Social Affairs. Vol.1 No.7, 105-118, Fall 2017

Social Affairs: A Journal for the Social Sciences ISSN 2478-107X (online) www.socialaffairsjournal.com

SOCIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CEYLON*

H.L. Seneviratne** Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, USA

ABSTRACT

For eight years after its establishment in 1948, the Department of Sociology remained in the ambiguous terrain of being both an independent department and a subordinate partner of the Economics Department. In that role Sociology supplied courses for students in Economics who wished to choose it as their ‘Special Subject’ within Economics. Sociology also supplied a few courses for the Sinhala and Philosophy departments. This paper narrates the story of how the two major figures to chair the Department of Sociology during this period contributed in their own ways to facilitate the passage of Sociology to the status of a degree-granting department, ending its ambiguous, anomalous, and liminal state.

Key words: Sociology, Economics, Bryce Ryan, Ralph Pieris

This paper is an account of the Department plight rooted in any statutory limitation but a of Sociology of the University of Ceylon in limitation of resources, in particular the want approximately the first decade of its existence. of adequate teaching staff. This may partly The most significant development during this have been due to the ‘late comer’ status of period was the transition of the department Sociology in relation to other disciplines, and a from one that provided courses for other related vicious circle of inadequate resources departments, in particular Economics, to and low enrollments. Being a subordinate one that awarded its own degrees, making partner of Economics was also a part of the it a full-fledged and autonomous entity. The legacy of the department’s structural origin in inability to grant its own degrees was not a the model of British universities. The oldest

*I wish to thank Bradman Weerakoon, R.S. generosity in making valuable documents available Perinbanayagam, Ranjini Obeyesekere, Laksiri to me. Jayasuriya, Tissa Fernando, P.A.S.Saram, and P. Weerasekera for sharing with me bits of useful **Author e-mail: information about the sociology department [email protected] in its early era. Kitsiri Malalgoda, Amarasiri de Silva, and Tissa Jayatilake made comments that ©2017 Social Affairs Journal. This work is enabled me to vastly improve the paper. Thanks licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- to Philip McEldowney for outstanding bibliographic NonCommercial 4.0 International License. assistance, and to John Rogers for his extraordinary

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Department of Sociology in the UK was at of unifying the Americas against the Axis the London School of Economics (LSE) and Powers, and adopted in the post war era only goes back to the beginning of the 20th as a general feature of US foreign policy. It century; and it started as a subsidiary of the is possible that the appointment of Ryan as Economics Department. This paper makes Professor and Chairman of the Department an attempt to assess the relative contribution of Sociology was made financially feasible of the two major figures that strived in their by his concurrent service as Consultant for own ways to the progress of the department the Division of Medicine and Public Health of towards achieving full-fledged status as a the Rockefeller Foundation during the same department that granted its own degrees. period (1948-52). It is also possible that funds came from the Smith-Mundt programme Sociology began as an academic discipline just established by the US Information and in , then Ceylon, in the academic Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Public year 1948-49, when it was added to the list Law 80-402). The appointment of C.H. Mac of ‘Special Subjects’ available for students Fadden, Professor of Geography, University reading Economics (Report1 1949, p. 11). of California to the Department of Geography According to one of the students in that class, for the academic year 1950-51 gives us the iconic public servant Bradman Weerakoon a clue. “Application was made [by the (student years 1949-52), the class consisted University] for his [Mac Fadden’s] services of approximately 10 students. They were through the American Embassy with the required to take three Sociology courses, Smith-Mundt Act which empowers the State one of which was on Methods (Weerakoon, Department to subsidise the employment of December 2, 2017)2. Eight year later, in the American professors as visiting professors academic year 1956-57, 12 students were in universities, outside the United States. admitted to a newly crafted programme The University pays an ordinary professorial leading to a degree in Sociology independent salary, while the cost of transportation and the of Economics. After taking eight prescribed difference between an American professorial courses and the final examination they salary and a Ceylon salary are met out of were awarded their degrees, the first ever funds provided by the Congress” (Report in Sociology, in 1959. In addition to the eight 1950, p. 3). papers based on the prescribed courses, the final examination included a ninth paper, an While this arrangement may have been a essay on a topic selected from the several possibility, Ryan’s appointment was different provided3. in several ways. First, the process described above applied to visiting positions that typically Although by the 1940s several individual were one-year appointments, whereas Ceylonese had some exposure to the subject Ryan’s, with its open tenure, resembled more in their studies overseas, Sociology in Sri a permanent appointment. Ryan held the Lanka formally began with the appointment Chair of Sociology since 1948, the year of its of the American sociologist, Bryce Ryan inception. His departure in 1952 was due to as Professor of Sociology at the University his resignation rather than any condition of of Ceylon. The factors involved in bringing his employment. Second, while the steady about this appointment, including the relative stream of American scholars that followed roles played by Ryan and the University are Ryan to the University of Ceylon consisted unclear. The enabling broad context however of recruits to established departments like seems to have been ‘cultural diplomacy’ that Economics, History, Geography, Literature, began in the World War II years as a way and the Sciences, Ryan’s assignment

