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This book began as a study of the social and economic policies of the Engish East India Company during its administration of Sri Lanka, 1796-1802.It developed into a study of the same policies during the later years of British Rule and during the Portuguese and Dutch Rule of Sri Lanka.
The British Governments is shown to have striven to uphold Sri Lankan ideas and institutions throughout its Rule, agreeing to change them only when such change was earnestly desired by the people. In this it was remarkably like its predecessor s, the Portuguese and the Dutch.
In particular, it upheld the caste system refraining only from enforcing caste strictures through the law courts after 1833. It relied on the headmen for the administration of the country to a remarkable degree, the reliance increasing rather than diminishing towards the end of its rule. It upheld the land tenure system, subject to the changes made in it by Governor North. It used Rajakariya on a large scale and continued to do so after 1833, contrary to the much vaunted but false view that it was abolished by the Colebrooke Commission. It regarded all races in Sri Lanka as separate and refused, for most of its Rule, to accord to the Sinhalese a higher status because of its numerical preponderance. It was remarkably conservative and remarkably Sri Lankan and not European in its outlook.
This book offers new information on a number of themes. In particular, it shows that the rent farms were not engrossed by South Indian renters when British Rule was first established, that Governor North’s land reforms were conservative, not radical, that they were not changed by his successor, Governor Maitland in any important regard, that Rajakariya was received to a considerable degree after 1833 and that the Legislative Council was intended, by the Colebrooke commission, to be a venue for the development of the official, not unofficial, members, as critics of the Governments and as spokesmen of the people.
This book raises the question of whether the British Rule of Sri Lanka, like that of its predecessors, the Portuguese and the Dutch, was anything other than indirect rule. In the historiography of Sri Lanka it is a study of continuity, not of change. In this sense too it is new. It offers new information and new perspectives.
Sinhale And The Patriots 1815-1818
Author: P.E.Pieris
Our Price: $89.00
History of Ceylon Book - IV
Author: H. C. Ray,
Our Price: $39.00
Memoirs Of The Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Vol
Author: S. Paranavitana
The Rock And Wall Paintings of Sri Lanka
Author: Senake Bandaran
Our Price: $129.00
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