Deshamaanya Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Former Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1994) President of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service Association (1991-94)
13.05. 2025.
This has reference to the article Defense Agreement signed with India on 05.04.2025. by President Disanayaka, is not second to the Kandyan Convention of 2nd Marh 1815. that appeared in the Sunday Aruna (Sinhala) newspaper.
I do not know whether this title given to that article was selected by the person who wrote the article, the scholar who gave the discussion, or the newspaper editor. Most likely, it could be the newspaper editor in charge of that page. Whoever it may be, first, I must categorically state that this assertion is a malicious and a diabolical lie. All available historical evidence proves that this assertion is a first-class myth, invented by anti-Kandyan elements in order to cover their own betrayals over a period for 310 years.
It must also be pointed out that the title too does not go with the content of this article at all. In introducing the scholar, who gave the opinion in the article, the writer has said last time such an agreement was signed between the two countries was 38 years ago”. I opine here that he is referring to the Rajiv/JR Acord of 29th July 1987.
As such I cannot understand as to why the Kandyan Convention was dragged in, in this context to insult the heroic Kandyan patriots, who defended the Sinhale Kingdom against three powerful Western colonial invaders for 310 years (1505-1815) at very high cost without allowing Sri Lanka becoming another America, Australia, New Zeeland or Philippine. If the heroic Kandyans were not there to defend the Motherland definitely there would have been no Sinhala country on earth today, for us to talk about.
I also pause an open question to this person who invented this myth as to what those who lived in the lowlands did, in contrast, to the Kandyans, to protect the motherland from these savages’ invaders from 1505 to 1815? Isn’t a shame that they befriended with the invaders, instead of defending the country. They took the invaders names, embraced their religion and customs and manners, including their dresses, language and practically all what was European. Thereafter they accepted state office under them and even honorary names like Mudaliyar and Mahamudaliyar conferred by the invaders as bribes for the services they rendered on to them. What is more is they also have worked under them as their loyal servants for 310 years enjoying all the benefits received for being loyal to them.
Therefore, whoever has chosen this topic, he has definitely made an unforgivable and grave mistake. Shouldn’t all these people who still share this mythical view of betrayal by the Kandyans, be ashamed for what they have done and be ever grateful to those who lived in the Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom on the hills, for defending the motherland for 310 years against the most powerful fire powers in the world at that time ,at very high cost and protecting the heritage of the traditional Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom with all its priceless great heritage coming down for millennia, for the present generation to be proud of their great heritage, that was a hallmark in the ancient world.
I also think the writer (or the person who used this derogatory word in this article) may not have read or even seen the Kandyan Convention, even in his dreams perhaps. Because if he had seen or read the Kandyan Convention, he would never have used such a derogatory headline against his own people, the Kandyan Sinhalese who saved this paradise Island for all of us to live cherish and be proud of. The person who chose this topic must be someone, who does not even know that the Udarata–Pahatharata division of the Sinhala nation is a cunning tactic used by the British to divide and rule the Sinhala race and the country. He must also be a person suffering from an anti-Kandyan Sinhala syndrome” who does not even know that there had never been two Sinhalese races in this country throughout its long history until Robert Percival the Englishman invented it in 1803. Thus, it was the British colonial rulers who first divided the Sinhala nation as Uadarata and Pathatharata, to divide the Sinhala nation in to two rival groups in order to make their dream of concurring this country easier and running the country thereafter by invoking the policy of divide and rule.
Udarata-Pahatharata Division
Since the writer has compared the Modi-Anura agreement with the Rajiv/JR agreement in introducing the scholar who expressed his views in this article, I do not understand as to why the Kandyan Convention was brought up here at all in the headline.
It is also, crystal clear from all the agreements signed by the current President with Modi that he has betrayed the motherland to India in a treasonous, anti-national, cowardly manner, in the same way JR did it by the Rajiv/JR agreement of 1987. But I would like to emphasize here that the Kandyan Convention has never betrayed the country or the nation to the British by it. Conversely it was those Sinhalese who lived in the coastal lowlands who first betrayed that part of the country to Portuguese in 1505 as the first step indirectly by yielding to the invader and supporting to consolidate on Lankan ground and second, to the Dutch and finally, to the British for 18 years from 1797-1815,directly by aiding and abetting through decoy and spy services to capture the Kandyan Kingdom.
As a traditional Kandyan Sinhala Buddhist whose brave ancestors had fought tooth and nail to defend the motherland, I express my deep displeasure over that unethical and childish statement the writer has made in that article. I also express my strong objection to this severe insult made to the proud Kandyan Sinhalese.
Whoever had chosen that title for this article, has done a great insult to the brave Kandyan Sinhalese who sacrificed their lives in hundreds of thousands in battles against enemies for 310 years from 1505-1815 while the Sinhalese in the lowlands were already under the invaders as their friends. Therefore, the Anura/Modi agreement has to be compared only with the Rajiv/J.R. and never with the Kandyan Convention. Because, both the Rajiv/JR Accord and the Modi/Anura agreements are very much similar as both have done the same job of criminally betraying the motherland and the Sinhala Nation. Moreover, both have been drafted in India, singed secretly without cabinet or Parliamentary approval. The overall negative consequences of both these agreements very much similar and as such they are like twin brothers that will bring nemesis, to mother Lanka.
