Comments on: Remembering A J Gunawardana: A creative public intellectual https://groundviews.org/2008/09/19/remembering-a-j-gunawardana-a-creative-public-intellectual/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=remembering-a-j-gunawardana-a-creative-public-intellectual Journalism for Citizens Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:11:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: myil selvan https://groundviews.org/2008/09/19/remembering-a-j-gunawardana-a-creative-public-intellectual/#comment-3595 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:11:45 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=987#comment-3595 Its unfortunate that there are people like Sue Goon who miss the point. While I understand the various views and everyone is entitled to theirs we must not let the truth be diluted. The Island newspaper is very pro-sinhalese paper in english tongue. But even papers such as Sunday Times and Daily Mirror are also somewhat pro-sinhalese/pro-government. Although not to the blatant extent to which the Island leans. This situation of media bias is unfortunately to be expected in a country such as Sri Lanka. A country which boasts about multiculturalism but does not know what it means or how to practice it or how to initiate and implement it. Ever since independence the vast majority of sinhalese political leaders have tried to portray this country as a sinhalese-buddhist nation. They have tried to justify this position by teaching a biased version of history, that suits the sinhalese-buddhist agenda, in schools. Hence we have the last few generations of people in this country growing up thinking this country is a sinhalese country, which unfortunately is not the truth.
Even before King Vijay arrived there were settlements of people known as Nagas in Sri Lanka. These Naga people had Lord Shiva as their primary deity and we can see Naga remnants even today in Thamil Nadu. Lord Shiva also has a Cobra round his neck. A cobra is known as a Naga (palmbu) in Thamil.. Palmbu meaning snake in Thamil and Naga meaning Cobra in Thamil.
One such evidence is a place called Nagapattinam in Thamil Nadu. It is my belief that the Naga people at the time of the arrival of Vijay were Thamil people. And these very people as buddhism came to sri lanka adopted buddhism and also the language that was influenced by it, which is sinhalese, which was influenced to a great extent by the buddhist pali scriptures. Hence the naga people as time went by would have become sinhalese-buddhists.
Just because sinhalese language is unique to sri lanka that does not mean sinhalese are natives of this island. Take the english people as an example. The english language is unique to England but the English are not from England originally but from Germany. In the same way the sinhalese language while unique to sri lanka today it came about through centuries of influences. From my readings of sri lankan history I am increasingly of the view that the earliest peoples of this island are probably of a darker race. With the arrival of Vijay came the race of people known as Aryans. Today vast majority of sinhalese say that they are descended from Aryans. I respectfully disagree with them. My belief is while a majority of sinhalese may have Aryan heritage there is a big minority (according to the book Broken Palmyrah upto 40%) of sinhalese who have Thamil and other South Indian/Dravidian heritage. Examples of this would be the Nayakes. The Sennanayakes, Bandaranayakes, etc. The Tennekoones, Wijekoones, etc could also be of south indian stock.

Hence coming back to my point, when you have a vast majority of the people growing up with this kind of racist fabricated history that is what you will see in its institutions, publications, newspapers, universities, political ideologies,etc,etc,etc,etc…. If we as a people are to move forward we must first ask ourselves what is the TRUTH and then move forward from their not backward.
I welcome other views on this so that we can have a healthy discussion. thanks

]]> By: Sue Goon https://groundviews.org/2008/09/19/remembering-a-j-gunawardana-a-creative-public-intellectual/#comment-3585 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:52:35 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=987#comment-3585 How dare you say that The Island has been taken over by Sinhala nationalists. When it started in 1981, the newspaper was dominated by English-speaking elite who sneered at indigenous culture and ethos. It took over 20 years for the true sons of the soil to assert their true place and finally pursue the vision of its founder Upali Wijewardene. Besides, what is wrong with a fully Sinhala-owned newspaper to support the Sinhala nationalist cause? It is only a few who thrive on foreign NGO dollars who denounce their own roots and sell their soul to the suddas. Clearly this writer is one of them, as is the publisher.

]]> By: Nalaka Gunawardene https://groundviews.org/2008/09/19/remembering-a-j-gunawardana-a-creative-public-intellectual/#comment-3570 Sun, 21 Sep 2008 11:56:19 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=987#comment-3570 I have since written a post on my own blog, offering some insights on how I researched information for this tribute – and what gaps I discovered online in reputed sources or indexes like Google and IMDB. This would be of interest to those concerned with local content on the web. See:
http://movingimages.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/a-j-gunawardana-remembering-a-lost-colleagueand-discovering-online-gaps/

]]> By: sidhartan https://groundviews.org/2008/09/19/remembering-a-j-gunawardana-a-creative-public-intellectual/#comment-3564 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:24:32 +0000 http://www.groundviews.org/?p=987#comment-3564 Thanks for this tribute to AJ.It is very much appreciated.Perhaps his coulmns can be collected and published.

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