Dr. Nandadasa Kodagoda - the liberal humanist

Dr. Nandadasa Kodagoda (Nande or Koda for some of us) was not just a medical practitioner who excelled in his speciality, forensic medicine, but a physician for your soul, rather your mind, as well.

He was a wonderful friend, a great support when needed and above all a good man. It is sad beyond all description that he had to pass away, at the height of his potential, before he could achieve much of what he had in his mind to do, such as the eradication of the social ills that threatened, and still do, the very continuance of our time-honoured communal mores.

His interest in the well-being of his fellow men was one thing he pursued relentlessly. Perhaps the experience he gained during his forensic practice instilled in him an abiding interest in people; consequently he developed a large hearted willingness to understand the problems that bought these people to his notice. He set himself the task of finding solutions to the problems he knew were caused by a society that was not particularly concerned with the welfare of its less fortunate members. It would appear that he was encouraged in this task as the natural result of growing up in a Buddhist cultural environment that made him the liberal humanist he was.

I came to know Nande through my brother. They were classmates at Mahinda College, Galle. As a Mahindian myself, I can recognise the influence his old school must have had on Nande that made him not just an exemplary professional but a man capable of enthusiastically embracing his cultural heritage as an essential part of his mental make-up: it was not merely something to be talked about as a pastime. That culture informed all his activities. It was the basis of his thinking that it was his duty to be a productive member of his society. I have a feeling that Nande thought of social activity as a function of living within a social organisation where being a friend for those who were in need of friendship was of the essence.

Nande was, as the cliche goes, a man of many parts. His wide ranging interests covered not just the ills of our society but also whatever was good in it. His social activities were aimed at ending evils such as child abuse and drug use as well as preventing the spread of AIDS. He served as member or chairman of various committees set up to deal with these affairs. His humanity led him to establish an organisation specially to provide financial and other types of aid to the families of members of the defence forces and the police service at a time when such families received little consideration from the society at large. I am happy to note here that his services were recognised by the State and other bodies and Nande was duly honoured. He was a Desmanya.

His love of Sinhala language and literature made Nande a popular personality among men of letters and artiste. It was this interest in culture that formed the basis of my friendship with Nande and won him my respect. I will always remember the many evenings we spent together at his home discussing various topics pertaining to language and literature. These discussions often led to heated arguments about what was right and what was wrong with the contemporary practice of the arts; what was true and what was untrue in the historical documentation; what should be accepted and what should be discarded in religious discourse. I seldom agreed with his views on language in particular. He was a purist of the Munidasa Coomaratunga persuasion which, I always thought, and still think, an aberration that goes counter to all known linguistic criteria.

My own view of language was, and is, that it has its own logic and lives by its own rules and that we cannot stem the flow. I could not convince him that Hela is just one stage, if that, in the long evolution of Sinhala, and that it belongs in the past and no longer functional. Our debates about language and literature went on hour after hour and ended by agreeing to disagree. We never had an adversarial residue after endless hours of weighing each other's ideas and opinions. It was always an amicable handshake. What struck me most was the enthusiasm and the intensity with which Nande defended his position.

It was admirable. He was a very popular broadcaster with the SLBC. In his broadcasts he covered a variety of subjects, mostly dealing with socially significant matters. He often highlighted the burning questions of the day drew society's attention to the fact that those questions needed meaningful answers. His contribution to Sinhala literature and the arts through his writings and his broadcasts over the radio was regarded as very significant, particularly, for its educational value. He was an indefatigable man where such activities were concerned: he was always on the go.

Nande impressed us all with his deep understanding and love of the history of the country and its culture. His deep-seated feelings for our social and cultural traditions and his hopes for their future were obvious. His views on these matters were clear and strong and he held fast to them. They were not abstractions or just convenient notions; they defined his attitude to life and were put into practice in his day-to-day business of living. Nande left a vacuum that is very hard to fill.

It is not at all surprising that the highly principled way of life of Dr. Nandadasa Kodagoda earned him the respect of his close associates and of those who were not that close as well. In many ways he was a role model. That his passing away is a huge loss to the country cannot be over emphasised. To many of us who were his friends and close associates, Nande's death came as a veritable shock: it was untimely. It means the drying up of what used to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

May he attain Nibbana

- Siri Gunasinghe