-106- Sociology at the University of Ceylon H.L.Seneviratne included the founding of an altogether new dimension was Ryan’s conception of department. While I do not at present have academic work as being tied up with and any documentary or other verifiable source to relevant to the pragmatic needs of society. support this, incidental evidence suggests that This again was rooted in the pragmatic the Vice Chancellor Sir was keen manner in which research was intertwined to establish Sociology as part of the curriculum with social utility in the American academe, of his university. This is a possibility altogether particularly the land grant universities. in keeping with Sir Ivor’s well-documented Bryce Ryan, the founder of Sociology at the dedication to the cause of founding a first rate University of Ceylon, and thereby in the island, university. Accordingly, he may have thought was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1911. Prior it only fitting that the emerging new field of to accepting his position at the University of Sociology be represented in the university. As Ceylon he worked in research and teaching a social scientist, both as well as a university positions including that of Assistant Professor administrator, he would have been familiar at Rutgers University, which was to later with the emergence of Sociology in the publish his major work on Ceylon (Ryan academic scene in the UK as represented by 1953). After his four-year tenure at the its major universities, in particular the London University of Ceylon, he worked for two years School of Economics. (1952-54) at the Department of Sociology and The exact details of Ryan’s assignment are Anthropology, Cornell University as Visiting not mentioned in the only publicly available Professor specializing in non-Western source, the Reports of the Council of the cultures. He did one more stint in this migratory University. These details, if at all, are available career, a brief one-year tenure at Wayne only in the minutes and other records of the State University, Detroit, before settling down senior university officials and of the relevant at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, bodies. We can however reasonably assume where he was Professor and Chairman of the that Ryan had all the authority and the Department of Sociology until his retirement discretion to carry out the responsibilities of in 1977. He rose to national prominence with “Professor and Chairman” as he is sometimes the publication in January 1950, jointly with referred to in the Council Reports. We can Neal C. Gross, a paper titled ‘Acceptance and equally reasonably assume that he carried Diffusion of Hybrid Corn Seed in Two Iowa with him the American conception of academic Communities’ (Ryan and Gross 1950). (Ryan freedom that allowed him substantial leeway lists this work in the Eighth Annual Report of to make his own decisions about how much the Council of the University of Ceylon, 1949, ‘administration’ he did and how much teaching under its pre-publication title ‘Cultural Factors and research, and how he combined the latter in the Diffusion of Hybrid Seed Corn’). The two. Looking at his record of work during his ‘diffusion of innovations paradigm’ the paper tenure it appears that teaching and research expounded became highly influential among enjoyed priority over administration, which in American scholars of Rural Sociology, the existing context included the initiative, and leading to some 4000 research publications. steps towards the achievement of full-fledged Incidentally, this paper illustrates the intimate status for the Department of Sociology by relation between academic work and socio- enabling it to confer its own degrees. As for economic activity characteristic of the teaching and research, he also combined the American academe alluded to above. two in ways unfamiliar to the orthodoxy held A second American sociologist, Murray by both the academic and the administrative Straus, joined the Department as Lecturer in establishments of the university. A further

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1949. At the time he joined the department, and Marx as “peripheral entry points [he] Straus was young and inexperienced, and stumbled into Sociology” (ibid, p. 15), which was in the process of meeting the final he found appealing. Sociology, however, was requirement for his Master’s degree, the oral unavailable in Ceylon, so he persuaded his exam on his thesis, which he took on the day parents to send him to the London School he left for Ceylon. He travelled by freighter from of Economics (LSE), “the only institution in New York to , which took a month. England teaching sociology, and that as part Prior to the offer for the position in Ceylon, of the economics degree” (ibid). This meant Straus had been planning to become a Latin that he still had to take economics courses American specialist, and had an informal with which he was decidedly unimpressed. understanding with one of his professors As he puts it, “The aridity and irrelevance of working in Venezuela that the latter would the economics lectures at LSE by Benham, employ him. But he opted for the job in Ceylon Hayek, Kaldor and Robbins was not due to because it “seemed even more interesting” their ineptitude as theorists, but rather owing (Straus, Letter to John Rogers, October 26, to the self-imposed limitations of the discipline 2011). He gives profuse credit to Ryan for the itself, resulting from the zealous yearning to quality of guidance and mentorship and the make it an abstract “science”, distinct from “real education about Ceylon and Sociology” the humanities” (ibid). he received at the hands of the latter (ibid). Pieris made another discovery at the London Straus went on to achieve a distinguished School of Economics, namely that Sociology career in Sociology including teaching at was saddled with the same problem as the Washington State, Wisconsin, Cornell, Economics; -- its pretense to scientific Minnesota, and New Hampshire universities. status. Besides, “… there was no clearly At New Hampshire he founded and directed defined subject matter for sociology. Leading for over 40 years the Family Research sociologists came from other disciplines, Laboratory, the main mission of which was to W.J.H. Sprott and M. Ginsberg from demonstrate the negative effect of physical Philosophy, T.H. Marshall from economic punishment in socializing children. His work history and D.V. Glass from demography” repetitively demonstrated that children who (ibid, p. 18). In addition, he found quite were not subject to physical punishment grew unacceptable the “dedicated reverence” of up to be healthier adults who were less likely M. Ginsberg, Professor and Chairman, to to resort to violence in dealing with their own the work of his predecessor, L.T. Hobhouse, children and spouses, going to the extent of in particular Ginsberg’s claim that the latter’s arguing that abused children had lower IQs. Morals in Evolution (1906) was “not only a Ralph Pieris, who was to succeed Ryan as treatise on morals but also a comparative Head of Department and later as Professor sociology underlying which was a belief in and Chairman, entered the newly established the progress of man from “uncivilized” to University of Ceylon in 1942 and graduated in “civilized”, reflecting the Mediaeval dichotomy 1945. He read Economics with Banking as his of man into Christian and Heathen” (as cited ‘special subject’, but was disillusioned with in Pieris 1988, p. 16). He however liked the its lack of relevance for the social reality that work of T.H. Marshall, and found the lectures surrounded him, believing that the economics by H.L. Beales and T.S. Ashton “stimulating”, he was taught was the dismal science with with Harold J. Laski as the real “draw” (ibid). scant reference to its human content (Pieris Thus, despite reservations, there was enough 1988, p. 9). With different strands of thought for him to make his peace with the London such as those of Keynes, Sombart, Mandeville, School of Economics, and he decided to

