“The concept of a nation arose in Europe after the sixteenth century. Nation is associated with modernity, especially capitalism which is a product of modernism in Europe and there are some "intellectuals" in Sri Lanka who think that since there is no "proper" capitalism in Sri Lanka there could not be a Sinhala nation.”____________________________________
by Prof. Nalin de Silva
(March 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Thank Kuweni Achchi and the Yakshas that I am not an intellectual in the western tradition. As at present in Sri Lanka only those who follow the western tradition are considered to be intellectuals and this implies that I am not an intellectual. If I were to follow the intellectuals in this country I would have been debating whether the Sinhalas are a nation, race or an ethnic community hybrid or otherwise. My cultural ancestors Kuweni Achchi and the others have passed on to me a tradition according to which Sinhalas are a nation whose core culture is Yaksha.
The concept of a nation arose in Europe after the sixteenth century. Nation is associated with modernity, especially capitalism which is a product of modernism in Europe and there are some "intellectuals" in Sri Lanka who think that since there is no "proper" capitalism in Sri Lanka there could not be a Sinhala nation. However, these people are not reluctant to campaign for the right of self determination of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka. It may be that they think that since Tamil racism that was created, baptised by the capitalist west is being maintained by them there is some kind of capitalism in the Jaffna peninsula.
There began a chinthana shift (those who are familiar with paradigm shifts such as that from the Newtonian paradigm to the Einsteinian paradigm should have no difficulty in understanding what is meant by a chinthana shift. However, those "intellectuals" who use the term paradigm shift even for a change from coca cola to pepsi cola may not grasp the term chinthana shift easily. It has to be emphasised that there could be a number of paradigms within a single chinthanaya.) from Catholic chinthanaya to Judaic Greek Christian chinthanaya (Judaic chinthanaya for short) in Europe in the fifteenth century giving rise to Renaissance Arts, Newtonian (Galilean) Science, An Economy based on trade, Political movements that wanted to break away from the Pope and Catholicism that was holistic, intellectual movements that displaced the God by an abstract man without, however, discarding the Biblical creation and evolution as illustrated by the big bang theory in western Cosmology and Darwinian evolution, linear thinking replacing the semi cyclic thinking of the Catholic chinthanaya, abstract thinking, individualism, etc. Nations and nation states, capitalism, western science, dualistic philosophies etc.,in Europe were products of this chinthana shift. It was left to Descartes to present the epistemology in which this new chinthanaya was based and to Luther and especially to Calvin to present the chinthana shift as a cultural and political movement. The politics was led by the capitalist class that went on to establish nation states. The chinthana shift that began in the fifteenth century in Europe took nearly three centuries to finally flourish in the reformation movement. The Judaic chinthanaya is the dominant chinthanaya in the world today and one could see even the Catholic church adopting the ways of the Judaic Greek Christian chinthanaya. The Judaic chinthanaya is not on the decline though Quantum Physics and Ecology are posing problems for it. As happened in the fifteenth century with the new Judaic Greek Christian Chinthanaya, we are witnessing the emergence of a new chinthanaya that is not in agreement with European modernism. However the Juadaic chinthanaya and the resultant modernity continue to forge ahead, as Catholic chinthanaya did in the fifteenth century Europe, and what is known as post modernism is nothing but a mixture of these two trends. There is no Lyotardian post modernist condition as such and the mixed bag of the emerging chinthanaya and the dominating Judaic chinthanaya or the "interim state of affairs" has been identified as post modernism by some of the western intellectuals.
Any chinthana shift is associated with a change in the culture and the establishment of nations and nation states in Europe was not simply the result of a political movement that catalysed a break away from the Roman empire. It was also a cultural movement and the nation states did not arise simply due to the economic aspirations of the emerging capitalist class. The nation states more or less attempted to bring people of the same culture within one state. The western intellectuals whether of the liberal tradition or of the Marxist tradition tend to ignore the cultural aspect concentrating on the economic and the political aspects.
There are no ethnic groups or ethnic communities as such. Except perhaps in very small groups it is not possible to trace the ancestral lines of the members of a so called ethnic group to a few common ancestors. The so called ethnic groups are cultural groups very often having a common core culture. The cultural groups refer to themselves as ethnic groups and often make up theories (all theories including those in Physics are made up or constructed) to trace their identities to common ancestors. The Sinhala cultural group that became a nation has done this through the Sinhabahu theory just as much the Romans have their own theory based on the famous twins. Many cultural groups trace their origins to non humans such as animals and trees in order to establish their identities and to distinguish themselves from the other cultural groups. Very often one comes across incest marriages in these theories as that would further strengthen the distinct identities of the cultural groups. (For details please refer the article on "Sinhabahu Pravadaya" that appeared in the "Divaina" on 13th January 1994.) Cultural groups absorb other members from other cultures and some aspects of other cultures, in the process changing their cultures as well. There are no pure cultural groups, though often cultural groups identifying themselves as ethnic groups, refer to their changing cultures as pure cultures. It is not only the Sinhalas who refer to a pure Sinhala culture. The Tamils in Sri Lanka who cannot trace a history beyond the Dutch period are proud of their pure culture and claim that the Sri Lankan Tamil culture is even purer than the Tamil Nadu Tamil culture.
