A Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of Lakshman
Kadirgamar P.C. was held on the 20th August 2005 at the Cathedral of Christ the
Living Saviour, Colombo 7. Members of Diplomatic Corps, officials from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a very large circle of relatives, friends and
members of the general public were present.
The names of those who participated are:
The service was led by the Ven Crishantha Mendis, Archdeacon
of Colombo.
Opening Thevaram: Mrs.Jeevanam Watson (niece)
Opening Thevaram: Mrs.Jeevanam Watson (niece)
Opening Prayer: The Rev.Sathiaseelan K.Kadirgamar (cousin)
Tributes: Mr. Silan
Kadirgamar (cousin) and Mr Ragi Kadirgamar (son).
Lessons: Mr Ragi Kadirgamar (son) and Mr. Keira Perera (grandson).
Sermon: The Rt. Revd Duleep de Chickera (Bishop of Colombo)
Intercessions: Ms Ajitha Kadirgamar Perera (daughter).
Closing Prayer: H E Monsignor Mario Zenari (Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See).
Choir: Directed by Mr. Mano Chanmugam
Lessons: Mr Ragi Kadirgamar (son) and Mr. Keira Perera (grandson).
Sermon: The Rt. Revd Duleep de Chickera (Bishop of Colombo)
Intercessions: Ms Ajitha Kadirgamar Perera (daughter).
Closing Prayer: H E Monsignor Mario Zenari (Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See).
Choir: Directed by Mr. Mano Chanmugam
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Service of
Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of
Lakshman Kadirgamar
P.C.
Cathedral of Christ
the Living Saviour
Colombo 7
20 August 2005
A Tribute
Santasilan Kadirgamar
I have been requested to say a few words on behalf of the family.
I have followed the career of Lakshman from the time my family returned from
Malaysia in 1946, after the Second World War and consider it a great privilege
to be given this opportunity at this service, which in our tradition is a
service of thanksgiving and a celebration of life.
In the many exchanges of letters in the last few days I had
this piece from my eldest brother in Toronto who has vivid memories of the
Kadirgamar home “Lalitha” at Queen’s Road, where Lakshman grew and was
nurtured.
“A splendid era,” he writes “one of which we were all proud
of and relished being associated with has gone.” And he adds, “I cannot forget
my early childhood days in the 1930s visiting the home of uncle and aunty.
Lakshman was a little boy of three or four with lovely locks of long curly
hair.”
I wish to dwell on two facets missed in the flood of
tributes we have read since the tragic assassination. Lakshman’s personality
and values were to a great extent shaped and influenced by his distinguished
father, outstanding brothers and sister. He was the youngest in a family of
five brothers and one sister. Few are aware that he lost his mother Parimalam
nee Mather at the tender age of eight, and the task of taking care of him fell
very much on his sister Easwary Richards. The second facet relates to the
Lakshman we knew before he entered parliamentary politics. Born, bred, educated
and having lived the greater part of my life in Jaffna, a visit to the
Kadirgamar home at Queen’s Road was an occasion looked forward to. In the first
of my visits in the mid-50s the room allotted to me was Lakshman’s. He was away
in the UK. There I had my first exposure to his mini-library – a collection of
books that made a permanent impression on me, revealing the man, the ideas and
the values that shaped his life.
In the tributes that have been paid to him I have noted two
comments relevant to what I have to say today. H.L.de Silva the eminent lawyer
and his close friend used the phrase “to the manner born – an icon to be
treasured for generations.” Professor of Archaeology Sudarshan Seneviratne, on
TV stressed the exceptional manner in which he engaged people in discussions. I
know what Sudarshan was exactly talking about having had the privilege of
indulging in long discussions with him, an opportunity rare and far between
that I looked forward to. These interactions ceased after he entered
parliamentary politics and assumed office. I have had similar frank discussions
over the years with two of his brothers Sam and Rajan. The three of them shared
qualities that in the context of the tributes pouring in today, I perceive as
attributes that ran in the family. These were qualities of openness and
intellectual honesty, an uncompromising commitment to principles and in the
context of challenges faced in their lives the demonstration of immense
courage.