-108- Sociology at the University of Ceylon H.L.Seneviratne work under Marshall’s supervision, along with justifiably considered ‘scientific’, and certain Edward Shils as his class tutor. He defended others ‘humanistic’, many are in between his thesis in late 1949 and was awarded his and are a mixture of the two approaches. doctoral degree in early 1950. He recalls that This conception of Sociology also made his second examiner, S. H. Frankel of Oxford, the automatic assumption that those who remembered his dissertation when he visited engaged in ‘scientific’ or ‘utilitarian’ Sociology the latter fifteen years later. were for that reason averse to or ignorant of history and theory. According to Pieris’ Pieris’ strongly held view that “sociology memoir, Ryan once told him that he (Ryan) belongs to the humanities, and not an exact has no interest in history or theory, having science in any sense of the word” (ibid, p. studied at a “cow college (Texas)” (ibid). The 18), perhaps explains the considerable effort light-heartedness of the comment and its he invested in the establishment of a degree self-deprecating humour seems to have been programme in Sociology at the University lost on Pieris, who later used the comment to of Ceylon. Sociology could have continued disparage the questionnaire based fieldwork as a subject, and a department that did Ryan conducted (ibid). In reality, Ryan was not grant its own degrees, but that would at a “cow college” (the University of Texas) have been at the expense of sacrificing the only for one year. He spent 11 of his 12 years project of training students to be humanists of university education at The University of who alone would be true sociologists,. In the Washington, Seattle, and , plight of the Sociology Department playing which are hardly “cow colleges”. Besides, second fiddle to Economics, he may have Ryan was far from indifferent to social theory of seen a shadow of his personal journey in which he had a firm grasp that was on display which his disappointment with Economics at his inaugural lecture at King George’s Hall, led him to ‘stumble’ into Sociology. Further, University of Ceylon, on February 10, 1949 in a Sociology degree programme liberated (Ryan 1949). Given Ryan’s encompassing from the hegemony of Economics, he may view of Sociology, it is no surprise that his have seen the prospect of helping students best-known work on Sri Lanka is a work of like himself, lost and wandering in search humanistic scholarship with no pretense to of a meaningful course of study, as indeed ‘science’, nor any immediately applicable Sociology did become for some of the more social utility, but he did accomplish significant sensitive students who subsequently took to work in the area of socio-economic relevance it. both before and after this work. Pieris’ idealized conception of Sociology, We might note here that Pieris himself made which to him, as to his London School of social relevance a key criterion in his crusade Economics tutor Edward Shils, was a ‘calling’, for a responsible Sociology. Indeed, looked was not without problems. Its purism and at objectively, there are many areas where rigidity led him to denigrate the work of others. Pieris’ ideas converged with Ryan’s. Both It became a narrow perspective that could be were open to blending with other disciplines, used to exclude legitimate practitioners of history in particular in the case of Pieris, and the discipline whose work could not be easily several Social Science fields in Ryan’s. One bundled up into discrete entities labeled of Pieris’ major works is a historical study, ‘science’ or ‘humanities’. It also excluded and he approvingly mentions Louis Dumont’s research projects focused on finding labelling it as a work in “historical sociology”; solutions to specific social problems. While and Ryan readily grants that “much excellent certain kinds of sociological studies can be sociology is written by historians, economists,

