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Purifying the Sinhala Language: The Hela Movement of Munidasa Cumaratunga (1930s–1940s)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2011

SANDAGOMI COPERAHEWA
SANDAGOMI COPERAHEWA*
Affiliation:
Department of Sinhala, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper provides a detailed account of the socio-political dynamics of the campaign for Sinhala language purism in the 1930s and early 1940s, and re-evaluates the impact of the Hela (pure Sinhala) movement of Munidasa Cumaratunga (1887–1944), a language loyalist and the foremost grammarian of the twentieth century, for the renovation of Sinhala language. It explores Cumaratunga's discourse on linguistic purism, its ideological foundations, and the means by which he organized his puristic intervention. As the case of Cumaratunga indicates, his language purism was not undertaken for the mere love of a language. The paper argues that Cumaratunga's Hela language movement was essentially a revolt against the dominant language practices and ideologies of the colonial government, national political leadership, the pirivena and the contemporary literary elite of the time. Ideologically, the Hela notion was designed as an oppositional discourse to the dominant Indo-Aryan linguistic discourse in the 1930s, and aimed to locate the Hela language at the apex of colonial language hierarchy. Exploring Cumaratunga's perceptions of language this paper demonstrates linguistic purism as a type of language reform which aimed at the formation of the ethno-linguistic uniqueness of the Sinhalese and the politicization of the Sinhala language in the early 1940s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , July 2012 , pp. 857 - 891
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 See Malalgoda, Kitisiri, Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, 1750–1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

2 By 1917, there were 62 well-established pirivenas in different parts of the island. Administration Report—1917 (Director of Education).

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8 According to the census figures, the percentage of literates was 56.4 males and 21.2 females in 1921. Census of Ceylon 1921.

9 This was a trend dating from the 1860s, when the first regular Sinhala newspapers were published, and the beginning of the twentieth century, when Sinhala novels started to appear. For details, see Sarathchandra, Ediriweera, Sinhalese Novel (Colombo: Gunasena, 1950)Google Scholar.

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11 See Dharmadasa, Language, Religion and Ethnic Assertiveness.

12 In a study of North India, Paul Brass has argued that, in a particular historical and social context, one ethnic symbol may be identified as dominant and others as secondary. Brass, Paul, Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

13 For a useful account on language controversies of this period, see Dharmadasa, Language, Religion and Ethnic Assertiveness.

14 In this paper, the term ‘language reform’ is used in a fairly broad sense, covering any effort to regulate, change or guide the development of language.

15 See Wickramasuriya, Sarathchandra, ‘Munidasa Kumaratunga's Contribution to Sinhalese Linguistics’ The Ceylon Journal of the Humanities Vol. 1 (1), 1970, pp. 57–75Google Scholar; Dharmadasa, K. N. O., ‘Language and Sinhalese Nationalism: The Career of Munidasa Cumaratunga’ Modern Ceylon Studies, Vol. III (2), 1972, pp. 125–143Google Scholar.

16 Annamalai, E., ‘A Typology of Language Movements and their Relation to Language Planning’ in Annamalai, E., Jernudd, B. H. and Rubin, J. (eds), Language Planning: Proceedings of an Institute (Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1986) pp. 6–17Google Scholar.

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19 See A. K. Gunasena, ‘The Puristic Movement in Sinhalese, 1922–1970’, (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1976) p. 42.

20 The early twentieth century saw the spread of various notions of authenticity in reaction to colonialism. See Wickremasinghe, Nira, Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities (London: Hurst and Company, 2006) Chapter 3Google Scholar.

21 Thomas, George, Linguistic Purism (London: Longman, 1991) p. 19Google Scholar.

22 J. V. Neustupný ‘Language purism as a type of language correction’ in Jernudd and Shapiro (ed.), The Politics of Language Purism, p. 211.

23 Thomas, Linguistic Purism, p. 75.

24 Ibid. p. 2.

25 See M. W. S. De Silva, ‘Effects of Purism on the Evolution of the Written Language’; Wickramasuriya, ‘Munidasa Kumaratunga's Contribution to Sinhalese Linguistics’; Dharmadasa, ‘Language and Sinhalese Nationalism’; Gunasena, ‘The Puristic Movement in Sinhalese’.

