Dr Sudath Gunasekara 20th Jan 2025.
Betrayal of the Kandyan Sinhalese and handing over the central Hill Country, the geographical and historical Heartland of our motherland to India by our politicians firstly, to woo the Estate labour votes and secondly, due to their subservience to India as none of them have a back born to stand up against Indian bullying.
My active interests on the plight of the Kandyan peasants(Sinhalese) started in 1965 as a 27 year old CAS cadet attached to the Kandy Kachcheri, when the then Government Agent Mr. Mahinda Wijenayaka (one of the most lovable persons I have ever met in my life) gave me an assignment as a 3 months old CAS cadet to prepare a report on the plight of the Kandyan peasants for him, to be presented to the then Minister of Home affairs. (Even today I am grateful to Mr. Wijenayaka for introducing me to this field)
In this work my first visit was made to the Office of the Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation Coordinator’s office in the backyard of the Temple of the Tooth and met Mr. Lawana Madurawe, the first Coordinating Officer, of the Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation Department who was coordinating the disbursement of limited amount of funds voted for his department, among the Government departments within the Kandyan Provinces, for a briefing on the subject. The chief clerk one Mr. Ekanayaka gave me a copy of the first and the ever, 6-Year Plan prepared in 1953 on this subject that was designed by the government under the leadership of Mr. A. Ratnayaka the then Minster of Home Affairs, to be implemented between 1954/55 and 1959/60 six-year period. That 6-year plan which I still possess as a priceless treasure and souvenir in my library that aroused my deep interest for the first time on this subject.
On that day I was told by the coordinator that the plan envisaged in that document was to be completed by the end of 1959/60 financial year and it covered the two provinces of Central and Uva. Although it was far away from the wider objectives of the expectations of the Report of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission 1951, and also looked like a first aid prescription given to a serious patient, it was a very objective and task-oriented work plan. Going through the plan, I was thrilled to find a reference to a minor irrigation village development plan, designed to be implemented in my own village Meemure, under the caption Maha-Oya anicut Scheme on its page 19.
It was designed to provide irrigation facilities for 300 acres under Maha Oya and 225 acres under Heen Ganga, under a minor irrigation canal 3 miles long from Maha Oya to Meemure Oya, for the benefit of people of Meemure Village Headman’s division, covering about 35 sq miles and this project was to be completed during the 1959/60 financial year. But other than the construction of the two anicuts at Maha Oya and Heen Ganga and the canal from Maha Oya to Heen Ganga, no other development was undertaken until 1966, thirteen years since its inception.
When Icame as DRO Udadumara in 1966 June, it fell upon my destiny to implement this project already belated for 11 years. Meemure is my village within the Udadumbara D.R.O. division. It was the largest Rata of the Kandyan Kingdom where Meegastenne Maha Adikaarama was the last Ratei Mahaththaya and historically it had been the safest hide out in the Kandyan Kingdom. In this backdrop I immediately drew my attention to Maha Oya and Heen Ganga Project, where nothing has happened until then and started to work on it and made all preliminary work to start the development from where it had been stopped. During my time I was able to repair the neglected irrigation canal up to Heenganga and commence the completion up to Bathalahena paddy tract in Meemure proper. Thereafter, the first stage of settlements in Pusse Ela-Heen Ganga section was completed during my tenure as DRO. Unfortunately, the completion of this project up to the Meemure Oya came to an end in 1971, as I was transferred to Kandy Kachcheri with effect from 1st April 1971.
The story of completing this project beyond Kaikaawala was abandoned due to an earth slip near Karandagehalla stream in December 1970. Development beyond Heen ganga ended thereafter up to date, leaving the proposed 225 acres development under Heen Ganga completely neglected. When I inquired about this project in 2023 (27 years after retiring from public service) from the irrigation department, as they were the people who were doing this type of minor irrigation work in our times, they told me now such works come under the Agrarian Services Department. When I inquired from them their reply was, there is no such project like that on their records, although there are some traces of an abandoned irrigation canal to be seen. This in short is the 72 years long and sad story of the completion of the Maha Oya-Heen Ganga – Meemure Oya Project, listed under the first 6 -Year plan of the KPC Department.
