Editorial

Security

Politics

World

Letters

Sports

Obituaries

Archives

by S. Pathiravitana

The age of strikes that began in this country with the introduction of the British regime originated curiously enough in the Queen's House. There were none before. Muhandiram Maggonage Samuel Fernando who was the Queen's House dhoby, led the strike.

It was not only his grievance but the grievances of all dhobies, whether in Washers' Lane or in Kollupitiya, that they were asked by the government to register themselves. Probably they thought that this was infra dig because their earlier relations with Royalty and the populace under the previous Sinhala kings did not require them to be registered as if they were strangers to the country. For everybody knew their own friendly Ridi Nenda and the Haynay Mama.

"A great deal of unpleasantness and discomfort was caused by these men," says A. C. Dep who was not writing a social history of Ceylon but a History of the Ceylon Police which reads, however, though an academic work, somewhat like an entertaining and thoughtful social history of this country.

What happened to the dhoby strike was that some very influential 'natives' of this country, as the British would call them, like the Maha Mudliyar, who was SWRD's father, and some others intervened and persuaded them to resume their service after the police failed to do so. Though Dep's history deals largely with the activities of the police we get a good number of varied incidents of this nature, which are of much public interest.

As, for instance, when he sub-heads a paragraph with Attack on European soldiers in Kelaniya your curiosity is roused. What had happened here was that a Lieutenant Sewell and some soldiers finding themselves at a lonely spot by the river at Kelanimulla decided to take a bath in the Kelani ganga in the nude. Some people in this locality seeing this spectacle of white nudity attacked Sewell and his companions. They, however, did not retaliate and were even reluctant to make a complaint, but in the end they consulted the Attorney General.

He, in turn, made this very interesting minute on the character of the Sinhala man: "It is to some minds a completely harmless thing to swim about in a river in complete nudity in an out of the way place like Kelanimulla but the Sinhalese man, while he is often guilty of indecency, looks with special abhorrence upon bathing in a complete state of nudity. He will not do it even when he is by himself and unseen by anybody."

The authorities appear to have acted with less understanding with regard to a question that arose over the Kalutara Bo tree. This happened in 1896. When the stones in the Dutch fort were being removed to make way for the railway bridge, a bo plant was seen growing among the stones. Dep reports that soon 'a wall was built round it and a charity box was placed by it.

The tree rapidly grew and gained in veneration. During Wesak time lights were displayed on the tree." This, it was claimed, distracted the attention of the engine drivers and accidents were feared. The authorities thought that to avert that disaster the tree should be removed.

And when it was rumoured that the tree was going to be removed on a certain date a crowd of about 2000 had gathered in protest. When the police asked the crowd to move away they grew restive and police loaded their rifles to shoot if they did not move. In the altercation that followed some were arrested and remanded.

When a member of the Legislative Council, Mr. Ellawala, raised the question of whether it was the government's intention to remove the bo tree the answer was that the government had no such intention. If the government wanted to, then the disturbance that took place would not have deterred it.

There are some amusing anecdotes reproduced in this book related by Leonard Woolf, some critical of the behaviour of some of Woolf's white contemporaries. Leonard Woolf had met Dowbiggin (later to become the IGP) when both of them were serving in Jaffna.

Woolf found that Dowbiggin, who was an efficient officer and gained a reputation outside his duties as well, was a persistent critic of the lenient Magistrate Dutton. "He was a bad bridge player," says Woolf, referring to Dowbiggin, "but had bullied the other bad bridge players into accepting him as a good player and so had established himself as the dictator of the Jaffna bridge table."

When Woolf was in the South as AGA Hambantota he has reported in his diary that he once participated with Mudliyar Doole in raiding a gambling den. Describing this he says he sent his men round the house and put in his head at the door. And this is what he saw. "It was an extremely diverting sight to see them when I put my head in the door. I prosecuted them all except the Sergeant in the Gan Sabha this morning and they were fined.

I am dealing with the Sergeant departmentally.'" On another occasion Woolf has stated in his diary that he "Went with the A. S. (Assistant Superintendant) to the Police Station and inspected it and the crime figures thoroughly." Next he checked on the complaints. There he found that a woman had complained of being molested by the House Officer of the Police station. His observation on this was, 'Possibly the best evidence produced by her was her good looks which are rare in this part of the District.'

This indicated to him that a police station here was unnecessary for that was the reason why such things happened. Giving his reasons for this he says, "There are never wholesale complaints of this kind from Beliyatta and Walasmulla because there the police have plenty to do and that keeps them out of the mischief of harassing and molesting,"

About police investigation they don't seem to have changed very much from his time to judge from the following observations he made: "The methods of police investigation were a very good example of what is so frequently condemned in the report of the Indian Police Commission; - Investigations nil; method - obtain confession; result - acquittal."

The Times, which was the leading paper in this period edited by Europeans was very critical, perhaps even over critical of the Inspector General of Police, G. W. R. Campbell. But on one point the Times seems to have won the day and that is Campbell's claim that the "only hope for the diminution of crime in this country was the spread of education and its civilising effects on the natives."

The Times was right in pointing out that even though "education is being spread broadcast in Ceylon in ever increasing abundance and the population of the English speaking natives must be steadily rising and yet crime is at the same time increasing as our Courts of law and the annals of our villages testify..."

The disorder that the Times was complaining of was the result of the breakdown of order that prevailed under our kings before the British brand of order was introduced. The Sinhala law, which was built on custom and convention, was something that people were reluctant to break. You can see its spirit in operation in the custom that prevailed in the pre-British era, that when a member of the village committed suicide the entire village would be taken to task.

"That incompetent officer Sir George Campbell," as the Times often chastised him was not such a bad man after all. He introduced a number of police reforms to improve its service that today he is regarded as the Father of the Modern Police Force. Campbell Park, the twenty-acre block of land that was acquired by him for the benefit of the children in Welikada, Dematagoda and Borella remains as a memorial to Sir George Campbell quite unknown to many of us.

To end this brief survey on a baffling note let me report the following police case as reported in this History of the Police. In 1913 a case of concealment of birth was detected by the Galagedera police and a case was filed against Ukku Menika accusing her of having abandoned her new born baby in a drain.

She was produced before the Aratchi on suspicion. Her relatives interceded and rescued her from custody. When the case came up before a court the Doctor who was asked to send a report testified to the fact that Ukku Menike was a virgin. Accordingly the court discharged her. She in turn filed action against the constable for defamation of her character and the Crown Proctor defended her.

| News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security |
| Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries | Junior Observer |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.