සහෝදර
දේශපාලනඥයෝ හා ලංකා මුදලිවරු
මා මේ ලිපියට පාදක කරගන්නේ ලංකා මුදලිවරුන් මැයෙන් පළ වූ ලිපියක්. කුමාරස්වාමි පොන්නම්බලම් පවුල දහනවවැනි සියවස අග භාගයේ සිට විසිවැනි සියවසේ මුල් දශක දෙක දක්වා ලංකාවේ ප්‍රධාන පවුල වුණා. මේ පවුලේ වඩාත් ම දන්නා පුද්ගලයන් වනුයේ පොන්නම්බලම් රාමනාදන් හා පොන්නම්බලම් අරුණාශලම් ය. ඒ දෙදෙනා තවත් අය සමග ලංකා විශ්වවිිද්‍යාලය පිහිටුවීමට උනන්දු වුණා. ඒ දෙදෙනාගේ හා ජේම්ස් පිරිස් මාකස් ප්‍රනාන්දු ඩී බී ජයතිලක ඩී ආර් විජේවර්ධන ආදීන්ගේ නමින් පේරාදෙණියේ ශාලා (ශිෂ්‍ය නේවාසිකාගාර) ද පිහිටුවා තිබෙනවා.
මා හිතන විධියට
ලංකාවේ මුල් කාලීන දේශපාලනයට රාමනාදන් අරුණාශලම් සහෝදරයන්ගෙන් වූ බලපෑම එෆ් ආර්
සේනානායක ඩී එස් සේනානායක සහෝදරවරුන් අතින් වූ බලපෑමට වඩා වැඩියි. ඉන් පසුව
වාමාංශික දේශපාලනයේ අපට හමුවන සහෝදරවරුන් වනුයේ පිලිප් ගුණවර්ධන හා රොබට්
ගුණවර්ධනයි. පසුව ඉන්දික ගුණවර්ධන, දිනේෂ්
ගුණවර්ධන, ගීතාංජන
ගුණවර්ධන දැක ගන්න ලැබුණා. ඒ මගේ මතකයට එන අය. දැන් මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ
බැසිල් රාජපක්‍ෂ හා චමල් රාජපක්‍ෂ යනුවෙන් සහෝදරවරුන් හතර දෙනකු ම ඉන්නවා. ඒ අයගේ
බලපෑම ඉතා විශාල බව අමුතුවෙන් කිව යුතු නැහැ.
සිංහල සහෝදරයන්
ගොයිගම කුලයට අයත් වූ අතර දෙමළ සහෝදරයන් වෙල්ලාල කුලයට අයත්. ගොයිගම කුලයේ මුල් ප්‍රධානීන්
වූයේ ද සේරම් පවුලයි. ඔවුන් ගොයිගම කුලයට පිටින් පැමිණි අය. ඔවුන් සිංහල වී ඇත්තේ
එලෙසයි. සේනානායකවරු ද බණ්ඩාරනායකවරු ද ගොයිගම වී ඇත්තේ පිටින් පැමිණයි. බොහෝ දෙනා
පිටින් පැමිණ ගොයිගම වී සිංහල වූ අය. රාමනාදන් සහෝදරයන් ඉන්දියාවෙන් පැමිණි අයගෙන්
පැවත එන්නන්. ඔවුන් ලන්දේසින් විසින් දුම්කොළ වගාවට ගෙන්වන ලද වෙල්ලාලයන්ගෙන් පැවත
එන්නන්. එකල නායකයන් සාමාන්‍යයෙන් ඇංග්ලිකන් ක්‍රිස්තියානි. සේනානයකලා මෙන් ම
පොන්නම්බලම්ලා ද එසේමයි. පසුව ඔවුන් ඡන්දය දෙස බලා බෞද්ධ හරි හින්දු හරි
වුණා.
මා අදාල ලිපිය
පහත පළ කරනවා. අද අවුරුදු දෙදහසකට වැඩි දෙමළ ඉතිහාසයක් ගැන පට්ටපල් බොරු කියන
විග්නේස්වරන් ද කුමාරස්වාමි පොන්නම්බලම් පවුලෙන් පැවත එන්නෙක්. මෙරට ඊනියා දෙමළ
අභිලාෂය අන් කිසිවක් නොව කුමාරස්වාමි පොන්නම්බලම් පවුලට තිබූ ප්‍රධානත්වය නැවත
වෙල්ලාලයන්ට ලබා ගැනීමයි. එය බැරි බව තේරුම් ගැනීමෙන් පසු වෙල්ලාලයන් තමන්ට
නායකත්වය දිය හැකි වෙන ම රාජ්‍යයක් ඉල්ලනවා.
