The British East India Company and Maritime Provinces in Ceylon

8/8/2019 The British East India Company and Maritime Provinces in Ceylon

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The English East India Company and Society in the Maritime Provinces of Ceylon 1796-1802Author(s): U. C. WickremeratneSource: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1971), pp.139-155Published by: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25203288

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140 THE ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN CEYLON 1796-1802

Mudaliyar and the latter of Maniagar. They had been the means of communication betweenthe Dutch government and the indigenous social groups and the instruments by which itsorders in relation to these groups were carried out. The lower castes had their own headmen,through whom they were generally administered by the Goigama and Vellala headmen.

The Chettiars and theMuslims, who were two groups of South Indian origin distinguishedfrom each other probably more by religion than by race, were also administered throughtheir own headmen. They had direct access to the government. In the case of all theseheadmen as well, predilection and habituation would have induced in them the sameattitudes as the resident Dutch officials although possibly with greater lukewarmness.

The continuing presence of these officials would have served as a vivid reminder to them ofthe possibility of the restoration of Dutch rule. When opportunity presented itself someamong them as well would have opposed the British actively.

There was a widespread use of Dutch in the administration of the new government.The extent of this was greater than is usually thought. North once complained that the"necessity of carrying on the affairs of the government in a foreign language and thedifficulty of finding a sufficient number of people at all acquainted with our own to keepthe daily business from falling into arrear is by no means a trifling inconvenience".1 Dunbar

Hunter, when acting commandant at Galle, besought the government to find him an interpreter because "the entire business of this place is being carried on in the Dutch language".2One obvious reason for this was that the Dutch language had been used in the administrationand that the English language was little known. Another was the employment of Dutchofficials. As the government was bound by the Articles of Capitulation to pay the formerofficials of the Dutch Company subsistence during their stay inCeylon their employmentprovided

a means for reducing expenses.3 Also, therewere

very few European officialsfrom

the Company's service in Madras seconded for service in Ceylon. Also there was a viewwhich could be related to the influence of Cornwallis's ideas that Europeans should beemployed in spheres of government especially when indigenous inhabitants had grownused to them.4

The administration of the Company's newly won possession was given to the Government of Fort St. George. Its intention that Colonel James Stuart, the Commander-in-Chief,

should be the chief official in military and civil affairs was expressed. However, Andrews,the Superintendent of Revenue, and Greenhill, the Superintendent of the CinnamonPlantations, were permitted to communicate directly with the Fort St. George government.Instructions from that government in response were also given directly to them. Thispractice made Andrews independent of Stuart as it did Greenhill, in whose case there wasindependence from Andrews as well.

By the Articles of Capitulation the Dutch clergy and other ecclesiastical servants wereassured continuation of employment. This meant in effect that they would be paid theirsalaries by the British Government and would act in its name. Besides their special religious

work they had been used by the former government for running its schools and its charitable

1North to the Court of Directors, 26th February, 1799, ? 7, Factory Records, Ceylon (FRC), Vol. 52.*Hunter to North, 14th January, 1799, Proc. Mil. Dept., 15th January, FRC, Vol. 28, 440.*North to the Court of Directors, 26th February, 1799, ? 33, FRC, Vol. 52.4North toWellesley, 17th October, 1800, Bengal Pol. and Sec. Cons., 18th December, no. 174.


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THE ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN CEYLON 1796-1802 141

institutions, the orphan school, the leper hospital, and the Poor Fund, from which assistancewas given to the members of distressed families of its civil and military servants. They seem

to have continued to perform these functions under the British administration, a course ofaction which must have added strength to the views of those who believed that Ceylonwould be restored to the Dutch and increased the means by which those who hoped tobring about such a result even by force could have done so.

The European officials of the Fort St. George Government brought with them SouthIndian officials who belonged to the indigenous part of the government's administration.

The chief of them was the Amildar, the medium through whom instructions were communicated to the others. The functions of the caste headmen conflicted with those of thenew arrivals. The stage was set for a clash between them with differences in language andrace to aggravate the antipathy This aspect was not foreseen when the Articles of Capitulation were drawn up. The duplication of functions and the presence of two sets of officialscould have been regarded by the resident Dutch officials and the caste headmen as evidencethat the British did not intend to stay inCeylon. However, Andrews regarded theAmildarsand their subordinates as means by which the existing system could be changed and theBritish administration made permanent. This was to be done by removing the incumbentindigenous administrators from office. There is evidence to show that he began doing this

before his celebrated reforms were first published.5 Seven Adigars in Mannar, holders ofoffices which were the same as those of Maniagars but by local variation known by differentnames, were dismissed. This action was part of the arrangements made for conducting thefirst pearl fishery. These Adigars happened to be Dutchmen, which was probably an addedreason for removing them. To Andrews "their being stationed about the country onlyimpressed the Natives with an idea of our restoring the Island and gave the Dutch a more

general opportunity of instilling such notions prejudicial to the public interest".6The Court of Directors with the approval of the Board of Trade enjoined the Supreme

Government in Bengal and the subordinate Presidencies "to transplant in the Company'sterritories various plants which had been grown by the Dutch in their possessions".7 Thesending of 16,000 cinnamon plants to a plantation in Tinevelly in the Madras Presidencyand consignments of coffee, pepper, coir, cardamoms, and palmeira to all the Presidenciescan be traced to this policy. It was clearly motivated by the apprehension that Britishtenure of Ceylon might not prove long-lasting.