Therefore, it is a grave and unpardonable mistake to compare the Modi/Anura agreements with the Kandyan Convention that was singed between two independent sovereign Kingdoms as equal partners after long discussions, where the British have clearly agreed to protect our religion Buddhism and also native political, legal and social institutions in writing, although they violated the mutually greed Convention in 1818, in keeping with their Viking sea pirate practices and carried on with their own system for the rest of their colonial exploitation until 1948.
My request to Aruna
In a country that, does not have an independent press culture, that support native culture or social values and where they only naively support the government in power for their own survival, independent readers of this country expect at least your papers to provide truthful information to the people.
I also request you to publish a public apology in the Sunday Aruna (Sinhala) newspaper for making such a false statement that humiliates the heroic Kandyan Sinhalese, who fought valiantly for generations against the Portuguese, Dutch and English invaders for 310 years from 1505 to 1815, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives, to save this country from becoming another America, Australia, New Zealand or Philippine, while the those on the maritime provinces slept with them for whatever reason it may be, without declaring war against them as the Kandyans did.
First of all, I express my deep displeasure and regret to all those who hold this false opinion, and I think that the publication of the myth that the Kandyan people betrayed the country to the British by the Kandyan Treaty of March 2, 1815, should be stopped immediately in all newspapers and other media. All Sinhalese, wherever they live in this world, are one race. I am extremely disappointed by the Sinhalese who do not even know that. Because since the birth of the Sinhalese nation in 543 BC, they have remained as one race called Sinhalese.
They were divided into two hostile camps in this way by the whites only. It was by a white man named Robert Percival in his An Account of the Island of Ceylon” (1803) who first named the people of the Upcountry as Candians (Upcountry people) and those who lived in the coastal lowland areas as Cinglese (Sinhalese).
Thus, it was the British who divided the Sinhalese of this country into two groups, the Kandyans and the Lowcountry Sinhalese. Although the two minorities in this country at that time, the Malabars and the Muslims (who were not citizens in this country by then), they were referred to as Jaathiin by the whites since 1799 (Cleghorn minute to Governor North).
Kandyans
In investigating the origin of the word Kandyans”, it is clear that it was the British prisoner in the Kandyan kingdom, Robert Knox (1660-1679) who used the word Cande for the first time in his book An Historical Relation of Ceylon” to refer to the Kandyan kingdom. It is also used as Candia in some places and the word Cande is used throughout his book up to page 347. It seems that he used Cande to refer to the Kandyan kingdom, what was then known as Kanda-Uda Pasrata. Thus, Robert Knox used Cande to mean the hill country.
On the other hand, the word Kandy was first used by John Davy, in his work An Account of the Interior of Ceylon (1821). Thus, it is clear that Kandyans is only a word used by the whites to refer to the Sinhalese who lived in the hill country. They called this country Ceylon in the sense the land of the Sinhalese”. Therefore, it is clear that all Sinhalese in this country were one nation by the time the Western sea pirates arrived on our shores
Division of the Sinhala nation into two antagonistic groups as Udarata and Pathatharata Sinhalayo.
The Sinhalese had never been divided into two nations, at any time in history, until 1803, when a white man named Captain Robert Percival divided the Sinhalese into two hostile camps, the Upland and the Lowland. The fact that this country had been known as the Thun Sinhale” throughout history confirms this. This also makes it clear that this country has been the land of the Sinhalese nation since the beginning of history. In short one country and one nation” the gospel truth, the present-day Sinhalese are unable to comprehend. The tragedy is there is no Sinhala leader, either political or national, to say this openly and organize the Sinhala rata and the Sinhala nation, at least after 77 years since the North Atlantic Sea pirates had physically left the shores of this Island.
The Heroic Udarata Sinhalayo
The Kandyan Sinhalese fought against the murderous Western invaders the Portuguese, Dutch and English, for 310 years from 1505 to 1815 AD, and saved this country from becoming another America, Australia, New Zealand or Philippines under the European colonial invaders.
It must be clearly stated here with pride as a Sinhalese man, that I have not heard or read of any such successful resistance for 310 years to their invasions any other nation in the whole British Empire. Therefore, as a Sinhalese Buddhist resident of the Udarata, I express my strong objections and displeasure on behalf of all the Udarata people for insulting them in the media in this way, and I request you to immediately stop publishing such false, baseless articles in a responsible newspaper like yours, at least in future.
I must clearly mention it here that there were no two Sinhalese races, called Kandyan Sinhalese and Lowcountry Sinhalese before the arrival of the British. They were all one race from 543 BC. That was, the proud Sinhalese race of the Lion descent. We also proudly declare that the Sinhalese are not a race that originated from a tiger, a wolf or a jackal. Their totem on the other hand is the majestic lion. Therefore, all such vituperative writings against heroic Kandyans should be stopped forthwith at least now.
Resulting from this pathetic and unfortunate background, today we are a nation divided like a scrambled egg or a claypot smashed on a stone in to pieces, that can never be unscrambled or reassembled. The only solution to this seemingly intractable tangle is for all Sinhalese to unite as one nation based on their millennia old Great Sinhala Buddhist civilizational matrix.
What is the Kandyan Convention?
Those who claim to be scholars but who do not even know what the Kandyan Kingdom is and invariably who have never read or seen the Kandyan Convention even in their dreams and also who do not know that there were no two Sinhalese races, ever in the historical past, I think should refrain from making this type of silly statements. The terms Kandyan and the Lowcountry Sinhalese were only inventions of the British to divide and rule the Sinhalese. Those who had lived in the maritime provinces under the white invaders for 310 years, under their repressive rule should understand this gospel truth. They should never try to throw mud at those Sinhalese who lived in the Kandyan Kingdom on the hills, as they were the people who saved this land of the Sinhalese for 310 years for all of us to live as Sinhalese Buddhists today. Such scholars and writers should immediately give up this pro-western mentality and resolve to stand united as one Sinhala nation and one country. Because without doing so, we will never be able to raise our heads once again as a great nation, as we had been for millennia from 543 BC.
