📰 Sri Lanka · page 2

Post-classical period

Main article: Polonnaruwa period, Transitional period of Sri Lanka

Following a 17-year-long campaign, Vijayabahu I successfully drove the Chola out of Sri Lanka in 1070, reuniting the country for the first time in over a century.[68][69]77 Upon his request, ordained monks were sent from Burma to Sri Lanka to re-establish Buddhism, which had almost disappeared from the country during the Chola reign.[70]78 During the mediaeval period, Sri Lanka was divided into three sub-territories, namely, Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya.[71]79

Sri Lanka's irrigation system was extensively expanded during the reign of Parākramabāhu the Great (1153–1186).[72]80 This period is considered as a time when Sri Lanka was at the height of its power.[73][74]81 He built 1,470 reservoirs – the highest number by any ruler in Sri Lanka's history – repaired 165 dams, 3,910 canals, 163 major reservoirs, and 2,376 mini-reservoirs.[75]82 His most famous construction is the Parakrama Samudra,[76] the largest irrigation project of mediaeval Sri Lanka.83 Parākramabāhu's reign is memorable for two major campaigns – in the south of India as part of a Pandyan war of succession, and a punitive strike against the kings of Ramanna (Burma corpus) for various perceived insults to Sri Lanka.[77]84

After his demise, Sri Lanka gradually decayed in power.85 In 1215, Kalinga Magha, an invader with uncertain origins, identified as the founder of the Jaffna kingdom, invaded and captured the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa.86 He sailed from Kalinga[75] 690 nautical miles on 100 large ships with a 24,000 strong army.87 Unlike previous invaders, he looted, ransacked and destroyed everything in the ancient Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Kingdoms beyond recovery.[78]88 His priorities in ruling were to extract as much as possible from the land and overturn as many of the traditions of Rajarata as possible.89 His reign saw the massive migration of native Sinhalese people to the south and west of Sri Lanka, and into the mountainous interior, in a bid to escape his power.[79][80]90

Sri Lanka never really recovered from the effects of Kalinga Magha's invasion.91 King Vijayabâhu III, who led the resistance, brought the kingdom to Dambadeniya.92 The north, in the meanwhile, eventually evolved into the Jaffna kingdom.[79][80]93 The Jaffna kingdom never came under the rule of any kingdom of the south except on one occasion; in 1450, following the conquest led by king Parâkramabâhu VI's adopted son, Prince Sapumal.[81]94 He ruled the North from 1450 to 1467 CE.[82]95

The next three centuries starting from 1215 were marked by kaleidoscopically shifting collections of capitals in south and central Sri Lanka, including Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Gampola, Raigama, Kotte,[83] Sitawaka, and finally, Kandy.96 In 1247, the Malay kingdom of Tambralinga which was a vassal of Sri Vijaya led by their king Chandrabhanu[84] briefly invaded Sri Lanka from Insular Southeast Asia.97 They were then expelled by the South Indian Pandyan dynasty.[85]98 However, this temporary invasion reinforced the steady flow of the presence of various Austronesian merchant ethnic groups, from Sumatrans (Indonesia) to Lucoes (Philippines) into Sri Lanka which occurred since 200 BCE.[86]99 Chinese admiral Zheng He and his naval expeditionary force landed at Galle, Sri Lanka in 1409 and got into battle with the local king Vira Alakesvara of Gampola.100 Zheng He captured King Vira Alakesvara and later released him.[87][88][89][90]101 Zheng He erected the Galle Trilingual Inscription, a stone tablet at Galle written in three languages (Chinese, Tamil, and Persian), to commemorate his visit.[91][92]102 The stele was discovered by S. H. Thomlin at Galle in 1911 and is now preserved in the Colombo National Museum.103

Early modern period

Main article: Kandyan period

See also: Portuguese Ceylon, Dutch Ceylon, British Ceylon

The early modern period of Sri Lanka begins with the arrival of Portuguese soldier and explorer Lourenço de Almeida, the son of Francisco de Almeida, in 1505.[93]104 In 1517, the Portuguese built a fort at the port city of Colombo corpus and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas.105 In 1592, after decades of intermittent warfare with the Portuguese, Vimaladharmasuriya I moved his kingdom to the inland city of Kandy, a location he thought more secure from attack.[94]106 In 1619, succumbing to attacks by the Portuguese, the independent existence of the Jaffna kingdom came to an end.[95]107

