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| Sunday, 4 April 2004 |
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Centenary of Leonard Woolf's arrival in Colombo : Defining our modern cultural history "The Ceylon Bloomsbury Group" based in London, England plans to mark the occasion of the centenary of Leonard Woolf's arrival in Colombo on December 16, 2004, by planting a tree in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, Camden Borough, London where he and his wife Virginia lived from 1924 to 1939.
The tree will be dedicated to "what the Group refers to as "those who created our modern cultural history" and "those who are an essential part of it." Their names will be inscribed on a scroll and enclosed within a rock/concrete block that will be embedded with a plaque, according to a communication from the coordinator of the Bloomsbury Group N. Sivasambu. Copies of the scroll will be offered to the British Library. The Group proposes to follow the planting of the tree with a seminar on the Cambridge - Bloomsbury Sensibility which, they say, realised "our first literary classic in English, a beginning of the modern period." Mr. Sivasambu has submitted a draft setting out these names and the conditions which they believe, produced this period. We carry below the relevant excerpts for the benefit of readers who may want to comment. The Coordinator of The Ceylon Bloomsbury Group may be reached at: Palmyrah Beddagama, Those who created our modern cultural history Leonard Woolf is one of the two markers for the beginning of our Modern cultural history: the first literary classic of our modern period, his novel Village in the Jungle, 1913, was the first response of a modern sensibility to our condition. The second issued from Ananda Coomaraswamy who was in London at University College and in Ceylon at about the time Leonard Woolf left Cambridge-Bloomsbury for Colombo: the Open Letter to the Kandyan Chiefs, 1905, and Medieval Sinhalese Art, 1908, the Memorial to the Sinhalese Craftsmen, as the author called it, which wrote fine to our Medieval Period. The Cambridge-Bloomsbury sensibility nurtured our first novel. William Morris might be seen as having nursed the Open Letter, and its sequel, the 'Memorial to the Sinhalese craftsmen', the 1st edition of which was printed on William Morris Kelmscott Press. Since then, the return from London and Berlin of Lionel Wendt in 1924 marked the beginning of the next stage, our Contemporary Period, as we have called it, which realised all that we have achieved in the Modern Period to give those who created that Period and us an international standing: In Colombo: Lionel Wendt who inspired the 43 Group, E. F. C. Ludowyk our first master of the English language, the 43 Group, film art of Lester James Peries, drama of Ediriweera Sarachchandra, novel of Martin Wickremasinghe, architecture of Minnette de Silva and Geoffrey Bawa, sculpture of Tissa Ranasinghe, Sinhala music of Visarada Ameradeva, Chitrasena who resuscitated Sinhala classical and folk dances, and Vipulananda Adihal whose Treatise on the ancient Dravidian Harp, Yahl Nul, is a work of authoritative scholarship, musicology and classical Thamil prose. We have to consider the contribution and place of University College, Colombo: Founded in 1922, the country's first institution of higher learning prepared students for the external examinations of the University of London, and became our first University in 1942 with, as Vice Chancellor, Cambridge University Alumnus Ivor Jennings who, before being appointed Principal of University College, had been Reader in International Law in the University of London, which may be seen as Alma Mater to our first University. In London: (i) M. J. Tambimuttu: (a) A Founder-Editor, Poetry London, 1939-47. (b) Publisher, Editions Poetry London and the Lyrebird Press. (c) Recognised through awards as an expert on the book as an artefact, he had as part of the programme of his Sri Lankan Arts Council in the UK a School of Typography, and (d) first Ceylonese or Sri Lankan to have an entry in the new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (the 1st edition of which was the work of Leslie Stephen). (ii) R. G. N. Salgado: (a) First non-European and first from out side North America to take a chair of English in England. (b) His writings on D. H. Lawrence is a part of the canon on Lawrence. (c) He has a place in the new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography. (iii) Rohan de Saram: (i) Received in '57 the Sugia Award which enables the winner to study under Pablo Casals. (ii) One of the leading musicians and cellists of England and the West. We have to take note of Ranjit Fernando whose projection of the 43 Group here and in Paris in '52, '53 and '54 contributed to their international recognition. It is worth noting that the exhibition in Cambridge at the Heffer Gallery in '54 was opened by E. M. Forster. In Colombo and London: Ivan Peries and George Claessen of the 43 Group and Tissa Ranasinghe all three of whom who arrived here after the last war have contributed to our cultural history in London as well. Those who did not create but are part of the modern period in London (I) Anil de Silva - Vigier, Jinadasa Vijayatunga and Vipuli Samaratunga: (i) Arriving in 1928, Anil de Silva - Vigier is the first to follow Ananda Coomaraswamy to London. A founder of MARG together with Mulk Raj Anand, she had the eye and sensibility to respond quite early to the emerging Contemporary Period. (ii) Jinadasa Vijayatunga wrote in the Round Reading Room of the British Museum the first evocation in English of the rural hinterland of Colombo, Grass For My Feet. (iii) Vipuli Samaratunga, a member of the Chitrasena School, Colombo danced and taught the Sinhala classical and folk dances over a period of more than 30 years. (II) Vipulananda Adihal, first Professor of Thamil, University of Ceylon presents a problem: his place would depend on whether his treatise, Yahl Nul, 1947, which has a classical status, makes him our first master of Thamil. If it is, his position would be similar to that of E. F. C. Ludowyk. (III) We see the two works of Ananda Coomaraswamy cited above as a conscious reflection of the thought and values of William Morris. He was bringing our intelligence and sensibility abreast that of England and the West: this is the contribution of the Contemporary Period. (IV) But there are exceptions to this criterion for inclusion as an achievement of the Contemporary Period: (i) Visarada Ameradeva completed the move away from the music of North India begun by his predecessors and realised Sinhala music in his compositions by remaining entirely within our tradition of Sinhala folk melodies and drum rhythms. (ii) Professor of Thamil at Annamalai University before becoming the first to be appointed to the Chair of the Ceylon University in 1943, Vipulananda Adihal's achievement is entirely within Thamil language and literature, Carnatic music and musicology. (V) R. G. N. Salgado. His writings on D. H. Lawrence is part of the canon on Lawrence, one of the four - perhaps five or six - major writers of the modern period of English and English literature. We feel that, whilst this is a remarkable achievement, it is his Inaugural Lecture, which is also a resolution of the problem he faced in Ceylon at the confluence of two cultures and languages which gives him a place within our modern cultural history in England. (VI) Rohan de Saram. The conclusion of the Nov. 17'00 seminar on George Claessen was that he is entirely within the European tradition of drawing and painting. Some may disagree as it is difficult to see how he could not have drawn at all on our inherited traditions. But with Rohan de Saram there can be no dispute that he is entirely within European music. How does one see him in relation to those who created the Contemporary Period? (Continued next week) |
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