Episodes of colonised history

by Panchamee Hewavissenti

Sri Lanka is a nation with a proud and remarkable history of over twenty five centuries. The episodes of that history are filled with eventful adventures and achievements of Sri Lankans. According to historical chronicles, the first onset by foreigners occurred in 3 B.C, by two horse vendors called Sena and Guththika.

Then there were many South Indian and Asian kings trying to invade Sri Lanka, but had failed.

The Portuguese embarked on Sri Lanka in 1505. It was a great opportunity for the Portuguese to capture the power of Sri Lanka when the king of Kotte, Buwanekabahu VII, requested an outside succour from the Portuguese in order to be safeguarded from other kings of Raigama and Sithawaka. King Buwanekabahu VII, died of a portugal gunfire by 1550.

The grand son of King Buwanekabahu became the king of Kotte after the demise of the king. Prince Don Juwan Periya Bandara, also known as Dharmapala was the son of warrior Weediya Bandara and Samudradevi, the daughter of King Buwanekabahu. This king was used as a cat's paw by the Portuguese.

It was easy for Portuguese to take power in to their hands under a weak king. They started spreading their religion and to convince Muslim vendors. Since Muslim vendors were very flexible in business, people liked to do their transactions with them.

Therefore, Portuguese were unable to involve in merchandising local products. People lived in the Kotte kingdom had to thus vend their products at a very low price and faced discrimination from Portuguese such as paying tax for their own land. In order to defeat the power of Portuguese, warrior Weediya Bandara formed a Fort at a place called Pelenda in Pasdun Korale.

Forming a rampart at Pelenda and empowering Weediya Bandara with military powers were not at all good premonitions for Mayadunne, the ruler of Sithawaka. When Mayadunne requested Weediya Bandara's support to recapture the power of Up country, Weediya Bandara didn't extend his favour to Mayadunne, which later turned in to a hostility.

Thus Weediya Bandara became a common hostile of both Portuguese and Mayadunne. Both the parties were united with a common aim to destroy Weediya Bandara. As a result of that Portuguese with the help of Mayadunne invaded Weediya Bandara's fortress at Pelenda.

After being defeated, Weediya Bandara fled to Jaffna to escape the wrath of Portuguese and joined king Sankily of Jaffna. Because of Weediya Bandara's hostile conduct he was killed by king Sankily in Jaffna.

A warrior called Edirille Rala was able to empower himself with a vast military and to rise against the Portuguese. The riot of Edirille Rala backed by the king of Upcountry lasted about a year. However, he was later taken in to Portuguese's custody and killed in 14 July in 1596.

After Edirille Rala'a, another warrior named Nikapitiye Bandara started a riot against Portuguese. Unfortunately they were captured and annihilated by Portuguese.

Danthurai battle

Danthurai battle was fought between king Wimaladharmasuriya and the Portuguese. King Wimaladharmasuriya defeated Portuguese and married Dona Katherina who was once an agent of Portuguese.

Balana battle

After defeats of several battles, Portuguese had to implement alternatives to capture the control of upcountry. Asavedu, the newly appointed captain got down a supplementary cadre of soldiers from India to invade Upcountry. They were able to capture several fortresses near Balana. But after a week, again the Sinhalese cadre was able to seize the Balana Fort. Asavedu had a little fortune to save his life and fled to Colombo after his defeat.

Battle of Randeniwela

The troops commanded by Constantinu De Sae, launched the invasion via Badulla. By that time a strong relationship was built between the parties such as down South Sinhalese Mudliyars and King Senerath. The Portuguese power became frail due to the run away of their troops and were attacked and the Captain was killed by Upcountry civilians at Randeniwela near Wellawaya.

Battle of Gannoruwa

After the demise of king Senerath his son, Rajasinghe II succeeded the throne. King Rajasinghe II,started negotiations with the Dutch to subdue Portuguese power. The Portuguese came to know that they tried to capture the Upcountry before the arrival of Dutch in Sri Lanka.

The troops directed by General Diogo De Velo plundered the city and fired it. Meanwhile, the Indian soldiers joined king Rajasinghe's battalions. There was a fatal warfare at Gannoruwa between the two parties in 1638 March 28. This was recorded as the final battle fought between the Sinhalese and the Portuguese.

