KAMALIKA PIERIS

There were Tamil occupants in north Sri Lanka before Settler Colonialism started. The Pandya dynasty ruled in Tamilnadu in two bouts, 6^th to 10th and again from 13th to 14th century .In the second bout, they entered Sri Lanka. When they departed, in 1323, they left a military outpost in Jaffna, with an officer known as Ariyachakravarti in charge.

 Ariyachakravarti managed to annex some of the adjoining lands. Ariyachakravarti made periodic incursions downwards. He once got as far as Panadura.  He was always defeated and pushed back to Jaffna.

In the 14 century, this Pandya outpost went under the control of the Vijayanagara kingdom of Karnataka as a part of Vijayanagara’s annexation of   the Tamil kingdom in south India.   When  Ariyachakravarti tried to rebel, Prince Virupaksha of Vijayanagara came and crushed him. I am not sure but I think Jaffna paid tribute to Vijayanagara.

Tamil colonization started in the Dutch period. The history of the present day Tamils does not go beyond 1650, observed Nalin de Silva.[1] The Dutch got down low caste, landless, agriculture laborers from Tamilnadu, to work on the tobacco plantations in the north. According to Tamil sources, these Tamils were Sudra, the lowest of the four caste groups, said Bandu de Silva. [2]

In the eighteenth century, there was an active tobacco trade between Jaffna and Kerala. The tobacco which thrived in Jaffna was in great demand in Travancore. [3] Tobacco was paid for in gold by the ruler of Travancore who held the monopoly. This was known as ‘Jaffna gold’.  The Tamils used   this ‘Jaffna gold ‘brought in from Travancore tobacco market to entrench themselves in Jaffna, said Bandu. [4]

 Settler migration also took place. The Dutch encouraged through the sale of vacant and other lands the immigration of large number of Tamils from south India. [5] Dutch Governor Van Gollenesse (1743-1751) observed that from Negombo to Jaffna only Tamil was spoken.[6] 

 Once the land changed hands, the Dutch introduced registration with Tamils as the owners. The original owners, who presumably were Sinhala, became a landless class of serfs under these Tamils who become the new landowning class. The Sinhala goviyas were reduced to the landless Koviya caste in Jaffna  said Bandu de Silva.

These Tamil arrivals were initially considered foreigners. Robert Knox met them when he was escaping to England via Mannar in 1679 and   spoke of them as the Malabars, who came from another country.’ R.Percival in his book ‘Account of the island of Ceylon” (1803) spoke of the Tamils in the Jaffna peninsula as foreigners”.

The British continued the Dutch policy of using Tamil as labourers.  In 1866 it was reported that Tamils from Jaffna were coming to Iuppaikadavi in Mannar district to make it a ‘flourishing Jaffnese tobacco growing colony. (SP 8 of 1886 p 11)

In 1886 engineer H.W. Parker had pointed out that labor for restoring the Northern Province tanks would have to be got from South India or Jaffna. (SP 49, 1886) GA Eastern Province reported in 1900 that ‘on this side of the island we can get no responsible Sinhalese worker for the salary we can offer. (AR  1900 p F12). In 1901, cultivators were brought into Trincomalee district from Jaffna for tobacco cultivation. ( AR Trincomalee  1901 p F17)

The British policy however was to bring Tamils in as settlers, not as labourers. It was planned  Settler Colonization. CW Nicholas in ‘Historical Topography of ancient and medical Ceylon’ refers to the conversion of Jaffna peninsula into a Tamil settlement.

 Tamils seem to have favoured Jaffna peninsula over the rest  of the Northern Province when it came to  residence. They have been reluctant to settle in the Vanni. In 1911, Denham said that  it was  hoped that settlers from Jaffna would come to the Vanni, using the railway and that large extents of paddy land under irrigation would be taken up by colonists from Jaffna.[7]

Instead the Tamil settlers bought out Sinhala landowners in the north. They    had the  money.