26 In 1852, in his long introduction to the English translation of the thirteenth-century Sinhala grammar, the Sidat Sangarava, De Alwis observed: ‘In the Maritime Provinces, and in the principal towns, the Singhalese is now no longer spoken in its original purity; although in writing, persons of education avoid many of the ungrammatical expressions which they use in conversation. . .the greater portion of the rising generation, are incapable of carrying on a conversation for any length of time, without introducing Portuguese, Dutch, English, and even Tamil terms—a practice which we regret to perceive is gaining ground in the towns of this Island.’ De Alwis, James, The Sidat Sangarava: A Grammar of the Singhalese Language Translated into English with Introduction, Notes and Appendices (Colombo: Government Press, 1852) p. cclixGoogle Scholar. For a detailed discussion on De Alwis's discourse on language, see Dharmadasa, Language, Religion and Ethnic Assertiveness, Chapter 2.

27 For example, Simon De Silva's Sabdhānuśāsanaya: Sinhala Bhāshāve Vyākaranaya (1929) and Theodor G. Perera's Sinhala Bhāshāva (1932) were compiled mainly for pedagogic purposes.

28 See Sarathchandra, Sinhalese Novel.

29 As Table 1 shows there was a good circulation for these works.

Table 1 Circulation of Cumaratunga's editions of Sinhala classical works

Source: Ceylon Blue Books, 1930–1931.

Source: Ceylon Blue Books, 1930–1931.

30 Cumaratunga, Munidasa, Muvadev dā Vivaranaya (Colombo: 1922) p. iGoogle Scholar.

31 Cumaratunga, Munidasa, Parevi Sandeśa Vivaranaya (Colombo: K. D. Perera and Sons, 1932) p. 12Google Scholar.

32 Aitchison, Jean, Language Change: Progress or Decay? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) p. 13Google Scholar.

33 Furthermore, Cumaratunga pointed out that the grapheme we /æ/ is unique to Sinhala.

34 As M. W. S. De Silva points out ‘the adoption of the classical language of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for literary purposes was motivated by the belief that the revival of the ‘golden age’ of Sinhalese culture would only be possible in the language of that period’. M. W. S. De Silva, ‘Some Consequences of Diglossia’, York Papers in Linguistics 4, 1974, p. 79.

35 Ranjini Obeyesekere also points this out in her book, Sinhala Writing and the New Critics, p. 22.

36 It is worth to comparing Cumaratunga's notion of purity and language reform with the ‘doctrine of correctness’ of early eighteenth-century English grammarians. As one writer put it, ‘impure, or debased language, such as is commonly spoken by the low people’. See Leonard, S. A., The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, 1700–1800 (New York: Russell and Russell, Repr. 1962, 1929) p. 175Google Scholar; Mitchell, Linda, Grammar Wars: Language as cultural battlefield in 17th and 18th century England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001)Google Scholar.

37 Charles Hallisey makes an important argument about the relationship between Sinhala and Sanskrit literary cultures. See Hallisey, Charles, ‘Works and Persons in Sinhala Literary Culture’ in, Pollock, Sheldon (ed.) Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003) pp. 689–746Google Scholar.

38 Cumaratunga, Munidasa, Sidat Saňgarā Vivaranaya (Colombo: 1935) p. 43Google Scholar. Emphasis added. In 1852 James De Alwis also remarked: ‘Shall a grammar be composed according to the standard of the vulgar?—or, according to the vicissitudes of language?—or, according to the standard of the learned?’ De Alwis, James, The Sidath Sangarawa, A Grammar of the Sinhalese Language, Translated into English, with Introduction, Notes, and Appendices (Colombo: Government Printer, 1852) p. cclxiiiGoogle Scholar.

39 Linguist John Lyons explains this situation in the following way: ‘The traditional grammarian tended to assume, not only that the written language was more fundamental than the spoken, but also that a particular form of the written language, namely the literary language, was inherently “purer” and more “correct” than all other forms of the language, written and spoken; and that it was his task, as a grammarian, to “preserve” this form of the language from “corruption”.’ Lyons, John, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969) p. 42Google Scholar.

40 Cumaratunga, Parevi Sandeśa Vivaranaya, p. 11.

41 It is interesting to note here that in the nineteenth-century, James De Alwis had also made similar statements in his survey of the Sinhala language: ‘In all countries languages are used incorrectly by the vulgar, and correctly by the educated’. De Alwis, Sidat Sangarava, p. cclxiii.

