23 February 2022 01:34 am Views - 527
Influenced by the great Indian leaders, our ancestors were themselves trying to form organizations to recover their freedom. Mr. D.R. Wijewardene was one of those in the very forefront of that movement
Mr. Wijewardene performed his task for Sri Lanka’s freedom. In the same way Sri Lanka literary activities owe a great deal to the work he did
A short address made by the Late President J.R. Jayewardene on the occasion of the presentation of the ‘D.R. Wijewardene Memorial Award’ for the best unpublished Sinhala Novel of the year, on the 100th Birth Anniversary of D.R Wijewardene on the 23rd of February, 1986 is reproduced here.
“As the learned lecturer Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera mentioned to us, Mr. D.R Wijewardene’s newspapers were one of the means whereby Sinhalese authors, writers, novelists were able to earn a living which helped them to conduct their literary activities. We all know even in England learned authors found it very difficult to exist. If one reads the history of Samuel Johnson we know how he used to frequent the houses of aristocrats, seeking to earn a living which he could not find by his writings, however important and literary they were. It was so in Sri Lanka, and Mr. D.R Wijewardene by giving these great men of modern Sinhala Literature, an opportunity of employment in his newspapers gave them the chance also, of performing their literary activities for the sake of the nation.
"And when they came back to Sri Lanka, Mr. D.R Wijewardene and other leaders formed the Ceylon National Congress of which he was one of the Secretaries and the formation of which was moved by my own father in 1918. Then we come in to the modern era where Sri Lanka is free and struggling to maintain its freedom and its democracy"
“When young, my Mother used to tell me, (my Mother was his elder sister), that he was talking of distributing newspapers someday by aeroplane. It may be that Wilbur Wright had just begun to fly in America. He accomplished that task while he lived. After he returned from Cambridge to Sri Lanka there were blossoming two periods of political activities and renaissance. Influenced by the great Indian leaders, our ancestors were themselves trying to form organizations to recover their freedom. Mr. D.R. Wijewardene was one of those in the very forefront of that movement. He was influenced, I know because I used to talk to him, by the liberal movement in the United Kingdom. They were members of the National Liberal Club, my father and he. They were influenced by the liberalism of Gladstone, by the liberalism of Gokhale, the great Indian leader of that day. And when they came back to Sri Lanka, Mr. D.R Wijewardene and other leaders formed the Ceylon National Congress of which he was one of the Secretaries and the formation of which was moved by my own father in 1918. Then we come in to the modern era where Sri Lanka is free and struggling to maintain its freedom and its democracy. An age totally different from the age which saw the birth of Mr. D.R Wijewardene 100 years ago. So totally different in one sense. So many senses, but in one sense. I was not allowed to talk the Sinhala language at home. I was not taught the Sinhala language. I was told I was to speak English, good English and better English, though I spoke to my mother always in Sinhala. She didn’t speak in any other language. She never gave up her Buddhist faith.
“But still that was the view of those who thought there was no place for the purely Sinhala educated even to those who wore the dress of this Country. Today is totally different. I feel that the English language should have a place and we are giving it a place in the environment of Sri Lanka today. Mr. Wijewardene performed his task for Sri Lanka’s freedom. In the same way Sri Lanka literary activities owe a great deal to the work he did. As a youth I had my differences with Sir D.B Jayatilleke, with Mr. D.S Senanayake and with Mr. D.R Wijewardene. Such differences were conducted and conveyed democratically and in speech and writing. I would wish the youth of today to do the same with us. If you think that you do not agree with us say so and act so, but it may be that you are not always right, that is the liberalism that Mr. Wijewardene in his newspapers and in his political life conducted. That is the liberalism which this Award, I think, seeks to establish, and my learned friend Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera seeks us to follow. And while Mr. Wijewardene has made a contribution of which we are so well aware to the public life of this country, his contribution has also been in the conducting of affairs with truth, honesty and courage, so that liberalism shall be the triumphant factor in our lives.’’