What is the Kandyan Kingdom?
The Kandyan Kingdom was the last link of that once pristine and glorious Sinhala Kingdom founded in 543 BC by King Vijaya, and transformed in to a Village Kingdom by establishing village boundaries on the whole island by King Pandukabhaya (394-307 BC) 10 years after he attained the throne, that was 384 BC and still later which was transformed in to a Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom after the arrival of Mahinda in the reign of King Devanam Piyatissa (247-207) in 384 AD.
After the fall of the Rajarta Civilization in the13th century due to Maga invasion, the Sinhale kingdom had been shifting from place to place eg; Yapahuwa, Kurunegala, Dambadheniya, Gampola and Kotte and finally to Kandy ,when Senaasammata Vikramabaahu declared his independence from the King of Kotte in 1474 and it lasted until it was ceded to the British by the Kandyan Convention in 1815, by a mutually negotiated International Convention between Brownrigg, the Governor of the British Empire on behalf of the King of England and the Adhikaaramas, Disawas and the representatives of the Sinhale Kingdom after the King was deposed as agreed.
(Meanwhile, I have recently come across a new view on the birth of the Sinhala nation and the Sinhala kingdom as given below.)
According to that view, the ancient Buddhist Sanskrit texts such as Karandavyuha and Divyavadana, written about a century and a half before the 5th century when the Mahavamsa was written, state that the Bodhisattva named Sinhala, the son of a nobleman named Sinha, who came to Sri Lanka from the Indus Valley region of western India, populated this country and started the Sinhala nation.”
After the discovery of the ancient Mohenjo-daro and Harappa urban civilizations buried underground in the Indus Valley region, the traditions mentioned in the above Sanskrit Buddhist texts were accepted as true, events by great archaeologists and Historians have confirmed this through various surveys.
The account of the origin of the Sinhala nation is recorded in the Divyavadana as follows:
Sinhalena ragna avasitamithi Sinhala Deepa: Sinhala Deepa ithi sangnaasanvurttha. Kin manadhyave, bhikkhu: yo sau Sinhala: ahameva thena Kalena Thena samayena”.
(It was inhabited by the Sinhalese king and the name Sinhala Island came in to being. Oh! Bhikkhus do you know who that Sinhala was? do you think that Sinhalese was? Oh, bhikkhus that was none other than me, during my time as a Bodhisatva.
(Preface. Piruvana pothvahanse. Buddhist Cultural Center. pages 446-464, P.L. Medical Edition
Whatever the origin of the Sinhala nation may be, 18 invasions by South India have occurred since the 2nd century BC up to the 13th century AD.
The Sinhalese Buddhist nation, that flourished from the 4th Century BC, was successively invaded by the South Indian invaders from the 2nd century BC Sena Gutthika, Elara and finally the extremely destructive Kalinga Magha (1214-1235 AD). All these invaders were clinically defeated by the local Kings like Dutugemunu, and they saved the country and the Buddhist religion.
The Kandyan Kingdom was the direct lineal successor to the great Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom which had flourished for nearly two thousand years in the Rajarata with its capitals at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Most importantly the Kandyan Kingdom was last independent, and sovereign Sinhala Buddhist kingdom as well that lasted until 1815. AD.
It was ceded to the British Throne in 1815.
It was the cunning intrigue, cleverly hatched by John Doily, the British Civil Servant and clever spy, that finally enabled the British to deceitfully capture the Unconquered Kandyan Kingdom, that lasted for 310 years from 1505 to 1815.
After the crushing defeat of the British in the Kandyan invasion of 1803, the British, realizing that they could not capture the Kandyan Kingdom through war, but through stratagem, only to be done through conspiracy and by dividing the Kandyan Aristocracy and by making the people of the country disillusioned with King Sri Wickrama Rajasinha. The leader of that conspiracy was John Doily. He was known as the most cunning civil servant, spy and the secret agent in the entire British Empire. Doily’s plan was to save Sinhale from the “oppressive and cruel Tamil King”. Doily succeeded to convince the Kandyan Chiefs lead by Ehelepola Maha Adikaarama and on March 2, 1815, the country was ceded to the British Crown as agreed by the Kandyan Convention concluded between the leaders of the Kandyan Kingdom and the British Government, two sovereign nations of equal status.
A few days before, on February 18, 1815, King Sri Wickremesinghe, who was fleeing to Meemure, that was best hideout in the Kandyan Kingdom was captured while hiding in Arachchige’s Atuwa, a house in Udupitiya, Galleha Watta, Medamanuwara, and arrangements had been made to send him to Colombo via the Royal Atuwas, at Teldeniya, Dambarawa and Weuda.
Meanwhile, the Ehelepola Maha Adikaram who met the Governor on February 27th had told him that he would not accept any other position, if he was not given the Sinhale Kingship as promised. Similarly, on the 28th, the Ehelepola Nilame had expressed the same position. This makes it very clear that the English, led by Doyli, had promised to give the Kingship to Ehelepola deceptively and had prepared the Coup de’etat, a master plan to capture the King with the help of the Ehelepola Maha Adikarama.