42 Cumaratunga, Munidasa, Mayura Sandeśa Vivaranaya (Colombo: Maryland Gunasena, 1935) p. 85Google Scholar.

43 Allan and Burridge have stated that ‘language purism seeks to constrain the linguistic behaviour of individuals by identifying certain elements in a language as “bad”.’ Allan, Keith and Burridge, Kate, Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) p. 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 Lak Mini Pahana, 25–12-1934.

45 Vidyodaya, 1936, (1)1. The rhetoric about ‘uncivilized language’ and ‘linguistic decay’ is an extension of established discourse dating from the late nineteenth century ‘Buddhist revival’, when there was concern about the Sinhalese becoming a ‘criminal race’, about drinking alcohol leading to social decay. Thanks to Dr John Rogers for reminding me of this point.

46 Cumaratunga, Munidasa, Vyākarana Vivaranaya (Colombo: Maryland Gunasena, 1938) PrefaceGoogle Scholar. The notion of linguistic decline is widespread in standardization situations, and is closely connected to the idea that ‘conduct and morality in society are also in decline’. Milroy, J. and Milroy, L., Authority in Language (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985) p. 32Google Scholar.

47 Cumaratunga, Vyākarana Vivaranaya, p. 1. My emphasis.

48 The Helio, Vol. I (9 & 10) 1941, p. 74.

49 The Helio, Vol. I (7 & 8) 1941: p. 49.

50 On this point, see Dissanayaka, Wimal, Enabling Traditions: Four Sinhala Cultural Intellectuals (Colombo: Visidunu, 2005) p. 48Google Scholar.

51 Cumaratunga wrote two series of school reading books, Śikśā Mārgaya and Kiyawana Nuvana. In 1930, the circulation of Śikśā Mārgaya—III was 10,000 copies. The Ceylon Blue Book—1930.

52 Cumaranatunga, Subhāsita with Translation and Notes, p. v.

53 Lak Mini Pahana, 1934–7-17. The Director of Education was L. Macrae.

54 The Helio Vol. 1 (9 and 10), 1941, p. 70.

55 Subasa, Vol. 1 (18), 1940, p. 267.

56 ‘Proficiency in Pali and Sanskrit was regarded as the qualifications of a scholar by the founders of these two institutions [Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara]’. See Tissa Kariyawasam, Religious Activities and the Development of a New Poetical Tradition in Sinhalese, 1852–1906’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1973) p. 337.

57 Vidyodaya, 15–10-1927 (editorial).

58 See articles that appeared in the journal of the Oriental Studies Society, 1937–1947.

59 Cumaratunga, Sidat Saňgarā Vivaranya, pp. 215–216.

60 Subasa Vol.1 (1) 1939.

61 As stated by W. F. Gunawardhana, in 1924: ‘For a man to say “when I was having the Sidat Saňgarāva expounded to me” was as much honour and pride as saying “when I was reading for my Degree”.’ Gunawardhana, W. F.Siddhānta Parīkshnaya (Colombo: New Jersey Cooray, 1924), p. 17Google Scholar.

62 Consider the following works: Johannes, D. E., Sinhalese Grammar (Colombo: 1916)Google Scholar; Punchibandara Pada Nītiya; Theodore G. Perera, Sinhala Bhāshāva (1932); Simon De Silva, Shabdhānushāsanaya.

63 Geiger, Wilhelm and Jayatilaka, D. B., A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language. Vol. I—Part I (Colombo: Royal Asiatic Society Ceylon Branch, 1935) IntroductionGoogle Scholar.

64 Ibid. p. xvii.

65 In the 1930s Professor Geiger was the most reputed European scholar on the subject of the Sinhala language.

66 Subasa, Vol. 1(19), 1940, p. 289. Cumaratunga's exhaustive criticism of Geiger's work, in 13 parts may be found in the magazine Subasa from 24 July 1939 to 5 February 1940.

67 Cumaratunga, Vyākarana Vivaranaya, p. iv.

68 Dharmadasa, Language, Religion and Ethnic Assertiveness, p. 152.

69 For more details about this linguistic revival movement, see Gunasena, The Puristic Movement in Sinhalese, pp. 93–100.

