There were a few great social reformers in South Asia during the 20th Century, who were virtually able to change the inner dynamics of their own societies. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar of India, Sree Narayana Guru swami of Kerala, India, and Dr. Christopher William Wijekoon Kannangara of Sri Lanka were such persons. Their influence has continued to create the birth of a new social consciousness among the most oppressed people of their countries and thereby, they have contributed to far reaching political and social changes which are and which will be present in their societies for a long time to come.

Kannangara may appropriately be called “the maker” of modern Sri Lanka. The word ‘modern’ is important in this context. For a long period of time, particularly from the beginning of the 9th Century Anno Domini, Sri Lanka’s main forms of socialisation were based on two principles. These principles were the prohibition against social mobility and the disproportionate punishment for those who fell outside the privileged small group which was called the “Kuleena”” among the Sinhalese and by similar titles among the Tamil community. But, what both these communities had in common was that these communities were organised on the fundamental principle of caste, which created an absolute segregation between a small group of privileged people and a large body of all others who were denied any claim for equal status.  

The denial of possibilities for social mobility meant a complete absence of opportunity for improvement and change. Everything about one’s life was determined at a point which was fixed by this segregation and it was a seriously punishable offence in any way to try to change one’s status. The birth fixed the rest of the life of “anybody”.  

While a lot can be said about this whole social arrangement, what is important for the present purpose of change that Kannangara in particular contributed to was the aspect of improving opportunities for the poor, particularly the younger generation of the poor. Kannangara himself came from an extremely poor background. He has himself spoken about the “mud hut” in which he lived and that often, as a child, his meals consisted of rice and coconut sambol, which is the poorest man’s diet in the Sri Lankan society.  

Still determined to study, he went to a Methodist missionary school which was in his village, where the child was able to show his talent by becoming the first in the class in all the subjects. A principal of a nearby school, which was a school for more middle class children, again a missionary, watched this child receive all the prizes during the prize giving, and sought the permission of the school principal to take him to his school, with the promise that he will look after the child’s welfare.  Ever since then, all the child’s needs were very delicately handled by this priest and the child once again did well in all the subjects in this school too. Besides, he also became the captain of the cricket team and later sat and passed the Cambridge matriculation exam which was considered a very high achievement at the time. At this school, his patron, the principal of the new school, made a request from him, asking him that till he the school principal lives, for Kannangara to be a teacher to the students in his school. And Kannangara kept this promise. It was this child which developed a vision for the education of “the poorest children” in Sri Lanka. As he grew up and became a popular figure and began to represent the people as a politician, he pursued the idea of creating schools for the poor in various areas, five schools a year, and little by little, the number of schools improved. As the Minister of Education, under the British system of governance at the time, he was able to influence the education policy and the foundation for the “large scale education of the poor” started due to the initiatives of this great man who was also supported by a number of people in the civil service and of others. His opponents were many: the richer landlords found that the education of the children of the poor deprived them of the necessary labour in their estates and as the popular saying goes, “they were losing people even to pluck coconuts from their trees”. That was the way that the children of the poor were at the time. These reforms finally culminated in the free education system which later provided educational opportunities for people around the country.

With these reforms, now, new generations have grown up, who would have under the normal circumstances, not have had any opportunity to improve their education, and also benefit from the opportunities of social mobility which entered into Sri Lankan life even in a limited way through the reforms introduced by the British. In modern Sri Lanka, the majority of the younger generation is those who have benefited from free education. What exists today is a new nation. This new nation consists of a larger population of educated people who are able to seek opportunities for themselves, to engage in a society on an equal basis, and also to engage in the social discourses challenging many of the ways by which the country has been ruled and managed so far.  

Decisively, the nature of the population of Sri Lanka has changed for the better, despite the economic and social situations becoming much worse due to corruption, mismanagement and the ignorance of those who have been at the top so far. This new generation demands a change and it is a matter of time that various kinds of changes will take place in Sri Lanka with a greater participation of the people who, just a few decades ago, did not have the capacity to participate.  

It is a rare achievement for one person to achieve within a short time, to be able to see that his dream of the “poor people” becoming “educated people” and be capable of managing their lives, is being achieved to an extent that he himself might not have been able to imagine at the time of initiating his earliest reforms.

(The writer is the Director of Policy and Programmes of the Asian Human Rights Commission.)

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.