Saptha Apadana Wasthuwa:

Relevance of human dignity and compassion in the development of Marxism

by Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga

Sena Thoradeniya's effort to portray the psyche of the individual which offers a fertile ground for the seeds of Marxism to germinate and grow roots that endure all adverse conditions and remain firm in all seasons is timely for several reasons. Firstly as Marx predicted, albeit for different reasons, capitalism in the world is in travail, in the throes of a deep crisis, and recovery could be a distant dream. Secondly Western countries in their attempt to recover from this crisis would do their utmost to exploit the wealth of poor countries as they have done in the past when faced with similar situations. Further Sri Lanka has emerged victorious after a ravaging war and seems to be on the road to recovery though uncertain about the path it should take.

The war victory itself is being used by the Western capitalists, in the pretext of human rights concerns, to take a grip on the vitals of this country in keeping with their policy of hegemony and dominance. Global economic power is shifting from the West to the East and Sri Lanka is strategically positioned in this equation as well and the government is required to play its cards with good political and diplomatic acumen.

Further the Tamil separatist rump is still vibrant both locally and abroad and has become a tool in the hands of the imperialists. Moreover the world communist movement seems to be in disarray too though, motivated by the dismal failure of capitalism, there are efforts made in the West to close ranks and resurrect the almost dead horse. "Occupy Wall Street" movement could be a manifestation of these developments.

The left movement in Sri Lanka too is ideologically fragmented and seems to be alienated from the people. Thoradeniya, however, in keeping with his firm belief in Marxism as a political and economic system that has the capacity to solve the ills of the world, particularly those caused by the rampant capitalism, has attempted to rekindle the hope, that lies dormant in the hearts of the like minded, that "the four great rivers would flow upstream back to the top of the mountain from where they arose and cascade down again, feeding the barren land, and resurrect the dead soul". (Ganga satharama nenga mudunata)

Left Movement

The poet in Thoradeniya has imagined the left movement to be the four great rivers. He imagines that it once flowed majestically down the slopes of this country like the great rivers but failed to enrich the soil. He wants the rivers to go back upstream to the top of the mountain and start a fresh journey. If the tributaries of these four great rivers have a common origin though they divide, separate and unite he believes that they could start a fresh journey and flow overwhelmingly to destroy all evil.

His choice of allegory in this instance is a reflection of the enormity of the task that faces the Marxist in today's context. Such unwavering belief, trust and loyalty, however, which stems from compassion for the downtrodden has to be appreciated in a world full of deceit, fraud, cunning and betrayal, opportunism, social climbing and corruption which the characters in the novel also had to contend with. The poet in Thoradeniya would not have been a complete poet if he was lacking in such feelings. His latest work is full of such poetic thoughts.

The technique the author has adopted suits his purpose. He analyses in depth seven characters that had come together in the environs of Peradeniya University, five decades ago, bonded by the feeling for the less fortunate. They are disillusioned by the system and angered by the callousness of the authorities. The author tells their story starting from school days, the struggle through life, facing many a setback, loss, disappointment, indignity, injustice and conspiracy.

Outraged by such evil of men they are united by a common intention. They must change the system. They come to believe that Marxism as expounded by Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong could be the answer. Some of them make enormous sacrifices in the hope of reaching that goal. Others remain loyal to the ideology despite circumstances that force them to live a life that is antagonistic to their beliefs. A woman who loves one of them who is an organiser of the party gladly suffers all the tribulations due to his long absence from home and never complains and would not allow her affluent parents either to intervene as she knows the value and sincerity of the man.

Turn a new leaf

When he realises how much she suffers and wants to turn a new leaf she would have none of it. Another woman gives up all her achievements and wealth in Australia and comes back to dedicate her life to the memory of her man and continue the work he was engaged in before his tragic death at the hands of the government forces. These are normal men and women with normal feelings of love and hatred, kindness and jealousy but with extraordinary altruistic feelings for the suffering fellow beings.