70 Sinhala Bauddhayā, 12–5-1906. For a similar idea in the Bengali speech community, see Monsur Musa ‘Purism and correctness in the Bengali speech community’ in B. H. Jernudd and M. J. Shapiro (eds), The Politics of Language Purism, pp. 105–112.

71 It is interesting to note that at the same time, there was a similar ‘pure Tamil’ (tanittamil) movement in South India led by Maraimalai Atikal (1876–1950) to get rid of both Sanskrit and English words from Tamil. See K. Kailasapathy, The Tamil Purist Movement: A Re-Evaluation, Social Scientist Vol. 7 (10) 1979, pp. 23–51. Ramaswamy, Passions of the Tongue, pp. 144–154.

72 Subasa, Vol. 1 (3) 1939, p. 29.

73 Subasa, Vol. 2, 1941–3-24.

74 The mixed Sinhala alphabet has 58 letters, whereas the pure Sinhala alphabet has 32. This pure Sinhala alphabet is mainly used for poetical work. The old Sinhala which is generally referred to as ‘Elu’ or ‘Hela’ is devoid of Sanskrit words.

75 James Milroy labels this kind of purism as genetic or etymological purism. Milroy, James, ‘Some Effects of Purist Ideologies on Historical Descriptions of English’ in Langer, Nils and Davies, Winifred V. (eds), Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005) pp. 324–342CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 See editorial of Dinamina, 3–3-1944.

77 Geiger worked closely with Jayatilaka and other oriental scholar monks.

78 In his preface to the dictionary, Jayatilaka noted: ‘the measure of co-operation extended to us by well-known scholars, including Principals of almost all the leading Pirivenas (Buddhist Oriental Colleges), was most encouraging’. Jayatilaka, A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language, p. x.

79 The Helio, Vol. 1 (13 and 14), 1941, p. 105.

80 The Helio, Vol. 1 (7 and 8), p. 50. Referring to Dr G. P. Malalasekera, Head of the Oriental Studies, University College.

81 One feature was the sound (ä) in Sinhala. Cumaratunga said: ‘It does not occur in the Sanskrit alphabet, nor is it found in any other Indian alphabet that we know’. The Helio Vol. 1 (9 and 10), p. 71.

82 Thomas has identified this ‘separating function’ as one of the ‘prime motivating forces of purism’. Linguistic Purism, p. 182.

83 Lak Mini Pahana, November 1934 (editorial).

84 As Thomas says ‘it is hard to think of an instance of purism which is not motivated by some form of cultural or political nationalism’. Thomas, Linguistic Purism, p. 43.

85 The term räsa is a Helese coinage for the English word ‘race’.

86 The Helio, Vol. 1 (7 & 8) 1941, p. 56.

87 The Helio, I (11 and 12), 1941, p. 87.

88 It is interesting to note here that Cumaratunga's Hela language theory resembled the ‘Sun-Language Theory’ in Turkey in the 1930s, according to which Turkish was the mother tongue of all languages. See Heyd, Uriel, Language Reform in Modern Turkey (Jerusalem: The Israel Oriental Society, 1954)Google Scholar.

89 The Helio, Vol.1 (11/12) 1941, p.87.

90 ‘Pali, one of the so called mothers of the Helese language, had been fathered by the Helese themselves’. Ibid.

91 The journal Helio carried articles related to the history of the Helese people and attempted to revive, promote and elevate the Sinhala language. See articles written by R. Tennakoon on the topic, ‘The Hidden History of the Helese’, The Helio Vol. 1 1941: (4), (6), (7 and 8), (9 and 10), (13 and 14), (15 and 16).

92 As noted by Shapiro, language purism of all types is frequently triggered by a desire to strengthen national identity in the face of perceived threat from the Other. M. J. Shapiro, ‘A Political approach to language purism’, in Jernudd and Shapiro (eds), The Politics of Language Purism, p. 28.

93 Fishman, Joshua A., Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays (Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury 1973) p. 45Google Scholar.

94 Below are some examples of the name changes: Ārysena Āshubōdha > Arisen Ahubudu, Amarasiri Gunawardhana > Amarasiri Gunawadu, Abraham Gamhewa > Abiram Gamhewa, Saviyel Alwis > Alavisi Sabihela, Don David Mohotti > Donu Davidu Mohotti. For a similar act in Tamil India, see Ramaswamy, Passions of the Tongue, p. 145.

