From free education to freedom of speech
Perhaps the greatest achievement in Sri Lanka during the twentieth century was the introduction of free education for all. It came in response to irresistible demands from the local people of all communities. By 1942, free education from kindergarten to university was in principle available to everyone. The effects were dramatic. Education spread to the remotest villages, as it was taken up enthusiastically by people at all levels of society. Particularly in the distant rural areas, energetic teachers and parents zealously devoted themselves to making the free education policy a success.
As years went by, the challenge laid by universal free education began to be felt in one area in particular: freedom of speech. For most of history, the majority of the population had been kept silent.
Then people began to talk. But one of the most sensitive areas of social development is freedom of speech. That people found their voices due to improved education did not mean an automatic expansion of freedom of speech. In fact, new voices lead to conflict, as they test the limits of censorship and other established rules in the society.
Censorship has many forms. There is the censorship directly imposed by the state, which makes some forms of speech punishable with legal consequences. There is also self-censorship. By self-censorship what is meant is the indirect pressure from the social elite, and state and religious authorities, intended to restrain certain forms of speech, usually those that directly or indirectly challenge the established authorities. Self-censorship is often mediated through religious and educational institutes, and also the media.
Another kind of censorship is cultural censorship. It is this censorship that had for thousands of years silenced the majority of people in Sri Lanka. Throughout this time, the society was organised according to a caste hierarchy. This division of persons and their social functions was also applied to speech. The extent to which a person had a voice in the society depended on their position within the caste hierarchy, among which the lowest castes had virtually no rights to speak at all.
One way of reinforcing the caste hierarchy and concomitant cultural censorship was through the denial of education. Only the Brahmin caste had an innate right to education. In fact, the Brahmin caste was functionally the educated caste. But it differed from modern educated classes in that it was not an educating caste. In fact, one of its sacred duties was to restrict access to education among other castes. This sacred boundary was broken with the introduction of free education. Education ceased to be a privilege dependent upon one’s position in the social hierarchy. Thus, a foundation of caste-based society was broken. Psychologically, the change in the society was irrevocable. It was only a matter of time before practical expressions of this momentous change spread into all areas of life.
The foundation upon which cultural censorship was built in Sri Lanka for centuries no longer exists. So for how much longer can its residual practices persist? This question will be answered as new voices and forms of expression grow in the society in the coming years. Ordinary people are no longer talking in low voices. It is inevitable that their voices will grow louder, as is their right.
