Decorated with highly symbolic images, The Drummer by Gamini Akkmeemana conveys

the simmering political violence upheaved making the country a hell fire during the
80s. The story, as in it’s revelation, speaks about how the notion of death knocked
each and every door behind the eerie silence. Akkmeemana focuses on the JVP
movement and political Hypocrisy in assassinations and disappearance of people who
typically used to avenge from their next-door neighbor on personal disputes. The
essay examines the way how power dynamics penetrates through the Lankan social
fabric along side the anarchy of political agenda being manipulated where the
people were helpless then on the coming faceless terror.

In the first place it is to be noted that the identity of the Drummer is not given
rather he is as a “very ordinary insignificantly looking fellow” who seems to be “
paying no attention” to what’s happening at all. Akkmeemana identifies the person
as one in alert, one who controls the entire society in a subtle way.Thereby the
dynamics of power can be seen magnifying the fact that how prudential the fellows
can be.
The story elaborates how the individual responsibility in eradicating violence and
how the ordinary people manifest the “ law and order “ in their hand despite the
fact that the power should be centralized to sustain the society and judicial
systems should be imposed. However in the story we find all systematic hierarchy
being deliberately overtaken by socio political circumstances .
We witness people like Raja tries to take he control of law and order in the name
of securing the social responsibility:
“None of the buggers have the guts, so I did it”

Moreover the people are “ welcome to do” what they think in diminishing
violence.Thereby portraying ,in the Short story ,it never curtails violence, it
only aggravates the gravity of violence. The dynamics of power struggle thus could
be seen in the civilian society.The drummer signifies the JVP resurgence and the
political anarchy that is followed synchronizing the readership in a psychological
perspective,yet we are not to rate or judge the manifestation in the said reality
in 1980s. One thing is , of course, to be stated crystal clearly. And that the
human beings then are utterly dehumanized as the violence erupted due to petty
reasons behind. Though the people “sensed the air of menace” they keep their mouths
shut for not being involved in the issues in the social fabric.

At this point we are reminded of Selvadurai’s “ Funnyboy” where the people are to
“see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil” However in “The Drummer” the people
discuss the “horrible things” silently with the most trusted family members. Even
if they “ cursed the drummer in barely audible undertones “ they never engage in
what is happening by roads, in tyres. It is to be noted that they deliberately keep
their eyes away from. Akkmeemana foregrounds that the backbone of the Sri Lankan
society is crippled and trodden by the political manifestation during the 1980s as
the power struggle could be seen from every layer of the society.

The Drummer also states the role of police then as the most corrupted and filled
with idiosyncratic agenda. In dealing with violence begetter as a result of the
power struggle the role of the police has been biased. Instead of eliminating the
violence they fan the violence promoting so called national security. We come
across an incident where the evadable nature could be seen:
“ I am not saying that this is how it should have happened....”
If analyzed critically we find the bribery and the connoting imagery which
contributes to the power strength. Akkmeemana indicates as the O.I.C.hold “ his
thick fingers together”indicating the hidden positional power which of course is
not accepted in maintaining civil law and order.

Therefore, we conclude the essay that the entire story brings for the power
dynamics of the then society blended with the political manifesto and treacherously
set agenda to erupt violence on the society. The story also foregrounds the
violence being indicated without no logical connections whatsoever yet the lives
are taken on its way.The country,however, is depicted as a nation torn apart by
decades of strife ;sparks of the resurgence in a way, according to certain
political critics, point out as a triggered initiative to the civil war of Sri
Lanka.

Chinthaka S. Wickramasinghe
B.A(English)