The agreement to be signed at Magul Maduwa on March 1, 1815 was also prepared and finalized. Before signing it on March 02nd, Mampitiyye, who met the Governor, had demanded that Buddhism be protected and the local administrative system like the country’s Disawa and Ratemahattaya be protected. Another group had requested that a white person be appointed as their leader (King?)
The Adikarams who gathered at Magul Maduwa at 4 p.m. on March 02nd, The Agreement was read to the officers. It is not stated that anyone signed the agreement that day. On the morning of March 3rd, before the chiefs who had gathered at Rajagedara, Walandure Mohottala, who met the governor again at 4 p.m. on the same day, said that no Sinhalese should be appointed to govern them and that even a white military officer would be suitable for that purpose. (This also could be a secret plan of Doily the King maker)
Thus, it is clear that the cunning Doyli had verbally promised to give the Sinhala kingship to Ehelepola Maha Adikarama in return to the services he rendered to the British and with his help, captured both the king and the kingdom, while on the other hand, he built an anti-Ehelepola rebellious group among the hereditary Nilames, and deliberately marginalized Ehelepola, and then took him into custody and sent him to Mauritius Island as a traitor and a criminal of the British government, and pretended to free this Sinhala country and nation, as well as the Buddha Sasana, from the tyrannical Tamil King. Ahelepola Adikarama, an extraordinary national hero, as I see had to die as a war prisoner of the British Empire in a prison cell in Mauritius Island. The cunning and clever spy and liar named Doyly, instead of giving the Sinhala kingship as promised, killed” that heroic Sinhala Aristocrat in a foreign land, and fulfilled his imperialist dream and died in Kandy in 1824.
One day, when the Ehelepola Maha Adikarama was walking around the Mauritius prison, his bodyguard, a French soldier, had asked him, What are you looking for, always looking down Nilame?” He replied, Looking for the freedom that we have lost in our Motherland and the Sinhala Nation.” One can imagine the kind patriotism and nationalism of that noble Sinhala leader even in these few words.
Kandyans Betraying the country is a diabolical myth.
Accordingly, I think you will agree that it is a blatant lie to say that the Kandyan people betrayed this country to the British through the 1815 Kandyan Treaty. The Sinhalese parties agreed to this agreement on the basis of the promises made by the British that the Tamils would be expelled and extinguished” (as stated in the K/Convention (clause 2) from this country and it would be handed over to them.
Kandyan Convention (main points)
Since the Aruna paper article had mentioned the Kandyan Convention, a summary of it is given below for the information of my readers.
Summary of the Kandyan Convention of March 2, 1815.
On the 2nd of March, 1815, Robert Brown Rigg, on behalf of the King of England, on the one hand, and the Adikaramas, Disaavas and Sinhalese state and other native officials on behalf of the native Sinhalese on the other hand, have agreed and ordered as follows. (The fact that no Buddhist clergy had been included on behalf of the Sinhale Buddhist Kingdom was big lapse)
Clause 1 and 2 of the Convention indicate that King Sri Wickrama Rajasinha and all those belonging to his tribe have been deprived of all rights and have been removed from power and that the Tamil race has been deprived of all rights to govern this Sinhala country.
(3) The Government of the Sinhala country shall be conducted by the agents of the British Government, with due regard for the rights of the native officials such as Adikaarams, Disavas, other native officials such as Mohottalas, the Koralas and Vidanes and their properties and other liberties will be safeguarded by the British Government, in accordance with the ancient customs and traditions which have existed among them.
5 The Buddha Sasana and the religion of the gods, as believed by the rulers and inhabitants of these countries, must not be violated, and its affairs, Sangha, temples, and shrines must be maintained and protected.
8. The civil rights of the inhabitants of the Sinhalese countries, such as the control of their lands, lands, and property, and the laws of this country and the laws of the country’s government, must be conducted by the nobles authorized by the laws of this country.
9. All civil and criminal cases of all foreigners (British) who are not Sinhalese citizens have been heard according to the legal system of England by the commissioners appointed by the governor according to the law of England.
Postscript 01
Except for the story of betrayal, I agree with all the conclusions and opinions mentioned in the article in the Aruna newspaper on 2025. 04. 06..
I am in full agreement with the opinion that all agreements signed between the Indian Prime Minister and President Anura Kumara are very dangerous and treasonous and blatant betrayals of the first order. That is why I strongly reject equating the Kandyan Agreement with those agreements. Because the Kandyan Agreement is an international agreement negotiated and agreed upon between two independent friendly states of equal status at least at the time of placing their signatures on it. Moreover, it is also not a secret agreement and it was a public document, still valid for that matter. Therefore, I strongly disagree and reject comparing this agreement with the Anura/Modis Agreements as it was a secret document prepared in India by Indian mandarins without the participation of Sri Lankan public officials and imposed on Sri Lanka in the same manner Just like the Rajiv/JR Accord of 29th July 1987.Therefore it is also first class betrayal of the motherland that treacherously has laid down the road map for the division of the country and the establishment of the Tamil dream of the EELAM. What is more treacherous and betraying is the story that all these agreements were made only in Hindi, Arabic, and English while none of them were prepared in the official language of this country which is Sinhala. Isn’t this a first-class betrayal of the motherland and its people. Therefore, this missing link by itself makes them illegal and unconstitutional and therefore, I opine they are not binding on our part.
