Decoding the Archives: Translating the 1915 Riots

by Vasantha Wakkumbura

History is not just about what happened; it is heavily defined by who recorded it and how.

When dealing with historical texts, a translator’s job shifts from being just a linguist to becoming a custodian of the archives. This was the exact responsibility I felt when undertaking the English to Sinhala translation of A.C. Depp’s Ceylon Police and Sinhala Muslim Riots of 1915 for the Department of Police.

The 1915 riots represent a deep, foundational fracture in Sri Lankan society, and studying them is essential for understanding the roots of our modern social and political dynamics. A.C. Depp, serving as a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police, wrote this text from a highly specific, institutional, and administrative vantage point during the British colonial era.

Translating this required a completely different set of linguistic muscles compared to translating literature or sociology.

The Archival Tone: I had to navigate colonial-era legal jargon, police terminology, and the stiff administrative voice of the time.

Historical Objectivity: The challenge was to accurately translate an institutional perspective of an ethnic clash into Sinhala, without letting modern biases alter the original historical voice.

Democratizing History: Much of our documented colonial history remains locked in English archives. Translating this work was about making a critical piece of our national history accessible to the Sinhala-reading public, allowing a wider audience to critically analyze the actions of the state and the public over a century ago.

If we want to understand the complexities of our present, we have to be willing to read the unfiltered accounts of our past.

To the history buffs and researchers out there: what is one historical book or document about Sri Lanka that you believe everyone should read?