A Lanka-phile's enlightened port of call

By: Prem Udayabhanu

Spot a strand that runs through some illustrious figures who shaped the inflection points in history: Mahatma Gandhi, Anton Chekhov, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Don Bradman…Destiny so desired that the timeless aura of a champion of non-violent struggle that flipped the self-proclaimed omnipotence of British colonial power, a master playwright, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and arguably the greatest cricketer of all time, had to set foot on Ceylon, the emerald island in the Indian Ocean.

Those visits, dating back to the late 19th century to the early half of 20th century, did not per se alter the course of history. But chronicles etched in those timeless voyages, when steamships navigated the vast expanse of oceans that linked colonial empires and the backyards they lorded over, reveal fascinating slices of history through simple anecdotes about and by these timeless travellers, whose port of call was Colombo.

Ajay Kamalakaran has crisscrossed through the Emerald Isles like perhaps no other modern Lankaphile has, and his extensive historical and journalistic pursuits have etched a mutiny of illuminating facets about Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, as well as similar colonial outposts deeply intertwined with it in history, like neighbouring India.That the sacred Devnimori relics of Lord Buddha arrived in Sri Lanka from India earlier this month is more than a profound historical coincidence.

Colombo-born scholar and philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy, a strong proponent of Indian independence, once remarked how Sri Lanka had preserved some elements of Indian culture that were lost in India, as Kamalakaran points out.Weave in that to Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts about the island could be summed up in the speech he made on 27 November 1927 in Jaffna titled ‘A Glorified Edition of India.’“Ever since I have come to Lanka, the conviction has been that I am not in Lanka, but in India glorified.” Kamalakaran’s keen eye for detail, which resonates in Port of Call, reflects his observations on the sweeping tide of changes in the country since the financial crisis in 2022.

“The unity across linguistic and religious groups to uproot a government that was universally blamed for creating an economic crisis was unprecedented in the island’s history. For the first time, outside the cricket arena, the people were no longer Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or Burghers, but Sri Lankans,” he says.


Cricket, another mooring that inevitably links Lanka to India, had a noteworthy stopover in Colombo: Don Bradman. The all-time cricketing great visited Colombo in 1930 and 1948. The Don, an unknown figure in 1930, had transformed into a “virtual demigod” by 1948 as he returned to Ceylon in 1948, en route to play his last test series.A description of a moment etched in history by an 18-year-old Neville Jayaweera, who would later become one of Sri Lanka’s top bureaucrats, about the match in Borella is exquisite. When Bradman disappointed the fans by getting out at 20 and walked off, Jayaweera had a descriptive gem he wrote in 2006: “In the enveloping silence, as the great man walked off the ground, there was a distinctly funereal touch to the atmosphere.”Like Bradman, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, has visited Lanka multiple times. On his second stopover, Doyle visited the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, though he had a “far less flattering take” on it than many other travellers.“The upkeep of many historical sites and archaeological remains is top class across the country.

However, when it comes to Colombo’s colonial heritage, it is quickly fading. Skyscrapers are coming up in place of glorious bungalows, and many small communities are giving way to impersonal luxury,” says Kamalakaran. “Efforts are on to ensure that this old heritage of the city is not totally destroyed,” he says.
The Lankan identity is also evolving in modern times, Kamalakaran says, and cited a “growing number of inter-religious marriages in the country.”

Free movement across the island has led to a reduction in suspicion between the Sinhalese and Tamils: “The younger generation that were children at the end of the civil war are devoid of hate for the other. For a long time, India was seen as a model to emulate. I think Indians need to emulate the Sri Lankan model of communal harmony now,” he says.The intelligentsia that looked up to India as a model nation in the past is disappointed with the increasing reports of discrimination against minorities in the country.

“Overall though, with Indian soft power in cricket, films and other areas, there is definitely a warmth that a lot of Sri Lankans have towards India,” says he.Kamalakaran’s explorations of Ceylon derive an eclectic enlightenment from the observations by and about the aforementioned historic figures mentioned, as well as Chekhov, whose “justifiable labelling of Ceylon as a paradise,” he cites.

Colombo is indeed the enlightened Port of Call that slips into the intersection of exploration and history, which Kamalakaran has navigated with deft mastery. The rough tides of literary enlightenment, art, culture, and voluminous chronicles that shaped humanity’s never-ending pursuit of exploration are etched in the Emerald Isle in our own vicinity.


(The writer is a senior journalist who has shifted to the US)