The agreement signed between the President Anura and the Indian Prime Minister was signed in secret. It is said that the country’s Defense Secretary, Attorney General, the Tri-force Commanders, the Council of Ministers, and the Parliament also did not know anything about it. The biggest betrayal is that all these agreements have been prepared only in Arabic, English and Hindi. That itself makes the Agreements unconstitutional and illegal as it was not inked in the official language (Sinhala) of the first party to the Agreements.
By doing this, the current President, just like J.R. did in 1987, has blatantly betrayed the sovereignty of the people and the territorial integrity of the country and violated the Constitution. It is the responsibility of the opposition and the lawmakers to save the country from this great national disaster.
There is a story that J.R. betrayed this Sinhala country and the nation to India through the treaty because he is descendant of the Thambi Mudaliar dynasty that came from South India. There is also a similar story circulating among the people that President Anura Kumara may also be a Tamil who descends from the 12,000 Tamil prisoners brought here from the Chola country by King Gajaba (174-196 AD)
Many people believe that a true Sinhala Buddhist, could never betray his homeland, the Sinhala country and the nation, to India, without any fear or shame which is trying to swallow this country. On the other hand, for 310 years before the Kandyan Kingdom was ceded to the British by an honorable treaty on March 2, 1815, the entire coastal area had been handed over to the Portuguese in 1505 and since then to Dutch and British by the lowland Sinhalese. They served them as their underdogs with the exception of very few patriotic men like the extraordinary national hero of that era, Anagarika Dharmapala. All others living in the maritime provinces are equally responsible for the sin of betraying the entire coastal region of Sri Lanka to these three white invaders.
The fact that there was no Air warfare at that time had perhaps had greatly helped the Kandyans to keep the enemy at bay for 310 years confined to the lowlands. Even at the end had it not been for the support of the people, living in the maritime belt it would have been a dream for the whites to capture the Kandyan kingdom. The only patriot, nationalist and national hero who fought against the enemy even in the late 19th century in the low country to reclaim this Sinhala Buddhist land and the Buddha Saasana was the unrivaled national hero Anagarika Dharmapala, who was rejected by these people and finally expelled from this country. It was these same lowland Sinhalese people who became their obedient servants to Portuguese, Dutch and English masters from 1505 to 1815.
Postscript 02
The Doyly-Brownrigg conspiracy behind the Kandyan Convention.
When the Colonial Secretary accused Brownrigg for agreeing to some clauses of the Kandyan Treaty, he has said that if he did not agree to some of those demands, he could never have conquered the Kandyan Kingdom. As such it was only a part of a secret strategy to seize the country.
Keeping to their original pan The Kandyan Treaty was violated unilaterally by the British in 1817, even before the ink of the treaty got dried up with the famous Uwa Welassa first freedom struggle erupted as the British violated the provisions of the Kandyan Convention. The appointment of a Muslim named Hajji Marikkar by the Governor on the recommendation of Doyly as the Muhandiram of Madige, among many other violations of the promises made in the convention triggered up the anti-British rebellion. Keppetipola Disaava who was sent to suppress the rebellion, joined with the freedom fighters of Uva and returned the weapons given to him by the Governor.
This incident was followed by one of the most savages and brutal killing spree, arson, suppression, oppression and repressions in which Brownrigg and Doyly acted together in the most inhuman manner as John Davy had said. Under the newly enforced Royal Proclamation of November 21st 1818 declaring the Sovereignty of the British Empire over this Island and thereby threw the Kandyan Convention in to the dustbin of history.
Brownwrigg issued a gazette notification dated on 1st November 1818 under Royal Decree No. 01, ordering the killing of all Sinhalese males over 18 years of age, the breaking down and burning of all houses, the cutting down and destroying of all fruit-bearing trees for human consumption, the confiscation or destruction of all grain, the breaking down and destruction of all irrigation canals and rivers, the burning of houses, the cutting down and destroying of all fruit-bearing trees, the destruction of all tank embankments and rivers, and the immediate killing of all cattle and buffaloes belonging to the people in excess of the needs of the army.”
With the result there was not a soul left to rise up against this massive murder by Torrington in the Kandyan Kingdom in 1848 in the Matale rebellion. That was why Gongalegoda Banda and Puranappu, one from Moratuwa and the other from Kelaniya had to impersonate as Kandyans at the Matale rebellion 1848.
Finally, in 1948, the British constitutional lawyer Jennings, with his Solebury Constitution, imposed a dependent economy on us, relying solely on imports and export of raw materials, leaving us with a divided Sri Lanka, a broken nation, and a country and society burned by ethnic volcanoes, while retaining the three basic requirements of a free state, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial powers, with them. But they called it independence. Those who took over the country in 1948 as their acolytes and agents also embraced it as Independence. British called it Dominion status within the British Commonwealth of Nations.
Thus In 1948, instead of giving us the freedom to build an independent and free state that we lost in 1815 they further tied our hands to a colonialist octopus called the British Commonwealth of Nations, to keep us trapped in their empire on which the sun never sets. It is a tragedy which our post 1948 politicians failed to understand, until Prime Minister Sirimavo Bsndaranayaka made this country a fully independent Republic in 1972 for the first time since 1815.
Thus, what actually happened in 1815 was an imperialist conspiracy led by John Doyle, with the support of the Sinhalese and Muslims in the maritime provinces. They used the Ahelepola Maha Nilame, as a pawn to capture Sri Wickrama Rajasingha, by promising him that he will be made the King immediately after the Convention was singed and the king was deported. But within no time he was arrested by the British and exiled to Mauritius along with several Kandyan chiefs without any cause. He died there in 1829 from cholera in exile. Thus, the ungrateful Doyly and Brownwrigg left that brave mahakaLu Sinhalayaa to die as a criminal and a prisoner in a prison cell in an Island 2000 miles away from his own land of birth for the crime of trying to defend and regain his own motherland from the South Indian rulers.
