Our national identity indigenous names and cultural values:

What's in a name? Plenty

by W. T. A. Leslie Fernando

It is by a distinct heritage, civilisation and culture that one society could be distinguished from another. Although the Sri Lankan nation comprises of several ethnic and religious groups, we have had in common a proud heritage, simple way of life and a magnificent civilisation admired all over the world.

In the past Sri Lankans had indigenous names in keeping with our own cultural identity. The Kings, Royal household and chiefs had handy names like Vijaya, Abhaya, Tissa, Gamini, Chithra, Anula and Hemamalie. Even the commoners had meaningful names like Sirimal, Suvanda, Savsiri, Madduma, Tikiree, Piyumee, Ehelamalee, Subhamalee and Hetumalee. Buddhist names like Mahinda, Upali, Asoka, Channa, Visakha and Sujatha too were common among the Sinhalese.

When the Portuguese occupied the maritime provinces in the 16th century, they converted many of their subjects to Catholic faith. Those converts were given Christian names at the baptism. These Christian names had a Portuguese tone like Anthoni, Juse, Juvam, Paulu, Migel, Maria and Lucia. As the Portuguese asserted their power and influence over the people, they imposed their surnames like Perera, Fernando and Silva as well.

Many Sinhalese in the lowlands who did not embrace the Catholic faith in their hearts of hearts, adopted those Christian names and alien surnames just to satisfy the Portuguese in power. The Dutch and the British who succeeded the Portuguese were more commercially inclined and were not that keen as the Portuguese to force their religion and culture on the subjects. As a result Portuguese Christian names and their surnames continued under the Dutch and the British.

Slaves to the West

During the British times, the higher strata in society began to slavishly imitate the West. They followed the British lifestyle, dress and other customs and practices irrespective of their suitability to our climate and environment. Besides the European missionaries trained the young in their schools to appreciate Western culture and indigenous values were looked down upon. In this atmosphere English names like Stanley, Neville, Alice and Carmen too attracted people.

Even many up-country Sinhalese who never used Portuguese surnames took pride in using English names with their surnames like Ralph Weragama, Clifford Tennakoone and Leslie Ranaraja. The Catholics who were insisted upon to use names of Saints used English names along with them to call Anthony Shelton, Thomas Stanley and Mary Irene.

Some local derivations of Western names looked not only obscure but even funny. Gabriel became Gabiriel. Herman was called Haramanis. Gregory was known as Girigoris, Germain as Joramanu.

Gordon as Gordianu Roumold Romadu. There were also some Western sounding queer names like Brampi, Lagodi, Pileck, Righabet, Rompi and even Violence.

With the dawn of the 20th century there was a national resurgence in Sri Lanka. Patriots like Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra and Piyadasa Sirisena who were in the forefront of this renaissance not only attacked those who blindly followed the West but also ridiculed those Sinhalese who appeared in foreign names.

As a result of this national awakening many Sri Lankans began to use names with a native outlook like Ariyadasa, Deshabandu, Gunapala and Somaseeli. In the next phase the names of Sinhala Kings and queens like Parakarama, Gotabahaya, Bhathiya, Leelavathie, Sunethra and Soma became popular while others went for indigenous names pregnant with meaning like Malsiri, Jayantha, Wimal, Suneetha and Vineetha. By the time we gained Independence in 1948, almost all Sri Lankans preferred indigenous names.

In the meantime both Sinhala and Tamil leaders looked for a national dress for the Sri Lankans. At the inaugural meeting of the National Reform Society held at Ananda College, Colombo on July 21, 1931 attended by G. P. Malalasekera, P. de S. Kularatne, C. W. W. Kannangara, C. Sunderalingam and others, it was resolved that in the evolution of national dress cloth for men and saree for women should form the basis.

Later cloth and banian were adopted as the national dress for men saree for that of women. The national dress for men which resembled the dress worn by many Tamils at the time suited our climate and society.

During this time the Portuguese surnames took a different turn. Some Sinhalese dropped surnames like Fernando, Perera and Silva and adopted indigenous surnames like Wijeratne, Gunaratne and Amerasinghe. Others began to use their indigenous Ge names as the surname leaving out the Portuguese surname.

Thus Warnakulasuriya Terrence Fernando appeared as Terrence Warnakulasuriya. Even most of those who still continue their Portuguese surnames do so because they do not like to give up the names coming from their ancestry.

Today we could hardly find any Sri Lankan who does not like indigenous names. Even the elite who speak English in the household go for indigenous names which sometimes are jaw-breaking. This shows generally the people in Sri Lanka consciously or unconsciously like to preserve their national identity.

Drastic changes

The whole gamut of our social structure is undergoing a drastic change. Our spiritual and cultural values that have withstood the onslaught of the Western domination for several centuries are being eroded by material concepts, commercialisation and consumerism.

All our ideas and ideals, habits and customs, dress and outlook seem to be swayed by the hedonic way of life in the West. Liquor bars at every nook and corner, vast scale gambling like casinos, horse racing and jackpot, sex abuse and drug addiction are transcending our traditional mores and lifestyle.

We have in Sri Lanka a high standard of arts, music and dancing. But our youth seem to be taken up by lurid music with much noise and sensuous dance forms of the West. In the field of literature, though the novel and short-story came from the West, they have ceased to be alien as they have got integrated in our cultural ethos. Today there are trends in literature that follow the Western concepts of morality which overstep the bounds of decency in our cultural milieu.

Till the 1970's there was a general consensus that the cloth and banian for men and saree for women were the national dress in Sri Lanka. Now the cloth and banian have faded away and is worn mostly by the politicians. Even among women, the saree seems to be superseded by frocks and trousers.

There are various forces that underscore our spiritual and cultural values. They are being funded by foreign agencies with hidden agendas. They have made in-roads to all aspects of our society.

There are some who under the cover of modernism try to lead us to the threshold of the sensuous life found in the West, where morality is at a very low ebb. They undervalue our literary figures like Martin Wickremasinghe, Gunadasa Amerasekera, K. Jayatilleke and Mahagama Sekara.

They disregard our acclaimed literary works and bolster up writings that over-emphasise sexuality. They hail the films that highlight perverse sex behaviouralism to our society. No wonder some of these films get international awards because they fit the Western concepts of morality.

There are some NGOs that want to create a hotchpotch by mixing up religions. The veteran writer and social analyst W. A. Abeysinghe has remarked that such manipulations would lead to the destruction of Buddhism. This would lead to the downfall of other religions as well.

The activities of some foreign funded organisations have destabilised our country, weakened our economy, dislocated our spiritual and cultural values, ruined our people and made them dependant on the West.

It is true that we have to move forward with the fast developing world. We have to adopt the advanced methods of science and technology found in the West. This does not mean that we should discard and sacrifice our spiritual and cultural values in the name of progress.

It is time for the people in Sri Lanka to apprehend the real situation. We should not fall into the trap of various agencies that work behind the scenes with hidden agendas detrimental to the country.

We must bolster up our much cherished spiritual and cultural values and make an endeavour to bring about a righteous society.