Kandyan Convention
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After a lost war and several other attempts the English were victorious over Kandy and captured the King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. The Sinhala Chieftains were happy to get rid of the Malabar Buddhist king and his cruel heartless rule. Ehelepola thought that the English will hand over the power back to the Sinhalese or at least they will be made a puppet ruler. But the English annexed Ceylon with Madras for economical and strategical reasons.
On March 11, 1812, Lieut-Gen. Sir Robert Brownrigg assumed duties as the Governor, and his regime was noted specially for the annexation of the Kandyan kingdom to the British Crown and making the whole country a crown colony.
The confusion and disorder in the city of Kandy seemed to Brownrigg and D'Oyly a suitable opportunity to carry out their policy of territorial expansion. Accordingly, the Governor Brownrigg received Ehelepola Wijayasundera Wickremasinghe Chandrasekera Amarakoon Wasala Mudiyanse (who succeeded Pilimatalawe) alias Ehelepola Maha Adikaram at the Governor's residence in Mount Lavinia.
On this ex-parte representation of Ehelepola who rebelled against the king, the Governor promised him his favour and protection. The idea of sending an expedition to Kandy now seemed feasible.
The Maha Adikaram worked out the plan of operation and the Governor hastened to prepare and equip the forces in readiness to warfare. War was declared against the king of Kandy on January 10, 1815.
On February 14, 1815, a British division entered Kandy and took possession of the city and Ehelepola as sent to capture the king who had by then fled the city for safety. His hiding place was soon discovered at a place closer to Meda Mahanuwara in Kandy.
The party consisted of John D'Oyly, Capt. Hardy, Major Lionel C. Hooke, Ehelepola Nilame, Pilimatalawe Dissawa, Don Andryas Wijesinha Jayawardena Tamby Mudaly, Mudaliyar Dias Abeysingha, Ekneligoda Nilame, the Mohottalas Kawdumune, Kurandumune, Torawature, Delwala, Mahawalatenna and others.
Four days later, the unfortunate king was bound, plundered of his valuable as well as those of his consorts, and as dragged away with the greatest indignity by the supporters of Ehelepola, and was brought to Colombo for deportation to Vellore in South India, where his consorts and other kith and kin of the Malabar dynasty were interned in the beautiful mansion of Tippu Sahib, the Sultan of Mysore, acquired by the Indian government.
The Official Declaration of the Settlement of the Kandyan provinces expressly declared the principles of which the future government of the island under the British Crown would be based.
It consisted 12 clauses, viz:
1. Sri Wickrema Rajasinha, the Malabari king to forfeit all claims to the throne of Kandy.
2. The king is declared fallen and deposed and the hereditary claim of his dynasty, abolished and extinguished.
3. All his male relatives are banished from the island.
4. The dominion is vested in the sovereign of the British Empire, to be exercised through colonial governors, except in the case of the Adikarams, Disavas, Mohottalas, Korales, Vidanes and other subordinate officers reserving the rights, privileges and powers within their respective ranks.
5. The religion of the Buddha is declared inviolable and its rights to be maintained and protected.
6. All forms of physical torture and mutilations are abolished.
7. The governor alone can sentence a person to death and all capital publishments to take place in the presence of accredited agents of the government.
8. All civil and criminal justice over Kandyan to be administered according to the established norms and customs of the country, the government reserving to itself the rights of interposition when and where necessary.
9. Over non-Kandyans the position to remain according to British law.
10. The proclamation annexing the Three and Four Korales and Sabaragamuwa is repealed.
11. The dues and revenues to be collected for the King of England as well as for the maintenance of internal establishments in the island.
12. The Governor alone would facilitate trade and commerce."
The Kandyan Convention was forthwith proclaimed with an eye to the public outside Kandy. The British government had to justify to the world that they had no intention for territorial aggrandizement in seizing a neighbouring kingdom.
For this justification, it was necessary to show to the public that the British had only acted on the pressing needs of the public, who wished a change in the government to overcome the oppressive behaviour of the tyrant king.
Accordingly, the king's enormities were recounted with emphasis and the unanimous invitation of the British by the people and the chiefs was expressed in no exaggerated language, reminding one of the letters in which Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), the French General, Consul and Emperor, announced to King George III (1738-1820) of Great Britain and Ireland, his assumption of the throne of France after the Battle of Waterloo.
The news of annexation of Kandy to the maritime provinces of the island reached England on the same day as the news of the Battle of Waterloo and as a consequence passed unnoticed.
The British, as a matter of policy, did not carry out proselytising campaigns to convert Buddhists to Christianity, as their Portuguese and Dutch predecessors had done.
The laying of the railway, the opening of coffee and tea plantations, road development schemes, establishment of hospitals and maternity homes throughout the island, were some of the major works undertaken by the British who ruled Sri Lanka. [1]
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