ඉංගිරිසින්ගේ
මුල් කාලයේ සිට 1931 පමණ
දක්වා ගොයිගම හා වෙල්ලාල කුල අනෙක් කුලවලට විරුද්ධව යම් එකමුතුවකින් වැඩ කළා.
සීමිත ඡන්ද බලය තිබුණු අවධියේත් එ එකමුතුව තිබුණා. ජයවර්ධනලා මාකස් ප්‍රනාන්දුට
විරුද්ධව 1912 පැවති පළමු
මැතිවරණයේ දී රාමනාදන්ට ආධාර කළා. එහෙත් 1931
සර්වජන ඡන්දය ලැබීමෙන් පසු ඒ දීගය පවත්වාගෙන යෑම අසීරු වුණා. 1947 වන විට වෙල්ලාලයන්ට නායකත්වයට පත්වීම අසීරු බව
වැටහුණා. මේ සියල්ල ගැන අපි පසුව
විස්තරාත්මක ව කතා කරමු.
Ceylonese
Mudaliyars
Mudali
(or Mudaliyar) was a colonial title and office in Ceylon
(now Sri Lanka). The Portuguese colonials created the Mudaliyar
class in the 17th century by enlisting natives of different castes form the
coastal areas, who were most likely to serve the Portuguese masters with utmost
loyalty. The Dutch continued the practice of the Portuguese.
This class used the Mudali as a hereditary title; however, the British
re-established a Mudaliyar class, with appointments that had the title of
Mudali, this process was stopped in the 1930s when the Native Department of the
British government of Ceylon was closed down. All Official and Titular
appointments of Mudaliyars were made by the Governor of Ceylon. Appointments
were non-transferable and usually hereditary, made to locals from wealthy
influential families loyal the British Crown.
History
Mudaliyar is a South Indian and Tamil name for ‘first’ and a person endowed with wealth. The position was created in the 17th century by the Portuguese to function as a link between the colonial administration and the local populace, as they had done in South India. Incumbents received payment in form of land grants and use of tenured service (Rajakariya) of the local population which they extracted for their own estates.
The
4th Maha Mudaliyar, Christofel de Saram (assumed name Wanigasekera Ekanayake),
and his son Johannes Hendrick. Johannes was one of two de Sarams sent to
England for education at the expense of the British government. On 15 March
1811, he sailed to England as a 14-year-old boy with the retiring Governor Sir Thomas Maitland.
The
De Saram Family
A
De Saram family of Dutch and Malay ancestry had Sinhalised
itself in the late 18th century by posing as the representatives of the masses
and subsequently convincing the British rulers that they were from the numerous
Govigama
caste. This was a strategic move as it gave the British masters the impression
that the De Saram family had the backing of a large body of natives. It was
also the easiest route to Sinhalisation as the peasant community was
widely dispersed, still unstructured and without inter-community networks or
leaders.
The
first notable ancestor of the De Saram family was an interpreter who
accompanied the Dutch Embassy to Kandy 1731–1732. Despite his advanced age of
71 years, this early De Saram had to make the entire journey by foot as his
social status did not warrant travel in a palanquin.[2]
From there, the De Saram family progressively gained power and position by
loyalty, switching religions from Dutch Protestantism to British Anglicanism
and benefitting from the preference of British rulers to appoint individuals of
unknown ancestry to high positions. By respectively collaborating with the
Dutch and British rulers, the De Sarams succeeded in marginalizing the
traditional ruling class.
Mudaliyar
Don Spater Senanayake, son of Don Bartholomew who assumed the name Senanayake,
with son-in-law F. H. Dias-Bandaranaike, sons Don Stephen Senanayake, Don Charles and Fredrick Richard, daughter Maria Frances
and wife Dona Catherina Elizabeth Perera. They were Anglican
Christians.
Governors Maitland (1805–1811), Gordon (1883–1890) and
others effectively used divide and rule policies and created caste
animosity among the native elite and finally confined all Native Headmen
appointments to the Govigama caste in 1897. A leading newspaper of the day, The
Examiner, stated in a letter on 30 March 1870 that the Muhandiram of Siyana
Korale West was low in ability but was appointed purely for rendering domestic
service to Mrs. Layard, the British Government Agent’s wife, for eight years,
getting good meat for her from the public market.
