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| Late communist leader N. Sanmugathasan |
By M. Aravindan
Two weeks ago, an event was held in Colombo to commemorate a communist leader of the last century, after a long time.
On the occasion of the 105th birth anniversary (3 July) of the late Nagalingam Sanmugathasan (Shan), described as the pioneer leader of the revolutionary communist movement in Sri Lanka, the Sanmugathasan Centre for Marxist Studies, named after him, organised a memorial lecture and book release on the evening of 6 July at the Sangarapillai Hall of the Colombo Tamil Sangam, Wellawatte.
At the event presided over by Prof. S. Maunaguru, Paris-based Sri Lankan progressive writer V.T. Elangovan introduced a book titled ‘Sanmugathasan Nootrandu Manappathivugal’ (‘Sanmugathasan Centenary Reflections’) and a senior communist activist in the north, M.A.C. Iqbal, ceremoniously released it by handing over the first copy to Colombo Tamil Sangam President and Attorney-at-Law Suganthy Rajakulendra.
University of Jaffna Department of Sociology Senior Lecturer Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar delivered the Sanmugathasan Memorial Lecture on ‘The Turbulent International Situation and the Way Forward for Sri Lanka’ in a tone perfectly suited to the contemporary context.
At present, apart from meetings of the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the events of the Leftist political parties are not well attended. Even at smaller gatherings, most of the participants are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.
If anyone belonging to the younger generation can be seen at these events, they will most likely belong to the media. Some young people with political interests or students of Political Science sometimes attend as well.
However, for many, the hall-packed audience at the Shan memorial event was a different experience. Some young people were also seen. A large number of journalists, including the editors-in-chief of leading Colombo Tamil publications were also present.
Usually, just a limited number of people attend the events held at the Colombo Tamil Sangam regularly. However, although those ‘usual’ participants were missing at the Shan commemoration, a lot of new people joined it. The audience kept listening to the speech delivered by Dr. Kadirgamar till the end; the theme of his speech may have been a major reason for this.
There is no doubt that the hall-packed participants would have brought great joy to the members of the Sanmugathasan Centre for Marxist Studies who organised the event. It is highly unlikely that today’s younger generation (except those who know at least a little of the history of the Leftist movement in the country) would have known of Shan, who was one of Sri Lanka’s most important Left-wing political leaders for a considerable period of the last century.
Shan died on 8 February 1993 at the age of 72 in Birmingham, UK. Prof. Maunaguru, who presided over the event, expressed his shock and happiness over the large number of people who attended the ceremony to celebrate the memory of the communist leader, even 32 years after his death.
In July 2020, articles written in English by political analysts, diplomats, academics, and journalists on the occasion of Shan’s birth centenary had already been translated into Tamil and published in newspapers and magazines locally and abroad. The book released at this function was a bilingual collection of those articles.
On the occasion of Shan’s centenary, political analyst and diplomat Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka wrote an article in a leading Sunday newspaper of 5 July 2020. As Shan was a close friend of his father, – the famous English newspaper editor, the late Mervyn de Silva – Dr. Jayatilleka was familiar with the communist leader from his childhood.
It seems that after reading Dr. Jayatilleka’s article, veteran English journalist Manik de Silva (now Editor-in-Chief of a leading Sunday newspaper), former Minister and Sociologist Dr. Sarath Amunugama, and political analyst and engineering expert Rajan Philips, who now lives in Canada, were reminded of Shan. They wrote successively about the Shan in the same Sunday newspaper.
D.B.S. Jeyaraj, a veteran journalist and political analyst living in Canada, wrote a long article in a daily newspaper titled ‘Comrade Shan and the Tamil Militant Armed Struggle’ on 11 July 2020. He had the experience of frequently meeting Shan at his Schofield Place residence in Kollupitiya before emigrating to North America in late 1980s. Jeyaraj has written about those meetings in some detail in his article, which was also translated into Tamil and published in newspapers.