This I think, summarizes the story of the implementation of the first and the only Six Year (1955/60) development plan of the KPC. The same tragic end is true of almost all the recommendations made by the Kandyan Peasantry Commission Report 1951.
To begin with, the most important recommendation, to set up a special Board of Rehabilitation with sweeping powers under the Prime Minister as the main mechanism to implement the proposals of the KPC Report was rejected by the Cabinet and it was never done up to date. That is how the rehabilitation of Kandyan Peasants in this country had been treated by all Governments since 1948 up to date.
Furthermore, the following attitude of all successive government since 1948 proves beyond all reasonable doubts firstly, as to how the successive governments elected by the people have betrayed the sons of the soil, the legitimate prescriptive owners of this land for 2/1/2 millennia, the brave Kandyan patriots, who had defended and protected the hill country, the geographical and historical Heartland of this nation for 310 years (1505-1815) against all powerful Western colonial invasions at heavy cost, dying in tens of thousands, for the present generation to live and harvest the benefits of their sacrifices on their motherland.
What I propose to tell you in these pages is the sad and pathetic story of the descendants of those brave Kandyan Sinhalese, who live in abject poverty as landless, jobless, and hopeless paupers on their own motherland, where their ancestors had developed and left behind a unique Sinhala Buddhist civilization that stood in par with those of all the great civilizations of the ancient world, both in the East and the West, had lived for 2 ½ millennia and who Faught and died in battle to protect the motherland for their future generations. I hold the unpatriotic and power-hungry governments and self-seeking westernized politicians, who have no idea of their own history or the motherland and the Sinhala nation for this appalling and criminal betrayals and unforgivable neglect committed, by neglecting the restoration of the birth rights of the native Sinhalese.
Instead of first restoring the lost birth rights of the sons of the soil what all post-independence governments have done is to support the Indian estate slave labour brought by the British after 1840 to work on their plantations to fatten their Banks in UK and left behind as an army stateless migrant Indians labour on our soil. The following narrative on how the successive governments have acted on the recommendations of the KPCR clearly proves their pro-Indian labour attitude.
Going through the post-colonial political history of this country, I see only two exceptions to this tragic approach. They were disenfranchising of Indians by D.S. in 1949 and the Nehru-Kotalavala Agreement of 1953. Both these were positive approaches. But all actions taken by the Parliament thereafter were clearly anti Sinhala and they were pro Indian estate labour, to woo their vote.
The following attitude followed by all successive governments aptly proves what I have said above.
1. The proposal made by the KPC report 1951 ‘to set up a powerful Development Board under the Prime Minister nominated by the Governor General was put in to the waste paper basket by all Governments since 1948. It has never been set up to date. This anti Kandyan move was spearheaded by politicians led by Finance Minister M. D. H. Jayawardhana (1954 February 1956) who argued against special treatment given to the Kandyan areas, completely ignoring the historic role they had played in saving the motherland from all Western invasions for all of us to live today. He also refused to provide financial allocations needed for the project. Unfortunately, there was none in the Parliament or outside up to date to fight back in support of the need for the rehabilitation of the Kandyan areas and their people.
2. Instead of Establishing a Special Development Board as recommended by the KPC report the 1956 government also created a C grade Department under a Coordinating Officer for Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation that was set up under the Home Ministry in 1958 for the first time, only to distribute the limited funds voted by Parliament, among the government departments within the two provinces. Development under that set up was largely confined to subjects like a small irrigation project, a village road, construction of a school building or a rural hospital etc.
3. In the year 1964, this officer was re-designated as the Commissioner of Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation with a road development at Asgiriya.
(Incidentally my name as proposed to be appointed as the Commissioner in 1971.But the then Minister appointed one of his classmates as the commissioner Had I been appointed the story of the Kandyan Peasanty Rehabilitation would have been
4 The name Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation Department was changed to Upcountry Peasantry Department on 01.04.1968, to satisfy the Indian Tamil labour living on these lands and the Sinhalese living outside this area.
5 it was upgraded to class a B” Department in 1990 and subsequently to class A” in 1994. A similar powerless Ministry of Upcountry Development with very little financial allocations and adequate administrative support.
