Our Heritage - February 25, 2007

The British take over from the Dutch

March is a significant month in Sri Lanka's relationships with the British. Records indicate that it was on March 2, 1796 that British rule commenced in Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then known. That was after the maritime provinces were ceded to the British by the Dutch.

Kandyan chiefs with John D'Oyly who was appointed Resident of Kandy after the British deposed the King and set up their administration.

The events that led to the handing over of Dutch possessions to the British began when a strong British force arrived in Trincomalee. They came with a letter from the Stradtholder (king) William of Holland who had fled to England when French troops overran Holland. The letter directed the Dutch in Ceylon to admit the British troops, to prevent Dutch possessions from falling into the hands of the French.

The Batavian Republic, which had been formed in Holland sent instructions to defend Dutch possessions from the British but the Dutch regiment being small, could not offer much resistance to the British.

Trincomalee was taken over by the British in August 1795 followed by Jaffna in September. The last Dutch Governor John Gerrard van Angelbeek signed an agreement handing over Galle and other possessions. In February 1796, Colombo was surrendered.

The Dutch possessions were ceded to the English East India Company, which had by then brought a large part of India under their control. The Company was allowed to manage the affairs of Ceylon too. Military Governors administered the areas under British control until the British government decided to rule directly from UK and Ceylon was made a Crown Colony in 1802 with Frederick North as Governor.

After several unsuccessful attempts at capturing the Kandyan kingdom, the British finally succeeded in ousting the king with the connivance of the Kandyan chieftains. On March 2, 1815 with the signing of the Kandyan Convention, the British gained total control of the country which thus lost its independence after over 2300 years.

Historian L. E. Blaze describes the historic event thus: "Sir Robert Brownrigg (Governor) occupied the principal seat and the Kandyan chiefs came in according to their rank. First and alone entered Ehelepola who was received with special honour and given a seat at the governor's right hand; for it was he who had begun the revolt against the king, who had urged the British to take Kandy, and who had secured the capture of the king. After him came Molligoda, and then the dissaves and other chiefs.

A treaty was read both in English and in Sinhalese and formally agreed to by all present. By this treaty Sri Vikrama Raja Sinha was deposed and the Kandyan kingdom was declared to belong to the British Crown;

Buddhism was to be held inviolable, and its temples and priests were to be protected and maintained as they had always been; the laws of the country were to remain unaltered and the king's revenues were to be levied as before."

Exactly three years later, on March 2, 1818, Ehelepola was arrested and taken prisoner by the British when they suspected him of being involved with the Uva rebellion. He had expected the British to reward him with the administration of the Kandyan provinces but when it did not happen, he was bitterly disappointed and refused the high office he was offered. Molligoda was thereafter appointed first adigar. Ehelepola declared he wished to be simply the, "friend of the British Government."

Pioneer coffee planter George Bird's death occurred on March 1, 1857. He was the second brother of Colonel Henry Bird, Deputy Commissioner-General of His Majesty's forces in Ceylon, who got him down to develop land for coffee cultivation after the occupation of Kandy.

Coffee was found growing in the vicinity of temples particularly around Hanguranketa. According to a Kandyan legend, some pilgrims had brought the seeds from Arabia to grow flowers for offering to the temple and the coffee beans had been distributed in the years that followed.

Governor Edward Barnes (1824-31) promoted growing coffee in the highlands when he found it was not a suitable crop for the lowlands. Bird began at Sinnapitiya, Gampola with not much success. Later, in partnership with Acland Boyd & Company, he moved to Kundasale and Imboolpitiya. In 1834 along with Colonel Henry C. Byrde, his nephew, he opened land in Pussellawa on Black Forest, so named from the dark foliage of the forest. It was the success of the first clearing on Black Forest that led to the ultimate rush for land to grow coffee.