Lakshman’s father Sam J.C.Kadirgamar was a well-known figure
in the public life of this country in the first half of the 20th century. He
gave his time to many causes. He was president of the Law Society and a
much-respected member of the Board of Directors of the Colombo YMCA for nearly
four decades, and President for a period. When the Jaffna Diocese of the Church
of South India and this one time congregational church adopted episcopacy, he
was called upon to donate the bishop’s throne made of pure Palmyra wood, which
to this day adorns the altar of the Vaddukoddai Cathedral in which two of
Lakshman’s uncles later served as pastors.
He had obviously great ambitions for his sons, which did not
work out the way he willed. The spacious Queen’s Road house was built in
anticipation that the boys will enter the then University College. As it turned
out Lakshman went to Trinity College and became the single member of the family
entering the Faculty of Law in the neighbouring campus. His brothers Sam, Bhai and Rajan, independent
minded as they were, were attracted to the security forces during the Second
World War. Later Sam took to the legal profession and became a distinguished
Q.C. The brothers Bhai and Rajan remained in the services, the former seeking
early retirement having reached the rank of Major and Rajan reached the rank of
Rear Admiral at a relatively young age, much loved and revered by many who
served under his command. A fourth brother Mana died young under tragic
circumstances in a motor accident.
A word about the ancestry of the Kadirgamar family and roots
that go deep into the past both on the paternal and maternal side would be in
place. These reach back into the history of Jaffna but are first documented
with the arrival of the American Mission in Ceylon with the founding of the
Batticotta Seminary in 1823, now Jaffna College in Vaddukoddai, and the Uduvil
Girls School the following year. The
Rev. Francis Asbury, a fifth generation ancestor, was among the first converts.
He accompanied the Rev. Dr. Daniel Poor, the American principal of the
Batticotta Seminary in establishing the first Congregational Mission in
Pasumalai, Madurai in the 1830s, which in turn led to the establishment of the
American College. It may be noted that one of Lakshman’s uncles studied briefly
at Tagore’s Santiniketan and spent time at Gandhi’s Ashram.
This established a tradition leading to the family members
having a long and intimate relationship with India, which Lakshman carried
forward in a remarkable way into the political realm and the public life of
India.
His paternal grandfather was, a first generation convert,
who hailed from Pt. Pedro – from an orthodox Hindu family that is known to have
been associated with the building of the Sivan Temple in Pt. Pedro. Karthigeyan
Christian Kadirgamar did not give up this very Hindu name when he was baptized.
My uncle once told me that we have given a great deal of trouble to the world
in adopting this family name. A name, which I have noted, that none of my many
good Sinhalese friends can either spell or pronounce correctly. Grandfather
K.C.Kadirgamar was an interpreter Mudaliyar in the Supreme Court of those days,
sowing the seeds for a career in the legal profession in which father and two
sons excelled.
Robert Ashbury, the son of Francis Ashbury and a
great-grandfather was among the first natives appointed to the Faculty of
Jaffna College when it replaced the Batticotta Seminary. He was one of the founders
of the Jaffna College Miscellany and the Alumni Association in 1879. He also
published two books in English. One was on Education and the other on Poetry.
Ashbury and his cousin Strong took over the American Ceylon Mission Press when
the mission did not have the resources to run the press and publish the
bilingual weekly “The Morning Star”, founded in 1848. Robert Asbury edited the
paper until it was handed back to the mission.
On his maternal side Lakshman was the grandson of Edward
Mather, who in turn belonged to the well-known family that engaged in business
and commerce and in subsequent years in the professions and the Christian
ministry.
The legal profession, the Christian ministry including its
service organizations such as the YMCA, teaching and the armed services have
been four strands in which several members of the extended family excelled.
