`We have to think beyond political boundaries'

Interview with Sudharshan Seneviratne.

Professor Sudharshan Seneviratne, Senior Adviser (Culture) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka, was Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Peradeniya and holds the only Chair in Archaeology within the university system of that country. He is also Co-director, Citadel Archaeology Project, Anuradhapura.

After completing his education at Ananda College, Colombo, Seneviratne went on to do his masters and Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His doctoral thesis entitled "The Social Base of Early Buddhism in South-east India (Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) and Sri Lanka, 3rd century B.C. to 3rd century A.C." was researched under Prof. Romila Thapar.

Seneviratne's current research includes topics such as environmental sustainability and archaeology, heritage management and tourism in South Asia, nationalism-multiculturalism and archaeology and a book commissioned by the India-Sri Lanka Foundation titled The Maurya Empire in South India. He was twice Fulbright Professor. The Government of India awarded him the status of Distinguished Visitor to India in 2003-2004.

Seneviratne was in Chennai to attend the "Indo-Sri Lankan Seminar on Social Sciences and Humanities: Sharing and Learning for a Better Future" on March 20 and 21 organised by the Department of Anthropology, University of Madras, and the Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata.

According to Dr. V. Sudarsen, Professor and Head, Department of Anthropology, Madras University, although southern India and Sri Lanka constituted a common geographical and agro-climactical zone, formal interaction of academics and intellectuals from the two countries was marginal. The Department of Anthropology, therefore, "decided to explore the areas of common interest, areas of convergence and areas of contradiction in which the academics and intellectuals from both the countries could work together," Sudarsen said. The seminar tried to consolidate the work that had already been done and drew up plans for future collaboration.

Excerpts from an interview Seneviratne gave T.S. Subramanian on the sidelines of the seminar:

Can you explain the significance of the "Indo-Sri Lankan Seminar on Social Sciences and Humanities?"

Years of planning, vision and writing efforts of several individuals have gone into it - individuals who wanted to see this as a concerted action for greater understanding and celebrating Asia's culture. This is not a new concept. This one specifically came about because several factors came together.

The first thing is that the time now is right. In the 1980s, I along with some historians and archaeologists from south India spoke about forming a consortium of academic activities in specialised areas. But we were caught up with the problems in southern Sri Lanka, various inhibitions on both the sides of the Palk Strait, and so on.

We have now come a full circle. Both the governments are keen about interactive processes. More and more joint ventures are taking place in various fields. Also, there is a sensitivity on both sides to reach out in order to understand each other. This is because everyone is tired (of the war) and we share the grief of war. We are looking at ways and means to establish greater understanding and how we relate to another country and culture. The catalyst, of course, has been some discussions and the critical role played by Sumith Nakandala, Sri Lanka's Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai. Nakandala and I have been working together in a progressive way for the past few years to realise this dream. He has done yeoman service in getting Sri Lankan academics and cultural activists here. I gave the first Buddha Purnima commemoration lecture here two years ago. Last year, my colleague, Dr. S. U. Deraniyagala delivered it. Nakandala has established a solid basis for networking in this part of the world.

A four-member team came from Sri Lanka to attend this programme: Prof. Kalinga Tudor Silva, Prof. Vijitha Nanayakkara, Sarath Surasena and myself. It was graced by Thomas Abraham, former High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka, and Prof. R. Champakalakshmi. We were pleased to have one of our former Ministers and present Member of Parliament Rauf Hakeem at the meeting. A Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation was invited. We had a galaxy of people from India. Prof. B.C. Upreti, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, and other Indian colleagues spoke on a variety of subjects.

Everybody was positive about this event. It is not going to be ad hoc. We are trying to look at it as a self-sustaining process, which will go beyond the narrow realm of compartmentalised academic exercise. We are looking at the final stakeholders. We have professionals and students to develop short-, medium- and long-term processes of interaction for sharing information, resources, knowledge and resource-persons for the development of intellect and human understanding.

For too long, we have looked at each other's region as the other region, the other language and the other religion. We have been busy for rather unfortunate historical reasons and political expediency imagining parochial images and situations about the other region. I am not specifically talking about South India because I don't want to make this south India per se. But this is a larger issue. Especially in South India, due to the ethnic [problem], and historical reasons and the attempt to see each other in different cultural categories, we have not tried to reach out or relate to each other.

We have come to realise that, as both the processes of globalisation and historical conditions demand, we cannot live in watertight compartments any more. We have to think beyond political boundaries. We have to think not only in terms of the South Asian region but the Indian Ocean Rim. We have to look at the best of human aspirations, and intellectual and cultural elements, and how we can draw upon those human achievements, celebrating both diversity and humanity. Looked at from that point of view, the entire purpose of this gathering is to organise a focal point for coming together.