During the reign of the Rajasinha II, Dutch explorers arrived on the island.108 In 1638, the king signed a treaty with the Dutch East India Company to get rid of the Portuguese who ruled most of the coastal areas.[96]109 The following Dutch–Portuguese War resulted in a Dutch victory, with Colombo falling into Dutch hands by 1656.110 The Dutch remained in the areas they had captured, thereby violating the treaty they had signed in 1638.111 The Burgher people, a distinct ethnic group, emerged as a result of intermingling between the Dutch and native Sri Lankans in this period.[97]112

The Kingdom of Kandy was the last independent monarchy of Sri Lanka.[98]113 In 1595, Vimaladharmasurya brought the sacred Tooth Relic—the traditional symbol of royal and religious authority amongst the Sinhalese—to Kandy and built the Temple of the Tooth.[98]114 In spite of on-going intermittent warfare with Europeans, the kingdom survived.115 Later, a crisis of succession emerged in Kandy upon king Vira Narendra Sinha's death in 1739.116 He was married to a Telugu-speaking Nayakkar princess from South India (Madurai) and was childless by her.[98]117

Eventually, with the support of bhikkhu Weliwita Sarankara and ignoring the right of "Unambuwe Bandara", the crown passed to the brother of one of Narendrasinha's princesses, overlooking Narendrasinha's own son by a Sinhalese concubine.[99]118 The new king was crowned Sri Vijaya Rajasinha later that year.119 Kings of the Nayakkar dynasty launched several attacks on Dutch controlled areas, which proved to be unsuccessful.[100]120

During the French Revolutionary Wars, fearing that French control of the Netherlands might deliver Sri Lanka to the French, the British Empire occupied the coastal areas of the island (which they called the colony of British Ceylon) with little difficulty in 1796.[101]121 Two years later, in 1798, Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, third of the four Nayakkar kings of Sri Lanka, died of a fever.122 Following his death, a nephew of Rajadhi Rajasinha, eighteen-year-old Kannasamy, was crowned.[102]123 The young king, now named Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, faced a British invasion in 1803 but successfully retaliated.124 The First Kandyan War ended in a stalemate.[102]125

By then the entire coastal area was under the British East India Company as a result of the Treaty of Amiens.126 On 14 February 1815, Kandy was occupied by the British in the Second Kandyan War, ending Sri Lanka's independence.[102]127 Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last native monarch of Sri Lanka, was exiled to India.[103]128 The Kandyan Convention formally ceded the entire country to the British Empire.129 Attempts by Sri Lankan noblemen to undermine British power in 1818 during the Uva Rebellion were thwarted by Governor Robert Brownrigg.[104]130

The beginning of the modern period of Sri Lanka is marked by the Colebrooke–Cameron reforms of 1833.[105]131 They introduced a utilitarian and liberal political culture to the country based on the rule of law and amalgamated the Kandyan and maritime provinces as a single unit of government.[105]132 An executive council and a legislative council were established, later becoming the foundation of a representative legislature.133 By this time, experiments with coffee plantations were largely successful.[106]134

Soon, coffee became the primary commodity export of Sri Lanka.135 Falling coffee prices as a result of the depression of 1847 stalled economic development and prompted the governor to introduce a series of taxes on firearms, dogs, shops, boats, etc., and to reintroduce a form of rajakariya, requiring six days free labour on roads or payment of a cash equivalent.[106]136 These harsh measures antagonised the locals, and another rebellion broke out in 1848.[107]137 A devastating leaf disease, Hemileia vastatrix, struck the coffee plantations in 1869, destroying the entire industry within fifteen years.[108]138 The British quickly found a replacement: abandoning coffee, they began cultivating tea instead.139 Tea production in Sri Lanka thrived in the following decades.140 Large-scale rubber plantations began in the early 20th century.141

By the end of the 19th century, a new educated social class transcending race and caste arose through British attempts to staff the Ceylon Civil Service and the legal, educational, engineering, and medical professions with natives.[109]142 New leaders represented the various ethnic groups of the population in the Ceylon Legislative Council on a communal basis.143 Buddhist and Hindu revivalists reacted against Christian missionary activities.[110][111]144 The first two decades in the 20th century are noted by the unique harmony among Sinhalese and Tamil political leadership, which has since been lost.[112]145

The 1906 malaria outbreak in Ceylon actually started in the early 1900s, but the first case was documented in 1906.146

