<\/p>\n
By late 18th<\/sup> Century, the mighty British were ruiling pockets of Sri Lanka; despite strenuous attempts\u00a0 they were unsuccessful in taking over the whole country. During this time they had taken over the reins from the Dutch, yet, a major portion of the country was ruled and controlled by the Sinhala, Buddhist Kingdom from \u2018Mahanuwera\u2019. \u00a0The Kingdom\u2019s northern boundary extended to the current day, Elephant Pass.<\/p>\n True, the King, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, was not a native Sinhalese (a Tamil speaking Telugu from South India), but, he carried out his duties as a true Sinhala Buddhist. \u00a0Being nephew of \u00a0the King, Sri Rajadhi Rajasinghe<\/a> (1782\u20131798), Prince, Kannasamy Nayaka (ascended to the throne as Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe) was raised in Sri Lanka and was brought up as a Sinhala, Buddhist. \u00a0Upon the demise of his uncle, Kannasamy Nayaka was handpicked as the King of \u2018Thun Sinhale\u2019 by Sri Rajadhi Rajasinghe<\/a>\u2019s Prime Minister (\u2018Maha Adhikaram\u2019), Pilimathalawe.\u00a0 It was Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe that gave further high prominence to \u2018Dalada Perahera\u2019; he modernised the Dalada Maligawa where among other things he built the \u00a0magnificent \u2018Paththiriuppuwa\u2019, \u00a0\u2018Wahalkada\u2019 and \u00a0beautiful temple ponds.\u00a0 By way of \u2018Nindagam\u2019 he donated more land to the Dalada Maligawa. The work to construct the Kandy Lake to its tremendous glory, as seen today, was another achievement by the King.<\/p>\n The aristocratic Sinhala, Buddhist leaders of the Upcountry conspired with the British to bring the King\u2019s downfall. Those who were in the forefront of the conspiracy such as Ehelepola \u00a0(nephew of Pilimathalawe), Eknaligoda, Molligoda, Galagoda Adhikaram et al foolishly thought that after removing the King, the British would hand power to them, on a platter. The British always had other ideas. Though mightiest of \u00a0all the then Empires – ruled under the iron fist of George III, Sri Lanka was one of the few places that it failed to capture wholesomely. \u00a0\u00a0For closer to 20 years, hundreds of British troops sacrificed their lives in several of their unsuccessful attempts to capture the Kandyan kingdom. Each of their attempts was unsuccessful. The wars waged by the Governors Frederick North<\/a>, \u00a0Thomas Maitland and \u00a0Robert Brownrigg<\/a> are noteworthy.<\/p>\n After the 1815 Sinhala-British pact was signed (the Kandyan Convention), the British did not respect\/honour the document. \u00a0One could say they\u00a0 regarded it useless than the paper it was written on.<\/p>\n When the Sinhalese realised the mistake and their foolish act, all was too late.<\/p>\n In the latter part of his kingdom, the King also did stupid things. In 1814, the King did the stupid act of killing Ehelapola\u2019s wife and children (Ehelepola was rebelling against the King in Sabaragamuwa); this\u00a0 along with his other\u00a0 eccentric acts perpetrated \u00a0under the influence of heavy alcohol – whiskey (introduced to him by the British, through Sinhala aristocrats), tainted the reputation the King had among his subjects. \u00a0For majority of the reign (1798 \u2013 1815), Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe was a reasonably good King, but, his rule was full of turbulence.\u00a0 Often he faced opposition from his aristocratic Sinhala Buddhist Ministers.\u00a0 Upon realization that the Ministers were adamant in hounding him down and that he had no getaway, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe became \u2018mad\u2019 and eccentric. \u00a0But, he never betrayed his nation and the religion. Throughout his reign, he kept the powerful British army away from the kingdom.\u00a0 This is a remarkable achievement.<\/p>\n If the Sinahala Buddhists wanted to overthrow Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, they should have conspired against him themselves, rather than conniving with the British.<\/p>\n They had not learnt a lesson from the previous similar pacts the Sinhala kings had with the Portuguese and the Dutch.<\/p>\n After the King fled to Hanguranketha in January 1815, the aristocrats, if smart, could have captured the kingdom themselves (true, the King held the custody of the sacred Tooth Relic).\u00a0 Instead, they (led by Ehelepola), foolishly decided to hand the country to the British, precisely, on 10 March 1815.<\/p>\n A regal act of the King was that he never bowed down to the British, even after his capture. When he was captured from his hideout in \u2018Meda Mahanuwera\u2019 , he refused to walk, but, demanded \u2018dolawas\u2019 for him and his wives (2). The British obeyed; though some Sinhala leaders like Eknaligoda insulted him. Before repatriation to India, the King made a powerful speech to the British officials in Colombo, asserting that he would not accept their annexation of his kingdom and that he was still the King of \u2018Kanda Udarata\u2019 (Thun Sinahale). At this meeting he also stated he did not order the pounding of Ehelepola\u2019s infant son in a rice pounder (wangediya).\u00a0 He foolishly tried to justify the gruesome murders of Ehelepola’s wife, his\u00a0 daughters and the \u00a0sister-in-law by drowning them in Kandy lake (a despicable crime); stating that he only carried out an ancient custom.\u00a0\u00a0 He alleged Ehelepola was forewarned about the executions, and that Ehelepola purposely decided to remain \u00a0in Sabaragamuwa.<\/p>\n The writer states it was a stupid act by the aristocrats to seek Britain\u2019s help to overthrow the King. They did not seem to have the intelligence\/wisdom to fathom that the British rule would be more torturous than that of the King\u2019s. When they realised the real brutality of the British, happened more or less immediately after the pact; as stated before, all was too late. Hundreds and \u00a0thousands of innocent Sinhala Buddhists , notably in Wellassa, were massacred by the British from 1815 to 1818.\u00a0 They even killed some of the aristocrats who helped them to capture power, including Weera Keppetipola, who was a signatory to the Kandyan Convention (Keppetipola, albeit too late, led a spectacular rebellion against the British in 1818 where he displayed exceptional heroism). Even the main aristocratic leader, Ehelepola was captured and imprisoned (in Mauritius).<\/p>\n On this 200th<\/sup> anniversary of the\u00a0 Sinhale \u2013 British 1815 pact (signed on 2 March 1815), it is not too late for the British to apologise to the direct descendants of the Sinahala Buddhist families that suffered from their brutal carnage.\u00a0 The atrocities committed were crimes against humanity of unimaginable proportions. It is not too late for the British to pay compensation to the direct descendants of their atrocities \u2013 a recommendation made by the Sinhala Commission in the early 2000s. On behalf of few \u00a0Uva families (direct innocent descendants of the atrocities), Sri Lanka Support Group (Global) has decided to take up the issue of compensation with the British Government.<\/p>\n The writer is the President of Sri Lanka Support Group (Global)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chanaka Bandarage By late 18th Century, the mighty British were ruiling pockets of Sri Lanka; despite strenuous attempts\u00a0 they were unsuccessful in taking over the whole country. During this time they had taken over the reins from the Dutch, yet, a major portion of the country was ruled and controlled by the Sinhala, Buddhist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}