Sunday, May 11, 2003		Books

Sri Lanka encapsulated
Priyanka Singh

Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka
by C. A. Gunawardena. Sterling.
Pages 324. Rs 900.

THE "pearl island" has for some reason or the other, and not always pleasant, been in news; more so now with the Tamil guerrillas having decided to suspend the peace talks.

For those interested in the history of the island nation in an encapsulated form, this encyclopaedia will be informative. From the primary reasons for the over 19-year-old ethnic strife between the Sri Lankan Tamils and the government to everything there is to know about the country and its people, including cuisine, world heritage sites, beaches, cities, academics, politics, education, health, banking, cinema and the economic scene, it is all there.

With over 1,100 entries and nearly 100 pictures, the book is not only exhaustive and well researched, but also a tourist guide, who’s who and encyclopaedia all rolled into one. The compiler has an interesting track record. He began his career as a journalist with the Ceylon Daily News and went on to become the Director of Information at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. He later served on the secretariat of the South Commission in Geneva and in the London office of the Commission on Global Governance. At present he works as an editorial consultant. He says he was inspired to undertake such a venture after he came across the "Encyclopaedia of Britain," admitting that the biographical details are more pronounced in his compilation as Sri Lanka lacks sources of such information.

Gunawardena has included non-Sri Lankans—Emperor Ashoka, Annie Besant, Rabindranath Tagore, Indira Gandhi, James Joyce and Marco Polo, for instance—who have been associated with the country in a significant way. Among other countries, Australia and main overseas benefactor Japan, besides international organisations like Amnesty International and the IMF, which have had an impact on Sri Lanka, are also listed. He has taken care to include women achievers and foreign writers in whose works Sri Lanka finds mention. He has culled information from various sources, the details of which are listed in the bibliography.

Though there is no scope for commentative writing in an encyclopaedia, Gunawardena has done. While it may pass for more general topics like gems and spices, it comes across as particularly strong under some entries. The author says of Rajiv Gandhi: "The one-time Prime Minister of India was assassinated at a political rally in Madras in 1991 by a Sri Lankan woman suicide-bomber sent by the LTTE. He paid the price for having ordered the Indian Peace-Keeping Force to disarm the Tigers forcibly. In a longer-term perspective, it could be said that he paid the price for the decision of his mother, Indira Gandhi, when she was the Prime Minister, to support the LTTE, a secessionist group in a neighbouring country, as part of a strategy to influence events in the region."

In the preface, however, the author says, "My own areas of enthusiasm and of ignorance may have influenced these contents. I may therefore be open to the charge of subjectivity but I hope I am not seen as capricious or, worse, unfair." His earnestness makes it possible to pardon him.