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| Sunday, 9 June 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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SEL-LIPI : Code-name 'sausage' At the Legislative Assembly elections held in Goa last week, Churchill Alameo, (a former Congress Party Chief Minister) lost his seat to a politician called Mickey Pacheco. It does sound somewhat like the defeat of a Winstonian lion by a Disney mouse. And there hangs a tale. At the very dawn of the European Imperialist adventure in Asia, the Portuguese established their base in Goa. There the Lusitanian Empire continued until 1960, when the Indian Army liberated the area, successfully incorporating the territory within the Union of India. Not long before the Indian assault, the Portuguese Army in Goa found itself short of anti-aircraft ammunition, code-named 'sausages'. An urgent message was sent to Lisbon asking for 'sausages'. And real sausages were what the Portuguese forces received. So much for code names. By this time, of course, the Empire was long past its prime. Nevertheless, before its passing it managed to leave its imprint on a great many countries of the world, including Sri Lanka. And one way it did this was through personal names. Look through a Colombo Telephone Directory and you can see them: from Abrew to Zylva, via Brito, Costa, Dias, Fernando, Gomes, Perera, Rodrigo, Salgado and of course the endless de-names (originally da-). This writer knows of one school in the suburbs of Colombo where, at one time, almost all the students were called Perera. In the post-colonial era, the number of Portuguese surnames has been slowly diminishing, 'de' names being replaced among Sinhalese by 'ge' names. Likewise, the proudly European first names of the colonial era have been replaced, as the memory of colonialism fades. Unfortunately, traditional Sinhalese first names, except for Tissa and Gamini and the like, have been mainly of the less genteel variety (e.g. Banda and Ukkua), so the replacements have been more Aryan-sounding ones (especially North Indian and Iranian) and some have been new inventions. Achini, Bimal and Rohantha spring to mind. In the old days, however there was a tendency to go in for grandiose European names. The Maha Mudaliyar named his son Solomon West Ridgeway. And many were those who gave their offspring European surnames as first names. Washingtons and Lushingtons abounded, not to mention Churchills. In the early-mid 20th century, with the advent of the anti-colonial movement, these Imperialist names fell out of favour, being replaced by more radical European ones. Innumerable Lenins were born, including a later Chairman of the Panadura Urban Council. This writer even knows of a person named Ninel (Lenin backwards). And then there was that celebrated Panadura lawyer, Hitler Perera. Now, with spreading globalisation, or McWorld as one writer has called it, where will this all lead? Will we find girls called Acura or Britney or Eudora, and boys called Daemon or Enron or Lycos? Is what just occurred in Goa a presage of what is to be our future? Will Churchill, an icon of the colonialist Raj, be replaced by Mickey, an icon of the coca-colanist global village? After all, while our Burghers are a vanishing community, 'burghers' are becoming the rage. And sausages are more than just a code-name. - Gotabhaya |
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