Meanwhile, as already stated above, Brownrigg ordered to kill all the males over the age of 18 in the Kandyan Kingdom and all the crimes stated there and plundered all the wealth of the Thun Sinhale for 133 years to build their Empire at home?
Is this Captain Elmo sitting in front of the mausoleum of that Great Sinhala Patriot Ehelepola Maha Adhikaarama?
Who are the real betrayers of the Kandyan Kingdom?
In fact, according to 310 years (1505-1815) of colonial history in this country, it is clear that it was the Sinhalese living in the lowlands, who had been under the white rule for 310 years, and not the Sinhalese living in the highlands, who really paved the way for the betrayal of the country, the Sinhala nation and the Buddha Saasana to the whites, by aiding and abetting the invaders.
Except for a few solitary patriots like the extraordinary national hero of the time, Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933), that was long after the Kandyan Kingdom was ceded to the British in 1815 all the others who lived in the coastal lowlands are directly responsible for betraying the country for personal gain and positions under their rule, ever since 1505. They never resisted the invaders, Portuguese, Dutch or the British. Instead, they lived with them, worked for them, made riches and often provided spy services against the Kandyan Kingdom.
But people like the writer of this article in Aruna Sinhala paper cry foul, saying that it was the Kandyan people who betrayed the country to the Western Colonial Invaders.
Doyle-Brownrigg Conspiracy and the annihilation of the Kandyan Sinhala patriots: some more details.
When the Colonial Secretary accused Brownrigg for agreeing to certain clauses of the Kandyan Convention, he has said that he agreed to certain demands of the Sinhalese because he could not have captured this country without doing so. The white men had violated the terms of the Kandyan Convention even before the ink had dried up. The secret plan that had been hidden in their minds was put into full action immediately after the Uva Wellassa rebellion against the British rule broke up in 1817. Despite the Kandyan Convention was legally binding, the whites had begun their immoral, barbaric, inhumane killing spree of suppressing the Sinhalese by the royal Proclamation issued by the Governor Brownwrigg on November 1, 1818 on the recommendation of Doyly, completely ignoring the Kandyan Convention, as if such a document never exist.
In addition to violating the Kandyan Convention they also carried out their colonial subversive agenda of dictatorial and imperialist destructions as listed below, after 1818 to completely subjugate this country, the Sinhala nation and the imprints of Buddhism together with its native Administrative and legal systems.
1.In 1833, the country was divided into 5 Provinces namely North, South, East, West and Central, bringing the entire Thun Sinhale, meaning the entire Island, under their colonial rule. This was the first time the whole Island was brought under any foreign power in its two millennia long history. A closer examination of this division clearly shows that the boundaries of the Northern and Eastern provinces have been drawn in accordance with the Cleghorn Report submitted to Governor North in 1797 which had declared that this country had two nations as Sinhalese and Tamil and two countries (Districts in that note) where the Tamil country starts at Puttlam and extends up to Walaveganga in the South via Jaffna Trinco and Batticaloa to Walave. Gamga.
2.The forcible taking over of all the traditional and prescriptive lands of the native Sinhalese by Act No. 12 of 1840
3.The establishment of Catholic English schools in place of the traditional educational system of this country, the Pirivena education.
(The fact that out of 105 such schools established throughout the island by 1845, 45 were in the Jaffna peninsula and only 3 schools were in the Central Province, located in Kandy and Matale shows the special privileges granted to the Tamils and the discrimination made against the native Sinhalese by the white British.)
4.The killing of all those who survived the 1817 -1818 Uwa-Wellassa Kandyan rebellion was completed during the Matale rebellion of 1848. This was the last uprising by the native Sinhalese. The uncivilized killing spree carried out by Governor Torrington and his men has gone down in world history as one of the most inhuman and savages’ human destruction, not witnessed anywhere else, ever carried out on this planet. Public shooting of monks like Kadahapola priest, the most pious, erudite, brave and patriotic monk who gave leadership to Gongalegoda Banda and Puran Appu without any evidence, even when their own Chief Justice was against it, Torrington saying that” even if the whole world says no I will kill him” and keeping the dead bodies of native Sinhalese who were murdered, hung at the four gates of the towns like Matale and Kurunegala for three four days, bare testimony as to how these brutish, British have built up their often quoted ‘Empire where the sun never set, definitely diving in rivers of human blood specially in Asia and Africa.
5.The forcible seizure of all the lands owned by the temples in 1853. By the Temple Land Ordinance
6.The seizure of all the remaining lands of the Sinhalese by the so-called Waste Land Act in 1897, driving the Sinhalese to the streets and jungle and making the paupers.
7.Deforesting nearly 1.35 million acres of forest land, in the hill country, that had been there since the sun and the moon appeared on this earth, were cut down and burned and coffee and tea cultivation was expanded throughout the hill country and thereby destroyed the physical stability of the Geographical Heartland of the country, resulting total disappearance of the wealth of centuries old fauna and flora, drying up of all 103 rivers that have their source here, that fed the entire Island, , unprecedented soil erosion and land degradation causing flash floods, silting up of all downstream areas.
8.As the proud native Sinhalese in the hills refused to work on those lands, more than 1.2 million Tamil slave laborers were imported from South India and settled in the heartland of this Sinhale Kingdom.
