Features
Coming home from India, back to where our hearts belonged
Excerpted from Chosen Ground: the saga of Clara Motwani
by Goolbai Gunasekera
Another famous name connected with Ooty is that of the dancer, Ram Gopal. His sister had married an English canon and their daughter, (the earlier mentioned Joy Mellor), was my classmate at the convent. Ram Gopal came up to visit his sister on one memorable occasion, and Mother was able to have the intricacies of Indian dance made somewhat intelligible to her.
Each holiday season, Father took his family down to Madras to hear the annual Krishnamurti talks. We would stay at the Theosophical Society in Adyar at Leadbeater Chambers – a sort of subsidized hotel for foreign visitors. The menus there were mainly western, and could not have been duller. They were totally inadequate for the Motwani girls’ robust appetites. So Father would take us to Bhojanshalla, the Society’s Indian restaurant, where we sat on the floor and ate off banana leaves. The taste was fantastic and the food (thankfully) plentiful. Totally vegetarian, of course. Both Father and Mother were strict vegetarians and Su and I only tasted meat when we left home to be married.
“Where do they put all that food?” Father would marvel, watching us slurp our curries in the accepted Madrasi way. “They’re bottomless pits – that’s what they are.”
Rukmani Arundale, the lady who made oriental dancing a respectable occupation for women in India, was the wife of a former President of the society and they had remained good friends. Dinners in her home were occasions that I recall with nostalgia. We would sit on her broad veranda, watching the Adyar river flow by. The conversation was always philosophical, and without being aware of it, Su and I absorbed, as if by osmosis, the thoughts and teachings of the world’s great teachers. Theosophists regard all religions as important, and there were always visiting foreigners ready to debate and discuss – with Father around to dispute. Father was at his best in argument. For once in our talkative little lives, we remained silent.
Mother claimed she could not understand half of what was being said. “You get so TECHNICAL,” she would complain to Father as we walked back to Leadbeater Chambers in the moonlight, enjoying the breathtaking view while keeping a wary lookout for snakes. The Adyar Theosophical Society was a beautiful place then, its lovely buildings standing in two hundred acres of parkland. The largest banyan tree in the world was located in its garden, and members of the Society would have tea beneath its spreading roots. Su and I watched and wondered.
Beautiful Rukmani, later India’s Minister of Culture, was a goddess to worship. Years later, after my daughter Khulsum was born, she had dinner with us in Colombo and I treasure a picture of an ageing but still lovely lady, taken with a sleepy, nightie-clad Khulsum.
Those two years in India were happy years but we all wanted to come back to Colombo. Sri Lanka (still known then as Ceylon) was our home. Mother pined for Ceylon and had moments of deep depression. At such times Father felt the weight of her sadness fall on him and knew he had been its unwitting cause. He made up his mind that he would never take Mother from Ceylon again. He would make his headquarters in Colombo whenever he was in between assignments. And so we came home.
The end of World War II wrought drastic changes in our own family life. As a sociologist, Father realized that the Partition of India was inevitable. Vainly he wrote frantic letters to his brothers and sisters in Karachi, advising them to transfer whatever assets they could convert into cash and get the hell out of, what was soon going to be, Pakistan. They could not believe that it would happen.
“How can anyone take this land from me?” Uncle Ladikdas wrote angrily. “You are saying this because you have no land, and you want to deprive me of it too.”
Father was hurt beyond measure. He brooded over his brother’s letter for days. He decided the time had come for one last trip to Arazi, before Partition was officially declared. He took me with him.
In Arazi was my favourite relative — my cousin Ahalyabai who was my age and, thanks to some genetic quirk, my double. We could have been identical twins. If relationships were to be accurately defined, Ahalya was in reality my aunt, the granddaughter of my uncle Muniram. Despite my American blood, Ahalya’s skin was a shade fairer than mine. This was a source of great satisfaction to her. She rarely went out in the sun, while my own activities kept me outdoors a great deal.
This visit to Father’s birthplace was to be our last. I have never returned to Karachi after the Partition of India. Father tried his best to get his Arazi family to recognize the gravity of the looming conflict between Hindus and Muslims. He transferred his books and other movable assets to Madras, but the go-downs he owned in Karachi were eventually compensated for by the Government of India, with a tract of barren land in Jubbulpore. Father never saw the land, and promptly mislaid the deeds.
