Language planning in the post-independence era

by Prof. Amarasiri de Silva

After independence, and especially in the years after 1956, Sri Lanka was faced with the task of establishing its own particular identity, as it moved from the colonial to the postcolonial, or rather neo-colonial, period. This entailed the formation of national characteristics that could reflect and project the distinctive nature of being Sri Lankan in the context of the new world order. The process, so different from the globalisation that we experience today, was, of course one which other countries in the region, such as India and Pakistan, also experienced in the period after independence.

Jinasoma Weerasuriya

The process of cultural emancipation in Sri Lanka had commenced much earlier, before its culmination in political independence in 1948: Anagarika Dharmapala, among others, had established a code of conduct for the Sinhalese Buddhists, and highlighted the need for the 'Singhalisation' of the culture. He was critical of the system of personal naming, the dress code, and the habits and other cultural traits that we inherited from the colonial masters. Many scholars and politicians started wearing national dress, converted to Buddhism (or Hinduism), and changed their anglicized names to Sinhala (or Tamil) ones.

In the post-independence period, the construction of a distinctive national identity for the new nation encompassed many areas, with aspects of language, religion, medicine, and cultural displays all making contributions. In particular, developments in the country's education system specifically addressed this issue, and local schools made an important contribution to the process of transforming Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, into a distinctive nation with its own unique characteristics.

The English language was still regarded as important as the country moved into the new post-colonial era, and it continued to be taught. However, the teaching of Pali, Sanskrit, and Sinhala language and literature was regarded as central to the formation of national identity, and these subjects became cornerstones of the education system.

This process was further bolstered by the establishment of the Buddhist Theosophical Society (BTS) school system, the Central Schools, and collegiate schools such as Ananda, Nalanda, Dharmaraja, Mahinda and Dharmasoka. These latter institutions were seen as emblematic of Buddhist education, and as being on a par with the highly regarded Christian schools.

The intellectuals who later engaged in the production, distribution, interpretation, criticism and inculcation of Sinhalese cultural values were the products of this education system. As the principles underpinning the collegiate schools were extended to university level, the country witnessed the growth of a large educated class in the latter part of the twentieth century. The interests of members of this group extended into various areas of culture, including philosophy, the arts, drama, novels, and the study of literature and language. Their proficiency in Pali, Sanskrit and English, coupled with their knowledge of traditional Sinhalese literature, enabled these people to fill the cultural gap that existed, by producing the material relating to Sinhalese culture that later came to be seen as so important to the Sinhalese national character.

There were, however, a few organised attempts in post-independence Sri Lanka to confer professional status on the communication of technological subjects. Although linguistic purity was a concern of Hela Havula, an organisation set up in the early 1940s by Munidasa Kumaratunga, little attention was paid to the question of the technical writing that was so badly needed at the time.

However, in the West, several organisations sprang up for this purpose, including, in 1953, the forerunners of the present Society for Technical Communication in the USA. Although, so far as I am aware, no such organisation developed in Sri Lanka, the Bandaranaike Government established the Department of Official Languages in 1956 as part of its nation-building effort.

Jinasoma Weerasuriya with W.J.M.Lokubandara

Jinasoma Weerasuriya with Vasudeva Nanayakkara

The Department's remittance included the promotion of technical writing, and the numerous programmes introduced to improve the language skills of people in schools and universities included the publication of glossaries covering several subject areas. Even today, in the department's own words, its main functions include facilitating 'the effective implementation of the language policy as enshrined in Articles 18 and 19 - Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (1978) that recognises Sinhala and Tamil as national languages and English as the link language.

Accordingly, related to the above three languages, the Department is engaged in the provision of translations to the government, enhancing language skills of public servants and the preparation of glossaries, language text books and dictionaries.'

The unassuming, but valuable, contribution of Jinasoma Weerasuriya MA to the fostering of the Sinhalese language should be considered in this broader context. Appointed to the Department of Official Languages in 1957, and subsequently holding the positions of Director of Combined Services and Project Director, Weerasuriya had to face the challenge of inventing language suitable for tackling the new areas of knowledge that were being introduced into school and university curriculua.

His most important contribution was in the creation and development of the Sinhalese words and phrases - the technical terms - required to express ideas and concepts in these new fields of study. In his role of Project Director, Weerasuriya was assigned the task of developing glossaries of technical terms for many different subjects, and updating those that had previously been compiled by the Department of Swabhasa, and, during his tenure, he initiated and completed 21 such publications - an enormous achievement.

