Features
India’s likely name change; death-dealing Ministries
Will the name change happen? Officially, the Indian government has taken no decision and issued no statement. One senior leader dismissed the speculation of a name change as ‘just rumours’. But Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar seemed to advocate the increased use of Bharat, particularly at the G20 Summit. Officials of Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) favour the name change. Their argument is that the name India was introduced by British colonials and is a symbol of slavery for about 200 years until the country gained independence from the British Raj in 1947.
The subcontinent of more than 1.4 million people is officially known by the names India and Bharat, and Hindustan is another name often used in literature. Bharat is an ancient Sanskrit name that was found in early Hindu texts, and is commonly used as India’s name when Hindi is spoken.
Priyanka Shankar (freelance journalist based in Brussels) published Rahul Gandhi’s opinion on the name change. He was on a five-day visit to Europe and had told Al Jazeera in Belgium that Modi’s plan to change the country’s name was absurd. He added it was a diversionary tactic. “It’s interesting that every time we raise the issue of Mr (Gautum) Advani and chronic capitalism, the Prime Minster comes out with some dramatic new diversion tactic.” The Congress party leader has accused Modi of favouring big industrialists and sought an investigation against billionaire Advani, who controls the Adani Group, for alleged financial violations.”
Recent name changes in our country
In 1972, when Ceylon under Premier Sirimavo Bandaranaike assumed republican status and ceased to acknowledge Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State, the hitherto used name Ceylon was substituted by the patriotic name of Sri Lanka. Ceylon was the anglicised name given us by the British.
In 1992, then President Ranasinghe Premadasa changed the country name to Shri Lanka with no consideration of fallouts of a sudden name change. Admittedly, it was a substitution of the first syllable of the name with another, but carrying an entirely different sound in pronunciation. The reason for the change was an astrologer’s advice, perhaps his own astrologer; the Prez leaning more on astrology as his fears and insecurity increased. Sri was supposed to be unlucky and with the sound change the country’s fortunes would improve.
That last is what Cass read; however, she believes the change was wrought to make the President’s tenure securer and life safer. As a librarian, Cassandra shuddered considering repercussions in alphabetization of country names in a world list, to mention but one consequence. Mercifully, in 1993 our country name quietly reverted to Sri Lanka with Premadasa’s assassination.
When he was alive no cabinet minister or top bureaucrat dared even squeak a protest. Same always, even now. To save his skin no politician who had a say would go against the man in power, even if his limited intelligence or sensibility prompted it to be a bad move for the country and its people in general.
Interest led Cass to investigate the origins of the name Sri Lanka. Lanka was the name given to the island in the Hindu epic Ramayana with Ravana named ‘demon king of Lanka’. Sri means resplendent, which our island really is. Lanka also means island so with Sri added the nomenclature is complete: resplendent island.
Trouble trouble, boil ‘n bubble; finally kill
Yes, this is what’s happening in this island gone rotten; made rotten by its own people. All ministries are such but the worst are those of Health, Education and Transport.
The short-sighted Education Ministry does not kill in one fell stroke; rather does it asphyxiate and cause slow demise. Children wither away due to loss of hope, frustration and drugs peddled to them almost within school premises. English teaching was throttled by SWRD and other ‘National Leaders’ and next to nothing done to remedy this situation. Cass knows a teacher of English in a school not so remote who cannot string 5 simple English words in a proper sentence.
Protests of students in mainstream universities and academics throttled fee levying higher education which would have saved money of those Sri Lankans going overseas to universities and was certainly a way of earning forex from students from other countries coming over here.
And the railway has actually caused death for all to see and hear on September12. Hearing this awful news of a young student’s death due to a fall from an overcrowded train. Because of a strike by railway workers, this young man died. Of course, he should have been more cautious but sometimes one is called upon to risk one’s life to meet a deadline (no pun meant).
Minister Bandula Gunawaradena told the media he would request the President to declare the railway service as an essential service. Invariably wake up to crises after damage is done. Strikes were on-going inconveniencing hundreds of commuters anxious to get to work in time and more so to get home after a long day at office.
Whom to blame for all these recent deaths? The Cabinet Ministers of course. Then others in the Cabinet who close their eyes to all misdemeanours of colleagues. Top bureaucrats come next. And us the voting public who get idiotic scum of the earth to rule us.
Ours seems not to question why; not to make reply; not to reason why; but merely to do and die as we flounder in this valley of death – our land sunk to the depths by those who were in power, mostly through enriching themselves and encouraging their suckers to loot and steal.
We are in the pits: with mismanagement to the left of us; corruption to the right of us; thuggery behind us; subdued by nincompoops, submerged in corruption, dregs and drugs, while those in power volley and thunder and pontificate: all done for the good of the people, they affirm.
Post script: please read Dr Upatissa Pethiyagoda’s Health Sector in Crisis: causes and possible remedies in The Island of Wednesday September 13. He deals with more than the health sector and is spot on in his analysis. I feel compelled to quote but one paragraph. “Sadly, in our society, politics takes precedence over everything else. That it emits an overpowering stench on all that it touches is clear. It is a largely parasitic creature, whose roots have sunk into a totally subservient heart …”