DR.JAMES T.RUTNAM

Condensed from the St Xavier’s College magazine of 1930-

1-“We were one of the first schools in the island to adopt the new Scheme of Studies,-Principal St Xavier’s College 1930”

2-“When S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike made his first public speech here – at the YMCA Forum – soon after his return from Oxford, it was James T. Rutnam who proposed a vote of thanks and hailed him as the hope of Young Lanka.”

Dr.James T.Ratnam (Ph.D.) Principal – 1928-1930 – Educationist, Philanthropist, Distinguished Scholar of social and political affairs and -Principal of St Xavier’s College (1928-1930)

Milestone of Progress:

Particular interest is attached to the following extracts from a report of the past Principal Mr.

James T, Rutnam.

During his period of association with the school, the school activities widened and progress was made in many directions.

AIM

Education is a preparation for life. True to this concept we endeavour to provide the children who come under our charge with an education that will ultimately make them well equipped to take their proper place in the world and to face the problems and complexities of modern life boldly and confidently. Ours is what is called a Junior Secondary School according to the recent classification of the Education Department.

Normally it takes a child ten years to complete a course of studies in this school. At the end of this period it is possible for the child to either pursue his studies towards higher education or enter into some useful occupation and at the same time maintain a lively interest in his civic duties and responsibilities, which we dare say will soon become, more real and pressing now that the Donoughmore commission recommendation for universal adult franchise has been adopted.

A favourable sequel to this adoption will be that our statesmen will take a greater interest in education by assisting in the development of the children’s character.

A broad and free Catholic atmosphere permeates the whole school and our Catholic children are duly instructed in their religion whose instruction we maintain is of paramount importance as far as the development of the Catholic child is concerned.

The children are further encouraged to take a real concern in the lot of their fellows and the school social service league affords ample scope for their usefulness in this direction.

Jubilee Magazine 1859-2009

Class Work.-

We do not confine what is known as intellectual education to the mere reading of text books in class. Originality when detected in the pupils is judiciously encouraged. Manual labour is never despised. The boys are urged to improve on their rough and rude specimens of handwork till they begin to discover and appreciate the true learning and beauty of Art. Under the guidance of the teacher some of the boys of the higher classes have been able to produce a history of Nuwara Eliya, which we hope to publish shortly. A taste for scholarship and individual work is thus engendered. We are pleased to state that we did creditably at the annual Government Examination. We were one of the first schools in the island to adopt the new Scheme of Studies, and now subjects like Mathematics, Speech, Rural Science and Hand work are regular features of the school curriculum. In connection with Handwork, the local clay has been tried with fair success. Mr. E.M. J. Fernando who teaches Rural Science in the school recently completed a special course of instruction in

this subject. The study of Ceylon History and the Vernaculars is compulsory. At the last annual Examination 117 out of 141 boys passed in the Vernaculars

General Progress –

The Inspector’s Annual Report States.

“ The keen and energetic Principal, Mr. Ratnam and his loyal band of assistants are commended for the excellent progress made during the year in all branches of school activities. Activities which foster team effort and develop a sense of corporate unity were being encouraged to a very large extent. Service for the school ( and outside it) gardening, and school sports are worked on house lines. A school crest has been devised. The two –literary unions have been doing active work. A silver medal has been competed for at an oratorical contest. The trial scene in the “Merchant of Venice” has been acted in public. Prominent men have been invited to address the school. A sham meeting of the Board of Improvement had been held. Frequent excursions have been made with a view to study the history of Nuwara Eliya Pronunciation Charts have been prepared. In Special II practical application of lessons in Arithmetic was good. Some useful expression work was exhibited in Sp. II A. In Standard VII the literature lesson has been well co-related with Geography and History”

OLD BOYS.

We have news of a few of our Old Boys, who have taken to pursuits mentioned against their name. We shall be happy to hear from others and we earnestly appeal to them all to keep in touch with their beloved” Alma Mater.”

We wish them every success.

Postal Clerical – Mr. -M. A. T. Perera.

Estate staff – Messrs. H. L. A. Perera, A. Erudian,

P. C. Joseph, J. Cruze, M. A. C. Perera, Henry Cullen.

Mercantile – Messrs. D. Rosary , A. S, P. Francis,

A. S. Samuel, C. Alexander , M. Koelmeyer.

Business – Messrs. M. S. Merhan, M. J. Samarasinghe

Other Branches – Messrs. S. Anthony, M.A. Pakiam,

S. Francis, A. Cruze, J. R. Rayappen, H. D. R. Perera,

T. B.Wijekoon ,G. J. Thomas, G..D. A. Wickramasinghe

A.Appuhamy A. Taylor, G. Ockers, and David Michael

(From a tribute by Basil Perera published in The Ceylon Daily News on June 13, 1975.)

James T. Rutnam is a distinguished scholar of social and political affairs, a man of liberal and progressive views, once an adored schoolmaster and a successful businessman. He is above all a man of integrity with a keen sense of public duty.

Born in Jaffna, he was educated at the Manipay Hindu College and later at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. As a boy he loved reading the Bible and also the works of Ruskin and Mc Caulay. From this reading, no doubt, did he acquire the lucidity of style and felicity of expression which we have come to associate with all his writings.

