Synthesizing the historiographical aspects found in literature for building a descriptive model of the man-nature interfaces in post-colonial Batticaloa: A discourse analytic approach

Abstract

Physical geographers, when trying to understand the interfaces between natural .resource bases and the human society in any given geographical area need to understand how the system has evolved during the course of its past history. It is often the popularly recognized books of history, old-books or folklore and epics verbally transferred from generation-to-generation, that aid the investigators to construct descriptive models of how the system was in the past and understand the present trends in the interfaces properly. Discourse analysis, where literature meets signal-processing science, is a proper aid to the physical geographer. It helps to visualize a piece of information as a cluster of signals, and perform scientifically proven signal-processing procedures to extract the information relevant to the investigation. This is a forensic analysis enabling the investigator to gain deep insight into the past history of the system. This paper highlights an effort to synthesize the historiographical aspects found in literature on Batticaloa from the early parts of the 20th century to develop a descriptive model of the interfaces. Considering the efforts by the government to provide a sustainable developmental strategy to the eastern regions of Sri Lanka, the need to evaluate how the resources and the interactions can be sustained in a favorable manner is realized. In this regard, the need to develop a model of interfaces is paramount, and this is where this investigation will aid immensely considering that there is little or no statistical data available on the past history of Batticaloa district. We have taken two prominent texts on the history of Batticaloa, one in English by S.O. Canagaratnam and the other in Tamil by F.X.C. Nadarajah - to infer how the authors have used various sources to compile their very own individualistic descriptions of the interfaces. The results of the analysis indicate the critical fragility of the interfaces which should be given careful consideration, in the case of any effort towards developing the area.