K Jayathilaka - The Great Literary Icon and the Political Visionary

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. 

Many adorers of Sinhala literature have identified K Jayathilaka as a great writer. His literary skills were known to everyone. He was one of the exceptional creative writers of our time. However, his involvement in Sri Lankan politics was not sufficiently discussed. Although he did not play an active role in Sri Lankan Politics, having never been a promoter or a fanatical supporter of any political party, K Jayathilaka was a meticulous observer and an analyzer of the Sri Lankan political dynamics. He deeply analyzed Sri Lankan politics and often presented it through his novels. Many of his novels conveyed a profound political message that was hardly grasped by literary critics.

Jayathilaka was some form of a political historian. He observed and analytically revived the socio-political evolution of Sri Lanka. Then he documented these dynamics in an artistic form. Jayathilaka closely worked with many politicians with different social-educational backgrounds but never became an acolyte to any of them. He pretty well knew that politics was a dirty business often played by renegades inconsistent with their principles. But its social impact and social evaluation was an important factor for him. He studied the impact of political dynamism on urban and rural societies. He knew to what extent the communities were affected by political decisions. In a country where everything is politicized, Jayathilaka became an impartial annotator. Jayathilaka claimed that his novel " Delovak Neti Aya " was one of the comprehensive political novels in Sinhala literature.

K. Jayathilaka recognized that D. S. Senanayaka had a strong pragmatic leadership but at the same time, D.S. had personal ambitions over national politics. D.S.'s instincts told him that the British colonial rulers would be leaving soon and that there would be strong competitors like Sir D.B. Jayathilaka. D.S. never trusted Sir D.B. Jayathilaka who was a popular National leader. Obviously, D.S. knew that Sir D.B. could be a potential threat to his future political ambitions. D.S activated an internal conspiracy that enabled him to abridge Sir D.B from National politics. Sir D.B was requested to go to India to serve as the Sri Lankan high commissioner. He agreed to go to India without realizing the after-effects of his decision. But in later years Sir D.B realised that he was misled by his colleagues. Sir D.B Jayathilaka was utterly disappointed and died in India. D.S made another radical decision after he became the Prime Minister of Ceylon. When D.S appointed Dudley as his successor Sir John and SWRD became extremely disappointed. This decision caused a major division in the UNP.

The Oxford-educated SWRD knew that his chances were limited. His father Sri Solomon Dias was an unpopular arrogant person hated by many aristocrats. Many blamed Sri Solomon Dias for his role in the Predris affair. Sri Solomon Dias had a long years of rivalry with the Pedris family and eventually, he was able to take the revenge. Following the alleged incitement of racial riots in 1915 Capt. Duenuge Edward Henry Pedris was sentenced to death by a firing squad. It was a known fact that Sri Solomon Dias supported the Colonial rulers in executing this fatal decision.

Young SWRD Bandaranayaka had an eager mind. He was indeed heading for power. SWRD realized the extent of the National emotions soon after the post-colonial period. The Sinhala language was a commodious vehicle for SWRD. He used the Sinhala Only slogan to gain the support of the Sinhalese people. Perhaps he forgot how Indians resolved the language issue soon after the independence. One of SWRD's favorite politicians - Jawaharlal Nehru once stated: Hindi is important but the unity of India is more important. Perhaps SWRD was blinded by the power that he was about to experience. Jayathilaka realized that SWRD was purely using Sinhala Only slogan to gain power. Jayathilaka knew the short-sightedness of this political game that later erupted into unresolved racial tension.

K Jayathilaka closely worked with Dr. N.M Perera and Colvin R. de Silva. But soon he understood that these two leaders needed blind followers not supporters with a political consciousness. Describing Dr. N.M and Colvin, Jayathilaka later wrote "They were like condors that fly high in the sky, when they needed something from us (the public ) they reach out to us.  , after grabbing whatever they wanted again they went up high in the sky. We had no way of reaching them". Jayatilaka sympathetically wrote the gap between these two Red leaders and the general public.

