By Godwin Witane posted by D.N. Aloysius
Leonard Woolf's Village in
the jungle is one of the few books that has been written on the life and
conditions of the peasants in the remote jungle villages in the Dry Zone.
This story undoubtedly is
interesting not only to the people of this island but also to people of other
countries who would like to know the conditions of the people who were living
in villages under British rule then, now long forgotten.
The author of this book
Leonard Woolf who was A.G.A. Hambantota spent nearly three years of the seven
years he spent in the island closely associating and working among the rural
unsophisticated villagers in the arid jungles now nearly extinct except only
the memory depicting out a trace of what existed then, a stump of a dead palm
tree or a mound of earth where a hut had stood.
The whole area has now
returned to jungle leaving a depression in the ground in places which had once
been a village tank. The author in describing the life and the conditions of
the people in one such village called Beddegama recalls that there were strange
happenings about its surroundings and within this village.
Among the chief characters
in the story Silindu and his two twin daughters Punchi Menika and Hinnihamy are
disclosed as playing a melancholy role in their struggle against the powerful
spirits of the jungle, the beasts that inhabited it and their unequal conflict
with the evil representatives of the ruling authority, the Village Headman
Babehamy and the cruel native doctor Punchirala, the evil of whom lurked deep
down in their nature and demeanour.
The land in Hambantota
District was flat and low and usually missed both monsoons making the climate
very hot and dry. There the rainfall was as low as 25" a year and as a
result even the water holes in the jungle ran dry when the jungle animals like
deer and sambhur suffered the most. It is only the elephant that remembered the
far off rivers.
The other animals smelling
the sea breeze in the air wander about sniffing the air for days, their heads
always turned towards the sea far away until they die of thirst and exhaustion.
Even if they find a water hole the water is usually found very low that these
animals cannot get down to it. They wander round and round it for days when
they fall prey to predators.
The peasants did not have a
settled form of agriculture and only when water was available in the form of
tanks fed by the rain they resorted to agriculture and were less poor. Others
resorted to chena cultivation utilizing the scanty rain that fell in those
parts and lived in the jungles centred round groups of villagers living by
these means. Malaria was the scourge that wiped out village communities.
The attitude to life in
this small community had the note of fatalistic acceptance of a malevolence
natural to the people of Baddegama. Sometimes the oft spoken phrase was
"What can we do? What can we do? Always evil is coming to the house from
the jungle? There are devils in the trees in the jungle".
No jungle was more evil
than the jungle which lay about the village of Baddegama. The jungle surrounded
it, overhung it and continuously pressed upon it. For the villagers life was a
weary, ominous, permanent and pitiful struggle especially for Silindu. However,
human effort were not always defeated. The villagers melancholy resigned to
this sad fate.
The villagers though they
professed Buddhism had a strange and more intimate relationship with the jungle
deities than with Buddhism. Silindu's wife dies after the birth of twins Punchi
Menika and Hinnihamy, Silindu brings his sister-in-law to bring up the twins.
When Punchi Menika comes of
age the Headman's wife's cousin Babun marries her and the other girl Hinnihamy
is married to a local Vedarala and Kattadiya called Punchirala.
A money lender from the
town called Fernando fleeces the villagers and exploits their chena harvest.
Fernando tries to lure Punchi Menika and the Headman too encourages it. Failing
this proposal the Headman brings a false case against Babun and Silindu of
house breaking.
They are prosecuted in
Hambantota Law Courts and Babun is convicted on false evidence and Silindu is
acquitted.
Evil and human suffering
are symbolized in the story of Beddegama where the effort of man are small and
defeated. The people of the village endured the suffering which is displayed by
Punchi Menike who withstand alone until the parched jungle trust upon her.
Leonard Woolf the young
Civil Servant arrived in Ceylon in the year 1904 and was posted in Jaffna where
he learnt Tamil and after a short spell was stationed in Kandy. He learnt
Sinhala there. In his third year of service he was promoted as A.G.A.
Hambantota where he spent nearly three years.
The Government Agent of
early British rule enjoyed more authority than his counterpart of today. He had
close contact with the people whose affairs he administered in South Ceylon.
Leonard Woolf was a keen person who had the power of human observation.
He projected an accurate
picture of the peasants and the quality of living in the small community. He
held a most influential and powerful position in Government.
The Civil Servants were the
virtual rulers of Ceylon next to the Governor. They were entrusted with
executive functions. They also had an important share in the judiciary. They
were intelligent and able men. They did not favour any caste or community and
their powers were not misused.
Leonard Woolf had enough
leisure and therefore his contact with the people was more often immediate and
personal. A story about an incident where a barber had harassed one of his
customers in order to gain more money is related in Woolf's diaries.
An old man with one side of
his face shaved and the other side unshaven rushed to the Government Agent and
fell at his feet.
He complained that the
barber in the bazaar after shaving one half of his face had refused to shave
the other part unless he paid 50 cents.
The price of a shave at
that time was only 5 cents. Immediately the barber was sent for and he appeared
accompanied by a crowd of spectators. The decision was that if he cut the
client's face carelessly he was to pay 50 cents to the client. The operation
was completed under a coconut tree before a large crowd of spectators jeering
at the barber who with a rouged face performed his action with the greatest
care not to injure the customer. This incident had occurred when the G.A. was
in circuit in the villages.
In 1911 Leonard Woolf went
to England on an year's leave where he married Virginia an old school friend
but at the end of his leave he resigned from the Ceylon Civil Service to devote
his time in literary pursuits in England.
He became a writer,
publisher and an editor. Woolf visited Sri Lanka in the year 1960 at the age of
80 and made a sentimental visit to Hambantota District where he had spent 3
years from 1908 to 1911.
