{"id":119556,"date":"2014-02-04T02:45:42","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T21:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=119556"},"modified":"2014-02-10T13:18:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T07:48:53","slug":"the-baila-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-baila-of-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Baila Of Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Baila\u2019 is a form of music.\u00a0 Some who consider themselves connoisseurs would rate it as a lesser creature in the musical firmament.\u00a0 This is perhaps why it has often been used as a metaphor for things of lesser worth.\u00a0 This is why a song by Nanda Malini that was popular among rebelling and rebellion-cheering youth of the late eighties, penned by Sunil Ariyaratne and titled \u2018Master Baila\u2019 was spoken of and remembered as \u2018Nidahas Baila\u2019<\/i>, or \u2018Freedom Baila\u2019. In other words, it was seen as an excellent, pithy and catchy deconstruction of everything associated with \u2018freedom\u2019 or rather, \u2018independence\u2019 (The correct translation of \u2018independence\u2019 is \u2018svaadheenathvaya\u2019<\/i> and not \u2018nidahasa\u2019 <\/i>which means \u2018freedom\u2019 \u2013 we got a lot of things wrong, one notes, although not all of them are important).<\/p>\n

A little over 25 years after her (at the time) celebrated \u2018Pawana\u2019 show was taken around by the JVP or its adjunct organizations, it is good to get back to those lyrics and the politics therein, especially as we get ready to celebrate the 66th<\/sup> anniversary of Independence.<\/p>\n

Not all the lines are required to be dissected of course.\u00a0 Translating is not easy for reasons of rhyme, but we can certainly lay down the meaning in transliteration.<\/p>\n

\u0db1\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dc4\u0dc3 \u0dbd\u0dd0\u0db6\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf \u0db8\u0dbd\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dd2, \u0db1\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dc4\u0dc3 \u0dbd\u0dd0\u0db6\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf<\/p>\n

\u0dad\u0dc5\u0dd4\u0db8\u0dbb\u0db1\u0dca\u0da7 \u0db8\u0dd2\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb\u0dd2 \u0d85\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4 \u0dc4\u0dad\u0dbb\u0d9a\u0dca \u0dbd\u0dd0\u0db6\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf<\/p>\n

\u0d9c\u0dd3\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca \u0dbd\u0dd0\u0db6\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf \u0da2\u0dcf\u0dad\u0dd2\u0d9a \u0d9a\u0ddc\u0da9\u0dd2\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca \u0dbd\u0dd0\u0db6\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf<\/p>\n

\u0d91\u0dbd\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0d9a\u0ddc\u0da7 \u0db1\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dc4\u0dc3 \u0d85\u0dc4\u0dc3\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dd9\u0da7 \u0dc0\u0dd0\u0da7\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf……<\/p>\n

We got freedom, brother; we got some syllables to roll around the tongue; got ourselves a national flag and even a national anthem; the night ended and, lo and behold, freedom had fallen at our feet, straight from the sky it seemed.<\/p>\n

\u0d9a\u0ddc\u0da9\u0dd2\u0dba \u0dc3\u0dd4\u0daf\u0dca\u0daf\u0d9c\u0dda \u0db8\u0dbd\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dd2, \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0d82\u0dc4\u0dba\u0dcf \u0d85\u0db4\u0dda<\/p>\n

\u0dbd\u0db1\u0dd4\u0dc0 \u0dc3\u0dd4\u0daf\u0dca\u0daf\u0d9c\u0dda \u0dc0\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dad\u0dca \u0d9a\u0ddc\u0da9\u0dd2\u0d9c\u0dc4 \u0d85\u0db4\u0d9c\u0dda<\/p>\n

\u0db1\u0dd1 \u0db6\u0dd0\u0da7 \u0d9a\u0dd1\u0dc0\u0dda \u0db1\u0dda\u0dbb\u0dd4 \u0db4\u0dcf\u0dad\u0dd9\u0dbd\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dcf\u0d9c\u0dda<\/p>\n

\u0db1\u0dd1 \u0daf\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dd2 \u0daf\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dda \u0db8\u0dc4\u0dad\u0dca\u0db8 \u0d9c\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dca\u0db0\u0dd2 \u0dc0\u0dcf\u0d9c\u0dda……<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the last two lines of the stanza.\u00a0 \u2018We did not get beaten like Nehru or Patel and didn\u2019t lay down our lives as Mahatma Gandhi did\u2019.<\/p>\n

At the time it was all sexy, but in this song the lyricist has been careless and even mischievous.\u00a0 He has reduced the entire 133 years between 1815 and 1948 to the moment of \u2018granting\u2019.\u00a0 He has forgotten the 1818 rebellion, the genocide perpetrated in the Uva-Wellassa, the violent and genocidal putting down of rebellions in various parts of the country in 1848, the many acts of defiance, the struggles in legislative bodies, the tireless work of the leftists, and the resilience of ordinary people and especially bikkhus<\/i>, is ensuring that the foundational element of civilization were preserved (which, by the way, still sustain us).\u00a0 \u00a0It is a crass negation of all that.\u00a0 No wonder that the lyricist thought or want us to believe that nidahasa<\/i> fell from the sky with absolutely no agency on the part of the subjugated.\u00a0 One notes, that even today, when the freedom struggle is talked of, those who are privileged in the narrative are the Anglicized elite on the early nineteenth century with even D.B. Jayatilleke not warranting at least a footnote.\u00a0 There\u2019s ethnic politics and religious politics there, but that\u2019s another story.\u00a0 Or perhaps not.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move on to the other lines.\u00a0 The lion is ours, brother, but the flag belongs to the white man; it is our flag post, although the rope belongs to them.\u00a0 In the late eighties, first of all, we had neither flag nor lion.\u00a0 That was Indian-hegemony time a la<\/i> the IPKF and the Indo-Lanka Accord.\u00a0 That was JRJ time with a blank check for the robber barons.\u00a0 That was \u2018free economy\u2019 time with policy written by the World Bank and the restructuring of economy to ensure the sustained development of \u2018other\u2019 economies.\u00a0 That was the beginning of structural adjustment, which swiftly moved to structural adjustment with a human face and structural adjustment with poverty alleviation; the impact is written right there in the process and slogans.<\/p>\n