Changes in the laws regulating export and import duties were made in quick succession.First, all export and import duties were abolished save the export duties on arrack andganja, then all the earlier duties were restored, and finally they were abolished again withthe exception of the cinnamon monopoly and new export duties which were to be imposed

on areca nut, pepper, and coffee. The reason given for the last change, which was moreenduring than others, was the wish to improve Ceylon's balance of trade. As importduties were among those removed it is hard to accept this explanation completely. The keyto the real policy lies in the Dutch import duty of 15 per cent, and the fact that most of*Sec pp. 142-3 below.J. P. Lewis, introduction, "Andrews' Embassy to Kandy", JCBRAS, 26, no. 70, 55.7Draft of a letter proposed by the Sec. Comm. of the East India Company to be sent to the Governmentof Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, East India House, 17th August, 1796, approved by die Board, 18thAugust, Boards' drafts of Secret Letters to India, 1785-1804.


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the imports were from British-held territories in India. Its purpose seems to have been tointegrate Ceylon's trademore completely in the complex of South Indian trade than it had

been before.Among the other changes which occurred was the abandonment of the Dutch policy

of regulating prices. It was really the result of inadvertence, the matter not being given muchattention. Prices were fixed in some of the renters' kaules. However, this was only a perfunctory imitation of Dutch practice. Also more taxes were collected by renting. This was asystem by which the whole administration of rented taxes was delegated to renters. It suiteda new and alien administration, which was the probable reason for its expansion.

Another new orientation was the attitude of the new government to trade from theKingdom of Kandy. The King and his Court were permitted to trade inwhatever commodity

in whatever amount with merchants from outside Ceylon. Such trade had been proscribedby the Dutch government from a fear that it might enable the King to form politicalalliances with powers abroad. The purpose of the British Government was to persuadethe King that its rule of theMaritime Provinces would be more beneficial to him than a

Dutch one. It betokened a desire to form a permanent relationship. As Robert Andrewswas in charge of Kandyan relations such an attitude is not surprising, for he of all the FortSt. George Government administrators seems to have wished the British tenure of Ceylonto be permanent.The only overt sign of the resistance to British rule shown by the resident Dutchofficials consisted of the refusal of the former Dutch judicial officers to resume the work ofthe Dutch law courts beyond the period of the year stipulated in the Articles of Capitulation.

Makeshift arrangements had to be made with the Courts martial, the Kachcharis, as theadministrative centres of the new officials came to be called, and the headmen, who as longas they were associated with the administration were called upon to do as much of thejudicial work as was possible.

In these circumstances it is not surprising to see the new British administration lookingfor support from social groups supposed to have been disaffected to the Dutch. The

Roman Catholics were permitted to have their marriage and burial services performed bytheir own priests and their dead buried in their own churchyards. These rights had beendenied them by the previous government, intent as it was to eradicate Catholicism. The

Muslims, who, as objects of aversion to the Dutch Government on account of their religionand their trading propensity, had been discouraged from taking part in internal trade andrenting and external trade, were permitted to do so freely. An attempt to free slaves whoseorigins were in the dominions of the East India Company and theNawab of the Carnaticin India was abandoned in the face of a counter-petition protesting against the measure,

drawn up by the "free-born inhabitants" of Jaffna, and an admonition by the Fort St.George Government that emancipation might amount to a violation of the Articles ofCapitulation. The motive behind this measure was probably more humanitarian thanpolitical, and a demonstration of the Indian orientation of the new government in theirdesire to help persons from those parts.

As has been seen, a belief prevailed among some of the new administrators that theBritish tenure of Ceylon would only be a temporary one. It seems to have affected differentadministrators differently. One person who, by the far-reaching nature of the changes he


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attempted, showed that he believed or wished that the British administration should bepermanent was Andrews. By an Advertisement dated 15th July, 1796, he abolished therajakariya system. By it the State repaid those who served it not with money but with theright to hold and enjoy land. In a great part of Tamil society there was an unremuneratedobligation to serve the State. It could be commuted by a money payment and was known asuliyam. Muslims and Chettiars also had to pay a residence tax called uliyam. Commutationwas possible in relation to the rajakariya system as well. All such payments were abolished.

Along with them went the capitation taxes imposed on two slave groups, the Nallavas andPallavas, in Jaffnapatam. By the same reform all land taxes were assimilated and an andetax of half the produce imposed on all land.Holders of ottu landswho had paid a tenth ofthe produce as tax would have to pay half. Neither kind of land was rajakariya land.

Coconut landowners who had evaded taxation under the Dutch were to pay a panama forevery fifty trees. All headmen of castes and other social groups were removed from office.

Their places were taken by the Amildars and their subordinates.These changes were so sweeping and so ill-fated in their consequences that why they

were made is to be wondered at. The Fort St. George Government advised Andrews not tomake the changes "until our possession of the island shall become permanent".8 Andrewscarried through his reforms nevertheless and the Fort St. George Government, confronted

with an accomplished fact, did not want to expose Andrews's "authority to the disrespectof recalling it".9 Stuart warned the Fort. St. George government that the caste headmenwould be so affronted by the changes that they would oppose them. The administrativeindependence that Andrews had won from him in practice seems to have prevented himfrom doing more. It should be stressed that the Fort St. George Government did notdisapprove of Andrews's reforms but only of their timing. The equally autonomous

Greenhill seems to have prevented the introduction of the reforms in the Salagama caste,a fact not appreciated enough.10

Andrews's own reasons are recondite. He said very little about them and what he saidsavours of a seeming egalitarianism, a desire to protect the poor from the rich. He said thatlabour was not adequately remunerated under the rajakariya system, that the brunt ofthe taxes were borne by the poor, and that taxes should be imposed on produce and not on

persons. Another reason given for removing personal taxes was the wish "to relieve thelower order of people". These reasons fall short of adequately explaining what Andrews

did. The capitation taxes were a means of evading the service obligation. Those who paidthem are more likely to have been the rich than the poor. The uliyam payment was of

asimilar nature. Also his explanation fails to account for his dismissal of the caste headmenfrom employment or for his raising the ottu taxes to ande ones. More light is thrown on the

matter by certain remarks made by Major Agnew. He was a member of the Committee ofInvestigation appointed to investigate the rebellion which took place as a result of Andrews'sreforms. As represented by him, Andrews's motive was the desire to introduce the ryotwarisystem. From this angle Andrews's actions acquire a greater meaning. Probably he saw thecaste headmen as landowners intervening between the State and its poor subjects, preventing

