“I think Sri Lanka is not that difficult to figure out if you recognize it for what it is – still a largely rural peasant society. Such folk are, in general, warm-hearted, friendly, hospitable and guileless. Yet at the same time, they are fiercely tribal, resistant to change, and can be roused into a terrible fury. These are pretty universal characteristics – as anyone familiar with Asterix would know!”

What a delightful way to put it!

The only thing I can’t quite fathom is, the similar tribalism espoused by the more educated strata, both Sinhalese and Tamil. How is one to understand this fascination with Eelam/racial devolution and “Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese” kind of mentalities, other than as tribalism also?

I agree with you on the comments you have made. However, it is doubtful whether the national character will gradually become more liberal, rational in the years to come simply because anti-liberal tendencies cannot be easily rolled back in a largely feudal/rural society with one main urban center.
If you look at our political culture the Presidential elections have thrown up two candidates who are not of a liberal disposition.

“If you ask me today to tell you what Sri Lanka is like, or what Sri Lankans are like, I would have to reluctantly answer that I am no longer sure – that I can’t really explain.”

I think Sri Lanka is not that difficult to figure out if you recognize it for what it is – still a largely rural peasant society. Such folk are, in general, warm-hearted, friendly, hospitable and guileless. Yet at the same time, they are fiercely tribal, resistant to change, and can be roused into a terrible fury. These are pretty universal characteristics – as anyone familiar with Asterix would know!

Of course, there’s more to it than that. We are caught in the middle of some fairly profound transitions. From rural to urban, from feudal to industrial, from English to vernacular (and perhaps back to English), from collectivist to individual, from statist to capitalist, etc., etc. The war stalled some of these processes midstream, leaving us with the confusion and contradiction that you talk about.

What we haven’t had for many centuries, and arguably still don’t, is the progressive influence of a Big City. For all their faults, it is in the cities where new ideas gain currency, ambitions are nurtured, creative energies are unleashed, and personal liberty becomes a value.

Colombo might have played such a role, but the conflict severely stunted its economic and intellectual growth, and nipped its budding cosmopolitanism. So it remains, for all its traffic jams, little more than an overgrown village. Or perhaps more accurately, an uneasy agglomeration of villages that has never quite transcended the sum of its parts.

But the war is over, and as the hysteria subsides, the machinery of change will splutter to life again. I’m optimistic that the national character will gradually become more liberal, rational and inclusive, even though the current portents may seem less than encouraging.

“I think you will find that there is a lot more than still remains colonial in Sri Lanka than just the buildings – particularly in areas like Galle. It’s in the food, of course in the architecture – the colonizations have left residue in our languages, our attitudes, our persona as a nation – and of course I think you will find many people from a generation that is distinctly colonial, in both habit and actions.”-

I agree with you on the above. However, most colonial era people are now dead. You still get a few stragglers left though.

That is very true. People complain about the colonials having plundered the wealth of the island… and yet the way that the rich (Sri Lankans) down upon the poorer ones!

Of course I meant to reveal a bit of the life I know, the life I live. And of course, this is precisely what I was talking about – that as pretentious or surreal or whatever a particular world or lifestyle may seem to someone, it exists in Sri Lanka. It is a part of this country, too. So, shiny nightclubs and pricey cocktails are a part of this country, too.

And I was trying to address my generation in particular I think – especially those in the middle or upper social classes. It is very easy to get lost in an insular little bubble for most kids, and it is not entirely their fault that they are oblivious to any world outside of that bubble. I struggled with this ignorance of my generation my whole school life, only now am I able to see that it is not their fault alone – and that, as I stated, our educational system, our parents too, are to blame, if that’s the word to use. But, having said that, I have also found that, in the same way that makes it easy to get lost, it’s also not that hard to find all the other worlds – they’re all right there, and Sri Lanka is very small, in every way. These other worlds that are not entirely our own are never that difficult to come across, or experience, the stories are never too far down the line – if you know where to look, and if you want to find it.

“Today, I find that I live in a country of contradictions. The colonial alongside the native.”-
The colonial buildings have survived, but the people remain native, feudal and tribal. There are contradictions in society but they are more to do with Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher than colonial. There is very little that remains from the colonial times except for the buildings. Some of them are falling apart like the old Dutch Hospital building in Galle Fort.

Or does Ananda mean that the author has a “sour grapes” attitude towards such pursuits, either because the author cannot afford these, or because she is what some people would categorize as prudish or old fashioned or something? For myself, I certainly read nothing between the lines that indicates any such sour grapes attitude. And I see that it is certainly true that many – though not all – people do in fact engage almost exclusively in such a lifestyle and are conveniently and selfishly and intentionally ignorant of the harsh realities of the rest of today’s Sri Lanka. I really don’t see anything wrong in the author’s slant or anything like that.

As for Electra:
I too feel much as you do: it is just nightmarish to see what’s happening to the country: and I don’t mean the external tangible things such as war and poverty and disasters and so on, but more than that I mean this entire widespread selfish attitude where people are living in – largely intentionally chosen – obliviousness (I can’t make up a better word) to the “any worlds other than our own”. “A land like no other” takes on new meaning, sometimes.

That line is unintentionally revealing of the author’s own pursuits, is it not?

I am so sad about my children and afraid when I think about future socity which they have to live. Still I dream about my child hood.