{"id":98614,"date":"2020-02-03T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=98614"},"modified":"2020-02-03T16:24:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T23:24:00","slug":"throwing-a-spanner-in-the-works-through-the-national-anthem-a-personal-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/02\/03\/throwing-a-spanner-in-the-works-through-the-national-anthem-a-personal-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwing a spanner in the works through the national anthem? (A personal opinion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Singing or not singing Sri Lanka Matha\/ apa Sri Lanka\u2026..\u201d in\nTamil is not a problem for ordinary Tamils. Neither is it an issue for ordinary\nSinhalese or other Tamil speaking Sri Lankan citizens. But, apparently, it is a\ncrucial subject for some foreign NGOs, separatists among expatriate Tamils in\nthe West, and some Tamil politicians and their fellow travellers of the\nopposition. Ironically, they are the ones who are hellbent on destroying the\nrapport between the majority and minority communities.The last mentioned are\nready to exploit even a trivial matter like this or a really serious crisis\nlike the feared novel coronavirus infection 2019 (2019 n-CoV) epidemic (though\nnot a single new case has been reported by the time of writing, February 2,\nexcept the Chinese patient admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital at\nAngoda and now reported to be awaiting discharge after recovery) for political\nadvantage ahead of the forthcoming April general election. They will do\nanything to win against the SLPP, which, on its part must gain a good\nparliamentary majority for the president to continue the development work he is\ndetermined to do. While that is the real motive of these promoters or purveyors\nof re-con-silly-ation, the truth remains that Sri Lanka\u2019s national anthem is\nthe last thing they would care about. They demand that it be sung in Tamil in\naddition to Sinhala on February 4 because they know that, whether their demand\nis conceded or not, the government\u2019s response will prove a double edged sword\nfor it either way, given the Yahapalanaya-induced division of opinion about the\nnational anthem being sung only in Sinhala in accordance with the the still\noperative 1978 constitution, which gave it constitutional recognition. Since\nthe country is in safe hands back again, we need not worry on this score. It is\nhardly likely that the government under the current president and prime\nminister duo will be bamboozled into doing something that it can\u2019t later\ndefend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Composer and musician Ananda Samarakoon (1911-1962) wrote the\nlyrics and composed the music for the song Namo Namo Matha in1940, while he was\na teacher at Mahinda College, Galle. He had returned to the island after\nfollowing classes for only six months at Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s Santiniketan in\nWest Bengal, India. But he had been profoundly inspired by the great man. He\nserved as music teacher at Mahinda College from 1938 to 1942. Samarakoon was a\nChristian by birth, but embraced Buddhism as an adult. He wanted to create an\nauthentically local music tradition instead of the foreign dependent Sinhala\nmusic of the time, and composed a number of songs which later became still well\nknown classics. He composed the song \u2018Namo Namo Mata\u2019 to inculcate patriotism\nin the young students he taught at Mahinda, who were the first to sing it. It\nwas at the beginning of the next decade that the then minister of finance J.R.\nJayawardane (to become president many years later) who requested the government\n(led by UNP\u2019s D.S. Senanayake) to recognize this song as the national anthem. A\ncommittee was appointed to study the merit of the minister\u2019s proposal. It\nlistened to several other songs as well. After much deliberation, they selected\nSamarakoon\u2019s song. But they added the part \u2018nitina apa pubudu karan Mata\u2019 to\nits 10th line \u2018nava jeevane demine\u2019, before officially adopting it as the\nnational anthem on November 22, 1951. The national anthem was officially sung\nfor the first time on the independence day of 1952. Almost ten years later, in\n1961, the first line of the song \u2018Namo Namo Mata\u2026..\u2019 was judged to be\ninauspicious by astrologers, and \u2018Sri Lanka Mata \u2026\u2019 was added to the beginning.\nThese changes were introduced despite Samarakoon\u2019s strong disapproval. His\ndisappointment at the \u2018mutilation\u2019 of his song led him to commit suicide on\nApril 5, 1962, according to a note he had left before killing himself by taking\nan overdose of sleeping tablets. That shows the patriotic musician\u2019s passionate\ndevotion to his enduring gift to the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Tamil translation of the national anthem was made – with the\nsame lyrics and music – by a popular patriotic Tamil poet of the day M.\nNallathambi (1896-1951). Nallathambi won the first prize for his poetry\ncollection titled \u2018Maniththai Nadum  Marathon Oddadum\u2019 \u2018Mother Lanka and\nthe Marathon Relay\u2019 at a poetry competition organized by the government in 1950\nto commemorate the 1948 independence. Whether the Tamil version was\nsimultaneously accorded the same official recognition in 1951 along with the Sinhala\noriginal is not clear, but it is claimed that it continued to be sung generally\nin the predominantly Tamil north and east provinces and Tamil medium schools in\nother parts of the country. However, it is strongly doubtful whether the above\nmentioned current agitators for the Tamil version to be sung at state functions\nalong with the Sinhala original are eager to have all Tamils identify with the\nSinhalese majority as children of the one and only Mother Lanka. The innocent\nschool children who had been trained to sing it at independence ceremonies\nbetween 2016 and 2019 sang it with enthusiasm; they were untouched by the\nduplicity of the politicians. We were not surprised to see this, because we had\nalready observed how school children from the north visited the south in the\nyears immediately after the humanitarian operation ended separatist terrorism\n(i.e., the period 2009-2014) on government sponsored awareness raising tours\nand established perfect rapport with their counterparts there, and bade tearful\ngoodbyes when they had to part company at the end of the tour duration. Those\nchildren experienced genuine mutual camaraderie and shared deep love for Mother\nLanka because the authorities had created the circumstances necessary to\ngenerate such feelings in those young children. Yahapalanaya came and destroyed\nthe surging national consciousness among the ideologically unspoilt youth of\nthe country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nallathambi was a patriot. He translated \u2018Namo Namo Matha\u2019 to\nexpress his genuine love for Mother Lanka and his sense of solidarity with the\nSinhalese majority. But these feelings were not shared by the leading Tamil\npoliticians of the time, who probably did not share Nallathambi\u2019s enthusiasm.