Those two paragraphs are from the Preface to The Portuguese Missionary in 16th and 17th Century Ceylon: the Spiritual Conquest by C Gaston Perera. The subject while being intriguing is also controversial. Remember the hornet’s nest raised when a UNP government proposed the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the coming of the Portuguese to Ceylon? What we remember of the Portuguese in Ceylon is not at all good – conversion at the point of the sword; setting fire to temples and Buddhist books; torturing Buddhist monks. Thus did I wish to confront the author with questions in my mind. I have had this terrible vision of babies being thrown up by Portuguese soldiers and received on the points of their bayonets. This was village talk. Was it factual?

I give you our question and answer session verbatim.

Q: Let’s talk about your book The Portuguese Missionary …published by Vijitha Yapa Publications in August 2009.

A: It’s an account of how Roman Catholism was introduced to the Island. All I intended was to show how the new religion was spread in the island and I sought to do it as dispassionately and as objectively as possible. I try to dispel such canards as the Portuguese bayoneting of little children to coerce people to convert to the new religion. That is something written about by a Portuguese priest - Faria Y Sousa - in his Asia Portugueza. He relates such an incident about a Portuguese Captain General named Azavedo but apart from that reference, there is no other proof of this particular atrocity. But I must say that Tikiri Abeysinghe, referring to the same incident, related that it has been stated to have occurred elsewhere as well as in Malwana. Destruction of temples was a certainty; we lost almost all our original Buddhist books, unless hidden by monks. Prisoners were thrown to crocodiles for sure. Its authenticity is that a township along the Kelani Ganga is named Kimbulwatte.

1. With all these atrocities and coercion to embrace a new religion, were there any positives at all for Ceylon from Portuguese occupation of parts of the land?

2. Of course there were – not in proportion to cancel out atrocities, but there were benefits. Consider the religion itself. We have among us adherents to one of the world’s major religions. Furniture was greatly influenced plus architecture of buildings and forts. Portuguese words entered the Sinhala vocabulary enriching it.

Q: Your first books were fiction, historical fiction if I may name them thus. And they were successful. Your Rebel of Kandy won a national award.

A: Yes my first novel was based on history and was about Wimaladharma Suriya, and the second about his son. Both of course backgrounded by the occupation of the Portuguese.

Both books were successful and sales good. I still get telephone calls from people, say in Kandy, to verify some fact or other.

Q: Your latest book, The Portuguese… is purely historical. Have you abandoned historical fiction? How did the transition take place?

A: First of all I have not abandoned the genre. I wrote my two books about Wimaladharma Suriya and his son. I remain true to my first love and hope to write another novel or two exploring the theme of leadership among the Sinhalese people during the colonial occupations. The question I will attempt answering is: were the local leaders opportunistic thugs or principled patriots? I hope I will be given the years needed to realize my literary dreams.

The reason for the change from fiction to history is because when writing historical fiction I set myself a self imposed criterion to attempt to recount the past realistically. To do that one had to research. I thus found I had a large fund of information historically accurate facts which could be used for writing history . Another reason was that in 2005 there was the then government’s preposterous plan to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese. In the Royal Asiatic Society there was a group that was strenuously opposed to this idea, led by my friend Dr. Susantha Goonetilake. We organized an international conference that sought to set the record straight. It was this exercise and the papers I presented at that conference which I expanded into my present historical writing.

Q: In all this exercise are you not attempting to rake up the past?

A: Raking up the past is not the best way to describe my purpose. I know there is this view that we should let these unpleasant things be undisturbed and let the dead past be buried. In fact there are western thinkers and historians who actually feel there are other aspects of history to explore than the more unsavoury aspects of colonization. I however believe that we must know our past and we must study it. We cannot run away from it.

It is only when we know our past that we can learn to accept it and ultimately be reconciled with it.

Q: Aren’t you treading on quicksand? Isn’t the subject sensitive and likely to give offence?

A: If anyone were to read my book in full and still feel offended, I would be profoundly unhappy. I am not attacking Christianity or the Roman Catholic doctrine. I am not attacking any thing. All that I intended is to relate how Christianity was first spread in the Island and I sought to do it as dispassionately and as objectively as possible.

Comment: That should stop any carping or religious stances taken by critics.

Q: Your first degree was in western classics, your official career in tax. Yet in retirement, you have devoted yourself to Portuguese studies. How did this intellectual somersault occur?