K. Jayathilaka had a bitter experience with Dr N.M Perera when he tried to self-learn Marxism in English and then had a theoretical discussion with his mentor. Dr N.M. disregarded Jayathilaka's attempt as an amateur learner in Marxism and ridiculed him. Dr NM Perera's sarcasm hugely affected Jayathilaka.

In the late 1960s, Jayathilaka observed the youth unrest in our society. He admired the dedication of the young people who worked against social injustices and for a revolutionary cause. At the same time, he knew that they were inexperienced and lacked political insight. The 71 uprising was crushed within a few months. Many youth who participated in the 71 uprisings had very little knowledge of Marxism and International Politics. The irony was many participants of the 71 uprisings realized that  Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were two people, not one only at the rehabilitation camps. Jayatilaka viewed these disparities with great empathy.

K Jayathilaka had worked closely with the Janatha Lekaka Sangamaya (The Association of Public Writers ) to develop the Sinhala literature. Even though he was partially benefited by the Janatha Lekaka Sangamaya there were some disagreements between Jayathilaka and the association. Jayathilaka stood against the Janatha Lekaka Sangamaya when it tried to dance according to political tunes. Jayathilaka did not agree with some of their political idol-worshiping habits and when the association did not agree to accept his recommendations , Jayathilaka worked separately from them. He did not write any novel according to their standards and expectations.

K Jayathilaka analytically viewed Sirimavo's regime. The regime was distancing itself from the public. Felix Dias openly abused his power. Ministers like Somaveera Chandrasiri demanded sexual favors and gave appointments in rest houses. Unemployment ruined the youth spirit. There was a scarcity of food items. Food-related sanctions created deep frustrations among the people. JR Jayawardene used all these weak points of the 1970 regime to his benefit. JR won the 1977 election with a huge majority. Then he introduced the open economy policy which created a drastic change in the political- socio socio-economic face of Sri Lanka.

Jayathilaka observed the pros and cons of JR's social and economic reforms. He saw the beginning of a new era and the rising of a new generation with wealth and power. However, these new socio-economic reforms caused severe social injustices and degradation. The summation of these events created another youth unrest in 1988 and the entire Sri Lankan society was covered by violence and chaos. JR was losing grip and his successor R Premadasa became the new head of the state.

 Jayathilaka knew Ranasingha Premadasa from the early days. Although Premadasa loved and admired literature Jayathilaka realized that Premadasa sometimes misused the novelists and poets. Premadasa's artistic plagiarism of Dolton Alwis's song " Sigiri Gale Kavi Livve was a well-known story.  As a sardonic response, the leftist journalist Sri Lal Kodikara wrote: Sigiri Gale Kavi Livve Dalton, etc. Premadasa was troubled by his roots and proclaimed that he studied at St Joseph’s College Maradana. Even some of the clergy of the St Joseph College accepted this version. But Jayathilaka didn't. After many years of Premadasa's death, K Jayathilaka revealed that R Premadasa studied at St Joseph Night School (not St Joseph College Maradana) with him. Jayathilaka knew that sometimes the truth cannot be revealed at inappropriate times.

 Jayathilaka observed and grasped the social and political essences of our society and used them as raw materials in his work. Many of his books narrate the socio-political history and the political dynamics of Sri Lanka. He was one of the pioneers of Sinhalese realistic novels. As a creative writer, he exhibited his talents since the early 1960s. his novels and short stories represent the ironical social perspectives and had a profound impact on Sinhalese literature. K Jayathilaka demonstrated talents that could be compared to those of the greatest literary genius Martin Wicramasinghe.

He wrote a wide range of literature from novels to short stories as well as children’s literature. K Jayathilaka has authored nearly 12 children’s books and he added some of his childhood experiences to these books. His autobiography that narrates his childhood – Punchi Palle Gasavena reminds us of the first book of an autobiographical trilogy by Maxim Gorky – Deistva (childhood). In Punchi Palle Gasavena's autobiography, Jayathilaka expresses some of the social injustices that he experienced as a child.