Webb to Andrews, Madras Rev. Proa, 2nd July, 1796, no. 2319.Madras Rev. Proa, 29th July, 1796, no. 2586.10Greenhill to Hobart, 19th May, 1796, Madras Sec. Proa, 12th July, no. 243-251.JRAS, 1971,2. 11


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the former from gaining as much revenue as it could and the latter from escaping fromexploitation. The view that there was a divergence of interest between the rich and thepoor has a place among these ideas. Therefore predilection for the ryotwari system and abelief, however imaginary, that there was concerted opposition from the Dutch officialsand the caste-headmen were what underlay his actions.A rebellion broke out inDecember, 1796, which remained alive during the whole of1797 and petered out in March, 1798. Its probable causes were the resentment of the caste

headmen, the affront to caste sensibility caused by the administration of the castes by theAmildars and their subordinates, and the raising of the taxes on all lands to the level of theande tax. It is possible that theKing of Kandy, the Dutch officials, and the French had ahand in fomenting it, as Lord Hobart conjectured. While disturbances took place inJaffna, Batticaloa, and the Vanniya, the main theatre of the revolt was in the Colombodissawe, particularly in the Raigam, Hewagam, Siyane, and Salpiti korales. The smallnessof the area involved should not be regarded as a measure of the weakness of the rebellion.

According to Davy Robertson, Colombo Town Major in the North administration andchosen by him to represent his views to Dundas in Britain, the rebellion ended in a victoryfor the rebels. When the rebellion continued to remain uncrushed although the whole ofthe 35th Battalion, the greater part of the detachment of Bombay Grenadiers, two companies of the Malay Corps, and part of the Bengal artillery with six-pounders had beenused, the Fort St. George Government in desperation yielded to the rebels and promisedto revoke Andrews's reforms and restore the old system. On June 9th, 1797, the Fort St.

George Government appointed a Committee of Investigation to take over the governmentand to investigate the causes of the rebellion. It consisted of Brigadier-General de Meuron,the Commander of the mercenary De Meuron regiment which had transferred its allegiancefrom the Dutch to the British, Robert Andrews, and Major Agnew. One of the earliestrecommendations made by the Committee was that the headmen should be restored tooffice. They were to be chosen from the Goigama and Vellala castes.11 Obviously this wouldnot have applied to headmen of other ethnic groups such as the Muslims and the Chettiars.They were to be remunerated with rajakariya lands known as "accommodessans". It wasalso proposed that the headmen should be endowed with judicial office and for that reasonbe debarred from renting. To some extent this decision was influenced by the earnestlyadvocated doctrine of Cornwallis and his partisans that revenue collection should beseparated from the judiciary. There was also the wish to place the headmen outside thesphere of Andrews's authority. It was not said that the headmen were to be kept out ofamani collection, the name given to revenue collection when it was not rented. They werethe only agency by which thiswas done or could have been done. Also the judicial function

was inherent in the headman's office as head of a caste. Minor disputes between caste members which were amenable to settlement were adjudicated by him. Also the proposal ofthe Committee that the headmen be given formal judicial office was never carried into effect.

A heated argument broke out between Andrews on the one side and De Meuron andAgnew on the other. These two said that the headmen should be placed under the authorityof De Meuron as President of the Committee and as the chief military commander. Andrews11Comm. Inv. to Hobart, 16th August, 1797, Proc. of Comm. of Inv., 16th August, FRC, Vol. 2, 13;Comm. of Inv. to Hobart, 16th September, 1797, Proc. of Comm. of Inv., 23rd September, ibid., 40.


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THE ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN CEYLON 1796-1802 14'

said they should be under his control and that he had consented to the restoration of theheadmen only because he believed that they had "a secret influence over the minds of therioters". He made it clear that there was no change of view on his part. Both sides appealedto the Fort St. George Government for a decision. The latter took the side of De Meuronand Agnew, saying that the separation of the judiciary and revenue "had long been adesideratum on the coast and has been urgently and frequently pressed by the Courtof Directors". The change of view was made by them.12

The Committee proposed other changes in the renting system. Collection of revenue ofall kinds in one district?the administrative unit meant by this term not being indicated,however?was not to be farmed to one person. Rent farms should be for "distinct objects"of revenue. Something of this order was done and the rent farms in Jaffnapatam and theGalle Matara dissawe in later years were subdivided into smaller units. The same thing,however, did not take place in the Colombo dissawe for the corresponding period. Norhad renting been done in such large units before the Committee of Investigation as to maketheir policy a radical one. In two cases there were attempts to prefer Sinhalese renters to

Muslim ones. These were isolated instances hardly worthy of notice. The impact of theCommittee on renting was slight. This was really because no serious innovation in it hadbeen made by Andrews and therefore there was no important restoration of past practiceto be made.

The Committee also recommended that Dutchmen be employed as far as possible inthe administrative service. One reason given was a charitable one, that they were "deserving

men" whom the fortunes of war had brought low, and the other was the wider use of Dutchthan English in the country, which according to the Committee had not yet become "anobject of importance to the inhabitants".13 It succeeded in persuading three former Dutchjudicial officials to resume their judicial work in a court named the Court of Equity. Itshould be noticed that they continued to refuse to take the Oath of Loyalty, a refractoriness

which in North's time was considered grounds for dissolving the Court. In this matter otherDutchmen were no more relenting. The willingness of the Committee to employ them inthese circumstances can be explained only by the view that its members believed that Ceylon

would be restored to the Dutch. It is more likely that this was the view of De Meuron andAgnew than of Andrews.

