Michael Roberts
Dulip Karunaratne of St. Aloysius (as a boarder) sent this to me. As a resident of Galle Fort and a frequent visitor to the playing fields in front of the Fort, this bridge over a canal leading to the Municipal Park was a familiar sight. Perhaps so familiar as to be taken for granted.
So, too, was the canal: ….. taken for granted …. Unlike the imposing Fort.
However, the canal was also one illustration of the Hollandische capacities in the works of irrigation, transport and defensive establishments during their period of military/political expansion into Asia and the Far East in the 17th-to-19th centuries. Let me underline one aspect of this work via repetition: a considerable network of canals was built by the Dutch in Sri Lanka’s south-western lowland belt during their rule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Canal
https://lankalibrary.com/geo/dutch/dutch4.htm
Richard Leslie Brohier (1978). Links between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands : a book of Dutch Ceylon. Netherlands Alumni Association of Sri Lanka. ISBN 978-8-7874-5367-7.
A SPECIAL NOTE
My memory is full of holes these days but a sudden flash has reminded me that somewhere in recent email correspondence there wasa reference to the considerable use of Kaaberi personnel by the Dutch in the construction of the Galle Fort. It follows that they were also deployed in the work of canal construction.
The Dutch had to sail around Africa to reach India and Sri Lanka and had set up colonies in Namibia and the Cape. So, they had a stock of African labour and/or mercenary troops in their hands.
The presence of these elements in the service of the colonial powers should inject a conjectural stream of consciousness into our historical reflections: since the vast majority of these personnel were males …. virile males …. what did they. so to speak, inject into the local population? and what cultural activities did they have some hand in?
ALSO SEE