\nThey were a privileged lot under the ruling British who were ill disposed\ntowards the Sinhalese generally whose ancient homeland they were despoiling.\nWhen the Donoughmore Commissioners recommended and the government granted\nuniversal franchise to all Ceylonese above 21, this casteist Tamil elite\nvehemently opposed it because the non-vellalas also were given the vote, and\nthe concerned conservatives feared \u2018mob rule\u2019 and they, in addition, didn\u2019t\nwant the vote to be given to women (something on which Muslim politicians \nagreed with them). Some Sinhalese leaders also had different misgivings about\nuniversal franchise, but obviously, they were not so passionate objectors after\nall. They accepted universal suffrage on condition that communal representation\n(which favoured the racist Tamils) be abolished in favour of territorial representation\n(which was fair by all communities). The Tamil leaders were worried when the\nWestminster parliamentary system was offered by the Soulbury Commissioners that\nthe Sinhalese majority (75% of the population) were going to dominate the\nlegislature causing a disadvantage to Tamils (15%). Catholic Christian lawyer\nG.G. Ponnambalam (whose non-vellala caste origin was compensated for by his\nreligion and his English), leader of the Tamil Congress, argued for a 50-50\nallocation of seats in the legislature for the two communities before the\nSoulbury Commissioners, only to be countered and rejected by them with\ncontempt. Separatism has deep roots, and it has persisted to this day. The\ncommunalist and casteist minority have dominated Tamil politics for too long.\nOrdinary Tamils, like ordinary Sinhalese and Muslims, are reasonable sensible\npeople. But like minorities anywhere, they tend to yield to a siege mentality\nvis-a-vis the majority when misled by unscrupulous politicians. Elite Tamil\npoliticians have managed to induce Tamil voters to look upon the Sinhalese as\nunreasonable rivals, not as equal partners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamils and Muslims have generally taken part in every\npost-independence government, with the exception of the UNP government of JRJ,\nwhen the opposition was led by the TULF; it observed a boycott of parliament\nfor some of its term. But no government has ever totally neglected the Tamils\nor the Muslims. Often, they have been in kingmaking positions because of\ndivisions among Sinhala politicians. During the Yahapalanaya, Sampanthan and\nSumanthiran, while nominally being in the opposition, led some UNP ministers by\nthe nose to the great detriment of the country. It was clear from the beginning\nthat they were focusing on bringing in a system of confederation for Sri Lanka,\nwith  eventual separation in view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the government they controlled  initiated some\ndevelopment programs in the north and supplied funds,  the NPC returned\nthose funds unutilised, as a UNP member was heard complaining recently. Even\nduring the LTTE reign of terror, government servants of the north and east were\npaid by the state. The Rajapaksas started developing the north and east\ndestroyed by the LTTE, even before the war came to a proper end. But Tamil\npoliticians in power in the north ignored this. Basil Rajapaksa once said that\na hall that had been constructed in the north by his ministry was not made use\nof by the Tamil authorities, deliberately depriving the Tamil public of\nbenefits of development offered by the then central government.  The TULF\nleaders were at the beck and call of the terrorists. They were terrorised by\nPrabhakaran. It was thanks to the Rajapaksas, against whom they now show such\nhostility, at least publicly, that they were finally freed from that terror. Will\nthese racist Tamil politicians and their innocent dupes give up their visceral\nhatred of the Sinhalese by having some school children sing the national anthem\nin Tamil version occasionally?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This call to sing the national anthem in Tamil is, to all intents\nand purposes, a hoax. The Indian national anthem in Bengali language \u2018Jana gana\nmana adhinayaka jayahe bharata bhagya bidhata\u2019, adapted from a poem written by\nRabindranath Tagore in 1911 and set to music by him was adopted by the\nConstituent Assembly of India on January 24, 1950. It is written in a highly\nSanskritised Bengali which sounds familiar and intelligible to Sinhala\nspeakers. The Sinhala national anthem that his pupil Samarakoon composed also\nuses many Sanskrit words, which, however, belong to the common vocabulary of\nthe Sinhala language. Bengali is very close to Hindi, the most widely used\nlanguage in myriad-tongued India. The 80 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu sing\n\u2018Jana mana gana\u2019 in their Tamil accent without any complaint. Why can\u2019t the 3\nmillion Tamils living so close together with the Sinhalese in little Sri Lanka\nsing the national anthem in Sinhala, if they have no reason to particularly\ndislike the Sinhalese?  The Sanskrit shlokas heard from kovils sound\nfamiliar to Buddhist ears because of the closeness between Pali and Sanskrit\nand Sinhala. Why can\u2019t Tamil leaders look kindly upon ordinary Sinhalese, as\nordinary Tamils always do in everyday life? In a national religious context,\nHindu Tamils and Sinhalese Buddhists are natural allies. This does not mean\nthat either should spurn the friendship of others. Solidarity between these two\ncommunities is indispensable for overall national unity.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Singing or not singing Sri Lanka Matha\/ apa Sri Lanka\u2026..\u201d in Tamil is not a problem for ordinary Tamils. Neither is it an issue for ordinary Sinhalese or other Tamil speaking Sri Lankan citizens. But, apparently, it is a crucial subject for some foreign NGOs, separatists among expatriate Tamils in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98614","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=98614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}