They could be driven to make any sacrifice or undergo any privation for the cause. They believed in human dignity and knew that poverty denies dignity that everyone is entitled to. They were passionate and emotional in this regard and on several occasions lost their employment and position by being resolute and inflexible on their principles. Their compassion for the poor knew no bounds.

The author begins his tale with a scrutiny of the intellectual font, the then University of Ceylon at Peradeniya, and shows how the fountain dries up while one of the great rivers gently flows by. How Ivor Jennings' entire dream had been shattered due to political expedience is made plain and clear. A residential university catering to the elite who could develop into the administrative hub that would toe their line was what Jennings as a Britisher wanted.

This aspect is critiqued by the author. No doubt the core values of the university from that point of view should have been changed to conform to the national needs. The baby should not have been thrown with the bath water. In place of an intellectual font what we now have is a degree factory where seeds of violence are germinated. The author towards the end of the novel takes a glimpse at a foreign university in an attempt to compare the intellectual climate that prevails in those universities.

Thoradeniya's characters are mainly from the middle class, the petite- bourgeoisie in the lexicon of Marxism, supposed to be an ally of the proletariat during the New Democratic Revolution. There is no representation of the working class in the Saptha Apadana (seven narratives) though there would have been university students whose parents belonged to that class. The sharp delineation of people into classes on the basis of economic factors as described in Marxism may not have been socially discernible in our country.

Exploitation

Exploitation of the poor in our villages would not have been an institutionalised practice. The author has not attempted to answer the question whether our society is divisible into classes though he discusses the urban as well as the rural life in detail. Marxist principles may be applicable to any capitalist society though there is no discernible class difference. Yet unless there is an oppressed class revolution is not an attractive slogan. Certainly the seven characters felt oppressed by the university authorities and also the environment weighed heavily on them.

"Aliya Communist" (one of the seven characters - they are referred to by their nicknames in the novel) for instance, lost his studentship for discussing politics with a fresher. This feeling of oppression continued even in their employment later on. Moreover, some of them felt the injustices even within their party hierarchy and they revolted resulting in expulsion. Thus they were rebels, not without a cause. Even after expulsion they remained loyal to the cause. The vanguard of a Marxist revolution is said to be the oppressed working class. In Sri Lanka, however, the leadership of the left movement was formed by intellectuals from the top income bracket. A committed involvement of a working class, possessed by a revolutionary fervour, was not visible. The author discusses these aspects depicting the inadequacy of the mass movement.

The modus operandi in the propagation of the Marxist ideology employed by these people was mainly didactic. One person, Dantha Sahodaraya , however, embarks on an ambitious project. He restarts a cardamom plantation in an abandoned land leased out by his father-in-law in Kalupahana in the Knuckles Mountains. He attempts to demonstrate by practical methods the ideology of community ownership of means of production which would remove the exploitation of labour and also eliminate surplus capital.

For them Kalupahana was the cradle of revolution as Yanan in China. I thought the story of Dantha Sahodaraya was the best of the seven and also the most relevant to the subject i.e. the rise and fall of communism in Sri Lanka. It is also a love story of the most serious type which lays bare the heart of the woman who loves Danthaya, though she is not sure whether her feelings for him is so called love! Though the story is lengthy, particularly in the description of party affairs, yet it is beautiful. Nature's bounty that abounds around the farmlands in Kalupahana is lyrically painted.

There is pleasure and pain in the work. Engel's concept of conversion of "things in themselves" into "things for us" comes to mind when Dhanthaya's community grapples with the problems of farming. Dhanthaya's wife is from a fairly well to do family. But there is no objection whatsoever from the family regarding his apparent neglect of his wife by being away from home for long periods. Nobody including the wife complains or accuses him of treating politics as more important than his family.

