IGP gets hit with a brick!

When Police headquarters attacked by mob in 1870

by Edward Gunawardena

The early years of British rule in Sri Lanka in the 19th century are replete with incidents and events that can be of immense interest to readers today.

G. K. Pippet and A. C. Dep who authored outstanding works on the history of the Ceylon Police have vividly related with authenticity numerous and varied features such as riots resulting from taxes, laws and regulations on the disposal of dirt, organised thefts of coffee from plantations, stray dogs and the control of rabies, how duels were fought in Colombo, the discovery of gold in the Maha Oya etc.

But how many today would believe that 136 years ago Police Headquarters was attacked by a frenzied mob and the IGP himself was hit on his face with a brick! This historic incident which occurred on the 28th February 1870 to be exact, is narrated in detail by Pippet. The comprehensive report of the IGP to the Colonial Secretary dated 7th May 1870 provides fascinating reading indeed.

Police Headquarters had been shifted from Pettah to Maradana in 1868. The new complex contained offices for the whole clerical establishment, armouries, powder magazines, stores, lockups, a school room, a reading room, hospital, kitchens, lavatories, stables, coach houses, fire engine room, inspectors' house barracks and married quarters for both Europeans and natives.

Six acres in extent, the land had been beautifully laid out with an extensive lawn and flowering shrubs and trees. The IGP in a letter to the Colonial Secretary had boasted that, 'a dirty, dismal portion of Colombo has been converted to a very attractive scene.'

Police officers who reported sick were compelled to stay in the hospital within the premises and take their medicines under the supervision of the doctor. Incidentally, the doctor was an apothecary with the impressive British name Charles MacIntyre. In fact he was a man from Jaffna, whose real name was Nalla Thamby! He was the first police doctor.

It was G. W. R. Campbell, the man who had been specially selected by the British Government to re-organise the Ceylon Police who was the first IGP to occupy the new Maradana office.

On February 24 1870 Meenachi is a Muslim girl eloped with one Sellenchy Appu a Sinhala Catholic youth who was employed by the girl's widowed mother for some carpentry work in the house. Sellenchy Appu was about 25 and the girl only 14. The couple hid themselves in the young man's hometown of Moratuwa.

The Muslim community of Colombo was greatly agitated. A complaint of abduction and theft was made to the Magistrate, an Englishman by the name of Selby, who issued a warrant for the arrest of the couple. But with the Moratuwa relatives of the youth protecting them, the police found it difficult to execute the warrant.

This angered the Muslims more. Campbell the IGP had to send the Headquarters Asst. Supdt. de La Harpe to Moratuwa to speak to community leaders and bring the couple down to Colombo to be held in custody at headquarters separately. The girl's mother, an uncle and several other relations were permitted to see her freely. But with all their efforts she could not be persuaded to go back to her home.

She insisted on marrying Sellenchy, the handsome carpenter who had been crooning popular sentimental tunes whilst working.

A habeas corpus application to the Supreme Court by the mother was turned down as her true age could not be established; and the court directed that she was free to go where she chose.

The Police could not let her go as the crowd outside would have harmed her. But fortunately the police got a breather to protect the girl from her own community when it was found that the original warrant could not be annulled as Selby the magistrate who issued it had died suddenly!

Temples, churches and mosques have been the traditional congregating places in varying situations of distress or urgency. The Maradana mosque as it stands today was opposite the Police headquarters where the Maradana police station is today.

People started to congregate in the Mosque premises expecting the couple to be released. By afternoon the crowd swelled to over 1,000.

They converged at the gates of police headquarters and the IGP himself decided to address them. But the yells from the rear were deafening stones and brickbats started raining on the police and the IGP was hit on his face with a brick, which he describes in his letter to the Colonial Secretary: "I received a heavy blow on the face from a brick which slightly stunned me for a moment and this was followed by a volley of other bricks, stones and sticks.

In a minute 3 or 4 policemen near me were covered with blood and I was again myself struck heavily. I shouted 'Call the men from the barracks and let them bring their batons and swords."

Even the sick policemen came running out of the hospital to answer the call of duty. In pyjamas and sarongs they came. One struggled up to the IGP limping, supporting himself with a broken broomstick. Some of the more daring and mischievous elements of the mob got close to the building and smashed the woodwork and glass of the IGP's office.

The ASP's house was damaged. But with a concerted charge by the small number of police with their long batons the mob retreated in full flight to seek shelter in the mosque and the sheds in the mosque gardens. Sweeping arrests were made and within hours about a hundred were in custody.

Fearing further disturbances in the night the IGP who had by that time received medical attention, summoned Abdul Rahman, 'the most influential Muslim leader in the city' and requested him to caution his flock against any further trouble.

Rahman was most co-operative and rightly condemned the unwarranted behaviour of his people. But the respectable Rahman had to face an embarrassing situation as witnesses had identified his brother in the mob, 'carrying a brick in one hand and a copy of the Koran in the other.'

IGP G. W. R. Campbell, who was subsequently knighted, was not only a towering personality in his white uniform and plumed helmet, but also highly respected. No Muslim, nor Sinhalese, nor Tamil of the time would have had the gumption to get near him in anger, leave aside think of attacking him. Who then attacked the IGP and incited the mob to violence?

This remarkable story so well documented by Pippet has a stunning twist to its tail. IGP Campbell in his report to the Colonial Secretary asserts, "Forming part of the mob, I believe were eight disreputable European renegades of Mohomedan profession and in Mohomedan garb."

To conclude this exciting episode from recent history one can do not better than quote in full para 16 of IGP Campbell's report to the Colonial Secretary of 7th May 1870.

"Among the prisoners were three European Mohomedans. One of these a German Jew, born at Gibraltar, has been released. The other two are men of bad character. The older, Hogan was a soldier in Her Majesty's XV Regiment and afterwards a constable in this Force (The Ceylon Police) from which he was dismissed. He became a Mohomedan about three months ago.

The other who likewise has been for some months a Mohomedan is a stout young Scottish lad named John MacDonald. He too was in the police and I had to turn him out for repeated misconduct. It is said that these two men were ring leaders in the assault and that Hogan threw the first missile, the brick which hit me in the face."