9.When the whites left in 1948, all those 1.2 million Indians labourers were left behind on these lands, looted from the native Sinhalese who were living in this part of the country for millennia.
10 While all such Indian labour gangs taken to countries like Burma, Malaysia, Tanganika, Uganda and other African countries by the British were ordered to go back immediately or integrate with the natives and they all protected the interests of their native people by their new governments as they got independence. Sri Lankan leaders on the other hand slept doing nothing to send them out allowing a massive political, economic, social, demographic and a security time bomb to be planted on mother Lanka. Our so-called leaders did nothing to send them out. With the result, today they are fighting for a Malayaha within the Kandyan territory saying that they have been here for more than 200 years. Just before the last Presidential election all three Presidential candidates, Ranil, Sajith and Anura have openly promised to give them the lands and houses on which they live. Meanwhile India has already completed 60,000 houses for these Indians. They also have a number of Ministries catering only to their needs. For example, the Ministry of Upcountry Villages and infrastructure Development is catering only to the plantation sector Indian Tamils.
Conversely there is no one to speak a single word on behalf of the native Kandyan Sinhala people who owned all these lands before 1815 and fought for 310 years against the enemies to protect these lands, although there are about 75 members of Parliament and thousands Provincial Council and Pradhesiya Sabha Members supposed to be representing the people at different levels.
11.Going back to the North and East, since the beginning of 1800, hundreds of thousands of South Indian Malaba Tamils have been settled in the North and East by the British to reduce the Sinhalese population in those parts of the country.
12.They were Malaba immigrants until 1901, when they were gazetted as Ceylon Tamils under the Colonial instructions and created a new nation called Lankan Tamils in this Sinhala country.
13 Establishing Catholic churches and schools throughout the island
14.Finally, in 1948, Britain is supposed to have granted political independence to this country via the Solebury Constitution, drafted by an English constitutional lawyer named Jennings, retaining their interests. For example, the three basic requisites of an independent country namely the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, were kept with them and they left the shores leaving behind a legacy of a divided nation and a radar less” society, in the middle of high seas in the Indian Ocean.
Accordingly, from 1818 to 1948, the British ruled this country completely ignoring the clauses of the Kandyan Convention 1815. The British government’s royal decrees, issued in Britain superseded the Kandyan Convention. The British King/Queen remained the Head of the State. Laws were passed in Parliament in the name of the Queen of England and the appellate power of the supreme court was retained with the Privy Council. The Head of the State Governor General was appointed by the Queen.
However, since the 1815 Mar 02 Kandyan Convention was never repealed and was only kept in limbo. It was, an international agreement signed between two independent countries, never repealed. Therefore, I opine it is still a legally binding agreement even at present. As such I wonder whether we can sue the British government for violating the Kandyan Convention and also against all Orders issued by the Governors from 1817 up to 1948.
I leave it to a patriotic Sinhala Leader, if there is any, who loves this country and the Sinhala nation, to go to court and demand compensation for the crimes committed by the British against this country and the Sinhalese nation, more particularly to the Kandyan peasants from 1815 to 1948.
In 1948 they only established a government, an administrative system, run by their own agents and a dependent economy in this country that could fulfill the needs of their own empire only, instead of giving us full freedom to build an independent state with our own system that we lost in 1815.
Above all, handing over this country to a group of brainwashed Kalusudhas from whose heads the most fundamental traits such as patriotism, and the love for their own native language, religion customs and their own civilization had been completely removed and replaced with those of the white men, which they venerated as superior. This in brief was how the British Destroyed this land of the Sinhala Nation and their culture for 133 years of their rule.
J. R, Ranil and Anura Kumara are the best examples of this brainwashed traitor model and the sad legacy, the white men had left behind as they physically left the shores of this Island 1948. All three of them have completed the betrayal of our 2566 years old heritage, jealously guarded and protected by our ancestors from 22 invasions. (19 Indian and 3 Western), to India and the Western plunderers by secret agreements signed by them as dictators without the approval by the people or the Parliament, using the power vested in hem as the Executive Presidents, making this country a shear suzerainty of India and the colonial West.
In addition, they also have pawned this 2500 years old beautiful country to the West and India via the Western colonial imperial institutions such like the World Bank, the IMF, the Blackrock and the Indian government. They have not only completely pawned this country and the present generation but also the unborn generation to come as well, forever.
These three Presidents have completed the destruction of Sri Lanka and it’s Sinhala nation together with its millennia old great and unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization to India and the West that the Indian invaders, including Rama and his monkey army invasion in 5000 BC, followed by their successors starting in the 2nd Century BC and finally the 13th century Maga invasion the most devastating, followed by three Western colonial invasions from the 1505 AD to this day, failed to do.
The following prophecy made in 1931 by Sri Anagarika Dharmapala, the most outstanding patriot, mother Lanka had produced in the late 19th century has now come true.
I am quoting it here in his own words, in Sinhala, for you to fully comprehend as to what a visionary and a patriot that great savant had seen 95 years ago.
