We are publishing in four parts a letter written by Victor Karunairajan to Miss Grace Bunker. When she expressed a desire to serve Jaffna College and the Uduvil Girls College for a period of time teaching English it was considered a fine gesture. She was offered the best of facilities all free despite the fact she received a handsome allowance. But she soon got involved in certain partisan activities amounting to treacherous conduct identifying herself with a rebel group of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. Reacting to Grace Bunker’s activities, Karunairajan, a student of her father, has in a lengthy letter indicated obliquely that her role should have been different; the visions of her parents evidently did not have an impress on her. Karunairajan has conveyed to her that this is a document for the public and especially to the alumni and staff of Jaffna College and the JDCSI.Dear Grace Bunker: This communication will certainly descend from the blues. It was intended to check some particulars you had referred to in your report on the Global Ministries website but as I began to write, I felt it may be a good idea to appraise you of some background information that may help us if you could share these with the missionary bureaucrats at the Wider Churches Ministries of the United Church of Christ (WCM-UCC) and the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds (TJCF).
This letter is also for posterity because it includes information that would never appear in missionary annals, Lockwood memoirs, official documents, minutes and reports. It also has some personal data that will help some future researchers to get a wider picture of the missionary enterprise amidst a friendly community that belongs to the Hindu faith and the good relations that exists among the Hindus and the Christians. The Hindus called the missionaries “Iyers” the highest compliment they could have given them which is only reserved for their Brahmin priests.
A man called Rufus Anderson never understood this reality and went ahead and smashed up Batticotta Seminary in 1855, a successful educational project just because it had failed to make Christians out of Hindus.
Another such disaster, though not of the same kind, may be gathering force in the pipeline if the authors of a hidden agenda have their way with the support of the Wider Churches Ministries (WCM) of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds (TJCF); more specifically, the author and not authors with his unwitting supporters who are pursuing a tiny mouse of hardly any consequence while the wily fox is safely ensconced in the shadows to amass the flowing millions.
Jaffna College: Your parents the Rev Dr Sydney and Ruth Bunker were ideal missionaries especially during the period the American Ceylon Mission was fusing into the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India. Likewise, at the same time Jaffna College too became a fully national institution. Both institutions progressed from a founding based on great visions that in the mid-20th century had completed a century and a quarter of very impressive achievements.
This moment was also marked by two great events. Firstly, it was the coming into being of the Church of South India and the other was the founding of the Jaffna College Technical Institute which had plans under the first national head, Dr W Luther Jeyasingam to achieve a status of a Community College very much like a university; perhaps even a university.
There is something unique about Jaffna College. When the American Mission turned its back following an insensitive report authored by Rufus Anderson and closed the Batticotta Seminary in 1855, it was the spirit of the local people and their determined campaign for 17 years that gave birth to Jaffna College.
This reality is often overlooked, and unashamed attempts have been made to give the impression that Jaffna College was just a continuation of the Batticotta Seminary and there are locals who have enjoyed missionary favours who will without any hesitation sing that chorus. Closing of the seminary was a piteous blemish on the missionary endeavour in North Sri Lanka; nothing like that should happen again.
It was my privilege to have been a student of your father and a member of the English Choir that was led by your mother. Your father also encouraged me to join the Wild Life Protection Society of Ceylon and there were many occasions I had joined him on his trips to Colombo and back by road. On those trips your mother would pack peanut butter sandwiches for me as well which even today is my Number One favourite. I enjoyed the first of this treat munching with your dad on the jungle road between Anuradhapura and Puttalam, our first stop on leaving Vaddukoddai after about 130 miles of non-stop driving.
During those days with the kind of road conditions that existed and virtually a single track, it was a pretty good effort. Normally, it would have taken four hours but your dad, I think did it in three hours and a half. He timed seven hours to Colombo. At first it was an Austin Cambridge that did yeoman service to Jaffna College and then came the Volkswagen Beetle, the miracle car. I loved it. Along the drive, we would be engaged in lively conversations on so many topics but the one we really loved was wild life.