From the 1880s  Jaffna Tamils had gone   in large numbers to Malaya to work as clerks, supervisors and so on.[8]

 Tambapillai Adigar in his   report on Jaffna district said in 1911 that Tamils working elsewhere in Ceylon, also in Burma and especially in Malaysia, where they were mainly in Kuala Lumpur, remitted money to Ceylon. Several lakhs of rupees are annually remitted to Jaffna by them. There is not a village in Jaffna which has not benefited by the employment of its persons abroad.   As a result land has gone up in price in Jaffna too, [9]  he added.

In 1886 Henry Parker reported that the  Sinhala villagers around Pavatkulam tank, Vavuniya were too poor to purchase the irrigable land that would soon become available but the  GA had said that he was confident that purchasers will come from Jaffna. (SP 11 of 1886 p 7)

Regarding Mamaduwa tank, Vavuniya,  Parker said, I know for a fact that some of the Tamil money lenders of the neighborhood are disposed to buying up much , if not all, of the reclaimed land over the heads of the Sinhalese settlers, if the lands are offered for sale. Parker hoped that won’t happen. ( SP 8 of 1886 p 8)

GA Northern Province   mentions a lot of 50  acres of land sold to a Tamil  by a Muslim.(AR 1900) ). In 1902 there was a purchase of a block of land of 102 acres near  Giants Tank by an Indian Chetty and an up country kangany. [10]

The Sinhalese   did try to challenge Tamil colonization  and maintain a presence in the north. GA, Northern Province reported in 1873 that some of the Vanni Pattus had several villages occupied by Sinhalese who had migrated from Anuradhapura. As requested, Sinhalese headmen were appointed (AR 1873).

Around 1876 some enterprising Sinhalese villagers settled in Chemamadu in Jaffna but abandoned the settlement after four years. Sinhalese had objected to Tamil settlers being brought in to Mamaduwa tank, Vavuniya.( SP 8 of 1886 and SP 46 of 1886 p 2)

The North Central Province  was created in 1873. It consisted of Nuwara kalaviya, Tamankaduwa and  Demala Pattuva.  Tammankaduwa was a mix of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim, said Ukku Banda Karunananda. Egoda pattuva in Tamankaduwa had Tamils and Muslims. They spoke Tamil .The law courts for Tamankaduwa  were in Trincomalee  and proceedings were in Tamil. [11]

However, Tamankaduwa had a  strong Sinhala-Buddhist connection that could not be  ignored. Tamankaduwa had viharagam belonging to the prestigious Asgiriya Vihara and Dalada Maligawa.[12]  Therefore  Tamankaduwa Ratemahatmaya  was  Sinhala.

Minneriya Mudiyanse was appointed Ratemahatmaya for Tamankaduwa In 1873. He was the only top Sinhala family left In Tamankaduwa. He was succeeded for a short  time by a Muslim, Hasan Saheeb Eman. He was  dismissed from the post and Muhandiram E de Costa , a low country Sinhalese from Anuradhapura  took over , followed by Dullewe Banda, said Karunananda.  [13] 

Schools were introduced in 1873. There was   a Sinhala school at Minneriya and a Tamil school at Onagama.  These closed down soon after.  Moragaha wewa  Swabhasha school started in 1893. by 1900 Tamankaduwa had 15 schools with average attendance of 25,  there were 5  Sinhala schools and  10 Tamil schools..[14]

 The British   tried to plant Tamil settlers in the ‘tank country’. In 1857 the GA for   Minneriya suggested colonizing Minneriya with people from South India. Kalawewa colonization scheme was started in 1893. The colonists were exclusively Tamils.

 R.W.Ievers, Government Agent for the district was entrusted with the task. GA was   told by Secretary of State to give preference to Tamils from the Jaffna peninsula.  So he brought in Tamils from Jaffna. Within the first year 14 of the original 26 families had returned to Jaffna. (SP 4 of 1893) .