The children’s books of K Jayathilaka vibrantly describe the relationship between the environment and the child. His children’s books enhance the stable concepts as well as mental reasoning and magical beliefs in children. His books especially Irunu Balla (Torn Cat) , Oralosuwa ( Timepiece) help the children to recognize logical relationships in elements and improve their ability to view things from the perspective of others. These books are truly facilitating children to use logic in the concrete operational stage. (As the Child Psychologist Jean Piaget stated, by the concrete operational stage, children are able to use logic and this ability can be improved by external support)

As a shot storyteller, K Jayathilaka proved his talents enormously. His short stories were influenced by Anton Chekhov, Edgar Allen Poe, and probably by Joseph Conrad. In his astonishing, work Punaruppattiya – a collection of short stories Jayathilaka recounts numerous characters that can be found in contemporary society. However, some of the characters were no exception to the rule and had unique characteristics. One of the characters that was portrayed in Punaruppattiya was a desolate man in a rural village named Mudumaya.

Mudumaya was a cynical character who had voyeuristic impulses. He was excommunicated from the village and led a secluded life. Mudumaya had gifted artistic talents no one had ever known. His paintings were discovered many years after his death and revived by the experts. They found incomparable artistic attributes in his paintings. Posthumously Mudumaya was named Pandit Mardamana.

In one of his short stories (Yakadaya) Jayathilaka narrates a queer character who is physically strong and psychologically fragile. Yakadaya is an able-bodied man strong as an ox but he is extremely afraid of his frail wife. The power imbalance between  Yakadaya and this woman dates back to their childhood. One time Yakadaya was a domestic servant of her father who was a wealthy farmer. After the wealthy farmer's death, the family faces financial constraints and insolvency. The farmer's daughter had no dowry for the marriage and she eventually became Yakadaya's wife. Even after the marriage, she treats Yakadaya as her servant often humiliating and demeaning him.

Jayathilaka broadly wrote about ethnic harmony. Jayathilaka knew that the politicians of this country mismanaged the racial tensions and used these turmoils for their advantage risking and sometimes destroying the social fabric. He witnessed the social violence caused by the ethnic unrest. His short story Mee Amba (Mango) describes the friendship between a Sinhalese boy and a Tamil boy who found a common ground not via the language but with the help of a mango tree. Through some of his writings, he conveyed the message of co-existence. The metaphors that were used in Issaraha Ballano (those who look foreword) recount similarities in the North and the South and emphasize the fact that both Sinhalese and Tamil people could live without conflict.

SWRD's 1956 political transformation brought drastic changes in Sri Lanka society. The social and cultural impact of 1956 were significant and Jayathilaka profoundly discussed these changes in his novels. With these changes cultural conflicts surfaced. Obviously, culture is an essential part of conflict and it shapes perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and others. As an analytical novelist K Jayathilaka broadly wrote about cultural conflicts and how they affected the individual. His novels such as Parajitayo and Aprasanna Katavak reveal conflicts associated with a multi-layered culture that is constantly in flux.

 As a novelist, K. Jayathilaka exposed the social dynamics in the Western province. K Jayathilaka ’s famous novel -Charita Tunak analyses three brothers who bore three different characters. Born to a lethargic gambling farmer, three brothers, and their sister struggled to survive. The eldest son Isa realized the family hardships and tried to find a way out by becoming a hardworking farmer. His efforts were ridiculed by his father who took no effort to work energetically. The parents and the neighbors demotivated Issa when he tried to cultivate a massive land named Kokilana. But he was determined in his plan and eventually cultivates the Kokilana. Then he was accepted as an effortful farmer and gained respect.

The main character – Isa ’s personality has some similarities with the Chinese farmer Wang Lung – the character that was created by Pearl S. Buck in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel – The Good Earth. Isa and Wang Lung were hard-working farmers and both had ties with the land. K Jayathilaka portrayed the character of Isa as an introverted self-punishing and egoless character. But Wang Lung was an extrovert who was energized by being around other people.

