The Village in the Jungle Paperback – 25 Nov. 2005

Set in former Ceylon, a family hack out a fragile existence in the jungle, unprotected by the oblivious colonial administration against the threats of their malevolent neighbours.Somewhere I read praise of this and was intrigued to discover what and how the husband of the more famous Virginia would write. It is fascinatingly different from her books in every way. I can’t do better than quote the first paragraph of the ‘afterword’ by the author’s biographer Christopher Ondaatje: “[This] sits with Burmese Days by George Orwell as the very best of the literature written by servants of the British Empire in the twentieth century. It is emphatically not about what the East means to white people; it does not fantasise ... from a European perspective. It shows a remarkable, deep empathy for the hard lives of the poor Sinhalese jungle dwellers and their psychology, and gives a devastating portrayal of the irrelevance of the colonial regime to their needs and world. Written ... after serving as a colonial officer [there], it arose directly from the misgivings Woolf came to feel about the imperial enterprise.”It was accepted for publication in 1913, two years before Virginia self-published her first novel. It was highly praised then and has become a loved part of the literary culture of Sri Lanka today. It has no literary pretension or solipsism (apologies, Virginia), just skilful, knowledgeable, humane storytelling. So glad I read it. Respect.My edition includes a short story, Pearls and Swine, a brilliant example of ‘showing, not telling’ how misconceived, immoral and offensive Britain’s colonial notions are.

This is a portrait of a Sinhalese family in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), dwelling in the titular village and scraping a living from hunting and cultivating a small plot. Silindu is regarded as a little mad, wandering around the jungle and believing he can see demons and hear animals talk. Nonetheless he fascinates his two little girls, who grow up to be desired by the men of the village.In this tiny community no deed goes unseen and no grudge is forgotten. Silindu's life seems to him to be overshadowed by doom; some evil is ever harrying him. The women, expected to be powerless, gain little by attempting to exercise what freedom they do have. With scheming headmen, moneylenders, medicine men and gossips, village life is claustrophobic and cruel, and yet moving to any other place or way of living seems impossible for the inhabitants. Contact with the systems of modernity - administrators, courts and prisons - baffles them, whereas their own jungle world is one they at least understand.This is an unhappy saga in which no course of action leads anyone to peace. Yet the novel respects the villagers' striving and takes no pleasure in their fate. Just as the jungle is constantly encroaching on the village, so too it invades the spirits of those who reside there and extends, in its seething mystery, into the surrounding machineries of the state. It is brutal and unconquerable, and they can never be free from it.

Leonard Woolf wrote this after seven years working as a colonial officer on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and this novel shows his growing disullusionment with the British colonial system. First published in 1913, Woolf centres his story on the village of Beddagana (which means, 'the village in the jungle'). "All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddagama..." he states and, "the rule of the jungle is first fear, and then hunger and thirst."Beddagama is surrounded by jungle and the villagers who live there grow rice, where possible; but usually millet or maize and a few vegetables. There are ten families and the main character is Silindu, who beat his wife after giving birth to twin daughters, but gradually comes to care about them. We follow the father and his strange, silent children. The villagers fear Silindu and his strange ways and are jealous of his daughters, who are fair and beautiful. The villagers struggle on the edge of starvation and debt and, when Silindu's daughters, Punchi Menika and Hinnihami, grow into women their beauty indirectly causes a series of tragedies for him and his family.This is a very interesting book about an isolated community and the problems they face. Silindu wants to live with just his daughters for company, but the world refuses to leave him alone and he struggles to understand anything outside of the village and the jungle he calls home. There is much about the superstition of a people living a very difficult life; trying to eke out a difficult existence, threatened by debts and by their powerlessness. You really also get a sense of the jungle as a malevolent presence, pressing in upon the small village that huddles within it. Very well written, evocative and worth reading.

This book was written at the height of the British Empire by Leonard Woolf when he was posted to a remote forest area of Ceylon, as it was then, in the colonial service. The book caused a great stir at the time as it was written from the point of view of the village boy and was actually questioning the colonial system of which the British were so proud. It brings out the huge gap between the beliefs and social mores of a remote poor village community and their white British colonial rulers as well as being a heart rending story. A thought provoking read.

Great book for those who interested.

Sceptical at first but grew very much into its flavour.To those who have travelled and lived among people of differing races it is an essential read.Indigenous cultures are to be valued as they can teach westerners more than a thing or two!It is not surprising that it was used by the education establishment as a text book.Will look at further reading of this author