R.W.Ievers complained that these settlers had never seen a forest before and that they wanted everything done for them.  Ievers had to get the land cleared for them, employing Sinhala villagers. The settlers sowed some short term crops but soon returned to their villages in Jaffna. Ievers has recorded these events in his Diaries with much pain in mind as he had spent much state funds on those people.

Years later, in 1911,  Denham observed that Tamil settlers  are not interested in working to open up the country where they have to work for at least two years before they got a return. [15]

The British authorities   paid special attention to settling Tamils in the Eastern Province. The British saw the value of  this province  to foreign powers, with its location  facing the Bay of Bengal and  its two harbors, Trincomalee and Batticaloa. They expanded the Province. They  added approximately 1,380 square km of Bintenna  and approximately 1,050 square km of Wellassa  to the   Eastern Province. Bintenna was administered as a Sinhala division but Wellassa   was  included  in the Tamil and Muslim  divisions, said Gamini Iriyagolle. [16]

Before British rule, the Eastern Province  consisted only of Sinhala villages. Eastern  Province was a part of the Rajarata during Anuradhapura rule. It was  a part of the Udarata kingdom during Dutch rule.

Dutch governor Ryckloff van Goens  stated in his Memoir of  26^th December 1663 that ” The country between the river Waluwe and Trinquenemale  is entirely inhabited by the [Udarata King’s ] people and therefore  I have never been able to visit this district”. According to British GAs reports, , there were a series of village in the jungle along the ancient pilgrim path from Tiriyaya to Anuradhapura , said Bandu de Silva in 2009

The British Government Agents  in charge of  the north and east were well aware that the north and east were part of an admirable Sinhala-Buddhist   civilization. Benjamin Horsburgh  who was Governor of Northern Province, declared in 1916: “that the Sinhalese occupied the Northern portion of the mainland, . which is  now Tamil country, there is ample evidence carved in stone all over the Mannar and Mullaitivu Districts.” (Horsburgh. p 54)

The British   colonized the districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa  with immigrants from Jaffna and South India. Report on the Conservation and administration of Crown forests in Ceylon. (SP XLIII of 1882) said the resident Tamil population is chiefly to be found in the eastern and northern province, where there are few Sinhalese. The percentage was  67% Tamil and 18% Muslims. Report on Forest Administration of Ceylon by F.D’A Vincent (SP XL11 of 1882) spoke of   the gradual spread of the Tamils down the coast, especially the Eastern coast.  

The 19th Century saw the settlement of Jaffna people in Mullaitivu, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts, said Bandu de Silva. The Crown had taken over  65 villages in the Eastern Province In 1870, through the  Waste Lands Ordinance, noted Hennayake.[17]   By 1901 roads were developed up and down the coast, linking Jaffna ,Trincomalee and Batticaloa .( AR Trincomalee 1901 P F17)

Tamil settlements of the 19th century   were along the coastline. 1868 GA Trincomalee said it is most desirable to keep up the villages along the coast to Jaffna all of which are thriving. ( AR 1868 p 169)

G.H. Peiris, researching into the ethnic demography of the East coast, in the 19th and 20 the centuries, found that even in 1920,  almost all the Tamil settlements were confined to a coastal strip barely extending 10 miles into the interior. (  G.H.Peiris p 20).

It was the same in 1981.The 1981 census data indicates that even in 1981, the Tamil settlements in the East coast, hug the coastline, in small, separate fragments, interspersed with Sinhala and Muslim settlements. The interior is uniformly dominated by Sinhala settlements.[18]

The Sinhalese living by the coast were pushed back. Report on Forest Administration of Ceylon by F.D’A Vincent (Sessional paper XL11 of 1882) where ever the Tamil or the Mahommedan comes to settle, the Sinhalese is driven back to the forest, where he earns a precarious existence by chena cultivation and by hunting, the Report  said.

