By Vishwamithra –

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Ceylon has been enduring unbelievably treacherous times. Time and time again, she has fallen and failed to rise again. That time has not been glamorous; its leaders have not been exemplary and the ordinary have not arisen from being utterly ordinary. Since she gained Independence in 1948, her plight has been rather bleak and distressing. Having been subjected to unforgivable and unforgiving  political deceit and repeatedly exploited by politicians, the recurrent suffering spells she had to endure had been insufferable, to say the least. Ever since 1505, the year in which the Portuguese landed on our shores and up till the British left us in 1948, Ceylon has had to tolerate some vicious and nasty spells of subjugation by her masters at the top, be it Portuguese, Dutch, British or our own local elites.

The grief-stricken story of Ceylon, especially after she was declared a ‘free’ people in 1948, the pressures and oppression she had been impacted upon, would tell a very despondent and depressive tale which for its own dark and wicked quality, is not palatable to be told to our grandchildren with any sense of pride or pleasure. When Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, wrote his celebrated ‘The Discovery of India’ from within a prison cell, he painted a magical picture of India’s genius, her grandeur and her opulent history, covering her agonies and ecstasies; any worthy  historian would gladly embrace and long to love and own the painting, an incomparable work of art,  as a classic of English penmanship.

Having repeatedly read this great work of history of India, I have been inspired not only by its appeal to and broad scope of ancient Indian life and its development and evolution as a cohesive dynamic organism of the story of the subcontinental man, but also by its simplicity and non-invasive insight into the modern life of India. To perceive the past with an explorer’s mind and apply the exact fundamental schemes and methodologies to the living India is no task for an indolent and mediocre mind.  Grief of a subject people cannot be glossed over into mere words of the writer unless he or she  has undergone, endured and withstood the attacks that grief has hurled at them. Nehru’s sense of empathy was vast and transparent.

In such a broad context, how can we, Sri Lankans, interpret and store in our memory-wherehouses the varied and diverse episodes, incidents and events, major or insignificant, and still be resilient and courageous to carve out a friendlier and a more progressive path for our country? Five centuries of being the subject people under colonial powers, Portuguese, Dutch and British, may have had more than a bearable grip on the psychological and physical character of a people; such depressing and exhaustive memories could have a telling effect on a collective mindset of a nation.

During these five centuries, the so-called elites of our society emerged from amongst those whose  fidelity to the powers was closest and unbending; this quality of a slavish psyche was widely in display in post-Independence Ceylon too, most recent being the unbroken loyalty by the ordinary man  towards the Bandaranaikes and the Rajapaksas. Whether this blind fidelity shown towards the political masters was a product of a particular sect of the population due to various social circumstances or an expression of the basic human condition that became a collateral byproduct of master-serf relationship, I would not want to speculate about. Yet the fact remains, that these very mundane social relationships that existed in the day have contributed greatly to the stagnation of societal development in general and decay in the personal bonds one builds around one another when such bonds are established and cemented.

The five centuries of colonial rule has completely throttled the intellectual inquisitiveness and  social behavior of the average Ceylonese. The resulting sociopolitical circumstances have in turn created a social milieu that was not conducive to creative advancement of society. Instead of creating intense social dynamics that in turn facilitate inquiry and further creativeness, it had deadened the process and killed any prospect for national progress.

Furthermore, unlike India, Ceylon did not have persona of the caliber of Gandhi, Nehru and Patel who could mesmerize and awaken a lazy and   unresponsive nation into action that could advance the causes of any specific national identity. It is true that at the time of the dawn of the twentieth century, Ceylon had one of the most robust and efficient administrative systems the British have introduced in their subject countries. However, the British Civil Service  and its fundamental purpose in perpetuating the exclusively British interests and the economic structures have managed to keep the uneducated rural masses in oblivion and the educated elites closer to the seats of power and glamour so that the elites’ vested interests were kept as leverage for their extended loyalty. Both parties gained and the uneducated and incurious rural masses continued to suffer. That was not a mindset that an awakening nation should possess.

In the undeveloped rustic sector, time exhausted outside the basic chores of looking after half-starved and the malnourished stomachs, both the uninformed and under-informed men and women persisted with indulging in the same ordinary drudgery. They had become unintended victims of a cruel social dynamic which was never under their control or tolerance.

Having been the unfortunates of this brutal system that looked after the elites but totally neglected the non-elite class which, in fact, constituted more than seventy percent (70%) in the country, had no alternative. When bankruptcy hit Sri Lanka, its economy and the governance system exposed its glaring inadequacies and its leaders’ hypocrisy. The widening gulf between the haves and have-nots needed no emphasis; its width and depth began the devouring process leaving the victims helpless and leaderless after President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ran away from office.

This is the preface of the three or four columns I intend to write. I am attempting to provide a qualified context for the relevant period we discuss.  From the year 1947/48 up to the present day we have seen ups and downs of an emerging Asian nation. Her downs are much more cruel and devastating than the ups which were a very few and far between. From office peon to the Secretary of a Ministry in the center or the Government Agent at the district level, have become willing or unintended corruption practitioners; their monthly salaries, being inadequate for the sustenance of a decent life for their families, might be part of the bigger problem, yet absence of a moral compass that is essential for any government of non-government servant to hold within themselves signifies an all-consuming ailment that seems to promise no cure, nor a source that could be pinpointed and treated.

All countries go through this process at one stage of the other of their evolution. In this context, it is valid to refer to what Oscar Wilde once said about America, which is considered as the most developed country in the world: “America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between”. It is indeed a very sad commentary about human civilization and its expanse throughout its history.

In her recent storied history of mere seventy seven years, from 1947/48 to 2025, Ceylon has not been able to develop from a crawling baby to a walking adult. She still remains in her babyish stage; acutely underdeveloped in all her developmental stages; she has been punished by her own leaders at one time or another. Her cultural advance has been gravely crippled; social growth hindered and in some stages reversed by the policies and economic principles adopted by the successive governments. However, one significant and inarguable factor is that our people have been able to abide by the fundamental principles of  democracy as our system of government. That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment among many failures that we have been unfortunate to witness and be part of.

To be continued…

The writer can be reached at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com