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| Sunday, 13 April 2003 |
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Gunadasa Kapuge: A life committed to social change by Gamini Dissanayake in Toronto When Gunadasa brought his block-buster Kampana show to Toronto on a freezing wintry evening in 1997, the majority Sinhala audience was surprised by the presence of an unusually large number of young Thamil fans. When I mentioned this to him during the interval he said: " I am so happy . This is one of my unforgettable moments"
That this song was a wake up call to all Sri Lankans was demonstrably proved a million times by the tragic events which unfolded over the next 30 years, our darkest decades since Independence. The next evening Gunadasa dutifully accepted an invitation by the Shanthi Peace Group (Sinhala and Thamil Peace Activists in Toronto) to a discussion. The Thamil members wanted to know the reasons for his solid commitment for social change. "My father was a plantation worker at Baddegama' he said "We lived in the 'Line' . He was an activist who helped organize meetings for the left leaders like N. M. Perera, S.A. Wickramasinghe, Colvin R De Silva. I grew up in this milieu" The bond between him and the audience immediately turned to genuine adoration when young Gajan walked up to him saying " Gunadasa Aiyya. I was born in Point Pedru, the Uthuru Koney" and hugged him. It was in true solidarity and brotherhood. And he sang for us Sabanda Api Kandu Novemu Unun Paraya Nagena... Let us not be like those mountains that vie to raise above one another. but strive to be like the cool streams that flow to merge with one great river. It was this wonderful life long honest commitment that inspired millions of us to believe and stand for peace, justice and ethnic harmony. His songs were like cascades of light that grew in intensity Mawathe Geethaya, Piya Satahan, Kampana to Irabatu Tharuwa and gave us faith, and insights to the reality around us . Lyrics for most of his early songs were by Lucien Bulathsinhala, his colleague at SLBC and, most of his later ones were powered by Ratna Sri Wijesinghe. His songs also gave a voice to the voiceless and the marginalized. Bimbarak Senaga for example, is about the ravage of the land [the "homesteads" of the Wellassa farmers] by the multi-nationals or as our first executive president JR said "the robber-barons". Karagala Ga Ga Enna is an "ode" to the barber, and Seethala Nimney to a liitle girl on a tea plantation urging her to jump over the barbed wire fence to liberate herself from certain systemic slavery, Sinhala Sindu Kiyana is about the Sinhala girl who married a Thamil Police Officer for love and went to Jaffna to live with her husband during the conflict. Kalladi Palama laments the disappearance [caused by the ethnic conflict ] of those singing and dancing Thamil youth. Gunadasa's pervasive influence inspired a whole generation of artists, Karunaratne Divulgane, Deepika Priyadarshini, Jayatillaka Bandara, the late Malini Bulathsinhala and lyric writers like Sunil Ariyaratne, Mahinda Chandrasekara, (Ma Totin Ena-Saroja/Talayam) Rev: Konwevey Ariyaratne (Virajini) John Hiddle/Wickramapala Palliyamulla (Nanda Malini's Uthurin Nagi Ena Ganga), Dhammika Ganganatha Dissanayake to name a few. May be even groups like Oli Oviyangal (Paintings in Sound) a bunch of Thamil and Sinhala musicians living in Dortmund , Germany whose album Sanhadigal or Messages is also a powerful message for social change. Gunadasa once told me that he was just doing what Frantz Fanon urged: that an artist's task is "to crystallize the mass consciousness" May his gentle "soul" attain Nirvana! |
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True to his words he dedicated the final song to his Thamil Brothers
and Sisters. Fittingly, it was Uthuru Koney Numba Hinahey Nadaraja Malliye
[Nadaraja, my little brother you are smiling from the Northern point].
Gunadasa first rendered this song in 1972. [The lyrics were written by a
university sophomore... Vakista] .