-109- Social Affairs. Vol.1 No.7, 105-118, Fall 2017 geographers, psychologists, [and] political to their staff, going on to mention that “[t]he scientists” (ibid, p. 82). Both were admirers subject was subsequently adopted for the Civil of Bernard Mandeville, and both had a Service examination” (ibid). It would appear cosmopolitan view of social theory that that what came in between Ryan and Pieris credited non-Western thought. “In a completely were not significant differences of deeply held literal sense”, wrote Ryan, “the writings of an ideas, but – we can only guess – trivialities of obscure English wit, Bernard Mandeville, at one kind or another. the beginning of the 18th century, are “ better” Whatever these were, collegiality seemed sociology in modern terms than most of that to have fallen victim to the idealized notion which Spencer produced in his voluminous of Sociology as the humanistic discipline studies” (ibid, p. 11). Pieris pays similar par excellence. In his memoir, Pieris is homage to Mandeville, placing him alongside candid about his views on the work of his Malthus, Marx and J.A. Hobson, the “heretics” colleagues, starting with Ryan. He considers who enabled Keynes to launch a “frontal Ryan’s field expeditions with students a attack” on the “dismal science” of classical “naïve empiricism” (ibid, p. 18). He goes to economics and spearhead a more humanistic the extent of accusing Ryan of “peevish discipline (1988, p. 11). The following sentence opposition” to his (Pieris’) appointment to the of Ryan’s could as well have been written by position of Assistant Lecturer in 1951 (ibid). Pieris: “I would contend that recent sociology He devalues, not without justification, the in method as in theoretic content has more anthropological idea of the ‘isolated village in common with Ibn Khaldun, a 14th century community’. Taking his critique further, he Arabian, Montesquieu, Confucius, Hegel, makes light of, and challenges the supposed Marx, Bayle, Hume, LePlay and Buckle discoveries by both his colleagues and than with the formal science of sociology foreign anthropologists, regarding relations developed by Comte and Spencer” (Ryan between social phenomena, for example, that 1949, p. 75). Both advocated an indigenous between and land holding. In addition Sociology, Pieris making a criticism of the to denigrating the kind of questionnaire ‘Implantation of sociology in Asia’ (1969) and based fieldwork that Ryan and his students Ryan saying the same thing, even using the conducted, Pieris is denigrating the entire same arboreal metaphor: “Sociology is not a foundation of fieldwork in ‘participant hot house plant, a speculative discipline. It observation’ generally held to be fundamental bears its best fruit in the open and close to to anthropological research since Malinowski’s the earth” (1949, p. 83). The courses of the detainment in the Trobriands. programme Pieris designed for the degree in Sociology independent of Economics, Ryan resigned his position as Professor into which he put in considerable effort, and Head of the Department of Sociology, and of which he could justly be proud, are University of Ceylon, in 1952 “while on long a healthy mix of “science” and “humanities” leave” (Report 1952, p. 6). Straus left the (Pieris 1988, p. 25). He mentions that one Department in March the same year. Thus, of these courses, “Social Administration”, within four years of the Department’s founding, “was specially devised to give the degree a the founder and his assistant, the first and the “practical” orientation” (ibid). Not content with second members of the Sociology faculty in that, he “prevailed on the Secretaries of the the history of the University of Ceylon left their relevant government departments -- social positions, as if foreboding a phenomenon that services, rural development, probation and was to become the emblem of the Department child care -- to recruit sociology graduates in its early decades, the flight of its faculty.

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It is remarkable that Ralph Pieris who did year 1954-55 and D.L. Jayasuriya was yeoman’s service for instituting the degree appointed to fill her vacancy in Social programme in Sociology, and who seemed Anthropology [Report 1955, p. 67]). These firmly committed to the further advancement appointments, which presumably Ryan of the Department, resigned and returned pushed for, bear silent witness to some of the twice before his third and final resignation. ‘administrative work’ he did, and to his interest It appears that the broadly common factor in the institutional growth and welfare of the in the resignations of the local scholars that Department. These also bear witness to the followed those of Ryan and Straus was the prospect, latent at the time, that he would not invasion of the University by social forces be at the service of the University of Ceylon within which these scholars felt marginalized, indefinitely. The promise of his student in continuing in a different guise the marginality particular, the newly graduated Tambiah, and ambiguity of the Ryan and Straus era. must have impressed him and he may have seen in him, and in the already prolific Ralph As mentioned above, at his departure from Pieris, capable hands in which he could the University of Ceylon, Ryan joined the entrust the Department. Ralph Pieris was faculty of Cornell University, where he served promoted to Lecturer Grade II on December as Visiting Professor in the Department of 8, 1953 (Report 1953, p. 20), presumably Sociology and Anthropology during the years to also act as Head of Department without 1952-54. S.J. Tambiah was Ryan’s student at being formally appointed to that position. In the University of Ceylon, and it is likely that the interim between Ryan’s departure and the he (Tambiah) went to Cornell for his graduate promotion of Ralph Pieris, the Department studies because of Ryan’s presence there. was administered by the Dean of the Faculty Indeed, Ryan may have mentioned to Tambiah of Arts. the availability of scholarships through the Smith-Mundt programme, and supported his The Annual Reports of the Council of the candidacy. He also may have played a role in University of Ceylon (referred to in this paper selecting Tambiah as a student of the Cornell simply as “Reports”) are the main source of graduate programme, although clearly information we have for understanding how Tambiah would have made it on his own. As the University was organized, and how it reported by Professor R.S. Perinbanayagam, functioned and evolved. It would appear that Ryan once remarked that Tambiah was his Heads of Department were expected to send best student. a report of the activities of their respective departments (a ‘Departmental Report’) to the On September 3, 1951, just months prior Council that then would collate and publish to the departure of Ryan and Straus, three these, often in an Appendix to the Annual appointments were made to the Department Report. The Heads of Departments vary of Sociology, all three as Assistant Lecturers. widely in the extent to which they responded to These were Ralph Pieris, Stanley J. Tambiah, this expectation. Most of these departmental and L.C. Arulpragasam. The last named reports are very sparse and often we see none “declined the position” (Report 1951, p. 5) at all from certain departments for certain and ten months later, on July 31, 1952, Miss years. The consistently detailed reports came S. Saparamadu was appointed Assistant from the Department of Education, and the Lecturer (Report 1952, p. 8), presumably to Science and Medical Faculties in general. fill the vacancy resulting from Arulpragasam’s Most of these, however, report nothing non-acceptance of the position. (Saparamadu more than the publications of the relevant herself resigned at the end of the academic department’s faculty, which perhaps was the

