SCHOLARS — MAGNETS FOR BIG DOWRIES

by ECB Wijejyesinghe

Mothers with marriageable daughters, whether they come from Thimbirigasyaya or Timbuctoo, Uduvil or Uganda, are all cast in the same mould. Without blinking, they will keep their weather eyes open for eligible bachelors. Everything else being satisfactory, it is the young man’s job that is considered before the dowry changes hands.

One important thing is for the mothers to assure themselves that their progeny are not stranded in some Godforsaken place, sans spouse, sans dowry, sans jewellery and sans everything except, of course, a brood of ill-nourished children. The process of choosing a suitable husband, therefore, is of supreme importance, and the task is generally left in the hands of the most intelligent member of the household, which nine times out of ten happens to be the materfamilias.

Occasionally, you come across a paterfamilias, with some sort of instinct for natural selection, but he is such a rare bird that he spends most of his time in office and elsewhere feathering the nests of his personal selections.

107 YEARS OLD

In order to assist anxious mothers to find promising partners for their daughters, the Ceylon Government devised what is known as the University Scholarship Scheme in which the best student in the Island was granted two or three years of free education in a British University. After that, everything was supposed to be plain sailing.

The scholar would virtually be at large. He could, if he wanted, become a doctor like Garvin Mack, a lawyer like H.V. Perera, a scientist like Anian Joachim, a judge like M.T.Akbar, an astronomer like P.H Wickremesinghe, or even a priest like Peter Pillai. The University Scholarship Scheme was inaugurated over 100 years ago and was based at that time on the results of the Cambridge Senior Local Examination. The name of the winner became a talking point throughout the land.

FIRST WINNER

At the inception, the scholarship was given to the best student in Arts and Science in alternative years, but after 1907 the system was changed and prospective mothers-in-law were provided with two targets. One scholarship was for Science and another was for Arts. They were given on the results of the London Intermediate Examination.

The first winner of the coveted plum in 1870 according to chronicler, N.E.Weerasooria, was J.J.Casie Chetty better known to posterity as the kinsman of the famous Simon Casie Chetty and also of Mervyn Casie Chetty, the reigning leader of the Colombo Chetty community. Mervyn still walks the corridors of Hulftsdorp, thoughtfully stroking his beard and without any apparent sign of decrepitude. J.J.Casie Chetty was a Royalist. next year when another Royalist repeated Casie Chetty’s triumph, the Thomians felt that too much coal dust was getting into their brains.

The winner in 1871 was Ponnambalam Arunachalam, whose name is inscribed in large letters in the political history of Ceylon. I hope the hundreds of thousand readers of this newspaper will pardon me if I strike a personal note. I have a soft spot somewhere for P. Arunachalam, firstly because he was an attesting witness at my father’s wedding, having travelled by horse-coach all the way to Chilaw to do so. Secondly, he was the grandfather of a friend of mine, Gordon Jayanta Padmanabha, who edited the “Ceylon Daily News” after the departure of Herbert Hulugalle.

Padmanabha won the Shakespeare Prize at Oxford and was gifted with a prose-style which was the envy of his colleagues at Lake House. We traveled together to the Arakan Front during World War II just before the Japanese laid down their arms, and we survived to tell the tale.

Coming back to the scholarships, five more Royalists in succession breasted the tape. They were John T Blaze, C.B. Nicholas, E.G.Mack, Arthur Joseph and J.T. Labrooy. People began to think that Royal College had a mantaram for exceptional success, if not for Burgher brilliance.

It was then that Thomas de Sampayo, who had been educated at St.Benedict’s College, Kotahena, right up from the Kindergarten to the Senior Local hopped over to the San Sebastian Academy and entered his name for the Scholarship Stakes. Need I say he won it at a canter ? This was exactly 100 years ago.

Two other old Benedictines, H.M. (later Sir Marcus) Fernando and his younger brother C.M. did exactly what de Sampayo did. It is a matter of pride to the Old Bens that the framed pictures of these three intellectual giants hang in the gallery reserved for distinguished old Royalists.

By this time all the other schools awoke from their slumbers and tried to give Royal a run for their money. It did not matter that Royal were still scoring all round the wicket with big hitters like James Peiris, C.A.Hewavitarne, Garvin Mack and A.E Keuneman at the crease.

St. Thomas’ and all the sister-colleges now made a determined effort to break the monopoly enjoyed by Royal and to give the mothers a little more scope for matrimonial gamble. Suddenly, like rockets at a fireworks display, there appeared in the firmament, men like Paul Pieris, Lucian de Zilwa, W. Samerewickrema, P. de S. Kularatne, D.C.R. Gunawardane, L.M.D de Silva, J.L.C. Rodrigo, C. Suntheralingam and his band of brothers, G.P. Malalasekera, B.C. Ahlip, Gregory Weeramantry, Arthur Ranasinha, Lyn Ludowyk, Dido Caspersz, A.M.A. Azeez, Elmer Mack and so many others. They helped to restore as it were, the balance of power.

`JUST MISSED’

As for me, the people who missed the scholarship by inches have a certain fascination which the winners lacked. Take the case of N.E. Weerasooria himself and his equally brilliant brother, Durand. They were two lawyers who were nicknamed “Receivers of Wrecks” for obvious reasons. Then there was T.D. Perera, brother of H.V., who rose to be the head of the Treasury, or P Saravanamuttu who is regarded by every member of the Tamil Union as the brightest star of that distinguished family, or Cyril Fernando who won the gold medal at the M.D. (London) Examination. They were all “also rans.”

Last but not least was Oliver Goonetilleke. Luckily for Ceylon he failed not only to win the Scholarship, but also to find a place in the Civil Service. The history of this land might have been different had he succeeded in either.

(Excerpted from The Good At Their Best first published in 1977.)