Book review: “The students’ protests 1975-76 at University of Peradeniya that ousted President Vithanage and Sirimavo’s dictatorship”

By G.G.P. Abesekara 

The book launch ceremony of Dr. Rajasinghe Bandara, “The students’ protests 1975-76 at University of Peradeniya that ousted President Vithanage and Sirimavo’s dictatorship” was held at Mahaweli Centre Auditorium, Colombo 7, at the beginning of this month. Former speaker Karu Jayasuriya was the Chief Guest. Former Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya, and veteran diplomat and political scientist Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka delivered the main speeches. I was among the audience. 

The book is about the tyranny of the University President P.W. Vithanage who was appointed by Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike after sacking the immensely popular previous President Prof. George Kodithuwakku. The action of the Government outraged the entire students’ community and they started protesting against newly appointed President Prof. P.W. Vithanage from the very day he was appointed. The protests broke out in the middle of the night after hearing the bad news. I was the President of the Students’ Council at that time.

The Government-controlled media had been trying to justify its action with fake news that claimed Prof. George Kodithuwakku failed to control the ragging. They claimed that the female student Rupa Rathnaseeli tried to commit suicide, to avoid ragging, by jumping from the top floor of Ramanathan Hall. However it was totally misleading; by this time ‘rag season’ was over. I went to the scene with Prof. George Kodithuwakku and talked to the female students of Ramanathan Hall to understand the truth. In fact she had fallen from the balcony of the 7th wing. The book reveals the mystery surrounds the 7th wing and why it happened.

From the day Prof. Vithanage assumed duties as the president, the university was a hostile environment to him. Police had been deployed, at dawn, throughout the university before his arrival. He tried to control the university like a ‘police state’. His tyranny continued. Students as well as university trade unions had been demanding his removal, but the Government didn’t listen. The end result was a tragedy. On 12 November 1976, with the brutal police attack on the innocent students, one student was shot dead and more than 200 students were badly injured. 

In the aftermath of the brutal police attack, massive protests broke out all over the country against the Government. Millions of ordinary people including school children came to the streets to protest. As a result the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Government collapsed. This is how the story unfolds in the book as if you were watching a movie. According to Rajasinghe Bandara, Dayan Jayatilleka was the first reader of the book and he had praised him saying, “Raja, your book visualises the history as though we were watching a drama.”  

The author describes the history from an eyewitness account, as he had been an active participant of the protests and the action committee.

Truth, lies and tyranny

As I had been the President of the Students’ Council from 1975-76, I have an in-depth knowledge about the protests, stories, the truth and lies and the tyranny of Prof. Vithanage that have been described in the book. Dayan Jayatilleka and Mahinda Deshapriya were active participants of the protests and the action committee. They made the stories in the book live among the audience with their own experience. As they were talking about their experience about the brutal police attack on innocent students on 12 November, the audience held their breath. 

Learning from history

Dayan was mainly addressing the new generation about the importance of learning from history at the time they are getting ready to vote for a new president. Dayan gave a vivid analysis about how the Sirimavo’s Government and the opposition leader J.R. Jayewardene played to the gallery during the time of the protests. He said, “Sirimavo and JR shared the same political ideologies; same as elite political leaders do today, but they pretended to ordinary people they were against each other.”

Mahinda Deshapriya was talking about the day of horror on 12 November and the students’ protests on the previous night. He was talking about the truth and lies about the history of the protests confirming the facts and figures in the book. Mahinda said, “The media claimed Rupa Rathnaseeli tried to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony but in fact she fell from the balcony. When I was the assistant election commissioner, one day, I met Ronnie Gunasinghe, the former HQI Mathale Police station, the man who ordered to shoot at the students. He told me about the lies he said to the Wimalarathna commission to justify the shooting.”

In my opinion as the reader of the book, I can say without any hesitation, the way the author presents the history; the stories, the protests and the events unfolds in front of the reader like in a movie because he visualises the events, paragraph after paragraph and chapter after chapter. As I was reading, it brought me back to my young age at the university.

There are different tones of the book the reader can hear as he is reading. The tones have been set according to the settings: sometimes it is the tone of the young lives, sometimes humorous, sometimes horrifying; for example, when the author describes the ragging and Vithanage’s character it is humorous, when he describes the police attack it is horrifying.

Every chapter has an interesting and sensible title that helps to maintain the curiosity from beginning to end. For example, ‘Nidhi Vedi Hanthana Avadikala Rae’, The day Hanthana was awoken in the middle of the night. 

‘When lion kneels people assume he had fallen but they don’t know lion kneels to jump again.’ – Prof. Vithanage.

Opportunity to read the truth

When there is a dictatorship in a country the media is under control of the regime. Therefore, the citizens do not have the opportunity to read the truth. Same thing happened under the Sirimavo Bandaranaike regime. But now you have the opportunity to read the truth.

This book contains a newspaper article, which was written by the author when the J.R. Jayewardene Government proposed to close down Peradeniya University permanently at the foothills of Hanthana in 1986. As a result, the Government withdrew the plan. It also contains a postface that links the past to the present explaining why there had been a 30-year-long civil war and how our country fell into bankruptcy in the hands of corrupt rulers. 

I can firmly say that this is the only book about the complete and true history of the dark era of University of Peradeniya from 1975-76. Therefore it is worth reading to learn from the past, at the time our people prepare to vote for another president. 

(The writer was the President of the Students Council of University of Peradeniya from 1975-76, during the time of the protests against Prof. P.W. Vithanage. After graduation he worked for several Government boards and corporations at senior managerial levels. His last job was General Manager at Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation.)