In the realm of trade Hobart's suggestion that the trade between Kandy and the Maritime Provinces should be examined to see whether it could not be expanded and goods of

British manufacture sold in Kandy was not acted upon. The Committee could have saidin condonation that a flourishing trade between the two states already existed in whichcloth mainly from India and salt from the Maritime Provinces was exchanged for pepper,areca nut, coffee, cardamoms, and sometimes cinnamon. The Committee did nothing toimpede this trade, as it did nothing to prevent the participation in trade of all kinds by the

Muslims.The Committee also proposed that duties should be imposed once more, as the hoped

for expansion in the volume of trade had not taken place. It suggested that export duties

12Proc. of Comm. of Inv., 20th September, 1797, ibid., 35 ff.18Proc. of Comm. of Inv., 15th June, 1798, ibid., 83.


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of eight rixdoilars per leaguer of arrack, seven dollars per candy of tobacco, ten rixdollarsper amuna on areca nuts, on palmeira a duty similar to that during Dutch times, and animport duty of 1\ per cent, on cloth should be imposed. These were all export duties withthe exception of the duty on cloth. The Dutch duty of 15 per cent, on the value of importedgoods was not restored. Even in the changed circumstances the policy of the previous Britishadministration of making the terms of trade easy for the import trade from South Indiawas continued and the work done by it of integrating Ceylon trade with South Indiantrading patterns was not undone. The Committee's opinion that the volume of trade hadnot increased need not be accepted. The tolerance shown by the British government toKandyan trade and Muslim participation in trade should have increased it. That this hadhappened was testified to by North on more than one occasion in later times. Also, withoutcustoms duties and the help of the renters who usually collected them theCommittee wouldhave lacked the means of saying whether the trade had expanded or not.

The Committee's attitude to the development of Ceylon's commercial productsseems

to have been one of indifference. Hobart asked the Committee to take into its considerationmeans for improving the administration of salt. In response to the earnest solicitations ofthe Court of Directors Hobart also asked it to consider means of collecting coir, which theCourt of Directors hoped would take the place of the hemp usually brought from Russiafor use as naval cordage in Britain, the supply of which was baulked by Napoleon's

Continental System. In the case of salt suggestions for improvement were made but notacted on. In that of coir not even this was done, for which failure the Committee excuseditself with the argument that it did not have enough time.With regard to cinnamon the

many proposals for improvement in administration made by Greenhill were not actedupon. The fishing of the pearl banks in 1797 and 1798 was farmed out to a single renter.In both years the fishing Was successful. The Committee, however, seems to have shared

Hobart's opinion that the fisheries should be regarded as casual sources of revenue, probablybecause of the noted disposition of the pearl banks to have oysters in profusion in some yearsand none in others. No restriction was placed on the cutting of timber from the governmentowned forests and North later complained of the havoc caused to them by this failure.There was a similar lack of attention to Ceylon's other revenue-producing commoditiessuch as tobacco, arrack, and elephants. Nor were the attempts made by the Dutch tocultivate sugar and cotton given attention.The Committee administered Ceylon from 9th June, 1797, to 12thNovember, 1798,longer than is often appreciated. There was the rebellion to occupy its attention for nine

months of this time. Nevertheless there is a discernible barrenness in achievement,attributable probably to a belief that the continuing British possession of Ceylon was notbeyond doubt.With the appointment of Frederic North the administration of Ceylon by the Fort St.

George Government ended. He was commanded to place himself in subordination to theSupreme Government of Bengal and the Court of Directors, both of whom were to beinformed regularly about his administration. As far as the European part of his administration was concerned North continued the policy of employing Dutchmen. His reasons

were that their knowledge of Ceylon and its languages made them useful as administrators,while motives of humanitarianism made them worthy of help as persons brought low by


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adversity in war.14 They were chosen to fill the offices of the new departments, the postaldepartment, the survey department, and the smallpox establishment. They made up themajority of the offices in theMalay Corps, theCeylon Native Infantry, and the Corps ofEngineers, which was a non-military organisation established for doing road-building andengineering work. The judges of the revived Landraaden were usually Dutchmen. As theCourt of Equity was abolished by North on the grounds that its Dutch members had notsworn loyalty to the British King it is probable that these Dutch employees had swornallegiance at least according to the Quebec Oath. However, when the clergy of the DutchReformed Church, who were paid by the government, refused to pray for the British King,North, though he said he would discontinue their services, did not do so. The reasonwas that he was powerless. The wish of the Court of Directors and the Board of Controlwas that North should employ officials seconded from the Madras service for those officesand that the British persons who accompanied him to Ceylon together with those sent outin 1801 when a change was proposed in the administrative structure of Ceylon should fillthe humbler clerical positions. North was affected by strong hostility to the servants of the

Fort St. George Government, who he believed were bent on opposing his administration.Therefore he did not wish to employ them. Also he believed that service inCeylon offereda relatively poor prospect to Madras officials, making them as a result discontented. TheBritish persons from England were appointed to high office by North contrary to instructions. Therefore there were no Europeans to be employed except the Dutch. It must beemphasized that an important cause for this was the wide use of the Dutch language, whichwould of course have been intensified by his policy.