A lengthy article written in Tamil by Prof. N. Shanmugaratnam, a resident of Norway, on the occasion of the 31st death anniversary of Shan was also published in Colombo Tamil newspapers on 8 February 2024. That article and a recently written article by Prof. Maunaguru on the late communist leader’s artistic interests and his association with him were also included in the book.
Senior journalist V. Thanabalasingham has written and published articles in newspapers and journals commemorating Shan’s centenary in both languages, and he had a lengthy association with Shan. He translated the aforementioned articles into Tamil on behalf of the Sanmugathasan Centre for Marxist Studies and edited the book as well.
The article written by Dr. Amunugama on the relationship between Shan and JVP Founder Leader Rohana Wijeweera is an important one in the backdrop of the late revolutionary leader’s party being in power at present. The article will help current JVP leaders and members to understand the roots of their movement to some extent.
Professors Shanmugaratnam and Maunaguru associated themselves with the activities of the pro-Chinese Communist Party led by Shan (as students of the University of Peradeniya) in the 1960s, when the world’s communist parties split in the wake of the great theoretical struggle in the international communist movement.
As for Thanabalasingham, he maintained close contact with Shan, mostly during the latter part of Shan’s life. Since he was a journalist, it was possible for him to translate the communist leader’s writings and statements and publish them in newspapers.
Thanabalasingham, who has the rare experience of having taken down Shan’s autobiography (‘Political Memoirs of an Unrepentant Communist’), which he dictated during the 1980s, has been involved in the work of the Sanmugathasan Centre for Marxist Studies, which has been publishing the late leader’s unpublished writings as books for the past several years.
Apart from these three, none of the authors of the other articles contained in ‘Sanmugathasan Centenary Reflections’ had any connection with the Communist Party.
Philips was an active Sama Samajist during the periods of eminent leaders Dr. N.M. Perera and Dr. Colvin R. de Silva. Those familiar with Shan’s fierce theoretical battle against the Trotskyism of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party will understand the extent to which he opposed the Sama Samajists and what Philips would have thought of Shan at the time.
Therefore, the articles that explain how those who did not identify themselves with the communist movement viewed Shan from the outside give this book a unique dimension.
‘Sanmugathasan Centenary Reflections’ is a book that will be of great help to political students and the younger generation of researchers who want to learn the history of the Leftist movement in Sri Lanka, especially the history of the communist movement, to familiarise themselves with the life of a leader who worked for more than half a century for the emancipation of the working class by associating himself with that movement from his student days at the Ceylon University College in Colombo till his last breath.
Shan’s life parallels the history of the Sri Lankan communist movement. He was born on 3 July 1920 and the Ceylon Communist party (CCP) was formed on the same day 23 years later. Shan became a full-time activist of the CCP two weeks after his graduation.
The front cover of some books published by the Sanmugathasan Centre for Marxist Studies has the picture of Shan when he met Chairman Mao Zedong more than 60 years ago. The same picture appears on the cover of the new book as well.
The picture of that historic meeting between Mao and his famous disciple is so interwoven with the publications of the centre that some of those who received copies at the book launch two weeks ago said: “We have had this book before.” For Shan’s admirers, his meeting with Chairman Mao was a ‘holy’ political event.
It would be appropriate to conclude this account of the Shan commemoration by quoting Dr. Jayatilleka’s remarks on the Mao-Shan proximity. It was Dr. Jayatilleka’s father who called Sanmugathasan ‘Mao Tse-Shan.’
“Comrade Shan, who knew Mao well, represented him. He is not only the only Sri Lankan to have met and interacted with Mao, but also one of the few from South Asia. Charu Mazumdar, the Leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), a Maoist movement better known as the Naxalites, has never met Mao.
“At the height of the Cultural Revolution, Shan stood next to Mao as he watched a march of 1.5 million Red Guards in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square at the height of the Cultural Revolution. He was also allowed to address the Red Guards. The theoretical contribution made by the leader of the Maoist movement in Sri Lanka to Mao Zedong’s thought internationally is very significant.” (Courtesy: The Sunday Morning)
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