7. although the KPR Commission had identified landlessness as the main problem among the Kandyans, no tea estate was acquired to open up a single settlement scheme at any time as fearing Tamil objection. The upper Kotamale Sinhala evacuees who were sent to the system C in the Dry zone is a good example in this case, while the Tamil evacuees were given land within the Nuwara Eliya District at the request of Thondaman. Here again there was not a single Sinhala politician, including the powerful Minister Gamini Disanayaka, the 1st MP for Nuwaraeliya, to safeguard the interests of the original owners of this land the Kandyan Sinhalese
8 All evacuees from the Kothmale and Victoria reservoir areas were also sent to the Dry Zone without finding alternative land within the respective districts.
9 And thereby nearly Sinhala 75,000 families were sent out of the central Hill country. This meant at least 300,000 persons if you calculate at 5 per family. I strongly believe that this was a well calculated conspiracy to reduce the Sinhala population in the Central Province and thereby make room to increase the number of Tamils
10.Again, a proposal made by me to give life to the The Udarata Development Authority originally proposed by the KPCR Commission to fight back on behalf of the Kandyan Sinhalese,as Secretary to Mrs. Sirimavo Bandarnayaka in 1994 was also put in limbo for 9 years. As a sequel to this proposal made by me in 1994 An organization called the Upcountry Area Development Authority was established by Act no 26 in 2005 after 11 years by someone who had picked it up that proposal in the Prime Minister’s. However, it was only a name sake Authority operating on the same premises at Getambe Peradeniya where the Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation Department was also sited. This Authority was established by interested politicians, first to give employment to their political supporters and secondly to hoodwink the Kandyans.
11.. Finally, they put the last nail on the coffin of the subject of Kandyan Peasantry Development on Jan 2014 by abolishing both the Kandyan Peasantry Department as well as the Kandyan Peasantry Development Authority and thereby closed the chapter on the subject of Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation for good. The man behind this coup was Basil Rajapaksa the Minister of Economic Development at that time
2 Years later a new Authority named ශ්රි ලංකා කන්ද උඩරට උරුමය සුරැකීමේ සහ සවිබල ගැන්විමේ අධිකාරිය was also created around 2018. But it also had completely alienated the main objective of the KPC report and it was only a replica of the 2005 අංක 26 දරණ ශ්රි ලංකා උඩරට සංවර්ධන අධිකාරිය පනත” වශයෙන් 2005 අගෝස්තු 24 වන දින ශ්රි ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සම්මත කරන ලද පනතේ අනු පිටපතක් පමණි.
In fact, the draft Act 2018 was given to me by the Asgiriya Temple for my comments>But my observation were never taken in to account ( I will publish my observations in a day or two in the Lankaweb for my readers to see it)
But as, usual that was also enacted in parliament as an eye wash to deceive the Kandyan people and the caravan continues up to date to ensure that the interests of the Estate labour are further consolidated.
මෙම පනතේ ඇති එකම වෙනස 2005 වෙනත් නමකින් ඉදිරිපත් කොට තිබීම සහ එවකට පැවැති රජයේ පටු දේශපාලන අරමුණු ඉටුකර ගැනිම සඳහා අවශ්ය සුළු වෙනස්කම් කීපයක් පමණක් ඇතුලත් කොට තිබිම පමණි.
In my opinion it was only another first-class betrayal of the Kandyan Sinhalese and a stepping stone to the establishment of the Malayanadu right at the center of the Land as the last nail of the coffin that will be laid to rest.
Conclution
The subject of Kandyan areas Rehabilitation had always been given the stepmotherly treatment by all governments from its inception in 1951. Doing justice by these patriotic people was always put in limbo by all Governments. Finally, both the Kandyan Peasantry Commissioners Department and the Kandyan Areas Development Authority were closed down and buried for good by another anti-Kandyan politician Basil Rajapaksha, the Minister of Economic Development.
I must emphatically state it here that it never took off the ground. It is a national tragedy that apart from the national leaders like the Mahaanayaka Theras of the Three Chapters or any other Kandyan or a single Sinhala Minister, or a politicians has raised any objection against this treacherous action of all the governments since 1948 and finally the action by Minister Basil Rajapaksa, as if there is not a single Sinhala man or woman in this country to take up this naked truth of discrimination by a great nation, the Kandyan Sinhalese. I am wondering whether the Sinha nation has already got extinct
Meanwhile the long chain of neglecting and discriminating the Kandyans even against the Sinhalese living in the other parts of the country, by all post 1956 governments deployed an anti-Kandyan and pro Indian State labour program to get the Estate Tamil vote in spite of the fact DS Senanayaka had defranchised all estate Tamils in1949 and John Kotalaawala had singed his famous Nehru/Kotalawala Accord of 1953, which in my opinion was the most patriotic and humanitarian agreement on this Indo-Lanka problem. Had that being implemented to the letter this problem would have seen its end by 1963.
