Kandy becomes a Municipality

It was 141 years ago that the Kandy Municipal Council was established. The recorded date is March 20, 1866. Kandy was the second city in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to be elevated to the status of a municipality. Four months earlier, Colombo was declared a municipal council. The third – Galle was declared a municipality in December 1866.

Kandy occupied a prominent place in the country's history as the capital city of the Sinhalese kingdom in the last phase of its independent existence. It was the last bastion of the Sinhalese kings who were successful in repelling the attempts by the Portuguese and the Dutch to capture the hill country and until 1815 kept the British too at bay. After the British took over the Kandyan kingdom in 1815 it was first administered as a separate unit. The Colebrook Commission (1829), which was appointed to investigate the civil administration in Ceylon, recommended the amalgamation of the Kandyan and Maritime provinces.

A uniform administration was established by a Proclamation issued on October 1, 1833. It created five provinces one of which was the Central Province consisting of the districts known as 'Rata Heta' under the Kings of Kandy. The area in and around Kandy formed the Kandy District. Matale and Nuwara Eliya formed the other two districts in the Central Province.
The Municipality of Kandy was set up by Ordinance 17 of 1865. It had a population of 16,881 persons at the census of 1871 five years after the establishment of the Municipality. By 1946 the numbers had exceeded 50,000 in an area of 8 1/4 square miles.

When Ceylon had just two million

The first planned Census under British rule was held on March 27, 1871. It was conducted through enumerators working under the direction of Government Agents of the different Provinces and their District Assistants. The information was obtained through schedules left at each house to be filled by the householder. The schedule asked questions relating to sex, age, occupation, race, religion, whether married or not, place of birth, relationship to head of family and health condition. Details about the dwelling place relating to the roof, walls and accommodation also had to be furnished.

Prior to the 1871 Census, numbers relating to the population had been obtained both during the time of the Dutch and during the time of British Governor Edward Barnes. The Dutch census of 1789 had given a population of 817,000 in the maritime territory administered by the Dutch East India Company. The Census directed by Governor Barnes gave the population for the whole Island of only 889,289 persons in 1827.

The 1871 Census based on firm data for the first time recorded a population of 2,400,380. In ten years the number had increased to 2,759,738 recording an increase of 359,358 (15%). A decline of the growth rate (9%) was seen in the next ten years followed by an increase of 18.6% between 1891 and 1901.

Holidays for 'avurudu' and Vesak

The declaration of the Sinhala and Hindu New Year as a public holiday dates back to 1885. It was on March 27, 1885 that this important day for the people of this country was recognized as a public holiday. It gave the people a chance to celebrate 'avurudu' in traditional style observing age old customs at the auspicious times and visiting relations to renew their kinship once a year.

Vesak, the holiest day of the year for the Buddhists marking the Birth, Enlightenment and Passing away of the Buddha was also declared a public holiday on the same day.

Following the Buddhists revivalist movement, the colonial administration yielded to the agitation and decided to grant the Vesak holiday. Colonel Henry Steele Olcott inspired this campaign.