An optimist at heart

Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (1901-1972), as a political leader, exercised a profound influence on the thought and imagination of modern Sri Lanka. He was a natural-born leader who instinctively understood the hopes and aspirations of the people; he was close to the heart beat of the nation. As a leader he realized if he is too far ahead of his followers he would lose contact with them; on the other hand, if he was content with merely echoing the sentiments of his followers he would not be able to lead. He knew the right balance.

Philip Gunawardena was largely instrumental in disseminating the idea of socialism in Sri Lanka. He did so in his unique way by de-Europeanizing socialist thought and by connecting it to the wellsprings of indigenous culture and investing it with local resonances. He was able to speak in the cultural idiom of the people regarding issues that mattered most to them. Looking back on his efforts, one has to conclude that this was indeed the correct strategy.

Lion of Boralugoda

He was a proud and complex national leader. His pride grew out of his deep self-confidence to have abiding faith in ourselves. He was a complex man who realized that one has to engage manifold forces that impinge in any given historical moment and respond simultaneously to contradictory and unavoidable demands. He had his triumphs and defeats, unwavering loyalties and unanticipated betrayals. Through it all he displayed his characteristic courage and force of personality as the Lion of Boralugoda.

Philip Gunawardena’s manifold activities were guided by deep moral imagination. The idea of social justice was at heart of it. He valued equality not as an end point but rather the point of departure for social transformation. In this regards, I am reminded of the contemporary French thinker Jacques Ranciere who said that, ‘equality is not a goal to be achieved but a point of departure, a supposition to be maintained in all circumstances’.

One important facet of Philip Gunawardena’s thinking relates to this profound understand of the dynamics of history. He saw clearly how history flows through us and shapes us; it was his belief that our discomfiture before the future grows out of our loss of historical identity. The capacity to grasp the complexity and many-sidedness of an historical situation marks off the enlightened leader from a less enlightened one. And he certainly was an enlightened leader. Devising ways of channeling the energy of the past towards the momentum of the present was one of his preoccupations. Philip Gunawardena, despite his occasional set-backs, was an optimist at heart.

Patriot and national leader

This optimism flowed from his belief that the future will embrace the historical aspirations we bring to it. Hence a true understanding of Philip Gunawardena as a thinker and leader demands that we pay close attention to his distinct historical imagination.

Philip Gunawardena’s voice gave new urgency to the aspirations of the nation in search of a better world; that search was animated by the effort to rediscover the cultural identity and national self-respect that were shattered under colonialism. He unleashed a new yearning for social betterment, cultural growth and national self-understanding. Philip Gunawardena was a patriot and national leader who had the ability to feel into the lives of the people, his recognition of the force of culture, his leadership qualities and his endeavours to restore the moral supremacy of the nation.

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47th Commemoration of Philip Gunawardena

47th Commemoration of National Hero Philip Gunawardena will be held at the Main Auditorium of Sri Lanka Foundation, Colombo 7, tomorrow (27) at 3.30 p.m., chaired by Chancellor of Rajarata University, distinguished International Civil Servant and Award Winning Scholar Dr. Leel Gunasekara and keynote address on “Debt Burden, Common man and True Governance” will be delivered by eminent Constitutional Lawyer and Political Analyst Attonery-at-Law Chrishmal Warnasuriya.