Letters to the Editor, five decades ago

It was no less a person than Robert Knox who, if I remember right, praised the average Sinhala man for being very civic conscious. Mind you, he left out the women in his commentaries for irrationally he disliked them as "troublesome creatures". And of course steeped in household drudgery, the women hardly had time to be "Civic".

But the men, they would sit on the half walls of the Ambalamas or village resting venues and talk of kings and ministers and other superiors and their doings, sometimes praising them, yet at other times criticising or even lambasting them. And the lesser ones will listen to all that and nod in appreciation. The discussions probably went on till darkness enveloped the surrounding foliage and home fires lit by "troublesome" womenfolk began to blaze.

That was in the 17th century. We now pass on to the end of the 19th century. In between two powerful Western races had invaded the country and caused havoc.

The third invader, however, began to experience with "Good governance" and the country returned to rather stable conditions. Many facets of the mother country were introduced to make the "semi-civilised" race more civilised and to these belonged newspapers.

Newspapers

Naturally, first appeared the English newspapers. And almost two decades caught on the native newspapers. The Sinhala newpapers came first and even two Tamil newspapers, in whose debut the Sinhala newspapers, known first as 'Aranchi Patra' had helped much. Beginning from 1860 a rash of Sinhala newspapers emerged among which were Lankalokaya, Lakrivikirana, Lakminipahana, Gnanartha Pradeepa, Satya Margaya and Arunodaya.

The Sinhalas being innately a literary race that embraced the world of books and literature for 2,500 years, took to this facet of communication as ducks to water.

Of course they, the Aranchi Patra were begun by men with money and position and even by clergy of standing, but naturally the readers included the average man. Soon this man began using the Aranch Patra as a mode of ventilating their grievances. The age of sitting on the half walls of Ambalama and wailing was long past. The Amabalama themselves with their Pinthaliyas that provided pure drinking water for weary travellers had gone to disuse due to the lack of maintenance. Village Councils had gone into abeyance in the transition period. So, the State had to be made conscious of their woes and the average man found the Aranchi Patra to be a very handy tool. Of course, not all the citizens were writers of letters to the editor, but the more enterprising and literate did write them. In fact, in our literary history their language and contents provide very interesting reading.

Petition

There is the 'Wail of Modera' or Modera wilapaya, a petition signed by the inhabitants of the delta village of Kelani and published in Gnanratha Pradeepa. It is signed, Modera Vaseen though of course inevitably it has been written by one person with a fetish for very bitter language. It dwells on the increasing poverty of the average man and woman with food prices just spiraling. And now anew issue has cropped up as to where to bury their dead. It can be inferred that the Modera people had been served an order to take their dead either to Kotahena or Borella, a journey that entails climbing hills and dales, giving a topographical idea of Colombo's environs as it existed at that time. Well, rather than go all that way carrying all the paraphernalia of funeral rites better die.

Most of the letter writers to the editor, use pseudonyms to be on the safe side, that sound humorous such as Nikam Inna Baruwa (one who cannot be still), Vihilu (the Joker) Ahawal Baba Singho, Huh Huh Hoo. Another, who probably writes under a pseudonym or his own name, Juan Fernando, of Hettikande. Hettikande, could be the present Hettiyawatte as the location implied in the letter suggests. The Kande would have been lopped off for road construction and for making the city bigger. Just a surmise.

Prince Alfred

Written on March 12, 1870 the letter is a reaction to the exaggerated fuss made over the advent of Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria. Mariwella (harbour) is festooned like paradise itself and pandols set up in every nook and corner. Everybody is dying to see the Prince after having embarked and received the salutations of the Lankans who do so on bended knees, some tumbling in their new shoes, the Prince has gone elephant hunting and has successfully killed a pachyderm harmlessly wandering about.

Everybody is dying to see the prince and ordering the best apparel, to go to Colombo especially after a feature appears in a Sinhala newspaper that "The whole city is laughing" Kolompuraya Sinase. It sports a magnificent pandol put up at Mariawatte, Juan Fernando of Hettiyakande too is dying to see the Prince. But he has a shrew of a wife who does not mince words. She becomes aware of her husband's desire to go to Colombo to see the prince and her hands on her hips, asks him, "When you go away to see all the festivities decked up in your fancy wear and the children begin crying through hunger, am I to boil your intestines to feed them?"

It's an outrageous letter no doubt but it amply shows the starvation prevalent in lower society as the higher society celebrates.

The letter written by Huh Huh Hoo gives a peep into a political crisis at the time and due to its significance we will deal with it separately. The letter that grumbles about increasing taxes and escalating food prices. Writes the correspondent, 'Everywhere when two people gather the topic is nothing but these. The other day I heard two females reaping paddy and chatting. Their topic too was this. Said one, "In Colombo I hear, they have to pay a tax even for removal of waste from the body". Chee exclaims the other.

Editors of the newspapers seem to encourage "Letters to the Editor". They even set guidelines for letter-writing as regards the presentation and choice of content. No personal issues can be written on but topics of civic value can be dealt with. Many seem to read the letters. For example, just a mention of Bujjomuwa in a letter had let the whole village ablaze over a matter mentioned. Editors also seem to take pride in the fact that these letter writers keep on improving their language use via writing them!

(The writer is indebted to the Archival Notes of Author Siri Thilakasiri for some of the contents.)