In Trincomalee district, the ancient Sinhalese villages continued anew in the interior jungles while old settlements like Kumburupitiya, (Kumburupitiya), Puhul Motai, (Pulmudai), and Giribandu (Tiriyaya) were taken over by Jaffna Tamils and Muslims., said DGB (Bandu)  de Silva.

there were Sinhalese settlements scattered over extensive areas in the interior in Trincomalee district, said Peiris. Also There were numerous abandoned village tanks in the uninhabited tracts, which bore Sinhala names.[19] 

Census reports indicate that from 1870 to 1900 Jaffna was the foremost source of migrants into Trincomalee town. The town itself was largely inhabited by Tamils, while the harbor area held both Tamils and Muslims, said GH Pieris. Trincomalee town had emerged as an urban center by 1879. [20]  by 1899  the     major population in Trincomalee were ‘residents of Jaffna and Batticaloa’ ( AR Eastern Province 1899). The Tamils in Trincomalee  District rose, from 30% of the population in  1871 to a peak of 60%  in 1901.[21]

The Government Agent, Trincomalee pointed out in 1898 that it seems almost incredible that a visitor may spend a year in any part of Ceylon without ever seeing a Sinhalese man and yet this might happen to a visitor in Trincomalee. It seems incredible that there should be any town in Ceylon where you could not find thirty men speaking the national language, Sinhalese, yet this is true of Trincomalee.” (AR 1898 p F16)

 in 1898 Trincomalee    was cut off from the rest of the country, particularly the capital at Colombo.. The GA and District Engineer had been stuck in Trincomalee  for 2 years without visiting Colombo because of the lack of a railway. The British were concerned only with its sea defense which was looked after .

The depopulation of Sinhalese villages in the east coast was widely reported by the administrators and officials working there. This depopulation was followed by the simultaneous infiltration of Tamils and Muslims from their population pockets allocated along the eastern coast and also from Jaffna,  noted Hennayake.

The population around Kantale tank   had been Sinhala In 1833 but the Sinhalese  had vanished by 1855. They had been replaced by  Tamil settlers, said a report submitted in 1855 by  three British engineers. The  hydraulic tradition relating to the Yoda Ela from Minneriya which was known to the Sinhalese, who were there in 1833 , was totally unknown to these Malabars, they added.[22]

AGA Trincomalee, 1867 and GA Nuwarakalawiya,  1870 reported a decrease in  Sinhala villages. In 1867, in Kaddukulam pattu ,  there  were 15 Tamil and Muslim villages and 9 Sinhala villages. In the same  year, Tamankaduwa had 982 Sinhala inhabitants and 1307 inhabitants I the Muslim and Tamil villages, ( AR, Eastern Province, 1867 p 100, 106)

Some Sinhala villages survived into the present century. Morawewa near Pankulam in Trincomalee district,   which was exclusively Sinhala in old days is today two separate divisions, one Sinhala and one Tamil,. the first school there had a Tamil teacher so it      got Tamilised.  Tamil officials, school teachers and itinerant Muslim peddlers began to acquire ancestral lands of the villagers,   noted Bandu de Silva in 2006.

Depopulation of Sinhalese villages in Eastern Province was due to deliberate neglect by the British authorities. The British let the tanks in the Sinhala villages deteriorate and go dry,  depriving them of water, in what today would be labeled as Genocide. In this manner the Sinhala population in the Eastern province was  allowed to die out. [23]

C.M. Lushington, GA Trincomalee, was deeply concerned in 1898 about the fate of the Sinhala villages under him. British officials  like Lushington and Parker had a great admiration for the ancient Sinhala civilization and none at all for the Tamil culture that tried to supplant it. Parker referred to the ‘Tamil usurpation of the Sinhala kingdom.”(SP 46 of 1886 p 11)

In his dispatches, which I have seen  at the National Archives , Colombo, Lushington appealed   over and over again to the British authorities for help in this matter. He said ‘these Sinhala villages are dying simply because of the lack of water. All they need  is a little help to repair their tanks.  the government ignored this plea.