Cultural groups are interested in showing that they are distinct from the others and that makes the groups to refer to the pure culture and so called pure ethnicity. The cultural groups cannot live in isolation and it is obvious that they borrow and absorb from other cultures. No intellectual, hybrid or otherwise, is needed to point out this obvious fact. However, the "intellectuals" could thrive on these mixing, adding to their list of "scholarly publications" in their bio data, collecting points for promotions and appointments and "earning" foreign trips, by referring to the "other" ancestral connections of various important personnel in history that many people know. Alagakkonara may have come from Kerala but for all purposes he was a Sinhala. So were Parakramabahu, Sapumal and Ven. Mahinda Thero who came from Seekim.( I have referred to the Sinhalaness of Ven. Mahinda Thero in my book "Jathiya, Sanskruthiya Ha Chinthanaya" that was published in 1991, and in articles published prior to that.) They had all Sinhalised in the process. Nobody would refer to the "Koviars" among the Sri Lankan Tamils as Sinhala though their ancestors were Sinhala "Govias" who were absorbed into the Tamil cultural group formed by the Vellalas who were brought by the Dutch for the tobacco cultivations. (Please refer to the learned articles by Mr. G. B. D. de Silva in the Midweek Review). Why do not these ladies and gentlemen refer to the German and Greek ancestries of the English kings and to those English kings who could not speak English, though now English is sometimes referred to as the language of the queen (king).
The Sinhalas used to refer to a certain set of people as "Thuppahi" not so long ago. The "Thuppahi" instead of absorbing from the other cultures imitated them. It is this distinction between absorbtion and imitation that should be made use to define hybrid creatures found in the five star hotels, in the academia and in other places. The hybrids do not have any originality to absorb and they are only "capable" of imitating anything from fashions in dresses to fashionable theories. The theory on nation states applicable to the European nations that were formed after the sixteenth century is not valid in this part of the world.We did not have to wait for European modernity to establish nations and nation states. ( In Europe now they have state nations where the nationality of an individual is identified by his or her citizenship in a state (country).) However, the "hybrid intellectuals" do not understand this. The beginnings of the Sinhala cultural group go back to the Pandukabhaya days. It could be seen as an absorption of the other cultures in the Island such as Naga (Not Tamils as some would like to imagine) and the cultures of people who spoke Aryan languages who came from North India, especially the Vangas (Bengalis). Shakyans were also absorbed into this cultural group as exemplified by the stories on Bhaddakaccana and her brothers.
The Sinhala cultural group soon had its own state that covered almost the entire group under Pandukabhaya thus forming the Sinhala nation. It was a nation state, though there was no capitalism or European modernism in Sri Lanka at that time. Even in Europe nation states were first formed by establishing states of the cultural group, that governed almost the entire cultural group. For a cultural group to become a nation it has to satisfy among others this criterion of a state that unites almost the entire cultural group. The Sinhala nation, so formed has been absorbing from other cultures ever since, as mentioned above. The Sinhala cultural group and the Sinhala nation and the Yakshas and Nagas would have been introduced to Buddhism even before the Devanampiya Tissa days. The Mahavansa references to the visits of the Buddha, Bhaddakaccana, Tapassu Bhalluka, Mahiyangana stupa, Saman devi, clearly indicate the spread of Buddhism in the country before the arrival of the Arhat Mahinda Thero. It was during the time of Devanampiya Tissa that Buddhism having been absorbed into the Sinhala culture became the state religion of the Sinhala state. However something extraordinary happened in the Dutugemunu period when the Sinhalas became the Sinhala Buddhists, establishing a Sinhala Buddhist state. A Sinhala Buddhist state is different from a Sinhala state that has Buddhism as the state religion. After the king Dutugemunu there was no separate Sinhala nation and hence, a Sinhala state, and a state religion. They were all fused into one and the Sinhala Buddhist state came into existence governing the Sinhala Buddhists. In our long history "Thuppahi" have appeared, for example those who imitated Vajrayana, sometimes in significant numbers, as in our times, but the Sinhala Buddhist culture has been strong enough even to absorb the "Thuppahi" in due course, leaving out the "undesirable" characteristics.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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