Sinhala Literature: Are you aware of such a thing?
Is there anything to be proud of??
Sri Lanka, the nation as we agree today, was founded around 500BC with the arrival of Vijaya and his entourage of 700 followers. Given that it would take time for a nation to build itself, it is, in my opinion, not strange that literary works of the same magnitude as Iliad was not forthcoming from this tiny island nation.
Hasn't Sri Lanka have done its bit in its small way?
Can we be proud of the bit we have done?
If so, why are we not shouting out loud about them?
Perhaps we suffer from a bit of an inferiority complex? What could be behind such a feeling, if one actually exists? The national tendency to praise whatever that is foreign? Lack of a voice for the Sinhala intelligentsia within the domestic power structure?
Is there a general reluctance to be seen to be associated with anything to do with Sinhala? A potential risk of being branded "uneducated"?
One of our poets - Alagiawanne Mugaweti declared that the criteria for being an educated person was the knowledge of Tamil, Sanskrit and Pali, in that order, conveniently omitting Sinhala, what more can you expect from the present generation, one may ask!
I like to attach here a short discussion I had with a friend of mine who presented me via e-mail, a copy of an editorial in The Sunday Leader published on 24-08-2008 on the question of identity. I will reproduce it for your convenience here, and the response I sent to my friend. You can read more editorials here