In 1919, major Sinhalese and Tamil political organisations united to form the Ceylon National Congress, under the leadership of Ponnambalam Arunachalam,[113] pressing colonial masters for more constitutional reforms.147 But without massive popular support, and with the governor's encouragement for "communal representation" by creating a "Colombo seat" that dangled between Sinhalese and Tamils, the Congress lost momentum towards the mid-1920s.[114]148

The Donoughmore reforms of 1931 repudiated the communal representation and introduced universal adult franchise (the franchise stood at 4% before the reforms).149 This step was strongly criticised by the Tamil political leadership, who realised that they would be reduced to a minority in the newly created State Council of Ceylon, which succeeded the legislative council.[115][116]150 In 1937, Tamil leader G. G. Ponnambalam demanded a 50–50 representation (50% for the Sinhalese and 50% for other ethnic groups) in the State Council.151 However, this demand was not met by the Soulbury reforms of 1944–45.152

Contemporary history

Main article: History of Sri Lanka (1948–present)

See also: Sri Lankan independence movement, Sri Lankan Civil War

The Soulbury constitution ushered in dominion status, with independence proclaimed on 4 February 1948.[117]153 D. S. Senanayake became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon.[118]154 Prominent Tamil leaders including Ponnambalam and Arunachalam Mahadeva joined his cabinet.[115][119]155 The British Royal Navy remained stationed at Trincomalee until 1956.156 A countrywide popular demonstration against withdrawal of the rice rations resulted in the resignation of prime minister Dudley Senanayake.[120]157

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was elected prime minister in 1956.158 His three-year rule had a profound influence through his self-proclaimed role of "defender of the besieged Sinhalese culture".[121]159 He introduced the controversial Sinhala Only Act, recognising Sinhala as the only official language of the government.160 Although partially reversed in 1958, the bill posed a grave concern for the Tamil community, which perceived in it a threat to their language and culture.[122][123][124]161

The Federal Party (FP) launched a movement of non-violent resistance (satyagraha) against the bill, which prompted Bandaranaike to reach an agreement (Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact) with S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, leader of the FP, to resolve the looming ethnic conflict.[125]162 The pact proved ineffective in the face of ongoing protests by opposition and the Buddhist clergy.163 The bill, together with various government colonisation schemes, contributed much towards the political rancour between Sinhalese and Tamil political leaders.[126]164 Bandaranaike was assassinated by an extremist Buddhist monk in 1959.[127]165

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the widow of Bandaranaike, took office as prime minister in 1960, and withstood an attempted coup d'état in 1962.166 During her second term as prime minister, the government instituted socialist economic policies, strengthening ties with the Soviet Union and China, while promoting a policy of non-alignment.167 In 1971, Ceylon experienced a Marxist insurrection, which was quickly suppressed.168 In 1972, the country became a republic named Sri Lanka, repudiating its dominion status.169 Prolonged minority grievances and the use of communal emotionalism as an election campaign weapon by both Sinhalese and Tamil leaders abetted a fledgling Tamil militancy in the north during the 1970s.[128]170 The policy of standardisation by the Sirimavo government to rectify disparities created in university enrolment, which was in essence an affirmative action to assist geographically disadvantaged students to obtain tertiary education,[129] resulted in reducing the proportion of Tamil students at university level and acted as the immediate catalyst for the rise of militancy.[130][131]171 The assassination of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiyappah in 1975 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) marked a crisis point.[132][133]172

The government of J. R. Jayawardene swept to power in 1977, defeating the United Front government.[134]173 Jayawardene introduced a new constitution, together with a free-market economy and a powerful executive presidency modelled after that of France.174 It made Sri Lanka the first South Asian country to liberalise its economy.[135]175 Beginning in 1983, ethnic tensions were manifested in an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the LTTE.176 An LTTE attack on 13 soldiers resulted in the start of a civil war, and in response anti-Tamil race riots took place, allegedly backed by Sinhalese hard-line ministers, which resulted in more than 150,000 Tamil civilians fleeing the island, seeking asylum in other countries.[136][137]177

Lapses in foreign policy resulted in India strengthening the Tigers by providing arms and training.[138][139][140]178 In 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was deployed in northern Sri Lanka to stabilise the region by neutralising the LTTE.[141]179 The same year, the JVP launched its second insurrection in Southern Sri Lanka,[142] necessitating redeployment of the IPKF in 1990.[143]180 In October 1990, the LTTE expelled Sri Lankan Moors (Muslims by religion) from northern Sri Lanka.[144]181 In 2002, the Sri Lankan government and LTTE signed a Norwegian-mediated ceasefire agreement.[124]182