Instead of following up with that agreement Bandarnayaka singed the Bandaranayaka -Chelvanayagam agreement, although it was foiled due to the objections raised by the Buddhist Clery.
However again in 1962 Mrs Bamdaaranayaka picked up Thondaman from the streets an appointed MP and Made him the Minister of Labour in her government and at the same time she also entered in to an agreement with the Indian Prime Minister Sastri (called the Sirima Sasthri Agreement) by which she agreed to retain 300,000 Indians here. In return India agreed to take back 550,000. Following this agreement action was taken to repatriate the 550 000. All compensations were paid and arrangements were made to send them to India by train. Meanwhile the Tamil politicians in the north got them to disembark at Vavuniya and they were settled in the surrounding districts like Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mulathive. So instead of their going to India they got the double benefit of getting the compensation in the South and land to settle down in the North.
Finally in 1987 J.R entered in to what is called the Rajiv/JR Accord of 29th July 1987. Under that Agreement India by force Sri Lanka government to accept all the people of Indian origin living in this country including the kallathonis and even gypsies were given Sri Lankan citizenship just on a simple affidavit singed on a Rs 1 stamp before a JP. unknown and unchecked by any, a process of illegitimate unethical and unheard way of giving citizenship anywhere else in the whole world.
As for me, I have not heard or read of such an ungrateful nation or a native government in the whole world anywhere else, on this earth in world history. It also gives a broader perspective of how all the post 1948 governments have treated and served heroic Kandyan’s who Faught against three ruthless and savages’ European colonial invaders and defended and protected the motherland for us to live today, as a proud nation with a proud Sinhala Buddhist cultural identity
This has been the apathy and neglect of all governments since 1953 towards the heroic Kandyans who saved the country from all the Western invaders in war for 443 years.
This in short was the tragic legacy of not only the poor people of Meemure but also of the first and the only six -year plan of development and also of all the recommendations of the Report of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission of 1951 as well. Furthermore, it also speak in mute terms how all governments, packed up with kalusuddaa politicians, who had no understanding of the patriotic role played by the heroic Kandyan people in the history of this country in protecting it, had treated their own heroic and patriotic ancestors of this country who had fought for 443 years from 1505 to 1948 to protect their motherland for the present-day generation to live, at great cost dying in tens of thousands and losing everything they had inherited from their ancestors for two and half millennia.
Government after governments have come and governments gone. But where is justice on earth for a people who Faught valiantly for 443 years in fierce battle against three savages’ Western colonial powers to save their motherland including their own hereditary land and life and defended and protected and won it back for the present generation to live and proudly claiming, This is our Motherland, the land of the Sinhala nation unlike what happened to the native people of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, all of which became white man’s new colonial settlements after annihilating all the natives
The same situation was true of all the work of the 54/55-59/60 plan in all Kandyan areas other than the construction of few badly designed roads. This gives a complete mirror image of not only how the development included in the first 6 -year plan and but it also tells in mute language the sad fate of development of the Kandyan areas envisaged by the Kandyan Peasantry Commission Report, one of the best Commission Reports (the other being the Kannangara Report on Free Education).
I have been writing nearly for the past 40 years regarding the pathetic plight of the Kandyan Sinhalese, pleading the successive governments and Presidents and calling upon the Kandyan to get organized and fight back in unison like what our ancestors have done in the past to retrieve our motherland and the proud Sinhala nation. But up to now I haven’t got any positive response either from anyone.
None of the Governments in power since 1948 have solved the burning issues of the Kandyan Sinhalese is 76 years since we gained the so-called independence in 1948.But all governments have failed to address the legitimate and genuine grievances of the Kandyan people who are the de facto and de Jurei owners of this country. No one has ever paid any attention to rectify the historical injustices done to the Native Sinhalese by the colonial invaders. Instead, they all are struggling to solve their personal problems only.