Lushington said that Kaddukulam pattu, near Tiriyaya in Trincomalee was inhabited by Sinhala villagers of Kandyan descent and the community was rapidly dying out and becoming effaced. They were dying due to lack of water. Lushington said that the villagers only need a little help to restore their village tanks. The villagers were willing to pay the cost in installments. (AR 1898)

The most important assistance which can, and ought to, be rendered to these villagers would be the restoration of their village tanks. This would render them independent of the Tamils, and make them less likely to abandon their villages or to sell their lands to Tamils, said Lushington. (Administration Report on Trincomalee District for 1898 p. F18).

In 1901 Lushington again noted that the Sinhala villages were steadily getting depopulated. (AR 1901 p f17). in 1902 Lushington   pointed  out that while the appeals of the Kaddukulam  pattu villagers in Trincomalee were ignored, the government  had pampered the villages in Batticaloa  district  where  just one tank had 8 sluices. (AR 1902 p F17) Batticaloa had the greatest concentration of Tamils in the Eastern Province.

The Sinhala villages in the East coast disappeared due to three reasons. some villages died out.    GA, Trincomalee District,    reported  in  1898 ” This part of the district is inhabited by Sinhalese villagers of Kandyan descent, who are dying out or becoming effaced.  Secondly,  Tamil settlers   bought up the holdings of the Sinhala villagers.  The Sinhala villagers  have been bought out by Tamils who now own all the paddy lands of some villages, said GA Trincomalee in 1898. ( AR 1898 p F 16-17)

Thirdly, they became  Tamilised. In 1871 there were 14 schools in Batticaloa, run by the Weslyan Mission. They were all teaching in Tamil. (AR of GA for Eastern Province 1871 ) The Kaddukulam villagers are rapidly becoming Tamilized, which is a great pity,  said GA Lushington (1898).  They intermarry with Tamils, speak Tamil as well as they speak Sinhala. The government school master is Tamil and  only that language is taught in school.

The Sinhalese have given up their patronymics and have adopted the Tamil custom of prefixing the father’s name instead of the usual  patronymic.  even the names of the villagers are assuming a Tamil dress. This  is not to be wondered at when the interpreters of the court and the Kachcheri, the petition  drawers and all through whom the villagers have access to government officials  can speak nothing but Tamil.

 I  must say I regard this as a great misfortune. I should like to see a strong Sinhalese headman acquainted with English appointed as Chief Headman of the district, and I should like to see the Tamil school abolished, concluded Lushington in 1898.[24]

During the British period, certain economic and commercial opportunities opened up in the  Trincomalee District. These fresh opportunities were almost completely seized by the             Tamil and Muslim groups, who were  more alert to the commercial possibilities  there than the Sinhalese, observed GH Pieris. 

The authorities blocked out land in the Eastern Province and sold them. In 1868  GA  Trincomalee reported that lands in Nilaveli were given out for cultivation.   The main buyers of these lands were the  Tamils and Muslims. .(AR 1868) .

 The British also    restored irrigation works in the Eastern Province   and gave the land that would be irrigated to Tamil colonists.[25]  The Allai and Kantalai tanks were restored in 1876 and 1877 respectively. In 1867 the GA, Trincomalee said he wanted to start a Tamil colony at Kantale.  The administration Report for 1867 of the AGA Trincomalee District states  “above all, I would like to form a large Jaffna colony and if liberal terms are offered, might succeed in the Kantalai tank area( AR 1867 p 106)

The Government Agent Jaffna was not successful in his attempt to send people to Gantalawa tank to colonize it,  But AGA Trincomalee  said in 1868  I have every reason to believe that we may set up a  Tamil  settlement there, with settlers from Tamilnadu, to cultivate the lands fed by this splendid tank.”  ( Report of AGA Trincomalee 1868)

About 22 village level irrigation works were restored in the Trincomalee  District between 1870 and 1905. As a result the Muslims and Tamils flocked to these areas. Maps show that the only non-Sinhala population clusters that were found in 1921, even a few mile s interior of the seaboard , were associated with these irrigation works, said GH Peiris.