Lakshman served on the legal committee of the YMCA for several years and I was
told only yesterday that he was a life member of the Bible society. He broke
new ground and was the first in the family’s long history to enter the
hazardous, risky and controversial arena of politics in contemporary Lanka – a
subject on which I need not dwell except for a brief comment at the end of this
tribute.
Many of my own recollections of Lakshman have been covered
by the extra-ordinary media coverage his death brought to him. In one of his
interviews he revealed that he had received tons of abuse in his mail. This
last week he has received tons of adulation and appreciation from people from
all walks of life. One recalls his being among the four athletes carrying the
torch on Independence day in 1948, his breaking the public schools record in
the hurdles thereby becoming a role model for his Jaffna cousins at Jaffna College
and St.John’s who excelled in the same event.
A little known fact is that Lakshman could have lost his
life in a plane crash in Greece in the early 80s. He was the last to leave the
plane and had to jump off the emergency exit and was bed-ridden for three
months.
Though Colombo based he had demonstrated an interest in
Jaffna in his early years. As private secretary to Justice Gratien he
accompanied him to Jaffna in the 1950s and participated in the annual student
dinners at Jaffna College. Soon after his return from Oxford in 1960 he gave
top priority in visiting Jaffna for two largely attended lectures. The first,
under the auspices of the Undergraduates Union of Jaffna College was on the
“The Rule of Law.” The second was at the Jaffna YMCA interestingly titled “From
Plato to Srimavo.”
In his own quiet way and known only among very intimate
circles he helped many a person in need in material terms, for educational
purposes and in some cases to settle abroad. Unassuming and self-effacing he
was a gentleman to the core.
We are living in an age of religious fundamentalisms and
religious bigotry that fuel senseless conflict. This can only be contained by
meaningful dialogue among peoples of all faiths. Lakshman was essentially an inter-faith
person. Justice Weeramantry in today’s Island and Eymard de Silva Wijeyeratne
in an earlier article have drawn attention to this. His theology, if I may say
so, was explicitly stated in his Celestine Fernando memorial lecture in October
1992 before he became a minister. His religious convictions perceiving common
values in the four great religions, has struck a responsive chord in me as
among others, and I wish to affirm in the strongest terms have nothing to do
with his assumption of office. As a student of Indian history I place him in
the great tradition in Indian history from Asoka to Akbar, Ramakrishna,
Vivekananda, Tagore and Gandhi - inclusive and not exclusive.
If there is anyway way in which his family and friends would
like to perpetuate his memory, I plead that we give the highest priority to and
carry forward his ideals in inter-faith dialogue in a world increasingly torn
asunder in the name of religion, leading to far greater tragedies than we have
already experienced in this country, the Indian sub-continent, West Asia and
narrow de-humanising religious sectarianism that is fast emerging in the
western world breathing oppression, violence and destruction. His lasting
legacy is a commitment to pluralism and multi-culturalism.
He has carved for himself a permanent place, in the life of
this country and the South Asian region, which will increasingly be seen in
perspective as the years roll by. When the dust and heat has settled on the
conflict that has torn this country apart, and it surely will someday sooner or
later; and when we have our own truth and justice commission in the great South
African tradition, when the perpetrators of violence and injustice have made
their confessions and made peace across the ethnic divide, I hope and believe
the people of this lovely island in the sun will jointly celebrate the life and
work of Lakshman Kadirgamar. We pray that that day come soon.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
I conclude in the first prayer my father taught me and one
that we heard at the state funeral last Monday, “Om Shanthi, Shanthi,
Shanthi”, and in the opening words of a song immortalized by the great
D.K.Pattamal in January 1948, and now sung beautifully by her grand daughter
Nithyasree, which in English I would read “Let there be peace everywhere, Let
spirituality triumph in the world, Let peace prevail in the universe.”
“Engum Shanthi Nilava Vendum, AthmaShakthi Oonga Vendum
Ulahile, Engum Shanthi Nilava Vendum”.