One of North's first actions was to restore the caste headmen formally to office, whichhad been deferred by the Committee when it was intimated that a new arrangement bywhich he had been appointed as Governor of Ceylon had been made. He also restored therajakariya and uliyam systems as he had been advised to do. It was in any case his unconstrained predilection to do so. On more than one occasion he condemned Andrews'sreforms, saying once that their fate should serve as a warning against "abrupt and total

Revolutions in Property Law and Civil Policy".15 It did not take him long to realize,however, that restoration was going to be difficult. After two years the inhabitants wererefusing to resume rajakariya service and evading it wherever possible. According to adescription of rajakariya labour given by De Meuron every kind of labour needed by thegovernment should have been available to it on that basis.16 In fact this was not so. Allthese kinds of work were paid for.17 In this situation Macdowall, a general in the army,formed four companies of lascars to do such work on a regularly paid basis. They were to

14North to Court of Directors, 29th February, 1799, ? 16, FRC, Vol. 52." North's observations on the Report of the Comm. of Inv., Proc. Rev. Dept., 5th January, 1799, FRC,Vol. 12, 146 ff." Comm. of Inv. to Hobart, 6th February, 1798, Proc. Comm. of Inv., 6th February, FRC, Vol. 2, 63 ff.17Mercer to Marriott, 29th July, 1801, Proc. Mil. Board, 4th August, FRC, Vol. 35, 135 ff.; Dalrymple toMacpherson, 26th December, 1800, Proc. Mil. Board, 30th December, FRC, Vol. 34, 240; Proc. ofllth November, 1800, ibid., 58; Blair to Macpherson, 12th June, 1802, Proc. Mil. Board, 12th June,FRC, Vol. 35, 415 ff.; Proc. Mil. Board, 30th September, 1800, FRC, Vol. 34,118; Forrest to Kennedy,

14th October, 1799, Proc. Mil. Board, 15th October. FRC, Vol. 35. 159: General Orders. 7th March,1800, FRC, Vol. 36, 90 ff.


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be employed by the civil administration whenever possible.18 That despite this labour usedfor government services had to be paid for shows how little of the nominally availablerajakariya labour was used. Rajakariya labour used in conformity with the system was thelabour of the Salagama caste in the cinnamon department, the labour for corralling ele

phants, and the labour of lascarins.North's reaction to this was to define rajakariya labour by registering it; tomake thesystem workable, not to abolish it.All those holding rajakariya land and obliged to labourwere to be registered. As the problem was an aggravated one only in the Sinhalese areasthe task was entrusted to theGoigama headmen. The registration was to be done on a familybasis. There was no insistence that title to land should be registered in single ownership,an idea to which he became devoted later as a means by which an incentive to agriculturalproduction would be given and the vexed problem of title registration be made easier.The attempt was a failure. Itwas resumed again from 20th February, 1800, in a differentform. A survey department was created. It and the revived Landraaden were to be theinstruments used. Their work was to be only the registration of land title and it had to bedone in single ownership. That the work was not entrusted to the headmen is significant.It demonstrates his growing belief that they were responsible for the intractability ofrajakariya administration. This attempt was also a failure. The reasons advanced for thison both occasions were the obscurity of land titles and the reluctance of the inhabitants tohave them examined. The registration of the rajakariya obligation was to be consideredseparately.

Earlier on he had taken the first step which showed his wish to circumscribe the powerof the headmen and to change the rajakariya system. He had come to believe that the head

men were abusing their control over the lascarins by making them work gratuitously fortheir private benefit. By the Proclamation of 30th January, 1800, all lascarins could relievethemselves from the obligation by surrendering their rajakariya lands. They were not

obliged to work on the payment of money. The change was to be made voluntarily. By3rd May, 1800, the change proposed was bigger. Those holding rajakariya lands were to bepermitted to commute the obligation attaching to them by paying taxes. However, theywere to remain liable to rajakariya service on being offered money for their labour. As thelascarins were to be included within the measure itmeant that they lost their short-livedfreedom from the rajakariya obligation. Again its basis was to be voluntary. The casteheadmen were to be left outside its scope. As there was not much response to these enactments it was announced in the Proclamation of 3rd September, 1801, that mandatorychanges were going to be made. All rajakariya lands were made liable to taxes of one-fifthof the produce when lowland and one-tenth when highland. The headmen were to lose theiraccommodessans and receive salaries. There are significant aspects to these reforms whichneed to be noticed. The attempt to register land titles was abandoned as was the insistencethat title registration should be only on a single-owner basis. Had single ownership in landbeen established a revolutionary change would have been made. The abandonment of hismost cherished project by North therefore represents a retreat. The changes embodied inthe Proclamation of 3rd September when compared with Andrews's reforms seem even

" General Order, 16th September, 1799, ibid., 35.


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less revolutionary. They hardly deserve Maitland's strictures of having been ill-digested,premature, and doctrinaire.

These reforms were not to apply to Jaffnapatam. The headmen there received a tenthshare of the paddy collection as their pay instead of accommodessan land. The uliyamobligation was already dissociated from the land. The changes North tried to bring aboutin the Sinhalese area had been achieved there already. This is another measure of howconservative North's reforms were. A change made was to levy a new tax of a tenth on drygrain in place of sundry land taxes which did not bring inmuch revenue.

The rajakariya obligation which remained in force was to be registered. It was to bedone by the new sub-committees for dispensing charity set up by North. It was to be doneaccording to caste. This meant that caste law had to be codified first. Experience had taughthim that such a task would be slow, but it was none the less imperative if exploitation ofcastes by their headmen was to be avoided, and he believed that until it was done "neitherproperty safety nor the protection of the law can be enjoyed by a large proportion of theinhabitants of these settlements".19

North had been counselled by theCommittee of Investigation and the Fort St. GeorgeGovernment to uphold the caste system. Here again policy did not conflict with predilection.He made himself head of the Salagama caste as did Robert Arbuthnot of the Kara we caste.20Caste law was to be upheld and caste cases heard by the Landraaden. As has been seen, itwas intended to have caste law codified. New establishments the work of which impingedon the caste system were to be regulated according to caste law. The wards in the new smallpox hospital were separated according to caste. The pupils at the new inferior schoolsto be established to supply the government with clerks and priests were to consist only of

high-caste non-fee-paying Sinhalese and Tamils and fee-paying Eurasians. At the urgingof the Rev. James Cordiner, North agreed to admit low-caste children provided they paidfees and received their education in rooms separate from the others.21 Pasqual, a person ofslave parentage who had been appointed apeshcar, probably by Andrews, was removed fromoffice because it enabled him to exercise authority, thought to be unwelcome, over high-castepersons. The one change made was in the privileges of the Salagama caste given to them bythe Dutch government to compensate them for the onerous task of collecting cinnamon.