Unkind treatment

One would have thought the father-in-law being well to do and influential would object to the unkind treatment of his daughter. On the contrary he helps Dhanthaya on his projects by giving him his property to be used as a farm. In my opinion this relationship reflects the fact that there is no absolute division of society into classes in Sri Lanka. Dhanthaya's father- in-law could not discern a class struggle of the type that Lenin described in his son-in-law's activities. Yet paradoxically Dhanthaya's farmers receive training in handling weapons in preparation for the coming revolution.

Amaradevi's personal experience is presented as another beautiful love story. She falls in love with a boy who comes to be called Dumbaraya who is somewhat below her social stratum. There is no declaration of love but the attachment they develop is almost spiritual that transcends conjugal love. He is killed by the government troops during the 1971 insurrection though he was not involved with the JVP.

She goes to Australia and completes her research degree and earns a reputation for the work she does and also some wealth. She gives up all that and returns to Sri Lanka to dedicate her life to the memory of Dumbaraya when she was invited to take over the management of an institute built by Aliya Communist to continue the work all of them started together.

This story tends to support the view that the social classes that Marx described are not recognizable in Sri Lanka. Amaradevi is the daughter of a Railway Station Master and had no experience of a working class existence. Her compassion for the poor though was a very strong feeling. Yet she did not belong to an oppressed working class and she could never totally 'declass' herself and integrate into a working class as such, probably because there was no such class sufficiently developed to absorb her. The love she feels for Dumbaraya originates in a mind that is full of compassion for the poor which is a feeling that she shares with him. It may not be essential to be born and bred in a working class family to be a Marxist but for a Marxist movement to succeed a developed and organised working class may be essential. It seems the author has the knack of pinpointing a fact via a beautiful love story.

Other characters in the novel have their love relationships though they do not feature strongly as a factor in the analysis of the main subject. Andana Lamaya's childhood and school days are vividly described. His village in Pathadumbara had been resplendently verdant and majestically beautiful. He felt like a king to live in that village. He enters the university and flounders against the current. He ends up with roots neither in the village nor in the city. He loses his teaching job because of his politics.

He is left rudderless as the party breaks up into factions. He believes however that the enterprise they started is not finished and remains to be completed. He is happy that Aliya Communist has built an institute to start the work. The question arises why he lost his village roots. Is it because there is no place for his politics in the village? Is it because there is no class division in the village?

Harassment

Maskatta on the other hand had not experienced a happy childhood. He had been subjected to harassment and indignity at the hands of his family members, teachers and school mates. This unhappy experience had continued in the university and later in employment too. He could not get on with his superiors as he fought against their corrupt practice. As a member of the Communist Party he could not remain quiet when he saw injustice and wrong policy committed by the party leaders who tended to retain their feudal mentality and treat the members as inferior beings.

Maskatta did not endorse the party policy after JRJ became the executive president. His criticism was not welcome and his party membership was suspended. Finally he goes back to his village and starts a retired life. He grows all his food and seems to be contented. He is happy and excited in the prospect of meeting all his friends and believes that the four rivers can flow upstream.

This disgruntled character believed that Marxist type violent revolution would not succeed in Sri Lanka as it is a Buddhist country. Maskatta believes that non-violent methods should be employed by Marxists to win political power in Sri Lanka. But later he joined a revolutionary group, influenced by Danthaya. Whether communism is suitable for a Buddhist country has not been considered by him. The philosophy of Marxism is dialectical materialism. Engel has divided philosophical systems into two fundamental groups; idealism and materialism and regarded those intermediate ones as belonging to agnosticism. It is obvious that Buddhists cannot accept this view. The foundation of Sri Lankan culture is Buddhism. Sena Thoradeniya has created several beautiful stories in this compilation. Through these characters he tells a story of epic proportions, the story of the left movement in Sri Lanka, its victories and defeats, its pathos and betrayal and hope and belief, vision and mission. It was a grandeur vision of its leaders who were rich and clever, compassionate and unselfish but above and removed from the poor, detached but superior and all in all predicated to fall. The author deserves commendation of the highest order for giving us this comprehensive saga.