National Anthems
And other “National” things
There is quite a “conversation” about the Sri Lankan National Anthem. And what languages to sing it in. When I say “conversation”, I’m being kind and inaccurate. One side angrily shouts “Both languages”. The other side, “One Language”.
There is no “conversation” as such. Only angry tantrums in disconnected echo-chambers.
Imaginary Things
“National Anthems” are a subset of a broader set of “National Things”. Like “National Flags”, “National Cuisine”, “National Flowers” and “National Cricket Teams”. These are collective identities that unite all the members of the “National Club”.
There is a problem, though.
The members of the club are real people. Real humans. Homo sapiens with bodies and lives. Things like “Nations” (as our Ethnicities, Religions, and Brands) are all imaginary. They are merely cognitive inventions or myths. They don’t exist. In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari talks about a “pain test”. If something is real, it feels pain. If something is imaginary, it doesn’t feel pain. A soldier fighting for Sri Lanka feels pain. Sri Lanka doesn’t.
Hence, imaginary things have to rely on real things for their survival. The former pass on part of their “personality” to the latter. This “personality” is known as “identity”. The real humans adopt the “identities” of imaginary things.
Different imaginary things have all manner of identities. When a human says they’re Sri Lankan, they adopt the “Sri Lankan Identity”. When they are “Buddhist”, they assume the “Buddhist identity. When they are “Socialist”, the “Socialist Identity”. And so on.
The moment these identities fall apart, the imaginary entities follow suit.
Sri Lankan Identity
“Imaginary” Sri Lanka depends on “real” Sri Lankans adopting a “Sri Lankan Identity”. Without a Sri Lankan identity, there is no Sri Lanka.
And I’d argue that Sri Lanka has no identity. Or at best a very fragile identity. We have various racial, religious, caste, class, and school identities, but these always trump the national identity. Hence, everyone is more Sinhala, Hindu, Govigama, “English-Speaking” or “Royalist”, than they are Sri Lankan.
No nation can survive for long without a national identity. Without one, one of two things happen: A) the nation dies, or B) another identity becomes the “National Identity”.
Sri Lanka has always had “another identity”. And that is the “Sinhala Identity” or in many cases a “Sinhala-Buddhist Identity”. At times competing with the Sri Lankan Identity, and at other times superseding it. If this identity becomes our national identity, it’s not because of racist politicians or monks, or a stupid electorate. It’s because it filled a void. There was nothing else to fill that void.
Concluding Problem
Can Sri Lankans Identify with our national anthem? I admire both the lyrics and music. But then, I can understand it. What about Sri Lankan’s who can’t?
It’s easy to say that we should sing an Anthem in one language or two languages. Or ask questions on which language it should be sung in. But this is not the real question. The real question is: How do we build national identity?
While singing in Sinhala only might sound racist and exclusive to some, the reality is that it fills a void. The solution to that “problem” is not singing in many languages. The solution is to find something to fill that void.