95 Consider the following examples: W. M. Perera—Ve. Ma. Perera, K. B. Jayasuriya—Kū. Bē. Jayasuriya—A. D. Chandrasekera—Ā. Do. Chandrasekera.

96 For an Indian example, see Ramaswamy, Passions of the Tongue, pp. 144–148.

97 In the early 1940s, Bambarände Siri Sīvali (1905–1985), a teacher at the Vidyālankāra Pirivena who had studied in Bengal, launched a programme for ‘Progressive Sinhala’ (Pragatiśili Sinhalaya) in opposition to Hela usage. In a series of articles in the journal Subasa, Cumaratunga launched a rigorous and prolonged criticism of Siri Sīvali's ideas on language. See See Subasa 1(21) 1940, pp. 317–318; no. 25 (1940): pp. 387–390; II, no. 5 (1940) pp. 79–80. In a column in the The Helio, Cumaratunga said: ‘Our great painted patriots of today want even the remnants of our once beautiful language to be Bengalized and Anglisized’. The Helio Vol. 1 (11 and 12) 1941, p. 91.

98 Subasa, Vol. 1 (23), 1940, p. 345. See articles written by Jayantha Weerasekera on the ‘corruption of language’ (basa kelesuma).

99 Subasa Vol. 1 (2) 1939, pp. 23–24.

100 Robert King uses the term ‘language as icon’ to refer to the symbolic use of language, to achieve non-linguistic goals. See King, Robert D., Nehru and the Language Politics of India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

101 Dharmapala said: ‘The only race which has maintained noble principles down its generations is the Aryan race. The only language with fully articulated sounds and complete letters is the Aryan language. . .The Sinhala language developed with the Aryan Sanskrit and Pali languages as its origin. The only way in which one can know about the ancient Sinhalese who had noble qualities is through the Sinhala language’. Sinhala Bauddhayā, 2 March 1912. It is worth noting here that during the nineteenth century Swami Dayanand—the founder of the Ārya Samaj (1869) in India—gave the name ‘Ārya Bhāshā’ to the Hindi language.

102 For Buddhists the word teruvana conveyed the meaning of Buddha-Dhamma-Sangha. Fishman has pointed out, ‘one ingredient of the holy trinity (holy people, holy land, holy language), language has been regarded as a defining characteristic of a nationality, within the sphere of the Judeo-Christian tradition, since Biblical days’. Fishman, Language and Nationalism, p. 44.

103 See Subasa Vol. 2 (28) 1941, p. 433. An open appeal to His Excellency the Governor.

104 Subasa, Vol. 2 (18), pp. 278–279.

105 Quoted in De Silva, D. V. Richard, Cumaratungu Munidasna (Colombo: Gunasena, 1969)Google Scholar. It is worth noting that in 1917, Gandhi said: ‘Until all public activities take place in Hindi the country cannot progress. Until Congress conducts all its activities in the rāstrabhāshā we shall not obtain svarājya’. Quoted in Orsini, Francesca, The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002) pp. 358–359Google Scholar.

106 Quoted in Ramaswamy, Passions of the Tongue, p. 57.

107 Kadirgamar, Santasilan, Handy Perinbanayagam—A Memorial Volume (Chunnakam: Thirumakkal Press, 1980), part I, p. 53Google Scholar.

108 For a discussion on political change in this period, see K. M. De Silva, Managing Ethnic Tensions, pp. 49–67; Wickremasinghe, Nira, Ethnic Politics in Colonial Sri Lanka, 1927–1947 (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1995)Google Scholar.

109 Cumaratunga wrote several ‘open letters’ and appeals (in English) to relevant authorities of the colonial government on the issue of language. Consider the following: An open appeal to Jayatilaka, Sir D. B.Subasa Vol. 1 (17) pp. 251–252Google Scholar; An open appeal to the Minister of Education, Subasa, Vol. 1 (18), pp. 266–267; An Open letter to Dr Ivor Jennings (Principal of Ceylon University College), Subasa Vol. 2 (23) 353–356; An Open letter to the University College Council, Subasa Vol. 2(26), 401–403; An open appeal to His Excellency the Governor, Subasa Vol. 2 (28), 433–435.