Isa was disappointed in his second brother Sana who was a drunken vagrant. Sana’s resentment towards Isa was destructive and a number of times Sana took revenge on Isa by harming his crops. Sana was an aggressive and disrespectful person with a lot of negative characteristics. Sana could be described as the opposite pole of Isa.

Sana had a drastic impact following the negative parental style attributed to his father. Sana’s unhealthy lifestyle (gambling, drinking, and quarreling with the villagers) was the result of vicarious learning. Debra Umberson of the University of Michigan more scientifically explains this phenomenon.

The effects of marital and parental status on mortality are usually attributed to the positive effects of social integration or social support. The mechanisms by which social support or integration is linked to health outcomes, however, remain largely unexplored. One mechanism may involve health behaviors; the family relationships of marriage and parenting may provide external regulation and facilitate self-regulation of health behaviors, which can affect health. (Family status and health behaviors: Social control as a dimension of social integration D. Umberson – Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 1987 – JSTOR )

The third character Ranjith is more convoluted and profound. As a young child, he realized the impact of poverty that was hounded by his family. The education was his escape route. He got his free education through the free education system that was introduced by the education reformer C.W.W. Kannangara. After becoming a teacher Ranjith’s ambition grows and he buys land and consents to an arranged marriage that offers him a large dowry. At the end of the novel, the readers come to the conclusion that Ranjith is a self-centered egoistic character more powerful than Isa who had the strength to confront Sana.

Professor Sarathchandra was highly influenced by Jayathilaka’s novel -Charita Tunak which discussed the innate connection between man and the earth. Professor Sarachandra headed the Peradeniya literary fraction (Gurukulaya) and writers like Gunadasa Amarasekara, and Siri Gunasinghe backed him. Professor Sarachandra gravely criticized the novels of Piyadasa Sirisena and W.A Silva. K Jayathika held the view that these two authors did their best to uplift the Sinhala literature and their work was the precursors of the Sinhala novel. K. Jayathilaka gave due respect to these great novelists.

K Jayathilaka's conflict-ridden novel Rajapaksa Valavva describes the inferiority complexes of an administrative officer who was oppressed by the village caste system. In Rajapaksa Valavva K Jayathilaka deals with a taboo subject that was not deeply touched by Martin Wicramasinghe, G.B Senanayaka, or other great novelists.

Although the caste-related oppression in Sri Lanka is partially submerged and not visible like in India it has caused deep frustrations in the rural communities. The caste oppression was one of the contributing factors of the 71 and 88 insurgencies. This factor was common in the Northern part of Sri Lanka too. The rebel leader Prabhakaran was able to recruit the low-caste Tamil village youth who were marginalized by the Jaffna Vellala community. (According to P.J. Antony - a Social activist the Vellala caste, is the most dominant caste in Jaffna. Nalavar and Pallar work as toddy tappers and laborers in gardens. Parayars beat the drums at funerals. Vannar washes clothes and Ambattar works as a hairdresser).

According to Jayathilaka's Rajapaksa Valavva the main character - Kamalsiri was banished by the village cast system and he witnessed the harassment caused to his family. His primary education was disrupted following cast-related violence. This incident gave him an opportunity to enter a Catholic school in Colombo. At the Colombo school, he does not face any cast problems but other social issues like poverty, intensely troubled him.

The youth who were suppressed by the village caste system during Kamalasir ’s era launched a revolution to change society. But Kamlasiri had far more goals in his life and never became a part of it. However, in a way, he became a rebel and supported the movement that dealt with the acquisition of Catholic schools. After the acquisition, he became disappointed when he realized that the new system did not serve his educational purposes. When most of the fine teachers of the college joined private, education institutes, his education was partially disrupted. Kamalsiri had no money to pay for private tuition. Therefore, he could not pursue science subjects and was compelled to do art subjects for his university entrance.

