Coping with a Squirrel Menace
The Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer and consideration, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they should not interfere with God’s divine will.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, cultural transmission, disparagement, heritage, Kandyan kingdom, law of armed conflict, life stories, meditations, performance, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, tolerance
Philip Gunawardena
Edmu
nd R Leach
Filed under accountability, British colonialism, caste issues, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, communal relations, cultural transmission, devolution, economic processes, education, ethnicity, European history, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil migration, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes, World War II and Ceylon
Adilah Ismail in the Sunday Times, 7 June 2015, where the title is “Colourful history of a historian” … with highlighting imposed by the Editor Thuppahi viz, Roberts himself
Looking back on his ‘going-down memory lane interviews’ with retired Britishers and Sri Lankans who served mainly in the Ceylon Civil Service, Michael Roberts who was in Sri Lanka recently, talks to Adilah Ismail about the beginnings of a passion.
Filed under British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, Colombo and Its Spaces, colonisation schemes, communal relations, constitutional amendments, cultural transmission, devolution, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, language policies, Left politics, life stories, modernity & modernization, nationalism, parliamentary elections, patriotism, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, transport and communications, travelogue, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
VIEW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNJyW-rdZPQ …. entitled “The Modern Origins of Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict”
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Filed under accountability, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, communal relations, cultural transmission, demography, doctoring evidence, economic processes, European history, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, language policies, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, performance, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, riots and pogroms, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, Sri Lankan cricket, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, transport and communications, trauma, truth as casualty of war, war reportage, world events & processes
Chandani Kirinde, in Sunday Times, March 2023. where the title runs thus: “Pride and tears of Uva Wellassa”
200 years after what is considered one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of colonial rule here, Chandani Kirinde visits the area that saw an uprising by its people that was brutally crushed by the British
A British cannon recovered from Wellassa. Pix by Indika Handuwala
The awe-inspiring cloud covered mountains, lush forests, formidable waterfalls and clear streams of Uva Wellassa bear little testimony today to the darkest and bloodiest chapter in the country’s history under British rule. There is little sign of the burnt hamlets, scorched paddy fields, broken tank bunds, felled trees and the skeletons of the thousands of men, women and children killed or starved to death when the military might of the coloniser was turned on the population of the Kandyan provinces to put down a rebellion against British rule.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, disparagement, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, martyrdom, military strategy, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, sri lankan society, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance
Jan Kok, Luc Bulten and Bente M. de Leede:
“Persecuted or permitted? Fraternal Polyandry in a Calvinist colony, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,” a work published by Cambridge University Press, 2022 … presented here in Thuppahi in synopsis
Abstract: Several studies assume that Calvinist Christianity severely undermined or even persecuted the practice of polyandry in the Sri Lankan areas under Dutch control. We analyze Dutch colonial policy and Church activities toward polyandry by combining ecclesiastical and legal sources. Moreover, we use the Dutch colonial administration of the Sinhalese population to estimate the prevalence of polyandry. We conclude that polyandry was far from extinct by the end of the Dutch period and we argue that the colonial government was simply not knowledgeable, interested and effective enough to persecute the practice in the rural areas under its control.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, commoditification, cultural transmission, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, gender norms, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, religiosity, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
Michael Powell: article published in 2007 and entitled “Fragile Identities: The Colonial Consequences of CJR Le Mesurier in Ceylon”
ABSTRACT of Article: In the many layered life of CJR Le Mesurier in Ceylon are themes that repeat and recur throughout the British colonial world, touching on marriage and morals, religion and race, archival retention and colonial employment.
Cecil Le Mesurier in Western Australia c 1920s …. Courtesy of Rod Cantley
In particular, his strenuous litigious attack on assumptions of Crown title challenged the philosophic and legal framework of colonial land policy, revealing its ideological foundation, and illuminating the pattern and impulse of land policy throughout Empire.
The increasing effrontery of his actions induces an equally escalating reaction from colonial authority that pares away the preferred patina of civilizing mission to reveal a far more base intent – a colonial impulse more discernible and the actions of authority more disclosing – contributing to a much richer comparative understanding of the dynamics of colonial land dealings.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, colonisation schemes, cultural transmission, discrimination, disparagement, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, land policies, landscape wondrous, legal issues, life stories, plantations, politIcal discourse, power politics, religiosity, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, trauma, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Dr Srilal Fernando in Melbourne, reproducing the firs t part of an article that arpperas in THE CEYLANKAN, The journal of the ceylon Society of Australia, Vol25/3, August 2022. Its full title therein is as follows: “The Story of a Painting. Governor Falck’s Audience to the Kandyan Ambassadors in 1772drawn and painted from life by C F Reimer, Surgeon.”
A group photograph is part of a visual record of a modern day conference. What did they do in 1772, long before the advent of photography? A skilled artist was commissioned to paint the scene as it happened. The occasion was the visit of 3 Kandyan ambassadors to attend a meeting with the then Dutch Governor , Iman Willem Falck in Colombo.
Channa Wickremesekera’s Publications
Channa Wickremesekera is the son of the late Percy Wickremesekera, an acquaintance of mine from Peradeniya Campus days and a ‘Trot’ activist who migrated to Australia. Channa lives in Melbourne. I got to know him when I was working on my book on Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period¸1590’s-1815 (which came out in 2003 …………………… https://www.amazon.com/Sinhala-Consciousness-Kandyan-Period-1590s/dp/9558095311).
Filed under art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, economic processes, ethnicity, governance, hatan kavi, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, Indian traditions, insurrections, island economy, Kandyan kingdom, language policies, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, modernity & modernization, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, tamil refugees, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, trauma, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war reportage, working class conditions, world events & processes
Uditha Devapriya, reviewing Gananath Obeyesekere’s new book The Many Faces of the Kandyan Kingdom (1591-1765) Colombo, Perera-Hussein, 2020, 200 pp., Rs. 1,200 ... with ‘arbitrary’ highlighting imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi
In 1602, the year of the Dutch East India Company’s founding, Joris van Spilbergen reached the shores of Sri Lanka after setting sail from the seaport of Veere in Holland a year earlier. Tasked with opening up trade negotiations with the King of Kandy, Vimaladharmasuriya, Spilbergen bore with him a letter from the Prince of Orange, acknowledging their willingness to counter the Portuguese. Not for one moment underestimating the Portuguese presence in the island, though, they disembarked at Batticaloa, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Kandyan Court. They anchored off the coast on May 31.
Filed under accountability, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, Buddhism, centre-periphery relations, discrimination, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, Indian religions, Indian traditions, Kandyan kingdom, landscape wondrous, life stories, Muslims in Lanka, politIcal discourse, population, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, religiosity, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
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