{"id":35246,"date":"2012-03-22T00:02:23","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T00:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=35246"},"modified":"2012-03-24T11:57:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T11:57:58","slug":"thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Pradeep+Jeganathan&amp;x=9&amp;y=10\">Pradeep Jeganathan<\/a> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35247\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/pradeep-jeganatan-colombo-telegraph-4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-35247\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35247\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35247\" title=\"pradeep Jeganatan Colombo Telegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg 140w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 140px) 100vw, 140px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-35247\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The construction of the Sandahiru Stupa in Anuradhapura, which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.lk\/news\/sri-lanka\/1414-president-lays-ground-level-foundation-stone-for-first-monumental-sanda-hiru-seya-at-anuradhapura\">we are told<\/a>, is the \u201cfirst among nine such Stupas to come up in all the nine provinces, giving due recognition to the memory of those War Heroes who defended the country from threat of separation, sacrificing their precious lives for the sake of our future generation,\u201d raises inevitably a question about \u2018history.\u2019 Have Sri Lankans always done this kind of thing, after a war? Is this an age old Sinhala-Buddhist practice? Did Dutugamunu? Is this a straightforward replay of history, that goes back, in constant replays, to the 5<sup>th<\/sup> Century AD, or before?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">No. A critical history is an account of change; of both continuity and ruptures. Imagining, quite blithely, that something we see today,\u00a0 comes down to us from the distant past, is sort of an optical illusion; we need to try to see through it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In what has become our common sense understanding of our shared past, what\u2019s happening at Anuradhapura today is a replay of the \u201cMahavamsa\u201d which is commonly understood today, as <em>the <\/em>repository of Sinhala Buddhist ideas and practice. So then the Sandahiru Saya is a simple sequel to the Ruwanveli Saya. Again, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pjeganathan.org\/south-paw\/2012\/3\/1\/history-historiography-and-the-sinhala-buddhists-a-reply-to.html\">as I have argued before<\/a>, there isn\u2019t a straight line between the two; it\u2019s not historically tenable to assume the second is a sequel of the first. Yes it seems like it; that\u2019s part of its power. All nations claim to be ancient, but this idea itself, is recent. It\u2019s modern.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35250\" style=\"width: 277px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/20110721_sandahiruseya\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-35250\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35250\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-35250\" title=\"20110721_SandaHiruSeya\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/20110721_SandaHiruSeya-267x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/20110721_SandaHiruSeya-267x300.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/20110721_SandaHiruSeya.jpg 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-35250\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandahiru Saya<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the key features of modern identity is equality. Everyone is putatively equal within a group, Sinhala = Sinhala. Tamil = Tamil. This is not to be confused with real hiarachary or inequality. It\u2019s putative, supposed. Hence, to make a couple of logical jumps forward, the Sandahiru Saya is \u201cto the memory of those War Heroes who defended the country from threat of separation.\u201d It\u2019s a war memorial. War memorials are quinessencially modern; it is a keystone argument in Benedict Anderson\u2019s <em>Imagined Communities<\/em>. In its paradigmatic form, such a memorial also includes a body of an \u2018unknown soldier\u2019 who stands in for all the others who were killed. Again, this is only logical if all are equal. So this is the first way that Sandahiru Saya is different from anything that happened in ancient Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Furthermore, the identities of Sinhala, Tamil and \u2018Moor,\u2019 were racialized throughout the nineteenth century, by linguists, anthropologists, and census commissioners. Ways of being that were fuzzy, were put into exclusive boxes, counted and ranked. The idea that each of these groups then need representations of their own \u2018race,\u2019 came into being and solidified. These idea are still with us; we have imagined these ideas into national communities and into nationalisms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It may surprise some to hear that we\u2019ve done better, on this score at least, in the recent past; on the banks of the Victoria-Randenigala reservoir complex are three steel needles rising into the sky in a large square, anchored in each corner by markers of our four great religions. That memorial, designed by the well known architected Mano Ponniah, is still a memorial to GoSL soldiers who were killed, not to everyone who died in this brutal, long drawn out war.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is something to be said, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pjeganathan.org\/south-paw\/2011\/10\/30\/reconciliation.html\">as I\u2019ve done before<\/a>, for imagining a nation through death, without taking sides. Without trying to figure out, who was right and who was wrong, in an unending cycle of accusations and counter accusations. All we need to do is stretch our imaginations to encompass all those in our country who grieve.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You can read\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/\/?s=Pradeep+Jeganathan\">Dr.Pradeep Jeganathan<\/a>\u2018s wrtings @\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pjeganathan.org\/\">www.pjeganathan.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35253\" style=\"width: 455px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/20110721_sandahiruseya-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-35253\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35253\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35253\" title=\"20110721_SandaHiruSeya\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/20110721_SandaHiruSeya1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"445\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/20110721_SandaHiruSeya1.jpg 445w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/20110721_SandaHiruSeya1-267x300.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-35253\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandahiru Saya<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":35247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya - 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\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-22T00:02:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-24T11:57:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"140\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/\",\"name\":\"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-22T00:02:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-24T11:57:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg\",\"width\":\"140\",\"height\":\"140\",\"caption\":\"Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2012-03-22T00:02:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-03-24T11:57:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":140,"height":140,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/","name":"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","datePublished":"2012-03-22T00:02:23+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-24T11:57:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","width":"140","height":"140","caption":"Dr. Pradeep Jeganathan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/thinking-through-and-beyond-the-sandahiru-saya\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thinking Through And Beyond The Sandahiru Saya"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pradeep-Jeganatan-Colombo-Telegraph.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35246"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35258,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35246\/revisions\/35258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}