I dealt with Weerasuriya when I needed Sinhala words for terms in sociology and anthropology in connection with my Sinhala-medium teaching at Peradeniya, and he also provided me with very valuable support and assistance when I was compiling two textbooks in Sinhala on basic concepts in sociology and on research methodology: not only did he volunteer to go through the text of the methodology book that I had drafted, but he also suggested new and better Sinhala words for some of the English terms needed for the teaching of anthropology and sociology.

In my work with Weerasuriya, I found him an expert communicator, often suggesting stylistic improvements to enable difficult concepts or complex ideas to be conveyed clearly and concisely through simple sentences - a rare skill.

This expertise was derived in part from his education: he learnt Pali, Sanskrit, Sinhalese and English during his school career at Matara Rahula and later at Ananda College, Colombo, and then completed an honours degree in Sanskrit at the University of Ceylon under the tutelage of renowned figures such as Prof M. H. F. Jayasuriya, Dr. Jayadeva Thilakasiri and Dr. Kailasanath Kurukkal and Professor O. H. De A. Wijesekere. During his university career, his colleagues included his close Associate Prof S. L. Kekulawala, former Vice Chancellor of Kelaniya University and Professor of Sinhalese, erstwhile proponents of linguistics such as Dr. Sugathapala de Silva, who was a reader in linguistics at the University of York in the UK, Ridgeway Tillekeratne, a civil servant who held the positions of Director-General of Radio Ceylon and GA in various Districts, and Prof Samson Weeratunga, who was at the Kelaniya Sanskrit Department.

Weerasuriya had studied Sanskrit lexicography under Prof S. B. Shastri when he studied for his M.A. at the Kelaniya University where he served as a visiting lecturer in Sanskrit from 1959 to 1969. During this period, he wrote his thesis, titled 'Sanskrita Kosha Sahityaya' (Sanskrit Lexicography).

Reviewing this book in 1992, Prof M. H. F. Jayasuriya says, 'Here the author has set out to explore a hitherto relatively unexplored field, from its beginnings in India in the Vedic times, right down to the modern period', adding that 'this book certainly deserves to be translated into English, for the benefit of scholars outside the country'.

Weerasuriya has also been involved in the translation of many important books into Sinhala. Like his friends working in the field of linguistics, he was capable of discerning subtleties and nuances in language, researching terminology and colloquialisms, and handling new developments in the Sinhala language, and all these skills are evident in his translations as well as in his work on glossaries. Weerasuriya's first translation, which appeared in 1961, was of Rabindranath Tagore's play Chitra. The play, originally written in Bengali in 1892 and translated into English in 1914, is based on an episode in the Mahabharata: it tells the story of the love between Chitra, the daughter of Chitravahana, the King of Manipur, and Arjuna of the great Kuru clan. Weerasuriya, with his brilliant use of language, successfully put the strong erotic and sensual character of Tagore's Bengali language into a simple but lyrical Sinhalese style. As such, he avoided some of the failings of the English version of the play, in relation to which the scholar Edward Thompson bemoaned the absence of some of the lyrical descriptive passages that had appeared in the original Bengali text.

Weerasuriya's greatest achievement as a translator is probably Dr. Ananda W. P. Gurugé's Asoka, the righteous: a definitive biography. This book was first published in English by the Sri Lanka Central Cultural Fund of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Information in 1993, with a preface by Ranasinghe Premadasa, and the translation, which runs to 790 pages, was published by Sirisumana Godage. Weerasuriya also translated a publication by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) entitled 'Childcare in Buddhism', which originally appeared in English in 1993.

While serving in the Department of Official Languages, Mr. Weerasuriya contributed his services as a Sinhala instructor to foreign scholars such as Patrick A. Peebles and Cynthia Caron who carried out research in Sri Lanka. It is noteworthy that Cynthia Caron translated Munidasa Kumaratunga's Sinhala novel Magul Kaema into English as Wedding Feast (1997) during this period - a text Weerasuriya had used to teach Sinhala to foreigners. Weerasuriya was registered as a language teacher at the US Embassy and foreign mercantile establishments.

It is interesting to note that the work of the Department of Official Languages, particularly the glossaries discussed above, has been criticised in some quarters, notably by proponents of Hela Havula, who advocate the replacement of Sanskrit and Sanskrit-derived words with Hela (or native) versions.

The work of Weerasuriya, however, is noteworthy in that he avoided any such ideological stance, preferring instead to proceed on the basis of his own broad knowledge and experience of oriental languages. Weerasuriya, now retired and living with his beloved wife, children and grandchildren, reached the age of 82 on the December 5, 2012. I wish him a long life and many more productive years ahead.

The writer is a Professor of Sociology of the University of Peradeniya.