This book is about Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sinhalese, Tamils – that diversity which was once Ceylon’s strength, which ended when monks and merchants collaborated and a political grievance-monger triumphed through sheer rhetoric and the blessed will of democracy. It was the culmination of “Sinhala Only”.
Her book Sinhala Only, is a testimonial to the historical realities that led to ‘Sinhala only’, its culmination, and its reduction of a multi-cultural and multi-lingual people, to frogs croaking in a well of Sinhala Only. Sinhala Only did not kill English. It killed Sinhala. With the advent of ‘Sinhala Only’ pundits and priests contorted languages into a fetish and estranged the mother tongue from its speakers.
The final part of her trilogy, is a patchwork of people, of tales, of habits, of customs, and minds in the landscape of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. It is the soul of diversity. It is a brave attempt at preserving this diversity amidst the threatening ocean of insularity that seems to be encompassed in the spirit of the time.
Sinhala Only is the story of a sad plight of this nation’s youth, about the birth of Tamil and Sinhalese terrorism. One face with two languages. The two sides of the same coin. Sinhala Only compares, with its many dialogues and many actors, why Ceylon went wrong and India is going right.
This book has also been translated into Sinhala and has a wide circulation. It has been translated by Sepala Wijesekera.