Go-down rentals and other sources of private income dried up after Partition, and my parents realized that life must change. Both could command high salaries, and Mother constantly told us that the value of a good education was above the price of rubies. “See how useful it is now,” she would tell us. She had been offered the post of Principal of a large school in Gwalior, India, but opted instead to take up an offer from Hindu Ladies’ College in Jaffna. Father was resigned.
“If Karma ordains that your Mother must live in Ceylon, who am I, a mere husband, to thwart the fates!”
Actually Father would have thwarted God himself if anything interfered with his own agenda, but Indian Independence was around the corner and American universities were sending out feelers on the lecture circuit of which Father was a shining light. What with his Indian background and Yale education he was quite a draw. He was now booked on an 18-month tour of United States universities, and it mattered little, therefore, whether the rest of the family was based in Ooty or in Jaffna.
The decision was made, and till the Principal’s house in Jaffna was ready for us we spent a fortnight with Dr. and Mrs. E.M. Wijerama, Mother’s best friends. As I have already said, to Su and me it was coming home. To Mother it was bliss. Except for Father we all felt Sri Lankan, for here was familiarity, here was friendship and here was love. For us, the friends Mother made were closer than family. The Visakhians who knew me as a baby remained my ‘sisters’ all my life.
To this day Beryl de Silva, Bona de Lanerolle, Lakshmi Edirisinghe, Manel Ratnatunga, Agnes Abeysekera and dozens of others have shared my life as though we were blood relatives. Never have I felt alone on this ‘Chosen Ground’. And now that fate had seen fit to scatter the Motwanis of Arazi, Sri Lanka was the home of our hearts.
There is a tragic tale to be .told here. Ahalya, my twin in both personality and appearance, lost her life in one of the last trains to leave Pakistan. It was rumoured that she was dragged out, raped and killed in front of her parents. Father never saw his brothers again. His family was scattered, and he did not even know where to begin looking for them.
“At least they know where to find me,” he would say prosaically, hiding the deep hurt he felt that he had parted so angrily from Uncle Ladikdas who would not heed the counsel of the younger brother he had earlier been so anxious to educate.
Years later, a Motwani family from a bank in Dubai contacted us. Father was by then no longer alive, but I was able to get some news of at least this one family from far away Arazi. There were so few left of the formerly large and united Motwani joint families of Karachi. It was a bitter-sweet meeting.
Each year, for three years after this the young banker would send my mother an expensive white chiffon sari (which I promptly annexed). It was only after the second one arrived that we realized why these lovely white saris were arriving with such regularity.
When Kishin Motwani met us in Colombo, Mother was wearing a white sari. Kishin approvingly commented on this several times saying to me, “Auntie looks lovely in white.” I thought nothing of it at the time. As the saris began coming, it eventually dawned on us that Kishin must have thought Mother was following the time honoured custom of Sindhi widows wearing nothing but white after their husbands had passed away and we realized that he must have been terribly impressed that Mother, an American, would be so traditional minded that she would actually forsake wearing colours. I think Mother wrote each year and thanked him but a long distance relationship is not easy to maintain and we eventually lost touch again.
by Dr Gotabhya Ranasinghe
Senior Consultant Cardiologist
National Hospital Sri Lanka
When we sought a meeting with Hon Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health, he graciously cleared his busy schedule to accommodate us. Renowned for his attentive listening and deep understanding, Minister Pathirana is dedicated to advancing the health sector. His openness and transparency exemplify the qualities of an exemplary politician and minister.
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, the current Health Secretary, demonstrates both commendable enthusiasm and unwavering support. This combination of attributes makes him a highly compatible colleague for the esteemed Minister of Health.
Our discussion centered on a project that has been in the works for the past 30 years, one that no other minister had managed to advance.
Minister Pathirana, however, recognized the project’s significance and its potential to revolutionize care for heart patients.
The project involves the construction of a state-of-the-art facility at the premises of the National Hospital Colombo. The project’s location within the premises of the National Hospital underscores its importance and relevance to the healthcare infrastructure of the nation.
This facility will include a cardiology building and a tertiary care center, equipped with the latest technology to handle and treat all types of heart-related conditions and surgeries.
Securing funding was a major milestone for this initiative. Minister Pathirana successfully obtained approval for a $40 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank. With the funding in place, the foundation stone is scheduled to be laid in September this year, and construction will begin in January 2025.
This project guarantees a consistent and uninterrupted supply of stents and related medications for heart patients. As a result, patients will have timely access to essential medical supplies during their treatment and recovery. By securing these critical resources, the project aims to enhance patient outcomes, minimize treatment delays, and maintain the highest standards of cardiac care.