At the end of the circus we still didn\u2019t have the flag or the flag pole. Someone else continued to hold and pull the strings.\u00a0 We had the symbols, \u2018they\u2019 had the substance.\u00a0 We recovered something, somewhere down the line, this is true.\u00a0 And those who recovered that \u2018something\u2019 were vilified no end and continue to be called all kinds of derogatory names.\u00a0 And yet, that was but a small victory.\u00a0 We got some measure of pride and self-respect back, more meaning accrued to symbols (however jaundiced, historically speaking, these symbols were) and got a bit of spring to ours stride.\u00a0 We can brag about self-sufficiency in rice, we can claim we are the only country to successfully rid itself of the terrorist menace etc., etc.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put aside all the machinations against Sri Lanka that we\u2019ve seen in the past four years.\u00a0 Even if all that didn\u2019t happen and was not happening, and even if we didn\u2019t have the debt burden we currently suffer, we are still fettered by ideologies of development that are patently anti-people and, this is important, policies that are absolutely antithetical to the core elements of \u2018Mahinda Chinthana\u2019 which even the most ardent critics of this government would admit is a solid, people-friendly, policy document.<\/p>\n

Where is all this coming from?\u00a0 Partly from without, but mainly from within; our minds are closed when it comes to critiquing the rubbish that is sugarcoated as panaceas for all our ills and they are fully opened to servility.\u00a0 In that sense, those lines about flag and lion, string and flag pole, are apt; except that we are cheering the owners of flag and string while we brag about what we don\u2019t have as though we\u2019ve had it all for the last 66 years.<\/p>\n

It is in this context that the words of another lyricist\/poet, Parakrama Kodituwakku, warrant mention.\u00a0 This was a song written for the 1978 film based on the life of Puran Appu, voiced by Sunil Edirisinghe.<\/p>\n

\u0db6\u0dad \u0d9a\u0dcf \u0d89\u0dc0\u0dbb\u0dba\u0dd2 \u0db6\u0dbd\u0db8\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0d8b\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0ddc\u0dad\u0dca<\/p>\n

\u0da7\u0dd2\u0d9a \u0d9a\u0dbd\u0d9a\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0d82\u0dc4\u0dbd \u0dc4\u0dcf\u0dbd\u0dda<\/p>\n

\u0d89\u0d82\u0d9c\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0dd2 \u0dc4\u0dbb\u0d9a\u0dcf \u0d8b\u0da9\u0dbb\u0da7 \u0d89\u0da9\u0db8\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca<\/p>\n

\u0db4\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0da7 \u0dc3\u0dd0\u0dbb\u0dc3\u0dd9\u0dc0\u0dca \u0dbb\u0dcf\u0dbd\u0dda.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more.\u00a0 What it means is this: If we continue to be complacent, we will lose all our paddy fields (read, \u2018compromise food security\u2019); it is therefore high time we (got together and) evict the English bull from our highlands.<\/p>\n

We would have to play a little with the metaphors of course.\u00a0 We have compromised food security with the subversion of seed security, not to mention the poisoning of soils and people with dangerous chemicals.\u00a0 It is not the Kande Udarata<\/i> that has been invaded.\u00a0 All sectors of the economy, in the name of development and progress, have been fettered by ideologies happily embraced by policy makers and protected by officials and even academics, notwithstanding promise, pledge and rhetoric of the President.\u00a0 We are better in some ways than we were, but that\u2019s \u2018crumbs\u2019 compared with the goodies being ferretted out legally with the full knowledge of the grandmasters of economic policy.\u00a0\u00a0 It would take some eviction, let\u2019s put it that way.<\/p>\n

A word about the \u2018Sinhala\u2019 here.\u00a0 It should be taken, as I believe the lyricist probably meant it, in the fuller meaning of the name as composite of the 4 Helas<\/i>, Yaksha, Naga, Deva and Raksha, making the Siv-Hela<\/i> and certainly not the restrictive, chauvinism-feeding \u2018Sinhala\u2019 of the lion, the Vijaya legend etc.\u00a0 It is an identity of embrace which make the collective that Kodituwakku wants readied (or let\u2019s say Puran Appu called out to) that has to do the relevant eviction.<\/p>\n

Until then, what unfurling of national flag, what gusty singing of national anthem, perhaps we should ask ourselves. \u00a0This is why the word \u2018baila\u2019, with no insult intended, is apt as we think of nidahasa<\/i> or svadheenathvaya<\/i>, even though that song and the relevant politics are eminently \u2018rubbishable\u2019.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Baila Of Independence - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-baila-of-independence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Baila Of Independence - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-baila-of-independence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-03T21:15:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-10T07:48:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-baila-of-independence\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-baila-of-independence\/\",\"name\":\"The Baila Of Independence - 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