Technical Education in the Imagination of the Ceylonese Developmental State: D. J. Wimalasurendra and the Navandanna Caste

A study of the life of D. J. Wimalasurendra, the prominent Ceylonese engineer from the Navandanna artisan caste who was the main figure behind the first-ever mass-scale hydroelectric project, shows that decades before independence a widespread campaign for a Ceylonese developmental state was present.1 This article investigates the role of technical education in the imagination of the Ceylonese developmental state – imagination that emerged during an era (from 1850 to 1950) within which the nature of technical education in the island underwent transformation from caste-based education to modern engineering. The article further explores why the imagination of an industrially advanced Sri Lanka that was made possible because of the excess power to be generated by the hydroelectric project failed to evolve into a mass movement of developmental nationalism leading to the Ceylonese/ Sri Lankan developmental state and whether the caste affiliation of Wimalasurendra had anything to do with this.