Upon its fruition, this monumental building will serve as a beacon of hope and healing, symbolizing the unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and fostering a healthier society.We anticipate a future marked by significant progress and positive outcomes in Sri Lanka’s cardiovascular treatment landscape within the foreseeable timeframe.
by Fr. Emmanuel Fernando, OMI
Jesuit Fr. Aloysius Pieris (affectionately called Fr. Aloy) celebrated his 90th birthday on April 9, 2024 and I, as the editor of our Oblate Journal, THE MISSIONARY OBLATE had gone to press by that time. Immediately I decided to publish an article, appreciating the untiring selfless services he continues to offer for inter-Faith dialogue, the renewal of the Catholic Church, his concern for the poor and the suffering Sri Lankan masses and to me, the present writer.
It was in 1988, when I was appointed Director of the Oblate Scholastics at Ampitiya by the then Oblate Provincial Fr. Anselm Silva, that I came to know Fr. Aloy more closely. Knowing well his expertise in matters spiritual, theological, Indological and pastoral, and with the collaborative spirit of my companion-formators, our Oblate Scholastics were sent to Tulana, the Research and Encounter Centre, Kelaniya, of which he is the Founder-Director, for ‘exposure-programmes’ on matters spiritual, biblical, theological and pastoral. Some of these dimensions according to my view and that of my companion-formators, were not available at the National Seminary, Ampitiya.
Ever since that time, our Oblate formators/ accompaniers at the Oblate Scholasticate, Ampitiya , have continued to send our Oblate Scholastics to Tulana Centre for deepening their insights and convictions regarding matters needed to serve the people in today’s context. Fr. Aloy also had tried very enthusiastically with the Oblate team headed by Frs. Oswald Firth and Clement Waidyasekara to begin a Theologate, directed by the Religious Congregations in Sri Lanka, for the contextual formation/ accompaniment of their members. It should very well be a desired goal of the Leaders / Provincials of the Religious Congregations.
Besides being a formator/accompanier at the Oblate Scholasticate, I was entrusted also with the task of editing and publishing our Oblate journal, ‘The Missionary Oblate’. To maintain the quality of the journal I continue to depend on Fr. Aloy for his thought-provoking and stimulating articles on Biblical Spirituality, Biblical Theology and Ecclesiology. I am very grateful to him for his generous assistance. Of late, his writings on renewal of the Church, initiated by Pope St. John XX111 and continued by Pope Francis through the Synodal path, published in our Oblate journal, enable our readers to focus their attention also on the needed renewal in the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. Fr. Aloy appreciated very much the Synodal path adopted by the Jesuit Pope Francis for the renewal of the Church, rooted very much on prayerful discernment. In my Religious and presbyteral life, Fr.Aloy continues to be my spiritual animator / guide and ongoing formator / acccompanier.
Fr. Aloysius Pieris, BA Hons (Lond), LPh (SHC, India), STL (PFT, Naples), PhD (SLU/VC), ThD (Tilburg), D.Ltt (KU), has been one of the eminent Asian theologians well recognized internationally and one who has lectured and held visiting chairs in many universities both in the West and in the East. Many members of Religious Congregations from Asian countries have benefited from his lectures and guidance in the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) in Manila, Philippines. He had been a Theologian consulted by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences for many years. During his professorship at the Gregorian University in Rome, he was called to be a member of a special group of advisers on other religions consulted by Pope Paul VI.
Fr. Aloy is the author of more than 30 books and well over 500 Research Papers. Some of his books and articles have been translated and published in several countries. Among those books, one can find the following: 1) The Genesis of an Asian Theology of Liberation (An Autobiographical Excursus on the Art of Theologising in Asia, 2) An Asian Theology of Liberation, 3) Providential Timeliness of Vatican 11 (a long-overdue halt to a scandalous millennium, 4) Give Vatican 11 a chance, 5) Leadership in the Church, 6) Relishing our faith in working for justice (Themes for study and discussion), 7) A Message meant mainly, not exclusively for Jesuits (Background information necessary for helping Francis renew the Church), 8) Lent in Lanka (Reflections and Resolutions, 9) Love meets wisdom (A Christian Experience of Buddhism, 10) Fire and Water 11) God’s Reign for God’s poor, 12) Our Unhiddden Agenda (How we Jesuits work, pray and form our men). He is also the Editor of two journals, Vagdevi, Journal of Religious Reflection and Dialogue, New Series.
