A Masterpiece of Sri Lankan War Literature

Book: The Road from Elephant Pass

Genre: Fiction

Author: Nihal de Silva

Vijitha Yapa Publications

The guerilla war waged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for a separate state for Sri Lanka`s Tamil community against the government security forces and lasted for nearly three decades and dragged to a close on May 18, 2009 with the killing of the movement`s leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran is arguably the most significant event in our post-independence history.

No doubt, it led to unthinkable carnage both in and outside the battle-field and took the lives of many great men. At the same time, it wrought irreparable damage to the socio-political fabric of Sri Lanka. Its influence on our political landscape, economic climate, social discourse, education, culture and literature is remarkable more for worse than for better.

When it comes to the influence of this ethnic strife on our literature, two English novels stand prominent among a host of other books, both of which have been awarded with the Gratiaen Prize offered by the Gratiaen Trust established by the Sri Lankan born Kanadian author, Michael Ondaatje after winning the Booker Prize for his novel, ‘The English Patient’. Those two novels are ‘Sam`s Story’ by Captain Elmo Jayawardene and ‘The Road from Elephant Pass’ by Nihal de Silva. The latter draws even more on war and its influence on the individual as its plot is unraveled. Also, it was awarded with the State Literary Award in the same year (2003). Incidentally, it is a tragic irony that Nihal de Silva himself was killed in a land-mine blast at Wilpattu National park.

De Silva, the author is a product of St. Joseph`s College, Colombo and the University of Ceylon. He ran his own business dealing in the purification of water and the supply of mineral water. Starting with ‘The Road from Elephant Pass’, he delivered three novels in three successive years. Although this was his maiden novel, it earned him both the Gratiaen Prize and the State Literary award in 2003. In the words of Prof. D.C.R.A. Goonethilleke, an eminent scholar in Sri Lankan Literature in English, “….he (Nihal de Silva) is a phenomenon embodying the essence of recent efflorescence of Sri Lankan literature in English…..”

The novel starts with Captain Wasantha, the narrator of the story and one of the two protagonists of it waiting for a woman, a senior tiger activist, who, his boss Major Kiriella says, has vital information and wants to negotiate a deal with the government army. Reluctantly though, the former takes up the assignment of picking up her from a checkpoint at Palali and taking her to Jaffna. Kamala Velaithan, his charge, turns up but much later than he expects her to. Perhaps, it is her delay that changes their lives so dramatically. With her revelation that the tigers are to launch an all-out offensive against the army camp at Elephant Pass, it all turns darker, harder and more dangerous for both of them, for the woman soldier accompanying them and for Piyasena, their driver. Practically stranded in the hostile terrain, Captain Wasantha has little choice but to follow advice offered by Kamala to whom it is no alien landscape. But, is this woman tiger all that trustworthy? Is her information so reliable that he should undertake a perilous trek through the dense forests of Wilpattu National park to take her to Colombo via Puttlam?

Set against one of the darkest periods of our recent history, ‘The Road from Elephant Pass’ is a novel where the ruthlessness and the brutality of the ever-worsening conflict is in sharp contrast to the human values like love, forgiveness, kindness and compassion. It tells us how people forced by the irreconcilable circumstances take up arms against their brethren on the other side and imperil themselves to pursue the elusive dream of a separate motherland. In a sense, it manages to estimate and explain the human cost of conflict while occasionally hinting at the hypocrisy of the leaders on either side, which is totally discordant with the lofty ideals they pretend to stand for.

The author, it seems to me, has a comprehensive understanding of the reasons that stoked the burning conflict on either side. He is aware of the inevitable consequences of the riots in July 1983. He is aware of the upshot of dirty politics of the narrow-minded leaders from the South hell-bent on self-aggrandizement. He is aware of the difficulties encountered by the government armies as they fought the Tamil tiger rebels. In short, he is aware that, in the final analysis, the country`s ethnic problem has political roots.

With his thorough understanding of the nature and the scale of the country ethnic strife and with his remarkable ability to devise ingenious plots and tell marvelous stories, Nihal de Silva has a written a great novel, which, by any standard, is a masterpiece of Sri Lanka`s war literature. I am certain few readers will dispute the validity of the citation awarding it the Gratiaen Prize and delivered by the panel of judges-Shermal Wijewardene, Priya David and Lakshman Gunasekera:

“For its moving story, for its constant feel of real life, for its consistency of narrative momentum, for its descriptive power, for its dramatic use of dialogue to define social context, capture character psychology and trace the development of a relationship, for its convincing demonstration that resolution of conflict and reconciliation of differences are feasible through mutual experience and regard, and last though not least, for its eminently civilized handling of the last degree of intimacy between a man and a woman, our choice for the 2003 Gratiaen Prize for creative writing in English is, unquestionably, ‘The Road from Elephant Pass’ by Nihal de Silva.”