Author A.P. Kanapathypillai should be commended for his work which deals with the arrival of workers from South India to work on the plantations of Sri Lanka and the trade union movement in the plantations and their present identity. The author in florid polemics has dealt with the episode in which the workers were brought to the estates by the kanganies and their consequent exploitation by the British planters and authorities.
The 15 chapters in the book include the early period of the plantation economy, the beginning of the trade union movement on estates, the struggles waged by Bracegirdle, landmark strikes in the plantations, citizenship and its aftermath, major trade unions, the workers under different regimes, nationalization of estates education and poverty amongst plantation workers, export performance of tea etc.
The painstaking research undertaken by the author in compiling facts and narrating it in language which a layman can understand is noteworthy.
The plantation workers are the most exploited sections of the working population of our country. Their living conditions and wages were poor at the very beginning of the commencement of the coffee industry and after the demise of coffee and with the beginning of the tea industry it was even worse as land was offered to the English planters at a nominal sum and there was a boom in the industry which necessarily resulted in the need for labour in great numbers. The author has dealt in detail with these aspects.
In recent times no book about the plantations has encompassed the wide variety of topics this book covers. Mr. Kanapathypillai’s book has the flavour of life in the plantations.
The early struggles of the left movement to win the rights of the plantation workers have been well brought out. Today many are ignorant of the fact that it was the left movement of our country which valiantly struggled to win the rights of the estate workers. The left movement through their trade unions won several rights inclusive of wage hikes, better living conditions and citizenship rights. It is due to them that the plantation workers are enjoying many statutory rights brought by legislation.
I am indeed happy that the author has mentioned the strike on Keenakelle estate since as a trade unionist I was involved in looking after the interests of the strikers and remember the suffering the workers underwent on this estate. This was at a time when trade unionists could not enter estates to speak to their members but now with legislation this anomaly has been rectified.
The author has dealt in detail about Bracegirdle. I might add that Bracegirdle was hiding in many parts of the country including Badulla to evade police arrest and to the credit of the then Supreme Court relief was granted to him in a Habeas Corpus application. It is now a reported land mark case.
Thought provoking and investigative, the book is an interesting read. |
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