Kamalsiri’s cast issue emerged again when he entered the university. His first love ended unexpectedly when his girlfriend came to know about his family background. After the university education, Kamalasiri became an administrative officer. Although he becomes a senior government officer, in his entire professional life, he struggles with this caste issue. His inferiority complexes affect his professional judgments and Kamlsiri narrates his unpleasant experiences in the following manner.

" When someone visits our house, my father insists me to come out and talk to him. Often these visitors are Grama Niladaries or petty government officers who are insignificant elements in the administration. When I am at the office these characters are shivering and have extreme fear of reaching me. But in the village, everything has turned topsy-turvy. The cast becomes the key factor – the element of respect "

Kamalsiri hates the village life pattern and his native community. He decided not to visit his sister’s wedding in order to avoid the relatives and friends. More and more he becomes a remote character disconnected from the rest of the family and the village.

The real hero of this novel is unseen. Kamalasiri’s father -the laundry man who underwent immense humiliation, harassment, and oppression, never became a slave to the system. He challenged the system as a silent protester. He raised his son to disintegrate the village caste system by giving him a higher education and a higher social position. But Kamalsiri never lived up to the old man’s expectations. Kamalsiri who had no such a spirit as the old man, used numerous defense mechanisms when caste-related issues emerged.

Rajapaksa Valavva represents several episodes of Sri Lankan social history. The end of the semi-fibalism, the rise of the new business class connected with political power, and the children of the free education who became the administrative class of the country.

K. Jayathilaka reveals the plight of the children of free education via Kamalasiri’s character. Most of these children came from the village schools. They were studious and hardworking. After finishing their higher education, most of them joined the government service and started living in big cities. They gradually adapted to city life. But for people like Kamalasiri who were cast conscious, their origin and roots troubled immensely. Some took deliberate measures to hide their past social strata that exceedingly affected their personality. They could not function as their predecessors who had command and control. The government officers like Kamalasiri made the public service dishonorable by licking the boots of politicians.

K Jayathilaka profoundly analyses the rural family dynamics in his two novels, Punchirala and Punchiralage Maranaya which illustrate the destiny of a hardworking farmer who had spent his entire life on children and eventually dies as a disappointed man. Punchirala who was an overprotective father raised his children with utter financial difficulties. For Punchirala raising his children Nandana and Suvimalee was some form of emotional investment for the future, but he did not receive the expected results. Punchirala suffered old-aged depression and died as a disenchanted man.

In these two novels, Jayathilaka shows us the naked realities of the Sri Lankan villages that are filled with sarcasm and jealousy. Although many novelists portrayed the rural villages as unspoiled naïve and romantic places these two novels, reflect the actuality of Sri Lankan village life.

Jayathilaka discussed the sexuality of the Buddhist rural society in some of his books. For instance, Kalo Ayam Te which was published in 1968 reviews the sexuality in the Sinhalese society and how it was affected by Victorian morality.

K Jayathilaka discusses the inner psyche of an aged man in his novel Mahallekuge Prema Katavak. This novel exemplifies the repressed sensual desires of an old man who was physically and emotionally touched by a young girl. The old man’s life instincts were active for a little period and then the death instinct became more prominent. The outlawed relationship ends with a fatal outcome.

The novel Mahallekuge Prema Katavak reminds us of the relationship between Pablo Picasso and the beautiful young girl named Jacqueline Roque. K Jayathilaka vividly describes the psychological conflict of the old man when he was trapped in an unorthodox relationship with a young girl.

The age disparity in sexual relationships has been discussed in the Jathaka stories as well as in Vladimir Nabokove ’s famous novel Lolita. Jayathilaka ’s novel Mahallekuge Prema Katavak may have had a certain degree of influence from Vladimir Nabokove ’s Lolita – a girl who was the object of desire of an old man.

K Jayathilaka was a gifted author who contributed a vast amount of publications to the Sinhala literature. His creative writing represents an important hallmark in Sinhala novels and short stories. He was a silent observer of the dynamics of the Sri Lankan political system. K Jayathilaka was a great Literary icon and a political visionary.