In Batticaloa the colonial British government spent 76,000 pounds on repairs to the ancient wewas and rendered 23,000 acres of forest land irrigable for rice cultivation. 500 acres were leased to a newly formed Tamil enterprise called the Jaffna – Batticaloa Agricultural Company. The plan to lease the entire 23,000 acres to this enterprise was frustrated when the company failed,  said Gamini Iriyagolle.

Tamil colonization resulted in the displacement of Buddhism in the north and east. In 1894, J.P. Lewis writing  on the archaeology of the Vanni,  pointed out that the Vanni was full of pieces of Buddhist temples. Also remains of ancient tanks. These the British unanimously agree had been taken over by the Tamil invaders. ( J RASSL Cey   Vol 13(45) 1894.) 

In  Mullaitivu they vandalized Kurundi vihara. JP Lewis  Government agent for North, said in his  Manual of Vanni ( 1895) There are several  damaged ruins on the  Kurundi  hill and  the  tank bund.  The damage seems to have been caused through willful defacement by the Tamil occupants than by the action of time. [26]

Parker examining the same ruins said that the Tamils had demolished a vihara built by king Sanghabodhi in Kuruntukulam and built a Hindu temple in its place, also that a pilimage had been converted to a  Hindu temple. (SP 46 , 1886 p 11) (Continued)

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[1] Nalin de Silva. Island mid week rev.13.1.2010. p 2.

[2] Bandu de Silva.   Tobacco gold that  made Jaffna  assertive. Island  sat mag. 1.4.2006 p 1.

[3] http://www.linguist.univ-paris-diderot.fr/~chevilla/FestSchrift/ar_ven_5a.pdf

[4] Bandu de Silva.   Tobacco gold that  made Jaffna  assertive. Island  Sat mag. 1.4.2006 p 1.

[5] Bandu de Silva.   Tobacco gold that  made Jaffna  assertive. Island  Sat mag. 1.4.2006 p 1.

[6] Memoir of J,S.Van Gollenesse, 1743-1751. 1974. p  59.

[7] Denham , E.B. Census f Ceylon  1911

[8] https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/606207

[9] Denham , Census of 1911 p 67

[10] Denham, Census of 1911 p 74

[11] Ukku Banda Karunananda.  Tamankaduwa 1815-1900. 1993. p. 21.

[12] Ukku Banda Karunananda.  Tamankaduwa 1815-1900. 1993. p.  43..

[13] Ukku Banda Karunananda.  Tamankaduwa 1815-1900. 1993. p.  23, 25- 26..

[14] Ukku Banda Karunananda.  Tamankaduwa 1815-1900. 1993. p.  38- 39..

[15] Denham p 69

[16] Gamini Iriyagolle  The Eastern Province, Tamil Claims and “Colonisation”   https://fosus2.tripod.com/fs20000614.htm

[17] Shantha Hennayake. Island 1.5.2009 p 7

[18]  Cecil Dharmasena. ‘Irrigation and settlements schemes in Northern and East’ Daily News 26.10.95 p 23. Vidyamali Samarasinghe. ‘Ethno-regionalism as a basis for geographical separation in Sri Lanka’ Ethnic Studies Report Vol 6(2) 1988 figures 9 and 10)

[19] GH Pieris p 20

[20]  GH  Peiris p 28

[21] Peiris p 28

[22]  Gamini Iriyagolle  https://fosus2.tripod.com/fs20000614.htm

[23]  Gamini Iriyagolle  https://fosus2.tripod.com/fs20000614.htm

[24] Administration Report on Trincomalee District for 1898 p. F18 Lushington. ( AR of GA, Trincomalee 1898 p F 16-17.)

[25] Iriyagolle.  https://fosus2.tripod.com/fs20000614.htm 

[26] https://www.kurundi.lk/about/