These were taken away on the grounds that they did the Salagama caste little good whilemaking them refractory to authority, which according to Agnew and De Meuron was thatof the Goigama headmen.22

In the North administration the renting of revenue collections expanded. This wasbecause new taxes were introduced. A more significant development was the increase in thenumber of Muslim renters. There was no deliberate policy of choosing or preferring themas renters. Their choice was probably due to their increasing participation in economicactivity and their increasing wealth. Although this was a process which began with theestablishment of British rule and the abolition of the restrictions imposed by the Dutch

" North to the Court of Directors, 18th February, 1801, ?7-10, FRC, Vol. 52 (no page numbers)." Lord Valentin, Voyages and travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt, Vol. I, 303.11Proc. of the Pub. Dept., 22nd November, 1799, FRC, Vol. 4, 282 ff. n" Collected Rev.; De Meuron's memoir, Proc. Comm. of Inv., FRC, Vol. 2; Agnew's minute, Proc. Comm.of Inv., 10th November, 1798, ibid., 142 ff.


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it ismore noticeable inNorth's period. North had a high regard for theMuslims because ofthe contribution they made to government revenue by their participation in many economicactivities, as had Robert Alexander.23 Therefore he refused to reimpose the uliyam dutyon them as recommended by themajority of themembers of theCommittee of Investigation,which he said would "be grating to their feeling as it is certainly oppressive anddisgraceful".24 As understood by the British Government the uliyam duty was a commutationof the obligation for public service imposed on the Sinhalese as rajakariya and on theTamilsas uliyam. Therefore North's policy gave favoured treatment to the Muslims. The samepredilection was shown when it came to appointing officers for the newly formed regimentsof indigenous soldiers. Those chosen for the rank of Subadar and Jemadar, for which aloneindigenous persons were eligible, were without exception Muslims.25 The persons appointedto recruit soldiers for the new regiments at Matara28 and at Galle were also Muslims.27There was also a Malay Corps formed. North realized that by doing this he couldavoid the payment to the Malays of the subsistence to which they were entitled by theArticles of Capitulation as former soldiers of the Dutch Government. Soldiering wouldalso curb, he thought, their predilection for crime and place their warlike disposition at theservice of the government.28 All of them could not be persuaded to become soldiers. Some

persisted in roaming the countryside and leading a life of crime. They were to be registeredand compelled to live in specially demarcated areas.29 Here the government was applyingcoercion to a community to integrate it into the heterogeneous structure of Ceylon society.

As things were, where integration did not take place voluntarily this was the only way itcould have been done. It would have kept them separate and autonomous. The Malays hadserved the Dutch as soldiers while living probably separately inmilitary quarters. On theirdemobilization they seem to have been left to drift and fend for themselves. North passedseveral laws to ameliorate the condition of the slaves. Slaves owned by the former government were declared free. Purchase of slaves during famines was forbidden. So was exportof slaves, as was their import save for the private use of newcomers. While North's privatebelief was that Stuart's revocation of his earlier law setting the slaves free was void on thegrounds that manumission once made was irrevocable, he made it clear that the governmentwould uphold the right of slave-owners to keep the slaves they had.As the British Government was bound by the Articles of Capitulation to pay subsistence to the clergy and the other ecclesiastical servants of the Dutch Government there

was no obstacle to prevent the religious administrators of the previous government fromcontinuing to function. Apart from letting this happen British officials before North tookno part in propagating Christianity. This was probably because as servants of the EastIndia Company they had been accustomed in their official lives to leave religion severelyalone. North and the Rev. James Cordiner, who accompanied him from England, took adifferent attitude. The previous government's laws about religion were enforced with vigour.

M Alexander's minute, ibid., 135 ff.14North to the Court of Directors, 26th February, 1799, ? 41, FRC, Vol. 52." Proc. Mil. Dept., 20th February, 1801, FRC, Vol. 30, 469 ff.? Macdowall to North, 9th March, 1802, Proc. Mil. Dept., 13th March, FRC, Vol. 32, 104.97Proc. Mil. Dept., 2nd August, 1800, FRC, Vol. 30, 132." North to the Court of Directors, 26th February, 1799, ? 43, FRC, Vol. 52.??Proclamation, 13thMarch, 1799, Proc. Pub. Dept., 14th March, FRC, Vol. 3, 400 ff.


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The caste headmen were and, as long as they enjoyed government emolument, had to beChristians.30 Clergymen, including provisional preachers, on tour were found coolies atgovernment expense. Dilapidated churches were repaired and new ones built.31 The marriagefee of eight rixdollars was abolished. It was regarded as exorbitant and as encouraging loosecohabitation, which to North was immoral although it was valid in Roman Dutch law.

As it had been a perquisite of government schoolmasters they were paid an equivalentsalary instead by the government. Supervision of the Dutch government's schools, whichtaught in Sinhalese and Tamil and a great part of whose curriculum consisted of teachingreligion, was renewed. Three new schools called inferior schools were established to whichchildren were admitted at eight to be taught up to fourteen. From there those who showedtalent were to enter the advanced school which was to be established. As these schools wereintended to supply the government with clerks and priests the teaching was in English.