Fr. Aloy has a BA in Pali and Sanskrit from the University of London and a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy from the University of Sri Lankan, Vidyodaya Campus. On Nov. 23, 2019, he was awarded the prestigious honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) by the Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, the Most Venerable Welamitiyawe Dharmakirthi Sri Kusala Dhamma Thera.
Fr. Aloy continues to be a promoter of Gospel values and virtues. Justice as a constitutive dimension of love and social concern for the downtrodden masses are very much noted in his life and work. He had very much appreciated the commitment of the late Fr. Joseph (Joe) Fernando, the National Director of the Social and Economic Centre (SEDEC) for the poor.
In Sri Lanka, a few religious Congregations – the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Marist Brothers and the Oblates – have invited him to animate their members especially during their Provincial Congresses, Chapters and International Conferences. The mainline Christian Churches also have sought his advice and followed his seminars. I, for one, regret very much, that the Sri Lankan authorities of the Catholic Church –today’s Hierarchy—- have not sought Fr.
Aloy’s expertise for the renewal of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka and thus have not benefited from the immense store of wisdom and insight that he can offer to our local Church while the Sri Lankan bishops who governed the Catholic church in the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council (Edmund Fernando OMI, Anthony de Saram, Leo Nanayakkara OSB, Frank Marcus Fernando, Paul Perera,) visited him and consulted him on many matters. Among the Tamil Bishops, Bishop Rayappu Joseph was keeping close contact with him and Bishop J. Deogupillai hosted him and his team visiting him after the horrible Black July massacre of Tamils.
Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
By Gomi Senadhira
senadhiragomi@gmail.com
“You might tell fairy tales, but the progress of a country cannot be achieved through such narratives. A country cannot be developed by making false promises. The country moved backward because of the electoral promises made by political parties throughout time. We have witnessed that the ultimate result of this is the country becoming bankrupt. Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet.” – President Ranil Wickremesinghe, 2024 Budget speech
Any Sri Lankan would agree with the above words of President Wickremesinghe on the false promises our politicians and officials make and the fairy tales they narrate which bankrupted this country. So, to understand this, let’s look at one such fairy tale with lots of false promises; Ranil Wickremesinghe’s greatest achievement in the area of international trade and investment promotion during the Yahapalana period, Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA).
It is appropriate and timely to do it now as Finance Minister Wickremesinghe has just presented to parliament a bill on the National Policy on Economic Transformation which includes the establishment of an Office for International Trade and the Sri Lanka Institute of Economics and International Trade.
Was SLSFTA a “Cleverly negotiated Free Trade Agreement” as stated by the (former) Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate on the SLSFTA in July 2018, or a colossal blunder covered up with lies, false promises, and fairy tales? After SLSFTA was signed there were a number of fairy tales published on this agreement by the Ministry of Development Strategies and International, Institute of Policy Studies, and others.
However, for this article, I would like to limit my comments to the speech by Minister Samarawickrama during the Parliamentary Debate, and the two most important areas in the agreement which were covered up with lies, fairy tales, and false promises, namely: revenue loss for Sri Lanka and Investment from Singapore. On the other important area, “Waste products dumping” I do not want to comment here as I have written extensively on the issue.
1. The revenue loss
During the Parliamentary Debate in July 2018, Minister Samarawickrama stated “…. let me reiterate that this FTA with Singapore has been very cleverly negotiated by us…. The liberalisation programme under this FTA has been carefully designed to have the least impact on domestic industry and revenue collection. We have included all revenue sensitive items in the negative list of items which will not be subject to removal of tariff. Therefore, 97.8% revenue from Customs duty is protected. Our tariff liberalisation will take place over a period of 12-15 years! In fact, the revenue earned through tariffs on goods imported from Singapore last year was Rs. 35 billion.
The revenue loss for over the next 15 years due to the FTA is only Rs. 733 million– which when annualised, on average, is just Rs. 51 million. That is just 0.14% per year! So anyone who claims the Singapore FTA causes revenue loss to the Government cannot do basic arithmetic! Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I call on my fellow members of this House – don’t mislead the public with baseless criticism that is not grounded in facts. Don’t look at petty politics and use these issues for your own political survival.”
I was surprised to read the minister’s speech because an article published in January 2018 in “The Straits Times“, based on information released by the Singaporean Negotiators stated, “…. With the FTA, tariff savings for Singapore exports are estimated to hit $10 million annually“.
