Perspectives of society, culture and development: comparison of Indo-Sri Lankan scenario December 23, 2014, 7:35 pm By Piyadasa Ranasinghe Senior Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Piyarana1010@yahoo (Keynote address at the International Conference on Perspectives of society, culture and development : comparison of Indo-Sri Lankan scenario held jointly by The Department of Geography, University of Kelaniya and the Department of Geography, Goa university college, India recently.) Society, culture and development are interrelated concepts. They are coextensive, coexistent, and interdependent. The broad discipline of social sciences is devoted to the study of these concepts which form the basis of all other disciplines and subjects related to human beings and the physical world. Thus finding limits and boundaries of social sciences is impossible in true sense. Since you are scholars in the field of social sciences it would not be fruitful if I go for definitions of social sciences. Instead, as the theme of the present conference permits I wish to share some of my ideas with you on social, cultural and developmental perspectives between our countries, India and Sri Lanka. Perspectives are essentially social. No perspective on any matter will form or arise devoid of society. On the other hand culture is a social production whose impact is a powerful capital in the development process of a country. One of the important factors we usually tend to ignore in social issues is the geographical dependence of societies. Societies are Location specific and therefore geographically sensitive. The reason for the existence of different societies in different countries in the world, or perhaps within the same country is this location specificity. The separate geographical entity, presently known as Sri Lanka, demarcated by the 22 miles distance longPalk Strait is one of the best examples to show how location specificity contributes in the making of separate and unique society and culture. The history of India and Sri Lanka has been marked with religious, cultural, social and economic affinities that form the basis of goodwill and friendship between the two countries and people It is a known fact that early settlers in Sri Lanka came from India. As happened in India with the advent of Aryans, in Sri Lanka too groups of people who came from India subdued indigenous inhabitants of the country and established their own supremacy. According to the Great Chronicle, the Mahavamsa, Sri Lanka was colonized by prince Vijaya and his group of 700 people. He obtained the political power of the island marginalizing the indigenous inhabitants. Naturally, at the beginning Vijaya maintained relationships with his motherland, India. However, before long, on the basis of the prototype of the mainland India, totally new, and unique social and cultural order began to develop in Sri Lanka. The new land became the motherland of subsequent generations who at times came forward and fought against Indian invaders in order to protect it. This has been a recurrent phenomenon throughout the history of the world. The first legendary reference to the island is in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana ( might have composed 500 B.C.) which describes the conquest of Lanka in 3000 B.C. by Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is interesting to note here that the same Vishnu had become the protector god of Buddhism and the country by 550 B.C. Indo-Sri Lanka relationships or affinities between two countries are numerous and encompass a wide variety of socio-cultural perspectives. Influence of India on Sri Lanka has always been strong in many aspects of society and culture. Buddhism, the social base of Sri Lanka was brought here from India. Since then Buddhism has penetrated every aspect of mass consciousness in Sri Lanka. Societies of both countries are multi ethnic, multi lingual, multi religious and multi-cultural. This is one of the inherent features that governs the social order of both countries. This social diversity has produced brilliant products of cultural identities which had shaped the soul of nations or the national consciousness. Although there are scattered incidents of intolerance of others views, in general both countries have practiced the tolerance of diversified views of fellow beings. In Sri Lanka, for example, in spite of the fact that Buddhism was the state religion, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam never found any obstacle to be flourished. There were occasions that kings in Sri Lanka supported the growth of these other religions. Similar situations can be observed in the history of India too. Thus, both countries can learn many lessons from each other. The magnitude and close proximity is seen in the cultural manifestations such as language, literature, arts and crafts, music are truly impressive. The Sinhala language is closely akin toSanakrit, Pali and Prakrit. Ancient Sinhala literature reflects the influence of classical Indian literature. This is true with the Sri Lankan arts and crafts including paintings, sculpture and music. Traditional medical system in Sri Lanka is none other than a local variation of Ayurvedic medical system in India. What is interesting here is maintaining the Sri Lankan national identity amidst of this enormous influence. In the present day society, where local boundaries rapidly disappear due the advances of Information Communication Technology, the protection of multiplicity poses a number of problems. Multiplicity is to be protected as it forms the backbones of our societies. Losing the backbone means the collapse of society. Hence both countries will have to think of ways and means to preserve their national identities. As Mahatma Gandhi aptly said I do not want my house to be walled and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible, but I refuse to be blown off my feet by any one of them. In the cultural sphere it is observed that both countries are lagging behind. Although various steps have been taken by successive Governments most of the valuable cultural treasures are still in danger. Especially the intangible cultural heritage of both countries is not properly safeguarded. Ancient treasures of knowledge recorded in manuscripts have not been properly preserved, listed, interpreted and disseminated. As such both countries need to take concerted efforts immediately in this regard. If not centuries old national intellectual output will be lost forever Of course in the development perspective India is far ahead of Sri Lanka. India is practicing highly integrated approach towards development and Sri Lanka can learn much from this initiative. Parallel development of agricultural and industrial sectors in India sets an example for Sri Lanka. High cost of agricultural productions in Sri Lanka discourages the producers and contributes to the dissatisfaction of consumers. How can we overcome this problem. On the other hand industrial sector in Sri Lanka is still struggling for survival. Therefore we have become consumers of imported industrial products. Perhaps Indian model may not work as it is in the Sri Lankan context. But we can adopt a workable model of our own by studying the Indian system. In the development effort both countries have bitter experiences of environmental degradation and the devastation of natural resources. Following western development models driven by the sole motivation of profit seems to contribute to this unhealthy situation. Therefore, it is high time now to think of more sustainable ways and means for national development without jeopardizing the natural environment. The best solutions might be found in our indigenous knowledge systems. Revisiting the cultural heritage with new vision and commitment would yield better results in this venture. One of the crucial aspects of development is education. We have to understand that both our countries are still trapped in the Macaulay’s vision of education. Thomas Babington Macaulay (Lord Macaulay) in 1835 stated: I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation. Indeed the present system of education which superimposes western models developed in the centre is not conducive for the national development of our countries. Most of the present day social ills in our countries are the offspring of this education system. Thus, it is time for us to think of a value based education system which contributes to create citizens of balanced views with necessary skills of employability. Even though the general literacy among Sri Lankans is high, information literacy rate is extremely poor. This has created a serious digital divide that directly affects the development process of the country. With her large population India needs to struggle hard to mitigate this problem. It is a pleasure to see more and more academic exchanges are happening between India and Sri Lanka at present. Western dependency on academic matters, at least in the field of social sciences is gradually fading out, allowing us to share our own ideas and models for mutual benefit. This collaboration would yield positive results in time to come, I believe.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:39:05 +0000
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