Category Archives: British colonialism

November 7, 2024 · 1:06 pm

Assorted Data on Walter T. Stace

A = A Note from Lucy McCann at the Bodleian Library in Oxford – Michael Roberts, some years back…

At the Institute of Commonwealth Studies there is an autobiography of W.T. Stace as a civil servant in Ceylon, written in 1964 – ………………see https://archives.l………………libraries.london.ac.uk/Details/archive/110022875

There is also something about his appointment to the Ceylon Civil Service in the India Office Papers at the British Library and some correspondence with him among the papers of philosopher George Edward Moore at Cambridge University Library – …………see https://archives.libraries.london.ac.uk/Details/archive110022/875

Best wishes,  Lucy

Historical view of Kandy. 

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November 7, 2024 · 10:40 am

Walter Stace in British Ceylon, 1910-1932

Michael Roberts

 Walter T. Stace was a British citizen born in 1886 and educated in private schools in Wales and Scotland before completing his undergraduate degree at Trinity College, Dublin. He was therefore of middle-upper class background. His philosophical leanings did not deter him from signing up for the Colonial Service. He was sent to Ceylon – reaching the island with his wife … and being posted to the town of Galle*** in 1910.

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November 2, 2024 · 7:23 pm

British Ceylon Through A Family Lens 1850-1950

Prof Naren Chitty …. an article in THE CEYLANKAN vol 27/4 November 2024

 Introduction
​British Governors relied on mostly unsalaried Mudaliyars (leaders) from select families who exchanged service for land grants.[1]  Educated in public schools Mudaliyars’ Anglophile sons increasingly inhabited a Jane Austenian lifeworld, particularly as they donned European attire in the middle of the nineteenth century. Unfolding around them was a countervailing Buddhist revival associated with Sinhala cultural resurgence. [2]

Chitty Family in 1899 … Standing L-R = Christian, Wilfred, George Snr, Marian, Charles ….. Sitting L-R = Mitzi, Rose, Maude, Laura, James

 

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October 5, 2024 · 8:58 pm

Addressing the Place of Agriculture & the Mahaweli in Lanka’s Economic Future–In August 1974

Michael Roberts

The three-day conference on 16-19 August 1974 devoted to the topic of AGRICULTURE  IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA held at the excellent conference facility at the Department of Agriculture at Gannoruwa – within easy distance from the Peradeniya University campus – was an instance of the capacities and vitality of the Ceylon Studies Seminar at the Peradeniya University. The CSS had been launched in 1968 and its story has been documented elsewhere with an emphasis on the roles of Prof Gananath Obeyesekere, myself, Vijaya Samaraweera, SWR de Samarasinghe, CR de Silva, typists Mrs Hettiaratchchi & Kumaraswamy and cyclostyle-operator Sathiah (see …………………………………. https://thuppahis.com/2018/10/02/nationalist-studies-and-the-ceylon-studies-seminar-at-peradeniya-1968-1970s/).

Piyasiri

CR …. and Sathiah

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September 29, 2024 · 3:13 pm

Kumar Sangakkara’s Ecumenical Patriotic Outreach

Michael Roberts

Kumar Sangakkara’s recent step as a front-personage for tourism in Sri Lanka (see https://thuppahis.com/2024/09/29/kumar-sangakkara-for-tourist-trips-to-sri-lanka/) calls to mind his bold steps on behalf of ethnic compromise and reconciliation in Sri Lanka in the 200os. In these efforts he was joined at diferent moments by Murali and Mahela [tsunami relief tours) and his wife Yehali (visit to St Patricks College in Jaffna, 2009).

These instances underline the weight of the messages in an article from my pen which was presented in GROUNDVIEWS by Sanjana Hattotuwa and Co towards the end of THE YEAR 2012.

Standing now in the year 2024 this essays  — as well as the comments it attracted — may serve as useful points of departure for meaningful commentary.

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September 26, 2024 · 3:44 pm

The Personnel Behind THE CEYLON JOURNAL

Thuppahi is pleased to present a photo of the key personnel located in Sri Lanka who were involved in launching the new cutting/edge academic venture known as THE CEYLON JOURNAL this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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September 26, 2024 · 3:30 pm

Ceylonese Migrants to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s

Earlson Forbes, whose title in THE CEYLANKAN, vol 27/2, May 2024 is “Fortress White Australia: What early Ceylonese migrants [1949 t0 1969] were up against” … now placed in TPS in a revised form to accomodate illustrations that proved recalcitrant

The Six Australian Colonies came together on the 1st  of January 1901 to form the independent Nation of the Commonwealth of Australia.  From 1788 (First Fleet arrival at Sydney Cove) to the time of Federation, Australia was populated by convict and free settlers almost exclusively from Britain.  The 1901 census put the population at 3.7 million.   Aboriginals were not counted in this census. A small percentage of the population was made up of Pacific Islanders and Chinese.  The Chinese entered Australia in the second half of the 19th century at the time of the Gold Rush in Australia (mid-19th century) and in the years following. Between 1851 and 1870 about 50,000 Chinese were estimated to have entered Australia. Pacific Islanders had been brought to Australia in the second half of the 19th century as labourers.

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September 24, 2024 · 9:07 pm

The Branding of Islamic Migrants to Ceylon Over the Centuries

WHEN Shamara Wettimuny’s article  in the History Workshop Journal entitled “The Colonial History of Islamophobic Slurs in Sri Lanka”  …. was placed in FACEBOOK it received the following set of comments: some prejudiced against and some in favour. The ethnic difference in the authors is quite marked and thereby marks the depth of ethnicity in the island context …. TODAY.  

Moving at a tangent, I stress that the research work that generated the book by Roberts, Colin-Thome & Raheem which is entitled People Inbtween (1989 Sarvodaya) becomes profoundly relevant to this set of engagements. Note that my deployment of the THUPPAHI concept for my web-site’s brand name emerged from this body of research. So, do visit this entry as well: https://thuppahis.com/why-thuppahi/

The original article can be access in THUPPAHI at ………………… https://thuppahis.com/2020/09/07/experiencing-denigration-in-sri-lanka-the-muslims-yesterday-and-today/

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September 19, 2024 · 1:14 pm

Democratic Processes Worldwide and Sri Lanka Today

 Ever since he addressed the failed coup of 1962 in a book-length stud,y Donald L. Horowitz has kept an eye on Sri Lankan affairs and has now unveiled a new book tackling central issues in the democratic process on a worldwide scale –with one chapter devoted to the problems TODAY in Sri Lanka ….. Editor, Thuppahi 

Donald L. Horowitz, James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science Emeritus, Duke University

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September 18, 2024 · 9:24 pm

Remembering Anagarika Dharmapala

Item presented in FACEBOOK by Peradeniya University Friends with this title: 160th Birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala**

Anagarika Dharmapala a noble son of Sri Lanka who made immense sacrifices towards Buddhist revival and national upliftment in the 19th century was born at Matara on 17 Sept 1864.

He worked and campaigned with unswerving loyalty to the nationalist cause in an era when Buddhism and the national culture had reached their lowest ebb.

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