As the annual tariff savings (that is the revenue loss for Sri Lanka) calculated by the Singaporean Negotiators, Singaporean $ 10 million (Sri Lankan rupees 1,200 million in 2018) was way above the rupees’ 733 million revenue loss for 15 years estimated by the Sri Lankan negotiators, it was clear to any observer that one of the parties to the agreement had not done the basic arithmetic!
Six years later, according to a report published by “The Morning” newspaper, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on 7th May 2024, Mr Samarawickrama’s chief trade negotiator K.J. Weerasinghehad had admitted “…. that forecasted revenue loss for the Government of Sri Lanka through the Singapore FTA is Rs. 450 million in 2023 and Rs. 1.3 billion in 2024.”
If these numbers are correct, as tariff liberalisation under the SLSFTA has just started, we will pass Rs 2 billion very soon. Then, the question is how Sri Lanka’s trade negotiators made such a colossal blunder. Didn’t they do their basic arithmetic? If they didn’t know how to do basic arithmetic they should have at least done their basic readings. For example, the headline of the article published in The Straits Times in January 2018 was “Singapore, Sri Lanka sign FTA, annual savings of $10m expected”.
Anyway, as Sri Lanka’s chief negotiator reiterated at the COPF meeting that “…. since 99% of the tariffs in Singapore have zero rates of duty, Sri Lanka has agreed on 80% tariff liberalisation over a period of 15 years while expecting Singapore investments to address the imbalance in trade,” let’s turn towards investment.
Investment from Singapore
In July 2018, speaking during the Parliamentary Debate on the FTA this is what Minister Malik Samarawickrama stated on investment from Singapore, “Already, thanks to this FTA, in just the past two-and-a-half months since the agreement came into effect we have received a proposal from Singapore for investment amounting to $ 14.8 billion in an oil refinery for export of petroleum products. In addition, we have proposals for a steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million), sugar refinery ($ 200 million). This adds up to more than $ 16.05 billion in the pipeline on these projects alone.
And all of these projects will create thousands of more jobs for our people. In principle approval has already been granted by the BOI and the investors are awaiting the release of land the environmental approvals to commence the project.
I request the Opposition and those with vested interests to change their narrow-minded thinking and join us to develop our country. We must always look at what is best for the whole community, not just the few who may oppose. We owe it to our people to courageously take decisions that will change their lives for the better.”
According to the media report I quoted earlier, speaking at the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Chief Negotiator Weerasinghe has admitted that Sri Lanka was not happy with overall Singapore investments that have come in the past few years in return for the trade liberalisation under the Singapore-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. He has added that between 2021 and 2023 the total investment from Singapore had been around $162 million!
What happened to those projects worth $16 billion negotiated, thanks to the SLSFTA, in just the two-and-a-half months after the agreement came into effect and approved by the BOI? I do not know about the steel manufacturing plant for exports ($ 1 billion investment), flour milling plant ($ 50 million) and sugar refinery ($ 200 million).
However, story of the multibillion-dollar investment in the Petroleum Refinery unfolded in a manner that would qualify it as the best fairy tale with false promises presented by our politicians and the officials, prior to 2019 elections.
Though many Sri Lankans got to know, through the media which repeatedly highlighted a plethora of issues surrounding the project and the questionable credentials of the Singaporean investor, the construction work on the Mirrijiwela Oil Refinery along with the cement factory began on the24th of March 2019 with a bang and Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his ministers along with the foreign and local dignitaries laid the foundation stones.
That was few months before the 2019 Presidential elections. Inaugurating the construction work Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the projects will create thousands of job opportunities in the area and surrounding districts.
The oil refinery, which was to be built over 200 acres of land, with the capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was to generate US$7 billion of exports and create 1,500 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs. The construction of the refinery was to be completed in 44 months. Four years later, in August 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to cancel the agreement with the investors of the refinery as the project has not been implemented! Can they explain to the country how much money was wasted to produce that fairy tale?
It is obvious that the President, ministers, and officials had made huge blunders and had deliberately misled the public and the parliament on the revenue loss and potential investment from SLSFTA with fairy tales and false promises.
As the president himself said, a country cannot be developed by making false promises or with fairy tales and these false promises and fairy tales had bankrupted the country. “Unfortunately, many segments of the population have not come to realize this yet”.
(The writer, a specialist and an activist on trade and development issues . )
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