Outstanding educationist – Soma Kumari Seneviratna Samarasinha

Leelananda de Silva wrote in the Sunday Island of November 15 on Eminent headmasters – an extinct species. In it is this paragraph following the naming of several principals of large boys’ colleges of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Pannipitiya: “All these principals made an enormous contribution towards the building of the schools …(I am not too conversant with the girls’ schools and schools in Jaffna but undoubtedly they had distinguished principals.)” Yes, they did, starting from the late 1940s and early 1950s when missionary schools and even Buddhist Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo, and Mahamaya College, Kandy, had foreign principals who left, making way for local educationists to take over. They were all successful.

I speak of one such woman principal who was an outstanding educationist; modest, dignified, very traditional yet receptive to modernity; exemplary example.

Early life

Soma Kumari was the first born (April 23, 1900) of six siblings to Ehelepola Madduma Bandara Seneviratne, a teacher at Dharmarajah College, Kandy, then known as Buddhist Boys’ School. She writes in her memoirs maintained through the years in exercise books, of her father: “A wonderful parent… working knowledge of Tamil, French, Hindi and a Sanskrit and Pali scholar.” Her mother: “A typical Kandyan lady … understanding with generosity and kindliness of heart.”

From early on the children were encouraged to pursue their studies, even the eldest daughter which was not the custom then. Two brothers became veterinary and medical doctors, while breaking tradition, her father took the bold step of sending her to Women’s Christian College (WCC), Madras, after her Senior Cambridge Exam. She studied in Girls’ High School, Badulla, and then the sister school run by Methodist missionaries in Kandy. She left for India in 1918. Two years later, on her own request, she was baptized to Christianity in the Methodist Church, Peradeniya. In 1922 she passed her first degree receiving also a Gold Medal.

She was the first Kandyan woman to travel overseas for her first degree and then went further overseas in 1924 to Girton College, Cambridge University. She successfully obtained a Tripos in English and then in Oriental Languages offering Pali and Sanskrit. In June 1927, she returned to Ceylon, to “take on my share of helping my family” her father having died in March that year.

While in Madras as English lecturer at the Women’s Christian College, she met in 1929 Theological student John Wilson Samarasinha from Akuressa who was passing through Madras. The foundation of their compatibility lay in both being devoutly Christian and were also Pali and Sanskrit scholars. In fact a secret divulged to me by her daughter, Latika, was that their love letters were in Sinhala using nagari – a form of Pali script.

Career

Soma Kumari returned to Ceylon in 1932 and was appointed visiting lecturer in English and Sanskrit in University College, Colombo, and first warden of the women’s hostel. She returned to WCC in 1935, seemingly having very strong ties to the college. Now married, she went to Matara, and joined the staff of St Thomas Girls’ School; appointed Principal in 1945.

In her very private diary, she notes that a Jaffna friend who was in Madras with her, suggested she apply to Hillwood College, Kandy, as the Principal, Miss Foss, was due to retire. She further adds in her diary: “Independence for Ceylon was in the offing and nationals were increasingly taken on as leaders in positions of responsibility. As I was a Kandyan though not an old girl of Hillwood, .. I thought of the opportunity of serving among my own people in Kandy. I had, for a Kandyan woman of my generation, higher education, travel, experience … I applied for the post and was appointed acting Principal from January 1946. I took charge of the helm when Hillwood was a well organized boarding school with 250 children. I built up on the priceless traditions of Christian sacrificial service, hard work and the dignity and nobility of womanhood. There were also traditions of homeliness, simplicity and love of what was inherited from our national culture and heritage. Much that was good in western traditions of education and manners were also firmly introduced.” She was a very gracious and efficient Principal of the school from mid–1946 up until she retired in 1963.

Soma Kumari was married to Rev J W Samarasinha in 1931 in the Christian College Chapel, Madras, given away by the British principal of the school. Another admirable and unconventional act of Mrs Sam (as she was popularly known) was that when Latika wed Rev James Ratnanayagam, it was she who escorted the bride up the aisle, the father not approving of the mixed marriage. She also was in complete agreement when her son wished to marry Visakha Kotagama, Head Girl etc of Hillwood, who Rajeeva would have ‘studied’ living as he did in the Principal’s bungalow above the school buildings as he went to and from Trinity College. His father disapproved his marriage to a Buddhist.

After retirement from Hillwood, Mrs Sam acceded to her husband’s liking and resided in Akuressa. She spent holidays in Colombo watching her grandchildren grow up, as Latika and Rajeeva were both in Colombo. Many of us visited her then.

Comments

For three years I was a teacher at Hillwood under Mrs Samarasinghe; my first stint at pedagogy. We respected her to the point of reverence, justifiably, but our being scared of her was unnecessary. She was completely dignified and kept her distance but her leadership was of understanding girls and young teachers and coping (we surmised) with very old hands on the tutorial staff! Three days after I started work, I was summoned to the principal’s office. Admittedly I had the brashness of the novice but shivered slightly. I was connected distantly to her, but she addressed me as Miss….. the traditional formality of those days. She advised me (which really was an order) that I should do my hair up. I was in sari but had so far sported my shoulder length hair in a pony tail – be-ribboned to boot. “You will earn the respect of your pupils if you are groomed well.” I wished to say I was respected but fortunately kept mum. Daily morning struggles ensued to get my hair to stay up, until months later I learned the art of tying a kondé that stayed put. Whenever it was admired, I affectionately remembered Mrs Sam.

In her collection of papers, including her exercise books diary, which Visakha her daughter-in-law allowed me to read, was a letter from Professor E J Robson, distinguished alumni of Cambridge, which Mrs Sam had noted as: “a letter which has since been one of my proudest personal possessions.” In it he says “If you could only have had another year, you would have undoubtedly gained a First Class. It has been a great pleasure to teach such an eager and intelligent pupil…”

Other comments among loads:

“She was met with daunting challenges – first Ceylonese principal of a large school – Hillwood. She met and overcame all. She wrought a balance between the best of East and West. She was innovative and introduced Sri Lankan culture to her students.”

“She was the best authoritarian in English literature. Her commitment to duty was phenomenal.”

“A great role model with high principles. She inculcated in us correct values. Her conservatism was linked to practicality. She knew every child in the school and all parents too. “

The love and tradition of education lives on long after Mrs Sam is no more. Her daughter Latika was for long a teacher at Methodist College, refusing the positions of principal, while her daughter-in-law, Visakha, was Vice Principal of Badulla High School after graduation. Rajeeva’s and her daughter, Deepika Dassanayake, is Vice Principal of Ladies’ College, Colombo.