-111- Social Affairs. Vol.1 No.7, 105-118, Fall 2017 main purpose of the reports, but as some to both the British tradition within which the show, they sometimes did have other matters University was historically rooted, and the to report about. The Departmental Report of indigenous tradition from which, however Sociology for 1949, that is, for the first year ‘Westernized’, the majority of the faculty of its existence, presumably written by Bryce and senior administrative staff originated. Ryan, is skeletal. It merely lists six papers of Fieldwork was contrary to Two basic Ryan’s, four of which are published and two ideas about teaching subscribed to by the unpublished, with one of the unpublished, the university establishment: (1) intra-murality, paper on hybrid corn seed mentioned above, that teaching was an exercise to be carried authored jointly with Neal C. Gross. out in the classroom, and (2) that there is, however subtle, a status distance between The next year’s Report (1950) is even briefer, teacher and student, expressed in the term reporting three publications (Report 1950, p. ‘pupil’. Fieldwork violated the first and posed 57-58). Then it dries up completely. There are a threat to the second. As Ryan started his no reports for the next two years, 1951 and teaching career at the University of Ceylon, 1952. Indeed, in the next report to appear he was either oblivious to this, or chose to (1953), the writer Ralph Pieris stops short of ignore it, leading to a mild sense of wonder explicitly accusing Ryan of not caring to write and curiosity, even a touch of amusement in the reports. Making no secret of the brevity the establishment: and sometimes total absence of the reports, he mentions that since there have been no A special feature of these [sociology] previous accounts of research by members courses is that during vacations of the Department, he is annexing “a list of students are assigned to villages in publications of the staff since the institution of various parts of the Island to make the Department of Sociology in 1949” (Report enquiries along lines laid down by the 1953, p. 66). It would appear that reporting Professor of Sociology. The Professor was not one of the administrative duties Ryan (Ryan) and the Lecturer (Straus) travel cherished. What he did cherish was not far to around to make certain that a scientific seek. He was absorbed in his research, both method is being followed. This device on American material, and more relevant for is being used not only in order to our present purposes, on his field and archival teach sociological technique but also work in Ceylon based on which he was to to acquire the detailed knowledge of publish a masterly volume (Ryan 1953). social conditions necessary for teaching (Report 1949, p. 11). This is by no means to suggest that Ryan had no interest in ‘administration’, but rather Fieldwork however seems to have been to point out that he was working within the welcomed by the students as much for its framework of the American academic culture non-conformity, as for its utility as a research marked by a close and pragmatic association tool. As John Rogers informs us: between teaching and research. In the case Stanley Tambiah was an undergraduate of Sociology and Anthropology and in the at the time, and remembers Ryan for broader social sciences, Both in general, his genial and friendly attitude towards fieldwork was a particularly significant students, which marked him off from component. Thus Ryan placed emphasis on most other faculty of that era. On fieldwork as part of the training of students, weekends, Ryan took undergraduates and organized fieldwork expeditions during with him on his trips into the countryside, weekends and vacations. This was unfamiliar where he asked villagers about caste.

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For Tambiah, these excursions were seems to have been the preeminent goal an eye opener -- they provided him of Ralph Pieris, Ryan’s successor as Head with his first impression of the potential of Department. In his very first report as the of fieldwork as an intellectual pursuit” real or acting Head of the Department, Pieris (Memo on Bryce Ryan circulated among makes clear almost with a sense of grievance, the membership of American Institute of that his department’s role has been one of Sri Lanka Studies (AISLS), October 29, providing courses for other departments, 2011). especially Economics, where Sociology is reduced to a specialization within the It would appear that the origin and inspiration Economics degree, like Banking, Statistics, for the fieldwork on which Tambiah’s renowned Accountancy and so forth. He lists the ethnographies are based are in Ryan’s class. courses the Sociology Department provided The basic problem of the Department of during the year the report covered: two for the Sociology was that it was a department without Economics Department, two for the Sinhala a degree programme, thus anomalous, Department (one of which was on ‘Sinhalese liminal, and incomplete. To all appearances Culture’), and one for the Philosophy it came into being due to a confluence of Department4. He mentions that courses fortuitous circumstances including the rise were also provided for a student registered of ‘cultural diplomacy’ as a feature American for a MA degree in Sociology (Report 1953, foreign policy. Whatever these were, when p. 66). By mentioning this, he is pointing the opportunity arose to found a department, out that the only impediment to preparing the University seems to have looked upon students for the BA degree, which is more it as a beginning and welcomed it. The fact important for a university department than that Strauss was recruited soon after shows higher degrees, was the shortage of teaching that this was a serious and potentially staff. He specifically mentions the need continuing effort at establishing a full-fledged for a social psychologist and a statistician, department. Without access to the relevant complaining that the University is not doing documents, if indeed such documents do its part in making these appointments. “It was exist at all, we do not know what Ryan did, not possible to begin courses for a special if anything at all, to further that effort by Sociology Degree”, he wrote, “although a exploring ways of recruiting more teaching scheme for a special degree in Sociology staff that would equip the Department with the independently of Economics had appeared ability to teach enough courses to constitute in successive Calendars” (Report 1953, p. a degree programme. However, the fact that 66). Most importantly, from the point of view Ryan resigned in 1952 gives us reason to of the evolution of the Department towards think that any interest he may have had in granting its own degrees, he complains building up departmental manpower early that the enrollment policy of the Economics in his tenure had evaporated at some point. Department hurt enrollments in Sociology, The appointments he did make, a sociologist making it clear that an autonomous Sociology (Pieris), an anthropologist (Saparamadu), and degree is the only answer: “So long as a mix of the two (Tambiah) seem to indicate Sociology remains a special subject in the that his plans, while they lasted, were sound Economics Degree, the number of students and farsighted. specializing in Sociology depends on the policy of the Economics Department in enrolling In contrast to Ryan’s diffuse interests, students for the special degrees. There has building up the Department of Sociology as been a decline in the number of students a full-fledged, degree granting department

