The first Hantana Hatana

Peradeniya Student uprising of 1965 and beyond

- BY PRATAB SIVAPARAKASAPILLAI and CHANDRE DHARMAWARDANA

A far-reaching achievement of the very last State Council of Ceylon (1942-47) of D. S. Senanayake, prior to independence, was its visionary education policy.

Free education, from the kindergarten to university, was legislated in 1945, while the Ceylon University Ordinance was passed in 1942, under C. W. W. Kannangara's watch as the Minister of Education. Twenty-two central schools teaching English were established. Many, including Ivor Jennings and DSS, had expressed some reservations, questioning if the nation could afford all this. The Trotskyite leader Dr. N. M. Perera is said to have even authored a book, calling to delay these policies until the arrival of the "worker's revolution". He argued that "reactionary forces entrenched in power" will use free education to brainwash children against the progressive and anti-colonial message of their movement.

In fact, it was the leaders of the left movement who were most successful in recruiting the youth of the country into their fold. The militant oratory and intellectual-prestige of the left leaders, the anti-imperialist spirit of the age, and the egalitarian thrust of socialism appealed to the naturally rebellious idealism of the young undergraduates of the Peradeniya University. It was a fragile garden of Eden set by the Hantana Hills and the Mahaweli river, ideal for scholarly contemplation. While the University of Ceylon officially "spawned" from its embryo - "The University College, Colombo" in 1942 - it was Peradeniya (1952) that marked its coming of age. Its first decade lived up to the dream of its founders, with famous scholars, such as Paranavitana, Malalalsekera, Hettiarachchi, and Kanapathypillai, on board, while Ludowyk, Sarathchandra and others blazed national cultural memes that have taken firm root in the country.