James entered the old Ceylon University in Colombo and the Law College. At the latter he became the editor of the Law Students Magazine and also won the Walter Pereira Prize for legal research.

His political career began as early as 1922, when he was only seventeen, making his first public speech from the Tower Hall platform. On that occasion E.T. De Silva, then a rising star in our political firmament, hailed James as ‘a young man of high ideals, very popular among contemporaries of his own generation.’

James T. Rutnam was a teacher at Uva College, Badulla and Wesley College, Colombo and served for three years as the Principal of St. Xavier’s College, Nuwara Eliya. It was here that he came into a head-on collision with the colonial bureaucracy.

He had formed a trade union at Nuwara Eliya and went to see one Mr. Smith regarding grievances of some transport workers. Smith gave him a patient hearing, but at the end shouted, ‘I will give you five minutes to clear out of this place!’

The young Rutnam was flabbergasted by this shocking behaviour. Yet he recovered sufficiently to snap back: ‘I will give you three minutes to give me a satisfactory answer.’ Getting none, he went out to lead a two month strike of the workers.

By this time Rutnam had become a member of the Young Lanka League led by Victor Corea and A.E. Goonasinghe. That was a radical organization of ‘Young Turks’ discontented with moderate policies pursued by the nationalist leaders.

The founder members had signed in blood a pledge to work for the liberation of the nation from foreign rule. Rutnam wrote later: “many of us heard for the first time the compelling call for freedom when Goonasinghe’s stentorian voice came crackling into our ears.”

When S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike made his first public speech here – at the YMCA Forum – soon after his return from Oxford, it was James T. Rutnam who proposed a vote of thanks and hailed him as the hope of Young Lanka.

He became a founder member of the Progressive Nationalist Party that Mr. Bandaranaike formed with the aim of fostering a spirit of true nationalism and widening the base of political agitation, till then, only the monopoly of a few. But when the attempts of the young radicals failed, Mr. Bandaranaike and Mr. Rutnam joined the Ceylon National Congress.

Mr. Rutnam was also associated with the ‘Cosmopolitan Crew’ formed in 1926. It was this association that organized protest demonstrations against the sale of poppies on November 11th every year. Their movement led to the ‘Suriya Mal’ campaign and then to the left movement in Sri Lanka.

James T. Rutnam, made a number of unsuccessful bids to enter the supreme legislature. Twice in the state council days, he attempted to beard E.W. Abeygunasekara in his own den at Nuwara Eliya.

Then he contested M.D. Banda when the latter contested the by-election after Mr. Abeygunasekara’s resignation, following the findings of a Bribery Commission. He polled 11,093 votes against Mr. Banda’s 12,652. The Latter just won. But the former succeeded in unseating him through an election petition.

Mr. Rutnam can claim to be one of the oldest living journalists, having being writing since 1922. He once reminisced about how ‘my hand turned to the pen to pour my heart’s rage, and this pen has ever since kept moving’. He is probably the only Ceylonese who had a letter published in Mahatma Ghandi’s prestigious Young India.

His journalistic writings have been of a varied nature. No one can read his writings without recognising behind them all the hand of a maestro, the art of a master craftsman.

H.D. Jansz classed him among the three best writers of English prose in the island. But even more than his journalistic work, it is in the field of real scholarship that James Rutnam has made his mark and will be remembered by posterity.

An acknowledged authority on the British period of our history. Professor Labrooy once congratulated him for his ‘uncanny instinct’ as of a sleuth in detecting and for his ‘patience and perseverance in your pursuit.’

It is not surprising that three books published recently – H.A.I. Goonetilleke’s ‘Bibliography of Ceylon’, Professor Nadarajah’s ‘Legal Systems of Ceylon’ and Kumari Jayawardena’s ‘The rise of the Labour Movement of Ceylon’, all refer to this man of scholarship and culture.

He has founded the Evelyn Rutnam Institute for Cultural Relations, in memory of his wife, from whose death in 1964 he never fully recovered. They were such a devoted pair.

About her, he wrote ‘She came to me to learn, and remained to be my teacher…. she was my constant friend and companion. She guided me and inspired me. She was an exceptional woman.

Editor’s Note:

Rajah Rutnam- Frst Sri Lankan immigrant to USA .

Aged 19 in 1953, Sri Lankan-born Rajah Rutnam, the eldest son of Dr.James T.Rutnam set sail for the United States and thus gained the single honour of becoming the first immigrant from the island nation to set foot under the Mc Carran-Walter Act of 1952 on American soil.

Chandran Rutnam- Internationally acclaimed Film Director.

When David Lean arrived in Sri Lanka to shoot his Second World War epic, ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’. The film crew hired a house that belonged to Dr.James for the shooting, and his son Chandran Rutnam hung out at the sets volunteering odd jobs until finally, he got hired as a stand-by props assistant and gofer. Today Chandran Rutnam is an internationally acclaimed Film Director who had even had the present President of USA Donald Trump, acting in the Hollywood film ‘Ghosts Can’t Do It” co-produced by him in 1989.