SDHF Newsletter No.345 Sri Lanka’s march to freedom alongside the rest of Asia

Sri Lanka’s march to freedom alongside the rest of Asia
By Senaka Weeraratna (Attorney-at-law, Sri Lanka)

Commemorating Sri Lanka’s Independence Day, February 4, Mr. Senaka Weeraratna wrote, “Sri Lanaka’s march to freedom alongside the rest of Asia,” in the Daily FT, Sri Lanka’s only national daily business newspaper. With Mr. Weeraratna’s kind permission, we republish his commentary here:

https://www.ft.lk/columns/Sri-Lanka-s-march-to-freedom-alongside-the-rest-of-Asia/4-730421

He writes that Sri Lanka’s independence rode on the back of India’s struggle. India, under the leadership of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, marched on to Delhi with Japanese military assistance. Even though his struggle failed, it led the way to Indian independence.

The Government of India has declared Netaji Subash Chandra Bose the father of India’s struggle for freedom, displacing Mahatma Gandhi from a pedestal that many thought was unassailable. This represents a historic shift towards changing the overall narrative of India’s liberation from British occupation.

The view that Mahatma Gandhi, utilizing ‘Ahimsa’ and ‘non- violence’ in his civil disobedience campaigns, won India’s freedom has been discarded.

Western colonialism in Asia was ultimately defeated by force of arms on the part of the people of Asia. The Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Burmese, Indians, and Filipinos successfully challenged the West– resisting foreign occupation and finally emerging victorious. The departure of the West from the East after nearly 500 years of military adventurism and hegemonic rule is one of the defining landmarks of the 20th century.

Mr. Weeraratna further calls for spiritual “decolonization.” He says “… our written History particularly of the colonial era from 1505 – 1948 should be reviewed and rewritten by top scholars with de-colonized minds. This principle also applies to the drawing of the national constitution.”

European historians and intellectual elitists will condemn such “historical revisionism”! Yes, this is in fact revision of history, written with a decolonized view of history.

HTML: https://www.sdh-fact.com/essay-article/1877/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/SriLankaE.pdf

MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact