C. Anjalendran – Grandfather’s Letters

The controversial Professor of Mathematics, scholar and lawyer from Vavuniya – C. Suntharalingam, was a member of independent Ceylon’s first cabinet of Ministers alongside D.S Senanayake, S.W.R.D Bandaranaike, J.R Jayewardene, J.L Kotelawala, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, T.B Jayah, Dudley Senanayake etc. Resigning from his Ministerial post in an era of rising communal tension, he composed open letters to his grandchildren, venting his disenchantment, and decrying the direction that Ceylon’s newly gained independence was taking under the stewardship of her elected officials. These letters, serialised in newspapers over fifty years ago, present an insight into a version of events that contributed to our turbulent, recent history.