Emerged: noteworthy women from Kandy by Nanda Pethiyagoda Wanasundera was introduced to a distinguished audience including the author’s relatives and friends, on March 2, 2011 at the auditorium of the Central Province Governor’s office complex in Palace Square, Kandy. The Principal of Girls’High School with the Deputy Principal, School Captain and Games Captain were special guests since the author and six of the those written about in the book are from this school.
Hon. Tikiri Kobbekaduwa, Governor of the Central Province, was the Chief Guest. Dr. P. V. J. Jayasekera, formerly of the Department of History, University of Peradeniya, was the Guest of Honour and delivered the keynote address. Ms Udumbara Udugama, Cordinating Secretary to the Governor, organized and compered the event.
In his address Dr Jayasekera said: "The book is meant to be an addition to the wide range of writings on gender studies in Sri Lanka. It attempts to locate the careers and achievements of eight Kandyan women from the district of Kandy as trail-blazers emerging from patriarchal, traditional and conservative Kandyan society in the mid 20th century to the national elite level.
Read more"The careers of some of them are inspiring and their contribution to social mobility among women through education, in particular, is admirable. There are others who reached national level in the fields of medicine, sports and creative writing. The biographical accounts and the autobiographical anecdotes of the author serve as windows to the understanding of the thinking, values and social behavior of the Kandyan families that these women belonged to.
"The book starts with a useful and fresh account on the formation of Kandyan identity over the long centuries and its transformation and survival under British colonialism. However, the analysis of what constitutes this identity becomes problematic, particularly when the Kandyan social background is represented as patriarchal, traditional and conservative.
"These are terms that carry a plurality of meanings and interpretations and call for a more nuanced approach. It is necessary to understand the level of acceptance of, and resistance to western influences relating to the status and role of females in Kandyan society at the time. Traditional societies are not static; there is constant critical assimilation of new influences. Racial behavior is complex. There is often modernity in tradition and invention of tradition depending on needs of society. Besides, new influences may be not always ‘progressive’.
"The dominant ideology in the country relating to gender even in the early decades of the 20th century amounted to subordination of women. The missionary glorification of motherhood fitted perfectly with the bourgeois ideology of ‘domesticating women’. Until about 1920 there was strong pressure to restrict the school curriculum for women in keeping with this ideology. As the author correctly points out, equal political rights were opposed by the Sri Lankan political elite sometimes on the argument that women by nature are made to serve men. It may be argued, therefore, that the women portrayed in this book were ‘trail blazers’ from Kandy more in challenging this dominant ideology than in resisting any surviving Kandyan conservatism.
"Outside the sphere of gender, the book highlights a more general problem concerning Kandyan identity; what constitutes Kandyanness? In 1905 Ananda Coomaraswamy made an impassioned appeal to the Kandyan Chiefs to preserve traditional architecture, arts and crafts of the Kandyans because of their unique spiritual and philosophical qualities. In the same way Kandyan history and society need to be studied and understood in their unique context as a part of the national heritage of the entire country.
"The practice so far has been to rely on colonial and Eurocentric stereotypical representations which have resulted in much misunderstanding. The book under discussion illustrates that the author is faced with the problem of presenting a more authoritative picture of Kandyan society. This highlights the urgent need for a well equipped centre for Kandyan studies where the vast and varied Kandyan documents and literature can be made accessible for scholars."
In reply to the suggestion made by Dr. P. V. J. Jayasekera, the Governor said that he had this very idea - of opening a cultural centre where documents and other material of the Kandyan Provinces would be housed, preserved and made available to the research scholar.
Sunday Island
