As early as 1250 AD Marco Polo wrote about the island of Zeilan - the name used by Arab sailors for island or place of jewels. Portuguese and then Dutch corrupted Zeilan to Seelan and then with the arrival of the British, Seelan became, Ceylon. The islander name was Lanka from the Sanskrit Lankadeepa - resplendent island. Sri, means honourable as in honourable sir.
Legend claims the Hindu Mahavamsa, arrived from northern India sometime during the 6th century BC. In the 4th century from NW India came king Vijaya. His capital became Anuradhapura from where orders were given to irrigate and cultivate land and souls. Here would be one of the holiest centres of Buddhism. Then followed the Tamils of south India and inevitably, the island split between the two cultures.
The Dutch replaced the Portuguese as the ruling traders and were in turn dislodged by the British by 1796 who sent from Madras Robert Andrews to negotiate the first proper British foothold in Ceylon and one that had the blessing of the local princes. The Sinhalese Court wanted more than the British were willing to give. The British took Ceylon by force. Two years later there was a British governor and commander in chief. Ceylon became part of the Madras Presidency of the East India Company. But the presidency was a corrupt and bureaucratic mess.
True, schooling was introduced and a few attempts to get roads, buildings and land reform onto a surer footing had moderate success. In 1815 the whole island of Ceylon became British and remained so until 1948. There were a couple of rebellions during the eighteen hundreds but not much of any consequence. In fact the East India Company, losing much of its own authority to the British government, seems to have neglected Ceylon. Certainly that's the impression if we read the diaries and papers of Samuel White Baker. His view was that Ceylon was the most wonderful island but while the Company had been doing well in India, Ceylon was forgotten, had been virtually abandoned and its former glories all but ignored.
Related Links
Elsewhere on bbc.co.uk
Elsewhere on the web
Back to top
Sir Samuel White Baker 1821-1893
Sir Samuel White Baker was a Londoner and one of the earliest enthusiasts for a British occupation of Sri Lanka. At the age of 24 he set up a farm in Ceylon at the idyllic settlement of Nuwara Eliya importing ideas from England as well as exploiting the local climate. Later, he and his Hungarian wife explored the Nile in 1863, met John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) and in 1864 named the African inland sea, Albert Nyanza. He was knighted and attended the Prince of Wales at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. He led an expedition, not entirely successful, to put down slavery in Egypt. Later he explored the Middle East and America.
Related Links
Elsewhere on the web
Back to top
Before tea was introduced to the island, pearl fishing was the key to Ceylon's economy and Georges Bizet's opera The Pearl Fishers, first performed in Paris in 1863, is set in Ceylon.
Back to top
Events of this episode took place in the Far East region. We're interested to hear your comments on the influence of Empire on this region:
Comment on the Far East
There are currently no messages.
Back to top
Sir Samuel White Baker laments Britain's neglect of Ceylon
Excerpt from Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon by Sir Samuel White Baker
"It is the false economy of our government to leave untested the actual capabilities of its possessions. Thus while Ceylon remains with ruined tanks, deserted cities, and vast tracts of uncultivated rice lands, India, governed by the Company, is advancing in cultivation. Englishmen are naturally endowed with a spirit of adventure. There is in the heart of all of us a germ of freedom which longs to break through the barriers that confine us to our own shores. This innate spirit of action is the mainspring of the power of England. Sail round the globe and upon every point of strength the Union Jack gladdens your eye, and you think with wonder of the vast possessions which have been conquered and the immense tracts of country which have been peopled by the overflow of our little island. Along the list of possessions, Ceylon is but a speck; nevertheless, the act of settling in the colony is a fair sample of the general hardships of emigration."
Back to top