-113- Social Affairs. Vol.1 No.7, 105-118, Fall 2017 taking Sociology on account of the restricted (Leach) read it in that year, or possibly even admissions to the special Economics course” the year before (1957). Leach’s book was not (Report 1954, p. 94). published until 1961, at least three years after he read Tambiah’s paper. Thus it is possible While thus emphasizing that the enrollments that the idea that kinship is ‘not a thing in itself’ for Sociology are at the mercy of the Economics was triggered or strengthened in Leach as a Department, Pieris also promises to take consequence of reading Tambiah’s article in what action he could at the time to increase 1958 (or 1957). This is not to suggest that enrollment by introducing Sociology as a Leach needed any external stimuli to combat subject for the General Degree. It is clear that the British anthropological establishment. His he used every opportunity he got to highlight colourful skepticism and spirit of rebellion the unsatisfactory nature of the existing set are well known to anthropologists and other up and the need to equip the Department with readers of his work. To cite one example, his the personnel adequate to teach the courses Political Systems of Highland Burma (1954) leading up to a BA degree and, more broadly, is a critique of another central tenet of British a productive and thriving Department. He Anthropology, namely, that societies exist in a ends the report by announcing “a series state of ‘equilibrium’. The fieldwork of Leach’s of field-studies this year” (ibid, p. 94), and student and younger Cambridge colleague, a paper on the study of kinship systems to Nur Yalman, overlapped with his own, and be published (in Sinhalese) in the University he acknowledges with satisfaction that Review (ibid). The paper in Sinhalese on Yalman’s findings, though in a very different kinship systems is untraceable, but the field ecology, broadly agreed with his own. The studies mentioned are probably those of anthropological impact of Leach’s study Tambiah in Pata Dumbara. is also reflected in the interest the subject A note on the Pata Dumbara study is sparked in G. Obeyesekere who postponed appropriate here considering the significance his nearly completed study of the cult of of its findings for Anthropology. One of its the goddess Pattini to undertake a study of major findings was that kinship cannot be kinship and land tenure in an ecology, like meaningfully understood except in relation Yalman’s, radically different from Pul Eliya to residence and land ownership. In his Pul (Obeyesekere 1967; Report 1958, p. 82). Eliya, a Village in Ceylon, Given the commitment to which the statements came to the same conclusion. This contradicts and actions mentioned above bear witness, it a foundational idea in British Anthropology, cannot but be that Pieris worked assiduously that kinship is ‘a thing in itself’, with which at the task both formally and informally Leach was not in agreement. Thus, Tambiah’s by using his formidable networks, until an findings may have strengthened Leach’s independent Sociology degree programme hand or altogether enabled him to launch a came into being, consummating the task that critique of the autonomy of kinship, held in Ryan began. Although Pieris is not the founder particular by Leach’s Cambridge colleague of Sociology at the University of Ceylon in a Meyer Fortes. Leach did his fieldwork in June- strict sense, he is certainly the founder of its December 1954 (followed up with a short stay degree programme without which Sociology in August 1956), and Tambiah six months would have remained the handmaiden of later, in July-August 1955, but since Tambiah Economics. Both resigning to the existing acknowledges Leach’s editorial comments fate and expressing hope for a better future, on his 1958 paper in the Journal of the Royal he wrote that, “The courses have had to Anthropological Institute, we know that he be organized within limitations of available