There was also more secular education than in the village schools, but religion still formed agreat part of the curriculum.32The Rev. James Cordiner was a member of the Church of England as was North, butthe other ministers, Schroter, Meyer, and Phillips, belonged to the Dutch Reformed

Church. North, not considering the religious differences between the two churches important,regarded them both as part of the government's religious establishment. These Dutch

ministers, however, refused to pray for the British monarch. North said that for this reasonhe was going to end their services as government clergy.33 This threat was not carried out,the reason being that there were no others to take their place. Two indigenous preachers,

Gabriel and Paulus Ondaatje, were trained by the Rev. Schroter to do the work whichthe Church of England permitted lay readers and deacons to do. The Church Assembly ofthe Dutch Reformed Church, however, refused to recognize them as clergy. Undeterred,

North continued to let them function as such.34 This incident reveals the continuing antipathy of functionaries of the former Dutch administration towards the British government.

As regards other religions, North continued his predecessors' policy of showingtolerance to the Catholic religion. Along with others the Roman Catholics benefited from theabolition of marriage fees, which appear to have been collected from them after Stuart'sreforms had relieved them from the necessity of having a marriage ceremony performed by

Protestant clergy. More positively, North issued licences for the establishment of severalRoman Catholic schools.35 He would not, however, remit burial fees and advised the richerCatholics to reduce the harshness of their impact on the poorer ones by assuming a greatershare. Buddhists and Hindus also benefited from the removal of the marriage fees. As

Roman Dutch law recognized marriage by cohabitation, Buddhists were not compelledto go through the ceremony of a Protestant marriage, although many of them were reportedto have done so in the belief that by so doing they would reinforce their children's right toinherit family property. In this matter the Hindus were governed by the law of Thesavalamai.

Licences were given to both Hindus and Buddhists to erect temples. This power was notNorth to the Court of Directors, 26th February, 1799, ? 92, FRC, Vol. 52." North to the Court of Directors, 18th February, 1801, ? 190, ibid." J. Cordiner, A description of Ceylon, 161.??North to the Court of Directors, 18th February, 1801, ? 200, FRC, Vol. 52.**North to Cordiner, 27th September, 1799, Proc. Pub. Dept., 27th September, FRC, Vol. 4, 157 ff.M North to Hobart, 15th December, 1801, Proc. Pub. Dept., 19th December, FRC, Vol. 7, 878 ff.


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exercised perfunctorily and there were instances in which they were withheld. Licences donot seem to have been given to them for setting up schools. One reason for this could havebeen that the education of Buddhist and Hindu children was given by their respective priestsand that separate licences for schools were not asked for by either group. Another mightwell have been that the government wanted Buddhist and Hindu children to attend thegovernment schools and be converted to Christianity. The attitude to the Muslims wasdifferent. North believed that they were so much governed by the Koran in their conductand in their daily life that their subjection to the influence of any other religion, even if onlyas part of education, would be unwelcome and oppressive.38 He hoped to establish a Muslimschool for theMuslims, "a well regulated medrisse" for which money was to be found byimposing a special tax on them. This scheme did not reach fruition in this period. A special

Muslim jurist was appointed to expound Muslim law to the courts.No explanation of North's religious policies would be complete which does not take

into account his belief that Ceylon was a Christian country.37 This was also the view ofSylvester Douglas, North's brother-in-law, who as the repository of North's hopes, fears,and wishes about the government of Ceylon reflected his views.38 In later years the missionaries who came to Ceylon after its designation as a Crown Colony, when the proscriptionplaced upon their work by the East India Company was no longer effective, denounced thisChristianity as spurious and having been affected only for the purpose of winning government employment. Their remarks should not be taken at their face value. If the Christianitywhich existed was regarded as real and the work done by the government schools as worthwhile then the efforts of the missionaries would not be needed or the money to sustain themforthcoming from their own supporters in England as generously as they wished. Thepantheistic catholic attitude of Hindus which seems to have influenced the Buddhists aswell would have letCeylonese accept Christianity while retaining their own beliefs withoutfeeling unduly hypocritical.As with religion, British administrators before North left the Dutch institutions empowered by the Articles of Capitulation to administer the dispensations of charity andmedicine to function by themselves. North, however, took an active part. The deacons of theDutch Reformed Church who had administered them under the Dutch were brought undergovernment control. A Committee of General Superintendence, together with SubCommittees of Superintendence at military stations throughout the country, was established.The deacons already doing such work, as at Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna, were supersededby the new institutions and were permitted to act only in an advisory capacity. Theseinstitutions were also to investigate the strength of the securities taken for the surplusmoney lent out by theDeacons. In the places they functioned all of them were to investigateclaims made for charitable assistance and recommend those chosen to the government.The Committee of General Superintendence was also to administer the leper hospital and theorphan school, with regard to which again the deacons were relegated to giving advice.

The general policy of the previous government in choosing objects of charity wascontinued. Charity was given to those threatened with a lowering of their standard of livingibid.*7North to the Court of Directors, 26th February, 1799, ? 41 and 90, FRC, Vol. 52.* S. G. Perera (ed.), Douglas Papers, 16.