The other point is that [so far] we have not looked at the commonalities and the shared culture we have. We have been re-looking at the whole region. The area south of the Deccan is so much part of the Sri Lankan history as it is north of the Vindhya region. Buddhism and Jainism came to Sri Lanka from north of the Vindhya region. Various cultural elements from the Gangetic plains came to Sri Lanka. An entire spectrum of technological, spiritual, cultural and linguistic aspects came from South India, including the States of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

If you take the collated historical legacy of these areas, it is amazing how much Sri Lanka is a stakeholder in it. When you talk of Sri Lanka's history, you cannot disjunct it at all from the peninsular Indian history. It is these insights that were discussed. This is what we consider coming together because it is a historical juncture.

How is it a historical juncture for India and Sri Lanka?

There has been a coming together of the corporate sector. We are exchanging students. We have been talking about defence pacts. Corporate leaders visit India regularly. Due to economic reasons, they get back-up from the government. But why is it important to revive social sciences and humanities? We have to work on them for obvious reasons. For we are talking about improvement in the quality of life of people... . They are the stakeholders... . Very often, I am sorry to say, there is a slight forgetfulness on both the sides of the shore, about the need to improve the intellectual outlook and aesthetics.

Who forgets this?

The planners, because economics and politics are so important now. There is a kind of precedence given to economics and politics than to the development of cultural values, aesthetics and intellectual attainment. This is the reality... . To improve the quality of life, appreciation of arts, aesthetics and intellectual attainment must fall in place. You can earn all the money in the world but if you do not know how to appreciate arts, what kind of interests do you have?

That is why we say that there should be some kind of forum to bring people together and have them express their ideas. Secondly, this is a forum that will bring people together in a dispassionate, unbiased, unprejudiced manner to have a discourse on problem-oriented, issue-oriented processes that are going on in our countries - about ethnicity, racism, gender issues, environmental disasters, multi-cultural situations, diversity, educational policy and planning. These are the real issues. All these are crises points in both the countries. So we have come together from various areas of social sciences and humanities. But there is a great synthesis of sciences as well.

Synthesis of sciences?

You can see the research done on genomic diversity by Prof. R.M. Pitchappan, Professor of Immunology, Madurai Kamaraj University. In any society, the basis is culture, education and health care. If these are not cared for, any society will decline. There will be no social progress unless you nurture them. You can build skyscrapers, Information Technology parks and so on, but if the quality of life of people is not taken care of, what is the use? What matters is health, intellectual development, appreciation of arts and aesthetics, human value system and ethical behaviour system. Unless these are in place, there will be an anarchic system. We should have a balance of these in total development.

What we are trying to do is to look at issues that are creating social tension. What is creating mythification? Why are some communities antagonistic to others, hanging on to certain imagined histories? These need a study, re-looking, sharing of information and development of independent intellectual ethos that do not belong to a particular political category. If the exercise is a success, then we are talking about a neo-intellectual culture that has been subverted for political expediency, for individual agendas and petty market values. We are, therefore, talking about reviving and re-asserting the right of intellectuals, academics and liberal thinking people. These are in danger in most societies in South Asia.

Will this forum go to both the Government of India and the Government of Sri Lanka and present its viewpoints to make them understand the reality of the situation and contribute to the resolution of the Sri Lankan Tamil problem?

We used the phrase, "This forum will be a point of reference".... If it develops, if we are doing good, honest, intellectual work, any government will be happy to take these things in its policy planning. This is what we would like to happen. Rather than our going to them, it is the governments which have to use this forum as a point of reference. That is why we are trying to look at them at two levels. For years, the academics have been talking and trying to advise the governments and it is up to them to take it.

In policy planning, some of the academics have been involved. But both India and Sri Lanka have to realise that the sensitive points in their relationship have emerged in the south; the sooner they recognise the importance of nurturing programmes such as this and turn towards encouraging peninsular India-Sri Lanka interaction, the better for them.

If you take the problems that have been dominant in Sri Lankan politics in colonial and post-colonial periods and even in the pre-colonial period, the baggage of labels - our history has always been about South Indian invasions; then you have the estate Tamils' situation; then the emergence of the Tamil problem, which is connected to South India. We have historical evidence that throughout history, small groups of people, communities and culture have come to Sri Lanka from peninsular India. There has been close cultural interaction between Orissa and Sri Lanka, including a lot of art forms from Orissa, and the Mahayana Tantric situations.