-114- Sociology at the University of Ceylon H.L.Seneviratne staff, and until the appointment of a social on January 13, 1955 (ibid, p. 6). Pieris’ book psychologist and a statistician, the present Sinhalese Social Organisation was published arrangement must be continued” (Report by the Ceylon University Press. In addition, 1953, p. 66). The “present arrangement” was a collection of conference papers titled of course playing second fiddle to Economics. Traditional Sinhalese Culture, A Symposium Knowing as he did the traumatic emergence edited by Pieris was published. Tambiah of Sociology under a similar dominance of listed three publications one of which, co- Economics in England, especially the London authored by Bryce Ryan, was to be published School of Economics where he was a student, in the American Sociological Review. And in a he may have been able to summon both the reminiscence of the field orientation of Bryce confidence and the objectivity to hold on and Ryan, and an illustration of the still close stay the course steadfastly. relation with Economics, a socio-economic survey of nine villages in the Pata Dumbara The next report (1954), though brief, is even District was conducted jointly by Tambiah and more emphatic in its understated push for a N. K. Sarkar, the statistician of the Economics Sociology degree independent of Economics, Department, with the participation of 30 and thereby to elevate the Department to a students from the two departments. This is stage beyond servicing other departments. the study mentioned above that yielded Pieris is also beginning to assert himself Tambiah’s paper on kinship and land holding as the Head of the Department, and for the (Tambiah 1958). While Sarkar was concerned first time, signs the report as both Lecturer with the economics of paddy and other types and Head of the Department. He reports the of peasant agriculture, land ownership, land return of Tambiah from Cornell after working utilization, and employment, Tambiah’s with the sociologist Robin Williams, the interests were in inheritance and kinship. The social psychologist William Lambert, and the report also lists a study by Tambiah of living anthropologist Morris Opler, and on his way conditions, social relationships, and crime back from the US, spending a term at the among 110 poor households in Maradana. London School of Economics working with the anthropologist Raymond Firth. He lists The key decision to recruit an anthropologist the subject of Tambiah’s dissertation as The rather than a statistician or a social psychologist Process of Secularization in Three Ceylonese that Pieris had previously identified as the Peasant Communities. He announces the need, was the immediate factor that enabled resignation of Miss S. Saparamadu, and his the long fought for beginning of a course of intention to appoint a social anthropologist to studies that would take students to a degree fill the vacancy (Report 1954, p. 93-94). in Sociology independently of Economics. It also illustrates the formal acceptance of 1955 comes through as a triumphant and a place for Anthropology in the curriculum vibrant year. Pieris was promoted to Lecturer of Sociology. In an economy of language Grade I, and elevated to membership of the that belied the extraordinary effort leading Senate by virtue of his being appointed Head to this consummation, one that he probably of the Department (Report 1955, p. 1). D.L. had set his sights on going back to his Jayasuriya was appointed Assistant Lecturer original appointment to the Department on in Social Anthropology on September 1, September 3, 1951, Pieris’ report announced 1955 (ibid, p. 5), filling the vacancy created that, “Courses for a Special Sociology Degree by the departure of Miss S.Saparamadu were begun this session, for the first time (ibid, p. 67). Tambiah was awarded his PhD since the institution of the Department in (ibid, p. 10), and was promoted to Lecturer 1948” (Report 1956, p. 72). With two Senior

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Lecturers (Pieris and Tambiah) in addition D.L. Jayasuriya left for the London School of to an Assistant Lecturer (Jayasuriya), the Economics on study leave (Report 1957, p. Department now had the capability to teach the 10), leaving a lone Tambiah to carry on the courses necessary for a degree in Sociology work of the Department, when in October that independent of Economics. Still the condition year, G. Obeyesekere, Probationary Lecturer for making possible the independent Sociology in the Department of English, was appointed degree, namely the need for the services Probationary Assistant Lecturer in Sociology of a statistician and a social psychologist, (Report 1958, p. 81). Tambiah was to resign in remained. But with far sightedness, Pieris the early 1960s, followed by G. Obeyesekere had conveyed to the Economics Department not too long afterwards. In the familiar sign that it was payback time, and that it was now of the absence of a Head of Department, the their turn to help out by allowing the Sociology Departmental Report for 1958 was signed by Special students to take, not one but two, of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, T. Nadaraja their courses: (1) Political and Social Theory (Report 1958, p. 82). and (2) Statistics. As for Social Psychology, In October 1961, after two years of work Pieris persuaded J.E. Jayasuriya, Senior in India, Pieris returned to the University Lecturer at the Department of Education to of Ceylon, having accepted the Chair of teach the course. For a fourth course outside Sociology. But six years later, disillusioned the Department of Sociology, Pieris turned to with the Higher Education Act of 1967 that the History Department, persuading them of abolished university autonomy, he retired the need for students of Sociology to have a under the provisions of the Act, and returned background in the island’s history. Thus four to the UNESCO as an expert in regional out of the eight courses needed for a degree in development (Pieris 1988, p. 26). This Sociology came from outside the Department. involved extensive travel in the Asian region But the remaining four (1) Elements of enabling him, especially in his encounter with Social Structure (2) Social Administration Thailand and Japan, to experience different (3) Comparative Social Institutions, and (4) “styles of development”, stimulating him to Theories and Methods of Sociology were contribute substantially to the literature on hardcore enough to give the cobbled together development (Pieris 1969; 1976a; 1976b; totality a convincing stamp of Sociology. 1977). He was to accept the Chair of Sociology Within two years this fragile achievement once more in 1972, only to resign again later was to crumble, but not so disastrously as to that year, to accept a consultancy at the UN revert to the days of serving the Economics Asian Development Institute in Bangkok. Department. In September 1958 Pieris This was his third resignation, which makes resigned from the service of the University him perhaps the most resigned person in the of Ceylon to join the UNESCO Research University’s history. On his return to Sri Lanka Centre in Calcutta (Report 1958, p. 3). In his in 1976 he accepted the position of Research memoir written 20 years later, he cites the Professor, , which he “inadequacy of salaries paid to university held until his retirement in 1978. academic staff” as the reason that compelled In addition to his outstanding contribution him to accept the UNESCO position (1988, to the Department through his successful p. 25). But the degree programme he helped institution of the independent degree build was to survive and thrive, though programme in Sociology, Pieris brought with periodic setbacks, especially in the international recognition to the Department form of resignations of the most prominent through his numerous publications, on members of the faculty. In September 1957