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by sudden affliction such as the death of the breadwinner in the family or his incapacitationby incurable disease. A low standard of living itself was not considered a reason for givingcharity. As a result charity was received by impoverished Dutch and Eurasian personsand not by indigenous persons, who in such circumstances were given succour by theirjoint families taking them within their fold. Charity was given by theDutch usually only toChristians, probably only to members of the Dutch Reformed Church. In a country considered Christian this prerequisite did not constrict the giving of charity. In these mattersas well North made changes. North gave charity to those reduced to hardship by the changeof government. As the civil and military employees of the former government were entitledby the Articles of Capitulation to receive fixed subsistence payments they would not havebeen the new recipients of chanty.39 These were more likely to have been the free Dutch orthe Burghers, as Dutch settlers not in the employ of the Dutch East India Company werecalled, and Eurasians. Charity was also to be given to members of other religious groupsbesides Christians, although at the beginning North had said that itwas to be given only to

Christians.40New orphan schools were established at Jaffna, Trincomalee, and Galle.41 The orphans

received were probably children of Dutch and Eurasian persons, as were those at Colombounder theDutch. Some of them were probably illegitimate. The leper hospital under the careof Dr. Thomas Christie was divided into several compartments to separate leper from nonleper patients, a step which does not seem to have been taken by the Dutch. It was withregard to smallpox that North's greatest achievement was made. When the disease brokeout among the indigenous inhabitants the healthy ones fled, leaving the sufferers to fend offthe further course of the disease and attack by jungle animals. North began inoculationagainst the disease by using the smallpox germ itself. Although this was considered by theinhabitants as a means of getting the disease and not avoiding it and although a number ofthose inoculated and hospitalized died it did succeed in inducing the inhabitants to bringsmallpox patients to hospital instead of abandoning them.

Agriculture was not a subject to which the British administrators before North hadpaid attention. The reason given was that it was not an important source of revenue inCeylon, "seconding to almost every other article of taxation", as Hobart quaintly said.42It was also generally believed that in this aspect Ceylon was different from most other

Asian countries. Another reason probably was that agriculture had been neglected by theDutch, who, finding that rice had to be imported from abroad to meet the needs of the peopleof the Maritime Provinces, did not regard it as an object which would bring them muchprofit.

North changed this policy, urged on by Dundas. Agriculture was to be given theassistance of the government because it was the inhabitants' chief means of subsistence.By earning their gratitude itwould be profitable politically.43 The pivot of North's agricultural policy was the view that the chief obstacle to its development was joint ownership" North to the Court of Directors, 18th February, 1801, ? 191-192, FRC, Vol. 52.40Proc. of Comm. of Supt., 15th February, 1801, FRC, Vol. 39." North to the Court of Directors, 18th February, 1801, ?202, FRC, Vol. 52.? Extract from die Minutes of Consultation, 16th February, 1798, Proc. Comm. of Inv., 15th March,

FRC, Vol. 2, 73.u S. G. Perera (ed.), Douglas papers, 37.


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in land. A multitude of owners owning unspecified portions of lands robbed cultivators ofinitiative. The insistence that title to land could be registered only by single owners was asmuch part of his agricultural policy as itwas of his policy for unravelling title to land andliability to rajakariya service. Grants of waste land to single owners were made as oftenas possible because they were themeans by which cultivation could be begun free from thebane of joint ownership. While the attempt to register the titles of single owners of landfailed and was given up, the grant of waste lands on a single-owner basis was not stopped.

The importance North gave to agriculture is witnessed by his decision that governmentforest lands were not to be regarded as timber preserves but to be included in the landseligible for grant as waste lands. The cultivation of valuable species of timber was to bedone on privately owned lands.44 Another means by which it was hoped to develop agriculture was giving the headmen of the castes an incentive to promote it. It was proposed tocommute the salaries of the headmen at Batticaloa to a share of the government's paddycollection in emulation of what was already the practice in the Jaffna districts. This wasregarded as a forerunner of similar changes in the rest of Ceylon. IfNorth's agriculturalpolicy does not receive its due attention it is because it did not meet with much success.Once the attempt to register title to land on a single-owner basis failed, the only way inwhich North's agricultural policy could have succeeded was by the cultivation of waste

lands. This was no more successful, for the grantees were apt to abandon the land afterenjoying it for the first two tax-free years.

North's policy in relation to trade was to support it. Traders contributed to the goodof the country and their activities should not be curbed by the government. When the

Agents of Revenue and Commerce pointed out to him that itinerant traders were fleecingthe cultivators, often leaving them with not enough seed grain to begin the next season'scultivation, and urged him to stop them he refused to do so. Again, when rice was scarce

he would throw supplies from government stores on to the market but would not do so whenthe price of rice was high. Kandyan trade was permitted to move through the Maritime

Provinces with the same freedom as before. The policy of conciliating the King of Kandyand his Court by doing so met with North's warm approval.

Again inmarked contrast to his British predecessors, North in relation to commercialproducts made an unremitting effort to develop them all. Notably the duty on cloth fromJaffna and Mannar was lowered to enable it to stand up to competition from Indian cloth.

The export duty on areca nut was lowered to increase its marketability, a cotton plantationwas begun, and elephant corrals revived. He concentrated attention on the pearl fisheries.He hoped that success in fishing them would not only provide him with such a dramaticrise in revenue as would outpace expenditure but also convince the government at home thatCeylon was worth keeping. These hopes were disappointed. His bitterness was shown inthe earnestness with which he looked for culprits and the fury with which he fell upon themwhen he thought he had found them, the Pearl Fishery Commissioners in 1799 and the pilotRodrigo in 1801who advised the fishing of the banks.

North sent glowing accounts of the development in trade and commerce of Ceylon tothe Court of Directors. The substance for these was provided by the expansion inKandyan??North toWellesley, 6th July, 1800, Bengal Pol. and Sec. Cons., 18th December, 1800, no. 167.


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trade and the uninhibited participation of the Muslims in commerce. Their almost lyricaltenor, however, reflects his earnest wish that Ceylon should be retained by the British. Thisattitude was the basis of all the policies of his administration.

As has been shown, the British Government made relationships in this period with socialgroups rather than with individuals or with the public at large. Some groups were morefavoured than others. This was the way in which the Dutch had governed. It was the aim ofthe British government to adapt itself to the Dutch system. Some alterations were made.

The disabilities which had been placed on the Roman Catholics were removed. In the caseof the Muslims not only were their disabilities removed but they became a favoured groupas well.

Documents

The British East India Company and Maritime Provinces in Ceylon