There was close interaction between Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka both in terms of philosophy and the movement of people from Andhra Pradesh to Sri Lanka. Then we have Tamil Nadu: movement of people, culture, political campaigns, and so on. Also Kerala. This whole composite region has had both positive and negative relationships, which have been recognised by the respective governments [in New Delhi and Colombo] as a vital factor in the relationship between the two countries. As such, there is now an overt feeling that we must have closer working relationship and greater understanding. Into that agenda, you have to write in the peninsular India-Sri Lankan greater understanding process as a critical factor. It does not get filled in merely by students from Sri Lanka to India, occasional researches, cultural troupes coming and going. This has to be a sustained, self-perpetuating programme. At the end of the sessions, the agreement was that this cannot be an ad hoc programme and it has to be recognised by policymakers in both the countries. Sometimes I feel sad that I have to come from Sri Lanka and talk about these things.

Will you bring other South Asian countries such as Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh into this programme's ambit?

No.It is about Sri Lanka and India only.

It is all about India and Sri Lanka. The title of the seminar was "Indo-Sri Lankan Seminar on Social Sciences and Humanities: Sharing and Learning for a Better Future." In other words, it is all about shared cultures. Although I emphasised the peninsular Indian-Sri Lankan relationship, it is an all-India situation we are looking at. I was in New Delhi from March 17 to 19, attending an international seminar on marine archaeology. A factor that I included in my paper there was that marine archaeology should be taken into security concerns. `Various groups from the international community operate [officially and unofficially] in the maritime boundary areas of the SAARC region... . There is little monitoring and control over such activities.

We reliably understand that some international groups who request permission to carry out archaeological activities are nothing but antique pirates for the international market. There are others who had even mapped particular coastal and lagoon areas that coincidentally have become some of the strongest LTTE naval bases or hit-and-run coves in their escape routes. Marine archaeologists working with geologists could assist in mapping out mineral resources in coastal and oceanic depths, thereby the data bank remains with legitimate authorities. External agencies that had come in marine archaeology activities are reported to have carried out their (clandestine) mineral resource mapping in this region... . Marine archaeology is very much within the scope of shared cultures of South Asian and Indian Ocean Rim countries.'

Whatever work we do here, we have to recognise both the national and international political realities... That is why I was so pleased about the nature of the papers presented in the Chennai seminar. They were of extremely high quality. It showed how much we do not know each other. It is tragic but it is heartening that we have come to realise this. We are just 22 miles across the shore. How much we do not know - whether it was in anthropology, caste system, ethnic settlements, genomic diversity, linguistic and cultural linkages, and even the Tamil writing in Sri Lankan plantations - was revealed. That is a whole area unheard of. It is so rich.

Similarly, Dalit literature is coming up in Tamil Nadu.

We have actually started an ethnographic museum at Gampola, near Kandy, for collecting and preserving the heritage of the Tamil estate workers because it is getting wiped away. This is to keep the culture alive. Our target is the next generation in all this. They are the main stakeholders. This generation is suffering because of the mistakes made by past generations. We have to rectify them at some point. It is incumbent upon us to nurture the heritage and pass on the traditional and collective wisdom to the next generation in a non-parochial and unbiased manner.

Nakandala and I have been looking at the way we can initiate some process of re-absorption of the next generation of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee community here, especially the younger graduates who want to come back to Sri Lanka and gainfully employ themselves in the national effort. Discussions are under way to initiate some programme.

You mentioned that archaeology as a subject is becoming popular among students, especially at the post-graduate level, in Sri Lanka.

The Department of Archaeology in the University of Peradeniya has one of the strongest programmes on Indian archaeology. It can be a model for others. You cannot study the history of a country in isolation. Without taking into account the people's history, technological history and so on, you cannot discuss even the smallest piece of sculpture in isolation. With that in mind, we teach in our Department back-to-back South Asian history. The training for our doctoral fellows has been mostly in India. I am sending nine of my post-graduate students with a senior faculty member to Chennai with funds provided by the Ford Foundation for an interactive process of shared cultures. They will come in a group, tour Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for three weeks, visit heritage sites, ongoing excavations and hold discussions.

This is a good experiment because these are students working at Sri Lanka's heritage sites, who day in and day out see and touch materials such as imported ceramics and beads, sculpture motifs and coins that have come from outside. For the students to come here and see where they came from, it is a hands-on experience. We hope to do this as an annual exercise. We hope this will be reciprocated by the Madras University, whose students can visit Sri Lanka.

The future planning of the programme includes joint research, joint publications, student exchanges, sharing of information and holding the next gathering in Sri Lanka. We are also looking at credible funding sources.

A dialogue has been initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the process of a greater understanding on conflict resolution.

We are hoping to hold two conferences - one in Colombo and another at Kandy in the course of this year. All these are required for a greater understanding of the ground realities in the subcontinent and Sri Lanka, and how they could lead to a greater understanding.