| by Kamalika Pieris
( December 29,
2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sinhalese had a difficult time under the
Dutch. The Dutch were interested only in company profits. They were indifferent
to the needs of their subjects. Dutch Governor Pyl (1680-92) reported that the
Sinhala soldiers in the Dutch army had said that the Sinhalese enjoyed more
freedom under the Sinhala king than under the Dutch. Governor Van Gollenesse
(1743-1751) said that the Sinhalese ‘would much rather see us leave the island
entirely.’
Life under the
Dutch was not comfortable. The administration was corrupt. Officials oppressed
the natives when collecting revenue. The special officer appointed to supervise
coffee trade was so rapacious that the Sinhalese protested, and the office was
abolished. There were shortages of food and clothing due to Dutch bungling of
the import trade. As late as 1784, there was a famine in Matara. The Dutch
obstructed chena cultivation and devised lengthy and cumbersome procedures when
giving permission for a chena. Cattle were forcibly seized by the Dutch, as the
Sinhalese would not part with them for slaughter. The tombos of 1760 and 1766
showed a high death rate for women and children and a significant decline in
population. In Kahambilihena numbers had reduced in all families. In two of the
families, the numbers had reduced from 7 to 3 and 14 to 7 within this period.
The Sinhalese
lost some of their traditional lands to the Dutch. .Lands suitable for cinnamon
were transferred to the Dutch East India Company on death of the present owner.
Service tenure lands held in families for generations were affected. A large
number of persons lost their inheritance and became landless. Some migrated to
the Udarata, many became vagrants. Tombo refer to them as ‘loafers’ .There was
much litigation over these matters and the lands subject to dispute lay
uncultivated for many years pending a decision. The Dutch also relocated
villages situated in cinnamon lands to places considered unsuitable for
cinnamon.
The Dutch wanted
to see the cinnamon forests enlarge in size, so they prohibited any agriculture
on lands which could affect the cinnamon forests. Due to this, large tracts of
potentially productive land lay idle. The policy prevented village expansion
and the founding of new villages. It affected the chena cultivation on which
the villagers depended for their food, as well. Once it was found that cinnamon
could be grown in plantations, the Dutch went into reverse gear. Cinnamon was
now planted wherever possible. Agricultural lands were inspected, their
existing cultivation destroyed and cinnamon substituted. In the Alutkuru
korale, 72 gardens mainly planted with coconut, were condemned to be destroyed.
The Dutch
imposed all sort of taxes on the Sinhalese. They taxed coconut products,
arrack, and the transport of coconuts. They also took a tenth of the yield of
all coconut trees. There was a tax on the fish catch, as well as on fishing
boats and nets. There was a garden tax on fruit bearing trees, mainly coconut
and jak. Lands without a single areca tree had to supply a fixed quantity of
nuts. Any deficit was carried forward to the next year. The Sinhalese therefore
preferred to abandon their lands. Tax collection including paddy tax, was
farmed out to the highest bidder. The Dutch also auctioned the revenues of the
villages.
Arasaratnam
observed that it was not pleasant to work under the Dutch. He said inhabitants
withdrew into the interior and lived at a bare subsistence level when the Dutch
took over the east. Elsewhere, inhabitants had complained that they had to go
to Giruwa pattu, a few miles from Matara, to cultivate paddy, leaving their own
villages and taking their own cattle with them. They were made to live in such
unhealthy conditions that many of them died of various diseases. They had to
transport the harvest paddy with their own oxen and deliver it to the Disawa.
Tombos indicated a great deal of migration to Udarata.
The Sinhalese
did not accept Dutch rule meekly. They got the second tax on coconut trees and
the demand for extra cinnamon abolished. When the garden tax was increased,
they destroyed their gardens and its fruit trees. Governor Imhoff (1736-39)
withdrew the garden tax. Governor Schreuder reintroduced it and again there was
trouble. There was strong resistance to the prohibition of chena. The tombo
commissioners also met with strong resistance and the tombo entries carried the
tenant’s claim and the counter claim of the tombo commissioners. Tombo work was
opposed and obstructed. . The tombos of the Matara disavani were completely
destroyed during the insurgency of 1761.
In 1790 men from
Matara disavani marched into Matara to protest that their headmen were forcing
them to work on a canal in Magampattu when they already had to work on the
cinnamon plantations of the governors, mudaliyars and headmen. They objected to
working as coolies. Also, they did not want to spend time working for the Dutch
East India Company or the headmen because they were expecting a good harvest on
their own lands. Governor Van Gollenesse (1743-51) complained that when he
tried to do an elephant kraal at Musalipattu, the workers vanished to Udarata,
bag and baggage, and the kraal had to be given up.
KM de Silva
notes that the Sinhalese in the Dutch areas were in a state of simmering
tension for much of the 18th century. Peasant riots occurred in Salpiti korale
in time of Governor Domburg (1734-36).. The entire southwest erupted in
rebellion in 1757 over the Dutch policy on cinnamon lands. This rebellion ended
in 1758. In 1759 Kirti Sri Rajasinghe received complaints from the inhabitants
of Matara disavani, and the Siyana, Hapitigam, Alutkuru, and Hevagama korales
regarding injustices done to them by the Dutch .Kirti Sri had his officials
investigate the matter and speak to the Dutch officials.
But that does
not seem to have solved the problem because in 1760, there was an open
rebellion which spread rapidly through the Dutch territories, seriously
threatening Dutch rule. There was violence from Negombo to Matara. Wimalaratne
says for several months the country was in the hands of a riotous mob that
burnt down schools and rest houses and destroyed the Landraad building in
Galle. The Landraad was hated because the Sinhalese were summoned there to
prove the land claims. Kirti Sri tried to use this opportunity to oust the
Dutch .He sent Galagoda rala to take over the Matara disavani and the area up
to Hevagama. Other disavas were sent to the other provinces. The campaign
failed.
In the 1780s the
Dutch expanded the cultivation of cinnamon, coffee, pepper, arecanut
plantations and the timber forests. The Sinhalese had to clear, plant and
maintain these newly cultivated lands, in addition to their other duties. The
Matara disavani rebelled in 1790. Those inquiring into the rebellion said that
the Matara inhabitants had objected to the additional work they had to do in
fortification and plantation work. Many heavy, unusual and previously unheard
of services had been imposed on them. The inhabitants had also complained that
the Dutch demanded the services of all able bodied members of a family, whether
the number was five or ten, unlike in the time of the Sinhala king.
The writings of
S. Arasaratnam, K.M. de Silva, N.R. Devasiri L. S. Dewaraja, D.A .Kotelawele,
P.E.Pieris, A. Schrikker, K.D.G.Wimalaratne and Memoirs of J.S.Van Gollenesse
were used for this essay.
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