The purpose of bringing Dutch to Sri Lanka was to ostracize Portuguese from Sri Lanka and to recapture the power of areas which were under the control of the invaders.

Since conventions between the Dutch and the Sinhalese king seemed to be trustworthy, both parties signed an accord in May 1638. Although the king offered the dominance over the cinnamon trade, the Dutch were not satisfied with the offer and wanted to seize the power of areas where the Portuguese had been governing.

As a result of various methodical strategies finally the Portuguese were repelled from the island. Subsequently, the Dutch tried to implement their authority down South. During 1665 - 1668 the Dutch waged war to capture the coastal areas such as Trincomalee, Kottiyaram, Baticaloa.

Dutch invasions of Upcountry

When the king faced challenges with the arbitrary dispatches of the Dutch rulers, king Rajasinghe sought assistance from British to curb the domination of Dutch rulers.

When the breach of the peace was likely to arise the Dutch mandated another additional platoon from Indian Dutch reigned areas. Strong Dutch troops were able to defeat the king's force and to capture the power of South in 1762- 63.

When the Dutch Governor forwarded a document with conditions, which the king could hardly comply with, the Dutch declared war against the king. Dutch platoons started their expedition to Kandy via Negombo to Gonawila, Atambe and Attampola.

Unfortunately, the Dutch platoon stranded midway. Gaining the advantage of that, king's troop attacked Dutch at the right time. Thus the attempt of the Dutch to invade the upcountry was failed in 1764.When king Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe was pressurized by various assails by the Dutch, he urged the British to render their assistance to curb the Dutch.

The negotiations between the British and the king bore satisfactory results, and a new chapter of the Sri Lankan history was turned. The areas which had been under the supervision of the Dutch were captured by the British East India Trading Company in February 1797.

As a result of imposing unbearable taxes to recover the expenses which British had to bear, people who lived in coastal areas rebelled against the British.

The campaigns Frederick North the first Governor launched were unable to capture the power of up country. Although the next Governor Thomas Maitland's shrewd methodology was to weaken the government by rousing many internal conflicts among the rulers.

That plan was set in motion by another officer called John Doily. Since he was able to converse fluently in Sinhalese, Doily was able to build secret affairs with several rulers.

He had a strong set of 'spys' through which he could attract many important secrets. Due to the king Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe's arbitrary conduct, the territory didn't extend support to the king.

Under these conditions, the British could easily enter the Kandyan kingdom. As never happened in the history of Sri Lanka, the king was arrested by the indignant citizens and handed over to the British assailers.

The rebellion against the British government under the patronage of Keppetipola, started in January 1818. It expanded by February up to Dumbara, Hewaheta, Hath Korale, Harispattu, Matale, Nuwara Kalawiya and Sabaragamuwa. These rebels were headed by warriors like Madugalle and Pilimathalawwe. Though the British were able to curb the rebellion successfully, another rebellion emerged in 1848.

Colbrook constitutional reform was introduced in 1833 and it was a beginning of a novel social reformation. It was a transformation of feudalism to a capitalism. The Donomour constitutional reform was introduced in 1931.

Those reforms were accepted by local politicians because they were able to gain power. E.W. Perera, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, D.B. Jayathilake and D. S. Senanayake spearheaded gaining freedom to Sri Lanka.

The Soulbury reforms were introduced in 1944 and by September 1945 the inclusions of the reforms were announced which gave much consideration to vest total power to the local bodies to control internal affairs.

Under the Soulbury Constitutional reforms, the election was scheduled to be held in August 1947. The United National Party was formed by D.S. Senanayake in order to face the election. The political situation in this country, by this time seemed to be democratised.

Also by this time, the British were ready to liberate India and Burma which were under their control. In the early stages of 1947, leaders like D.S. Senanayake, D.E. Gunathilake spearheaded addressing the British on the rationales and privileges of Sri Lanka being an independent nation.

However, the United National Party was able to win the election held in August 1947. D. S. Senanayake sworn as the new Prime Minister and the British issued the state proclamation on independence in December 1947.

On the activation of the new proclamation in 04, February 1948 the British lost control over Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka gained its independence after shedding much blood and sweat.

[email protected]