කවදා හරි සුද්දො මේ රට දාලා යනවා.උන්යන්නේ උන්ගෙ දරුවෝ වගෙ කළු සුද්දො විසිතිස් දාහක් මේ රටේ බෝ කලාට පස්සෙයි. ඊට පස්සෙ අපේ රට පාලනය කරන්නේ මේ කළුසුද්දො.උන් සින්හල භාශාව, සින්හල සිරිත් විරිත් වලට වෛරකරනවා. උන් උඹලාගේ දරුවන්ට උගන්වාවි ජාති ආගම් භේධයක් එපා කියලා. එහෙම කියලා උන් ඉන්ග්රීසියම රජ කරාවි.පන්සල් වටේ පල්ලි කෝවිල් හදාවි. උඹලා උඹලා වෙනුවෙන් දියසේන කුමාරයා උපදිනකම් බලාගෙන ඉන්නවා.උපදින්න ඉන්න දියසේන තිඹිරිගෙයිදීම මරා දාන්ට මේ කළු සුද්දන්ට පුළුවන් බව මතක තියා ගනිල්ලා. අපේ හමුදුරුවන්ටත් උන් එදාට ඉනා බේත් දෙනවා. ඊට පස්සෙ උඹලගේ කොල්ලො කෙල්ලන්ට ඇටිකෙහෙල් කාපු රිලව් වගේ නියෝ නියෝ ඉන්ට සිද්ධ වේවි.” අපේහමුදුරුවන්ටත්උන්එදාටඉනාබේත්දෙනවා. ඊටපස්සෙඋඹලගේකොල්ලොකෙල්ලන්ටඇටිකෙහෙල්කාපුරිලව්වගේනියෝනියෝඉන්ටසිද්ධවේවි.”
1931දීශ්රීමත්අනගාරිකධර්මපාලතුමාඑදාදිවඇසින්දැකකළඉහතසඳන්ප්රකාශයඅදසැබෑවීඇත.
Even today the Western imperialist plunderers continue their cultural and economic invasions through their own predatory institutions and agencies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations and its affiliated organizations, and the Asian Development Bank, what they could not do with their guns and swords back in the days when they ruled this country.
The end result of this entire process is, today we have lost our identity as a distinct nation. There are no lay or monastic national leaders or national organization, no national political party with any concern or love for the country, the Sinha race and their religion either. They also ceased to have a nationality, national dress, language or national ideology. They don’t understand the geopolitical and geostrategic value or the natural and human wealth of this paradise Island on earth or the vast stretches of ocean that stretches to infinity right round the Island or its resources. A country that had been a proud mono Sinhala Buddhist state for more than 2500 years, today is often called a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual country by all our political buffoons, who have no vison or a mission and who does not know their own history are not suitable to run even a small sillara kade in a faraway village.
With the result unfortunately, this Island that had been once called the granary of the east, the pearl of the Indian ocean and the paradise on earth by renowned world citizens of has today undergone a complete political economic, social, cultural, moral and spiritual erosion, almost beyond redemption.
Therefore, I call upon all patriots of this country to stop all types of divisions among the Sinhala people and rise as one united formidable force as a nation on regional, political and religious grounds and rise from the ashes like the Phoenix, to save this paradise Island, thrice blessed by the Buddha, the Sinhala nation, the Buddha sasana and its pristine and unique civilization on this earth. That is the golden gate cum the portals to the Kingdom of unity, prosperity, happiness and all-round success.
Obstacle of reconciliation and progress.
Although 77 years have passed since the advent of the so-called bogus political independence in 1948, our so-called leaders never had the vision or the mission to restore the Sinhala nation to its pre-1815 patriotic majestic level. The seeds of divide and rule sawn by the colonial rulers from 1799, such as political, ethnic, linguistic and religious have completely ruined the Sri Lanka nation that was there in the pre-1815 days in our history and today we are a nation in pieces, with a westernized and fully scrambled collection of men and women who has no love to the motherland, its heritage or age-old values.
The main catalysts behind this destruction as I see it, are, a) westernized values adopted by our politicians and social elites, b) the western system of government and Westminster system of party politics and finally c) absence of national patriotic leaders with a far-reaching vision and mission of nation building as found in our neighbor India, Japan or China.
The time has now come for all people living in this Island to integrate and unite as one nation, as we were in the past, without these divisive ethnic, racial, religious or linguistic divisions which[S1] bread divided allegiance to other countries like India, Middle East or the Colonial West.
Tamils and Muslims, who wants to live in this country to earn their living, have to concede to the historical fact the this was the Kingdom of the Sinhala people, founded and civilization built and defended and protected by them for millennia against all invasions both from the neighboring India and the Colonial West. It is high time that the minorities give up their day dreams of carving out separate countries of their own, within the territorial boundaries of this country of the Sinhala nation and integrate with the Sinhalese as one nation in one country as it had been there from the beginning of history.
Tamils and most Muslims first, migrated in search of green pasture and second, were recently brought to this country by the colonial British between after 1840s as slave labour to work on their projects, toddy tapping and newly opened up plantations Sinhalese were original settlers on these lands at least from 543 BC, if not before, and they were the people who established the civilization on this land.They were the people who defended their motherland against all foreign invasions from the 2nd century BC up to 1948 at very high cost and who laid the permanent foundation for the great and unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization, the hallmark of this Island nation. Therefore, anyone who wish to make this country their future home must accept this historical gospel truth as inalienable and be prepared to live cordially with the Bhumiputhra Sinhalese the prescriptive legal owners of this Land. Once that status quo is re- established as it had been there throughout history, we Sinhalese Buddhists are ever prepared to treat all citizens as our own brothers and sisters with no discrimination whatsoever. They can have their own religion and cultural practices without creating problems for the Sinhala Buddhists, the sons of the soil. Those who disagree with this formula has no option but to get back to their motherlands from where they have come. To implement this all-time solution, we need a Sinhala Buddhist Government of patriotic national leaders.