Features presented in the book VOLUNTEERS fROM CEYLON (2022) … supplemented by additional tit-bits from Richard Dickie Hermon of Trinity College who is now resident in Melbourne, Australia
Category Archives: plantations
The Hermon Lineage in the Plantation World of Ceylon & Lanka
Richard Hermon to Errol Fernando, early December 2022, responding to “The Power of Privilege: Illegitimate Progeny in the Plantations of Ceylon and Beyond” **
Dear Errol
As a Eurasian myself on both sides, since both my grandfathers were Brits and both my grandmothers were Sinhalese: one Kandyan from Welimada, and one Low-Country from Baddegama to whom both my grandfathers were married.
Filed under anti-racism, British colonialism, citizen journalism, cultural transmission, demography, discrimination, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, plantations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
The Power of Privilege: Illegitimate Progeny in the Plantations of Ceylon and Beyond
An EMAIL MEMO from RICHARD HERMON to His Good Friend ERROL FERNANDO, Circa 9 December 2022*++*
Dear Errol,
As a Eurasian myself on both sides, since both my Grandfathers were Brits and both my Grandmothers were Sinhalese: one Kandyan from Welimada, and one Low-Country from Baddegama to whom both my grandfathers were married.
Filed under accountability, anti-racism, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, cultural transmission, economic processes, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, life stories, plantations, politIcal discourse, racism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Bracegirdle’s AntI-Slavery Struggle in British Ceylon, 1937
A Section translated from Robert Gunawardena, Satanaka Satahan, Kosgama: 2007, Vijith Gunawardena: ….. provided here by Vinod Moonesinghe …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
In April 1937, a remarkable incident took place which strengthened the anti-imperialist struggle [in Sri Lanka} and aroused the interest of the masses. That is, the Bracegirdle Incident which is spoken about by older people to this day.
Mark Antony Lyster Bracegirdle, an Australian, came to Lanka in December 1936 to gain appointment as the assistant superintendant of a tea estate owned by a British plantation company. It is possible that the plantation company which appointed him to this position did not know that he had been a young member of the Australian Communist Party. Having come to Lanka, Bracegirdle took up his duties in a tea estate not far from Madulkele, beyond Katugastota.
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Re-visiting the Case of Mark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle of 1937: A Landmark Judgment that upheld the Liberty of the Individual and that affirmed the Fairness of ‘ British Justice’
Prabhath de Silva, ... an article that appeared initially in the Daily Mirror, 25/26 November 2022– with highlighting in this version imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Mark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle (also known as Price) was born in Chelsea, England in 1912. His parents were Ina Marjorie Lyster and James Seymour Bracegirdle. His mother was a suffragette and an active member of the Labour Party. Bracegirdle migrated to Australia with his mother, and studied art, and later trained as a farmer. In 1935, he joined the Australian Young Communist League (YCL) and became an active young Communist.
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Working on the Book PEOPLE INBETWEEN
Michael Roberts
The ‘discovery’ of the Lorenz Cabinet in the Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s led me to combine with Percy Colin-Thome[1] and Ismeth Raheem in working up this material into a plan envisaging a set of books (four volumes).[2] The first in this projected series was drafted by me and came out in 1989 courtesy of Sarvodaya Publishing Services (within the limitations of book production in that period).[3] This book, People Inbetween, has been out of print for quite a while.
Filed under anti-racism, architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, authoritarian regimes, British colonialism, centre-periphery relations, Colombo and Its Spaces, commoditification, cultural transmission, demography, disparagement, economic processes, education, Empire loyalism, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, literary achievements, patriotism, performance, photography, plantations, plural society, politIcal discourse, Portuguese in Indian Ocean, power politics, racism, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
The Hill-Country Tamils: Their Shitty-Situation Then … and NOW
Ahilan Kadirgamar, in Daily Mirror, 21 November 2022, where the title reads “Hill-country Tamils and Crisis Times” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
When our country collapses before our own eyes with one of the deepest crises in historical memory, from what vantage point should we analyse our predicament? Sri Lanka’s political economy over the last two centuries is anchored in the travails and strivings of Hill Country Tamils. Their sweat and blood, that began with the horrifying journey from South India two centuries ago as indentured labour to work in the coffee and later tea plantations, were central to building the country’s modern economy under British colonialism. However, their position in society, and for that matter even the writing of their history, was marginalised. And despite the great democratic and social welfare advances in Sri Lanka with universal suffrage in 1931 and a powerful legacy of free healthcare and education, the social, economic and political life of the Hill Country Tamil community is characterised by struggle amidst persistent crisis times.
‘Ceylon tea’ gave Sri Lanka the recognition in the world map, but the plantation workers are still languishing in their ages-old abode, known as line rooms and continue to be marginalised in education, community wellbeing and healthcare.
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The Northways of Ceylon & Lanka: Tempestuous Pioneering Paths
Hugh Karunanayake, whose title is “The Northways – Pioneering Planters” …. IN …. https://www.historyofceylontea.com/ceylon-publications/feature-articles/the-story-of-the-northways-pioneering-planters.html
The four generational links that the Northways had with the plantation enterprise in Ceylon ended with the death of the last of the Northways in Sri Lanka, that of Michael Northway in 1995. The progenitor of the family in Ceylon was Samuel Northway who together with the Winters, Bowmans, Hawkes, and Gotteliers, and others were induced to come over to Ceylon to establish the sugar industry in which these families were successfully associated with, in the Mauritius where they lived previously. All, or most of these families were of French extraction including the Northways.
The Samuel Northway bungalow now used as a guesthouse ……..
….. & Charles Northway and his wife on Deviturai Estate on their motorbikes. She with a Douglas and he on a Bat (circa 1910) 
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Filed under British colonialism, commoditification, cultural transmission, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, island economy, land policies, landscape wondrous, life stories, modernity & modernization, plantations, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, wild life, world events & processes
Seeking Aid for Poverty-Stricken Estate Children in Lanka
An Appeal from Ranjan Sivagnanasundaram of VANNI HOPE
PROJECT OBJECTIVE: THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO CREATE AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE YOUTH OF THIS AREA SO THAT THEY CAN BE SELF-DEPENDENT, CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AREA AND BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN DEVELOPMENT EFFORT OF THE FUTURE NATION.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF MORAL EDUCATION HELPS ONE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG. IT GETS REFLECTED IN ONE’S PERSONALITY. IT HELPS IN BUILDING A GOOD PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE. IT HELPS TO ELIMINATE PROBLEMS LIKE VIOLENCE, DISHONESTY, JEALOUSY ETC FROM ONE’S LIFE.
Julia Margaret Cameron’s Classic 19th Century Photographs
Michael Roberts presenting an Arbitrary Collection of the pioneer camerawoman and de facto female ‘suffragette’ … Julia Margaret Cameron nee Pattle (1815-1879)
Julia in her prime
Julia in 1870
Filed under art & allure bewitching, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, performance, photography, pilgrimages, plantations, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, world events & processes