How we hoped we could come across a herd of elephants at every jungle turn, even a leopard or two but all we saw were monkeys, both species, having their roadside conferences and I suppose making their observations on the human species. On one occasion, there were some buffaloes that performed Satyagraha on the middle of the road.
We had to wait till they expressed their intentions from both ends. If the Federal Party had learnt the Discipline of Satyagraha from these ruminants we would have had positive results; their patient peaceful posture was worthy of admiration. We were in their territory and their rights have to be respected. Things are different in Sri Lanka today even for the humans.
What I liked most of your parents and also Dr Robert and Frannie Holmes was that they appreciated my views on various issues, some of them in conflict with theirs. We have had very healthy discussions and politically, I was a socialist. My nature is such and my interests being the welfare of the people who were exploited on the basis of caste and class, I could not have supported any political party other than the LSSP. I was quite an outspoken member of the community, both of the college and the church.
Privileged College Community: I did not belong to any of the privileged college and church families neither did I yearn for such handouts as Vellore scholarships and study opportunities overseas especially in the US. My brother Christy Richards who served on the staff of Jaffna College for sometime shared my spirit too. We came from the neighbouring village of Sithankerny. Ours was the only Christian family there. The Cradle of our Culture is Hinduism and we were very comfortable among our people who respected our faith and beliefs.
On my father’s side our immediate ancestors belonged to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and they considered themselves very English, something out of taste with me. Being educated at St John’s College and Chundikuli Girls College was thought to be of the high class breed; Jaffna College and Uduvil Girls College, middle class or less. I never liked an English surname and when I became a major promptly changed it to Karunairajan by deed poll and your dad was one of the first to comment an approval of it. I chose a challenging surname that means a monarch of grace, something worthy of emulation.
On my mother’s side, our ancestors have worshipped in at least seven of the 21 churches of the South India United Church (SIUC) and later Church of South India (CSI). Unlike the CMS, the SIUC/CSI had worshipping members across the whole gamut of the social divisions that exist in the Tamil community; indeed a plus point for us. You will also note that it is this community that first had co-educational schools in the entire country. It was such a liberating force for our women well ahead of the kind of opportunities they even had in the West that they came to the forefront in public life.
In this respect, the Hindu community followed suit but not the CMS or the Methodists and for that matter any other Christian school. In other words, it is something of a pride and privilege to belong to the JDCSI for trail-blazing this revolution. Had not the southern racial and religious fanatics taken over the political reins of the country, Sri Lanka would have moved gallantly on several progressive fronts.
My maternal grandmother who came from a tiny hamlet in Thenmaradchy near Elephant Pass was fortunate to have been sent by her farmer parents to the Girls Mission College at Uduppiddy. Later she became a very good example of an ideal mother, step-mother and foster mother all at that same time and a blessing to so many people. She lived a long life even to have a role in helping to bring up my two daughters, her great-grand children. Although she was a newcomer to Sithankerny after marrying my grandfather, she soon became a leader in the community loved and respected by everyone there.
Since my grandfather was a member of the Chankanai Church, she too became an active participant there. During our childhood years, we would walk with her to Chankanai through the paddy fields on Sunday mornings for the worship service there. It was quite a walk, at least three miles; looking back, they were most enjoyable too. We imbibed in this kind of experience her grit, determination and faith.
On the popular request of the local people her funeral procession from Sithankerny to Vaddukoddai, a distance of a mile and a half for committal rites, was a slow one. Scores of people walked by in the procession as a tribute to her life and spirit. While Christian lyrics were sung along the way, some Hindus also sang sacred verses from their scriptures.
When we reached the Cathedral Church, there were Bishop Kulendran and Principal Selliah to receive us to the farewell tolling of the bells to a lovely woman whose entire life was a service to motherhood in all its facets, grand and great-grand and a good and faithful member of the community. Her mortal remains lie next to the dining section of the President’s Bungalow where you would have spent your holidays when your dad and mum were resident in it.
To Be Continued….
(Victor Karunairajan is a South Asian journalist who lives in Canada. He could be contacted on serendeebam@gmail.com)
Post a Comment