Alagu Subramaniam

"Among the Sri Lankan writers who belonged to the English-speaking elite of the early post-independence era, the London-based barrister Alagu Subramaniam used to be prominent. At a time we are heading for the third decade of the 21st Century, when most of what used to be commonplace has become history, it was a great pleasure to have a copy of the new impression of the 1964 imprint of The Big Girl & Other Stories by Subramaniam whose "Professional Mourners", I consider one of the best Sri Lankan short stories written in English for the sincerity and localness he maintains throughout his narration. My paper on it uploaded to the www.academia.edu in early 2018 under the topic "Servile Mourning for the Powerful: A Critical Reading of ‘Professional Mourners’ by Alagu Subramaniam" has attracted nearly 4000 views from an international readership spread across the world. I have received many commendations for uploading it as the humour it carries is both innocent, and caustic at the same time."

When this book of short stories written by Alagu Subramaniam was first published in 1964, Ceylon had been independent of the British for about 16 years. Then as now, the effect of colonialism was a topic of open discussion.

Mulk Raj Anand and Iqbal Singh published one of his short stories in their anthology Indian Short Stories (New India Publishing Company, 1946). His short stories were published by a number of journals, such as Life, Letters Today, Left Review and Tribune.

He was involved with the anti-colonial organization Swaraj House which was formed in 1942 as a break-away group from the British Committee of the Indian National Congress.

Alagu Subramaniam (1910–1971) was a British Ceylon born writer, a prominent figure in London's Bloomsbury literary circle, a Barrister-at-Law of The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon.