it off saying So what?\u201d according to him. It is\nquite understandable when it comes to the likes of Cassandra. It was the other\nday that we saw a worse display of Eurocentrism when a\ngovernment Minister publicly groveled before the Commissioner of the UNHRC\nbegging pardon for the conduct of the members of the Sri Lankan delegation.\nThis shows slavish servility on his part to Eurocentrism. It is said that even\nafter slavery was abolished in the West some slaves preferred to continue as\nslaves probably because they found comfort zones in slavery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the real problem\nis that most of us are afflicted with this problem in various degrees though\nare unaware of it. This is due to the fact that we are the product of Western\neducation system. This is worsened by the fact that our knowledge base too is\nWestern oriented, now more so with the internet and the whole system now\nbecoming web based. We are all trapped in it and therefore see no need to\ndevelop our own ways of independent thinking, with different outlooks. It has\nnow become fashionable to happily embrace this new knowledge and way of\nthinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe it was\nprobably Anagarika Dharmapala thuma followed by Piyadasa Sirisena and\nprominently Munidasa Cumarnathunga who first realized the need to develop our\nown way of thinking. (Very probably Vinod is a distant descendent of the\nAnagarika? \u2013 may be it is the same DNA that is revolting in him). Late Eng.\nAlien de Silva tried independent thinking in his own field in later times. With\nthe demise of the two great Pirivenas, Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara converted\ninto Universities, the remnants of the traditional knowledge system too died a\nslow death, with the lesser Pirivenas having to adjust themselves to the Public\nExamination system for survival. Thus the oriental thinking system died\nironically not at the hands of the colonials but owing to our own confused\nthinking after 1956. In the wake of all this, Eurocentrism has come to occupy\nthe vacant space in our thinking. And all of us are engrossed in Eurocentrism.\nAs a result, our creative and innovative thinking has become impaired.\nConsequently we can only engage in imitative thinking. This is seen in all our\napproaches to current problem solving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the medium of\neducation was changed to Swabhasha in the mid Fifties it was anticipated that\nit would facilitate thinking in our own language and thereby usher independent\nthinking as a newly independent nation. But its effect was the reverse. In\neffect it resulted in an inferiority complex in the new generation who felt a\ncompulsive need to re-orient into Eurocentric thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it was some\nAfrican intellectuals who came up with the assertion in the late Eighties that\nif post colonialized nations wanted to be truly Free, they need to\n\u2018de-colonize\u2019 their own minds, to be able to usher independent thinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not know whether\nit is a coincidence or not that some posters of the 1971 JVP uprising\ncarried  slogans to the effect that we\nhave nothing to lose but our chains that tied us; also that it is better to die\nstanding on our feet than to live fallen on our knees. I do not know whether he\nwas borrowing from Marxian thinking but it must have been very attractive to\nthe young then. Wijeweera in his Five Classes preached that the tea estates\nshould be uprooted and of Indiyaanu vyaapthawadaya <\/em>(Indian expansion).\nAt that time we scoffed at such ideas as sheer bunkum. But twenty five years\nlater we had the 13th<\/sup> amendment thrust down our throats by India.\nAnd now we are talking of denudation of the tea lands and also are staring at a\ndwindling tea market. In hindsight, I wonder whether Wijeweera was trying to\nthink independently outside the Eurocentric frame though one cannot approve of\nhis violent methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet may be all is not\nlost. When our cricketers, three wheel drivers and housewives started to talk\ncricket in Sinhala, we became world beaters! When that wonder bowler Ajantha\nMendis walked up to collect his international trophy, he could not converse in\ntheir lingua franca! The latest is that they have become the first Asian\ncricket side to beat the South Africans in a clean sweep in test cricket in\ntheir own country. Similarly, when young village girl Susanthika Jayasinghe\nstormed the Olympic scene to win a silver medal for this country, she referred\nto that Yak gathiya in me\u201d that propelled her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to be out done,\nSri Lankan Armed Forces vanquished the LTTE, said to be the worst terrorist\norganization in the world, to become the only country to have overcome\nterrorism when the Western Powers told us that it was an \u2018unwinnable war\u2019 and\nthat the only way out was negotiated settlement with the enemy. That was\nprobably because our military machine changed to native thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the literary\nfield, I think of the innovative thinking of Prof. Sarachchandra who\nrevolutionized the modern Sinhala drama to give a new identity. Similarly\nLester Peiris broke away from Eurocentrism through his films \u2018Rekhava\u2019 and\n\u2018Gamperaliya\u2019, to be recognized as a world class innovative film maker of the\nlast century. Also the case of Sybil Wetthasinghe whose childrens\u2019 stories with\nher unique illustrations have been translated into over 13 languages in the\nworld. These are significant achievements for a small country with a limited\npopulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have also seen\nsome flashes of independent thinking in the present time too. I am thinking of\nthe line of fresh thinking in editorial writing in The Island newspaper which\nmay be the reason why they have earned much appreciation of the readers. There\nis Ayurvedic Dr. Danister Perera who is engaged in finding new depths in native\nmedicine. We also have archeologists like Prof. Raj Somadeva who is conscious\nof the need for new thinking in his field of study. (Listen to his talk given\nat the Dambulu Kathikawa.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These indications\nshow signs that we are indeed moving towards independent thinking, away from\nthe shackles of Eurocentrism. But I think what is important at the present\nmoment is to realize that it is the eurocentrism and the lack of a de-colonized\nmindset that inhibits us from thinking freely and that is the cause of our\nEurocentrism itself.  I believe it might\ntake another generation for us to fully assert ourselves. But for the present\nwe need self-confidence on ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the present. we\nmay be fumbling with that unfamiliar political instrument that is democracy,\nwallowing in corruption, indiscipline and unethical behavior. It was Mr. D.C.\nWjwwardane who wrote his monumental work \u2018Revolt in the Temple\u2019 in an attempt\nto strike out a political philosophy for the newly emergent Sri Lanka. Copies\nof it were handed over to each Minister of the SLFP Government in 1956, when\nthey took oaths at the Kelaniya Temple. But no one took it seriously, in their\neuphoria. Later copies of that book was sold in the Pettah pavements for 50\ncents!    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet all indications\nare in our favour, after 500 years of foreign domination. One could hear mild\ndistant thunder. This is now said to be the Asian Age. China which had been put\ninto sleep by the West with opium, is now awake and is on the move. They have\ndeveloped their own brand of Communism which is propelling them forward\ninexorably. The West seems to be panicking at the prospect of being overthrown\nfrom their position of prominence. So let us be awake ourselves and we have\nonly to overcome our inferiority complex that holds us down.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamini\nGunawardane                 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gamini Gunawardane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vinod Munasinghe has in his letter of Monday 31 March to \u2018The Island\u2019 touched a raw nerve in all of us when he referred to  the eurocentrism of Cassandra who had shrugged it off saying So what?\u201d according to him. It is quite understandable when it comes to the likes of Cassandra. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88171","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=88171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}