-116- Sociology at the University of Ceylon H.L.Seneviratne subjects ranging from mediaeval Sinhalese patently sociological orientation of Ryan and social organization to the alienation of the Pieris, the Department has moved towards intellectual, transforming his own alienation Anthropology, starting with the Pata Dumbara into an inspiration for creativity. Among the study of the sociologist cum anthropologist S.J. unlikely expressions of this impulse are his Tambiah, and the research and chairmanship sophisticated and convincing advocacy of an of the anthropologist G. Obeyesekere. The Asian cultural approach to development and fact that these two renowned anthropological an Asian Sociology. In a different province of thinkers were closely associated with the creativity, he contributed to the cultural life of Department has added to its anthropological the University through his active involvement complexion. The large number of foreign with the Arts Council as its Chairman. Along anthropologists the country has attracted with Ian Goonetilleke, he organized a highly since the 1950s, and the rise of an extensive successful exhibition of the paintings of anthropological literature on the society and George Keyt, and pioneered the move culture of Sri Lanka must also have had some towards building the Sarachchandra Open Air influence on this development. Theatre. As mentioned already, he organized NOTES a symposium on Traditional Sinhalese Culture that led to a publication of the symposium’s 1. “Report” in all instances refers to the Annual papers under the same title. He founded Report of the Council of the University of the Journal of Historical and Social Studies Ceylon, for the year mentioned along with it. and coedited it with S. Arsaratnam until his 2. Weerakoon remembers two of his classmates: departure for overseas employment. The Herbert Cooray, the founder of Jetwing Hotels, and K.H.M. Sumatipala, educationist. University could perhaps have prevented his first resignation had they had the wisdom to 3. This class consisted of the following students: L.P.M. Wijedoru, K.P. Wimaladharma, R.S. appoint him to the Chair, which has been kept Perinbanayagam, K.A.D. Perera, T. Mutuvelu, vacant since Ryan’s resignation in 1952. It Maxwell Isaacs, N. de Silva, L. Fernando, P. was to take up the Chair that he returned to Weerasekera, H.L. Seneviratne, R. Satkunam, the University in 1961. Kanakaraja (initials/first name not available). 4. The Report of the Sinhala Department lists It is outside the scope of this paper to track the course on ‘Sinhalese Culture’ taught the evolution of the Department of Sociology by Miss S. Saparamadu as one in “Social beyond its watershed achievement as a Anthropology” (Report 1953, p. 57). This full-fledged, degree granting department. is probably an attempt on the part of the However, one cannot but be struck by the Sinhala Department to continue the course fact that, since the days of Ryan and Pieris, on ‘Culture’ (Samskritiya) that Professor M.D. the Department has grown exponentially, Ratnasuriya introduced to the Sinhala degree curriculum. from 3-4 staff personnel and about ten students per year, to over 20 staff personnel and over 600 students per year (excluding REFERENCES external, graduate, and diploma students). Despite its besetting problem of resignations, Eighth Annual Report of the Council of the the Department has obviously prospered University of Ceylon. (1949). Colombo: as a functioning institution. It has supplied University of Ceylon Press personnel to newer departments within Eleventh Annual Report of the Council of the country, and even those who secured the University of Ceylon. (1952). Colombo: employment overseas have continued to University of Ceylon Press contribute to Sri Lanka studies. And, from the

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Fifteenth Annual Report of the Council of Development in the United States. University the University of Ceylon. (1956). Colombo: of Ceylon Review, VII(2), pp.71-83 University of Ceylon Press Ryan, B. (1953). Caste in Modern Ceylon. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Council of New Jersey: Rutgers University Press the University of Ceylon. (1955). Colombo: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Council of University of Ceylon Press the University of Ceylon. (1958). Colombo: Leach, E.R. (1954). Political Systems of University of Ceylon Press Highland Burma. London: G. Bell & Sons for Sixteenth Annual Report of the Council of the London School of Economics the University of Ceylon. (1957). Colombo: Leach, E.R. (1961). Pul Eliya, a Village in University of Ceylon Press Ceylon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Tambiah, S.J. & B. Ryan. (1957). Press Secularization of Family Values in Ceylon. Ninth Annual Report of the Council of the American Sociological Review, 22(3), pp. University of Ceylon. (1950). Colombo: 292-299 University of Ceylon Press Tambiah, S.J. (1954). The Process of Obeyesekere, G. (1967). Land Tenure in Secularization in Three Ceylonese Peasant Village Ceylon. Cambridge: Cambridge Communities (Doctoral dissertation). Cornell University Press University

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