110 Subasa, Vol. 1 (18) 1940, p. 266.

111 For a similar reaction in Tamil language in India, see Ramaswamy, Sumathi ‘En/gendering Language: The Poetics of Tamil Identity’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 35 (4) 1993, pp. 683–725CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

112 Lak Mini Pahana 1935–10-29 (editorial). In the official discourse Sinhala and Tamil languages were considered as ‘the two chief vernacular languages in the island’. See Ceylon—Annual General Report for 1927 (London: HMSO, 1928) p. 2.

113 For details about his followers, see Kudatihi, Anandapiya, ‘Pupils, disciples and followers of Munidasa Cumaratunga’ Weerasinghe, S. G. M. (ed.) Munidasa Cumaratunga Expository (Maharagama: National Institute of Education, 1994) pp. 119–138Google Scholar.

114 The first attempt of Cumaratunga to establish an organization was the founding of the Sinhala Samājaya (The Sinhalese Society) in 1935. See Gunawadu, Amarasiri, Maha Hela Vata (Maradana: K. A. Ariyadasa, 1957) p. 148Google Scholar. The name Hela Havula was proposed by Jayantha Weerasekera, who succeeded Cumaratunga as the leader of this organization in 1944.

115 Subasa Vol. 2 (18), 1941, pp. 278–279.

116 There were 300 members present at the first general meeting of Hela Havula held on 15–2-1941. Subasa Vol. 2 (20) p. 319.

117 Paul Brass, ‘Elite interests, popular passions, and social power in the language politics of India’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27, 3, 2004, pp. 360–361.

118 Wijayatunga, Harischandra, Cumāratunga Samāja Darśanaya (Colombo: Maryland Gunasena, 1962) p. 15Google Scholar.

119 Subasa Vol. 3 (1–8) 1941, p. 35.

120 Personal communication with Anadapiya Kudatihi, present leader of the Hela Havula (20–01-2008). In December 1935, the Lanka Sama Samāja Party (LSSP) a socialist party, was formed by Western-educated Trotskyites.

121 About 60 per cent of the members of the Nāgari Prachārini Sabhā, —a leading Hindi language association in India, also belonged to the teaching profession. See Das Gupta, Jyotirindra, Language Conflict and National Development: Group Politics and National Language Policy in India (Berkley: University of California, 1970) p. 200Google Scholar.

122 The Helio, Vol. 1 (1) 1941, p. 1.

123 Ibid., p. 2.

124 The Helio, Vol. I (9 & 10) 1941, p. 75. In Tamil India, the idea of ‘mother tongue’ created devotion towards Tamil. See Ramaswamy, Passions of the Tongue, pp. 246–247.

125 Subasa, Vol. 2 (23) 1941, p. 355.

126 Subasa, Vol. 2 (28) 1941, pp. 433–435. This sentiment was echoed by J. R. Jayewardene, in the 1944 official language debate. He believed that there was a need to protect the Sinhala language from the South Indian Tamil influences: ‘The great fear I had was that Sinhalese being a language spoken by only 8,000,000 people in the whole world would suffer, or may be entirely lost in time to come, if Tamil is also placed on an equal footing with it in this country. The influence of Tamil literature, a literature used in India by over 40,000,000, and the influence of Tamil films and Tamil culture in the country, I thought might be detrimental to the future of the Sinhalese language’. Debates of the State Council of Ceylon 1944, p. 748.

127 Subasa, Vol. 2 (28), p. 433. After the establishment of the University of Ceylon in 1942, there was a move to divide the Faculty of Oriental Studies into four departments, Sinhala, Pali, Sanskrit and Tamil.

128 Nevertheless, the linguistic policy of Hela Havula exerted a considerable impact on various language planning activities in the post-independence era, and it became a school of thought about language in the Sinhala speech community.

129 However, some national and political movements of post independence Sri Lanka adopted this Hela label for their movements. For example, the Jātika Hela Urumaya (a Sinhala nationalist political party founded in 2004).

130 Incidentally, the year 1944 marked the first political attempt to declare Sinhala and Tamil as official languages.

131 See Brass, ‘Elite interests, popular passions, and social power in the language politics of India’ for a similar schemata on language politics.