The
De Saram family eventually had a strong and exclusive network of relatives as
Mudaliyars by the late 19th century. Later, through marriage alliances the
network extended to the Obeyesekere, Dias-Bandaranaike, Ilangakoon, de Alwis,
de Livera, Pieris, Siriwardena and Senanayake families. This Anglican
Christian, so called “Govigama”, network expanded further with the
preponderance of native headmen appointments by the British as Mudaliyars,
Korales and Vidanes from the Buddhist Govigama section of the community.
The
Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy Family
As
much as the De Sarams family was responsible for the rise of the Govigama
caste, the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy Family was responsible for the 20th
century, rise of the Tamil Vellalar
caste. The ascendance of the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy family commences with a
Coomaraswamy (1783–1836) from Point Pedro
joining the seminary that Governor North started for producing interpreters.
Coomaraswamy passed out and served as an interpreter from 1805.
He
was appointed by the Governor to a Mudaliyar position at the age of 26 and
became the Jaffna Tamil with the highest government appointment. He played a
critical role as the Tamil-English interpreter when the Kandyan king Sri
Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy was captured in 1815. He was rewarded by Governor
Brownrigg in 1819 for loyal service to the British crown.
There
were allegations that he was not from the Vellala caste. James Rutnam's
research has shown that Coomaraswamy's Father was Arumugampillai, a South
Indian, who had migrated to Gurudavil in Jaffna. (Tribune 1957). But James
Rutnam does not have any conclusive evidence or documents to prove this claim.
Ponnanbalam
Ramanathan in 1906 with his future wife Ms. Harrison (right). Several members
of the family were married to western women.
Arunachalam
Ponnambalam’s (1814–87) step Father Ariyaputhira was Coomaraswamy’s
brother-in-law and in 1844 Ponnambalam married Coomaraswamy’s daughter
Selachchi.
James
Edward Corea, a wealthy landowner from Chilaw
was appointed Gate Mudaliyar by the Governor of Ceylon. He was placed in charge of
the rural police of Pitigal Korale North. Gate Mudaliyar J.E.Corea came from an
Anglican
Christian background.
Ponnambalam
was appointed cashier of the Colombo Kachcheri in 1845 and deputy Coroner for
Colombo in 1847. Many leading Englishmen were his friends and it transpired in
the 1849 Parliamentary Commission that he used to lend money to government
officials.
His
three sons P. Coomaraswamy (1849–1905), P. Ramanathan (1851–1930) and P.
Arunachalam (1853–1926) were national figures and two of them, P. C. and P. A.
married two daughters of Namasiyayam, an extremely successful Broker from Manipay.
This closely related and endogamous clan emerged as the pre-eminent Tamil
family of the country and rose to national elite status.[5]
Despite
their anglicized background which propelled their rise, the family presented a
staunch Hindu appearance and assumed the role of ‘Patrons of the Vellalas
in Colombo. However many of its members; Muttu Coomaraswamy, P. Coomaraswamy,
P. Ramanathan married western women. Ananda Coomaraswamy was married four times to
western women.
They
helped many young Tamils to secure employment in English Banks and Mercantile
establishments. On the death of Mudaliyar Coomaraswamy’s wife in 1897, the
leading daily, ‘The Ceylon Independent’ wrote “to her and her husband, almost
every important Hindu family in the city owes its rise”.
The introduction of democracy in the
early 20th century transferred political power to the above affiliated Senanayake, Wijewardene, Corea, Kotelawala, Jayewardene
and Dias Bandaranaike families in the West and Southern parts of the country
and to interconnected Vellala families in the north of Sri Lanka.
Despite
their Anglican
Christian background, these families were respectively accepted by the Sinhala
Buddhist
mass vote-base and the Tamil voters as their communal democratic leaders and
representatives. Since the grant of independence by the British in 1948, Sri
Lanka’s political power has rarely slipped away from this closely connected
group and even so only for short periods.
However,
it has always been the Catholic Church and not the Anglican
denomination that has been at the receiving end of the religious antipathy of
the Sinhala masses. Similarly the Sinhala
Buddhists
of Sri Lanka are the target of Tamil hostility for the atrocities perpetrated
on them by this Anglican minority.
