Nancy Wijekoon

Nancy M. Wijekoon (Sinhala: නැන්සි විජේකෝන්) was a Sri Lankan poet and activist during the Sri Lankan independence movement.

Wijekoon, a schoolteacher, was an active Sinhala nationalist in this period.[1][2][3] She was a member of the Young Lanka League, Sri Lanka's earliest radical nationalist organization, which was the first of the Youth Leagues fighting for Sri Lankan independence from the British Empire.[1][2][4]

She was also an English-language poet who became well known for her work centered on patriotic themes.[1][2][5][6] Wijekoon is best known for her poem "Our Motherland," which was published in 1918 in the first issue of Young Lanka.[1][3][7] The poem uses the tropes of British Romanticism and Christian hymns to celebrate the landscape of Sri Lanka, while describing the island as "loved but fallen."[1][6][7]

Her poetry was seen as seditious by the British,[1][8] and during the 1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots, the police inspector general ordered that she be surveilled.[1][3][7]

References

1. de Neloufer, Mel (2001). Women & the Nation's Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in Twentieth Century Sri Lanka. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-1807-0.
2. Jayawardena, Kumari (2016-09-01). Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78478-430-0.
3. Chinthaka, Madapatha (2020-01-29). "Squaring the circle: English literature in Sri Lanka". Daily News. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
4. Jayasinghe, Vinitha (2004). A New Vision: A Feminist Perspective in Sri Lanka. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. ISBN 978-955-98661-0-7.
5. Herath, Subhangi Madhavika Kamalalochana (1997). Economic liberalization and the changing role of Sinhalese women in Sri Lanka (Thesis). University of Waterloo. hdl:10012/84.
6. Mel, Neloufer De; Samarakkody, Minoli (2002). Writing an Inheritance: Women's Writing in Sri Lanka, 1860-1948. Women's Education & Research Centre. ISBN 978-955-9261-20-9.
7. Jayawardena, Kumari (1970). "Economic and Political Factors in the 1915 Riots". The Journal of Asian Studies. 29 (2): 223–233. doi:10.2307/2942622. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 2942622.
8. Kiribamune, Sirima (1999). Women and Politics in Sri Lanka: A Comparative Perspective. International Centre for Ethnic Studies. ISBN 978-955-580-043-3.