A response:

The Golden Jubilee of Sarvodaya Dawn of a New Era

It is extremely heartening to note employees of any organisation coming forward to praise their bosses in the manner that Ms. Chitra Weerawardane has done in the Sunday Observer of 4th January 2009. She goes to great lengths to extol the wonderful virtues of Dr. Ariyaratne and his vision for Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka which is highly commendable.

This response is being written to Ms. Weerawardane and the readership of Sunday Observer to put a historical record in its correct perspective which is by no means a fault of Ms. Weerawardane. There is no doubt that she was not at the First Shramadana Work Camp in 1958 at Kanatholuwa but this writer was the youngest participant at that work camp & therefore, is able to relate a few incidents which would enable the readers to make their own judgements of events. For an organisation such as Sarvodaya with employees faithful to it like Ms. Weerawardane, the virtues extolled by The Buddha and late Mahatma Gandhi must have deep meaning without any doubt. Three of the greatest virtues extolled by Gandhiji and The Buddha were sincerity, honesty and gratitude.

It is correct to state that Dr. Ariyaratne as a teacher on the staff of Nalanda College as well as the Master-in-Charge of the Social Service League of the school participated at the 1st Shramadana Work Camp which took place at Kanatholuwa. . Joining hands with the Department of Rural Development and Mr. Abeysekera at this work camp were masters, scouts and students of Kuliyapitiya Central College under the supervision of Mr. Premachandra Wijesinghe; under the full patronage of Mr. M. W. Karunanda, Principal Nalanda Vidayalaya - masters, students of the Social Service League of Nalanda Vidyalaya under the supervision of Mr. A. T. Ariyaratne; masters, scouts and students of Hettipola Maha Vidyala under the supervision of Mr. K. B. Rathnayake and many well wishers like Ms. Somie Meegama (a personal friend of Mr. Abeysekera). Nalanda College was not the only school that participated at this work camp but amongst others, Nalanda College and its students were participants.

However, to put the historical record straight, this historic Shramadana Work Camp was not organised by Dr. Ariyaratne but by the Dept of Rural Development and Cottage Industries and the person who pioneered the Shramadana Work Camp Movement in Sri Lanka was the late D. A. Abeysekera who was a Senior Rural Development Assistant (SRDA) under whom, work on backward communities to which the Rodiya community of Kanatholuwa belonged. It was the Dept of Rural Development & Cottage Industries that organised and implemented this historic work camp and the late Mr. Abeysekera signed all correspondence related to this historic work camp as the Co-ordinator/Convenor/or Organiser.

The Dept. of Rural Development also invited the then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka the late Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike to participate at this historic occasion but since he was unable to attend, he most graciously sent his wife the late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike as his special representative carrying his message of congratulations and blessings for this historic event. In 1958 there was no Sarvodaya Movement in existence and this fact needs to be understood correctly with all due respects to Ms. Weerawardane.In 1960, the Dept. of Rural Development organised and implemented another pioneer project in the form of “The 1st International Shramadana Work Camp” at Manawa which was another Rodiya Village in the Kuliyapitiya region. For this International Shramadana Work Camp foreign volunteers were invited to participate by the Dept of Rural Development under the planning and supervision of the late Mr. D. A. Abeysekera. It was he who invited the Service Civil International (SCI) which brought in volunteers from the USA.Switzerland, India and Malaysia together with 17 governmental organizations and private companies in Sri Lanka; The Mahila Samithiya; The Commissioner of Girl Guides Ms S. Rajasuriya, Ms. Vinetia Gamage and the Girl Guides; the late Ms. Kusala Abhayawardane and Ubhayartha; students and Cadets from Nalanda Vidyalaya, Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Kuliyapitiya Central, Hettipola Maha Vidyalaya, Cadets from Royal College, Teacher Trainees from GTC Maharagama, Christian College-Kotte and the families of Mr. Abeysekera and his sister.

It was in the 2nd half of 1960 that Dr. Ariyaratne deviated from the Shramadana Movement and commenced the Sarvodaya Movement and went on his own and systematically built up the Sarvodaya Movement to the magnificent movement we see today. The concept of free service as a volunteer as was the unique feature of The Shramadana Movement changed and became a project oriented financing programme after Sarvodaya Movement commenced its new programme under Dr. Ariyaratne.

Therefore, in all humbleness the writer wishes to inform Ms. Weerawardane that the Sarvodaya Movement commenced in 1960 and not 1958 which also means that the Golden Jubilee of the Sarvodaya Movement should be celebrated in 2010 rather than 2008.Among the living, there are still persons who participated at the 2 above mentioned Shramadana Work Camps & it could be arranged if necessary to conduct an open discussion to clarify the above points.

It is not the intention of the writer to go into details of the Sarvodaya Movement but only to correct the historical facts which seem to be misrepresented all the time because the truth needs to be stated always.

Let us hope that Sarvodaya will be able to achieve all objectives it has not been able to achieve in these 48 years in the very near future!

Good luck