Features Island Friday Aug 1 2003

Fifty years of Kandy Peasantry Development in retrospect

By S. B. Karalliyadde

Foreign funding through donor agencies and governments to develop the North East and hive of activities by NGO’s to implement various rehabilitation, reconstruction and: development programme for the area which are on the pipe lines. Civilian population in open arms to receive the charity. Politicians with their own agendas are supporting wholeheartedly the process of going through proposed multi million development efforts since independence.

Similarly in the South and West of the country political leaders have taken upon themselves the responsible tasks of developing their regions.- new Air Ports’ Harbours, Urban Centres other common amenities for the people are planned and inaugurated.

But regret to say the area defined as the Kanda Udarata in the 1815 March Kandyan convention including Uva, Matale, Tunkorale, Walapane, Wellassa, Bintenna, Tamankaduwa, Nuwara Kalaviya and the areas coming under the economic region of the Central Province so defined as the up Country peasantry rehabilitation area now, and then known as the Kandyan Peasantry Commission area has not drawn sufficient attention of the powers be to merit the benefits of massive billion dollar donor conglomerate while trying to uplift the poor peasants: of the area from their slumber after the catastrophic blows received consequent to their uprise against the colonial masters in the famous Uva Rebellian of 1817/1818.

They have no powerful lobby groups behind them like in other areas mentioned earlier, no Thomian groups, Royal groups to their rescue and so go on regardless, with the legacies inherited from the pre independent era. Suffice it to compare with some other districts with several University Campuses - Uva Wellassa upto date has not a single campus of similar degree awarding level. To cite an example from the field of education the latest figures of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education give the following results of University admissions for 1991 in respect of some of the popular courses from the area that we forcus attention:

To illustrate the disparity in the system of admissions to Universities in 1991/92, 20% of the total admissions were from Colombo District having a population of two million, when the seven districts in the up country area with a population of over five million only 22% were eligible to enter a University. Even the area quota basis and other special concessions given to disadvantaged areas failed to narrow the imbalance gap in University admissions. I quote from Uva Journal from a minutemade by Herbert White who was a British Government Agent in Badulla after the Uva rebellion. "It is a pity that there is no evidence left behind to show the exact situation in Uva in terms of population or agriculture development after the rebellion. The new rulers see unable to come to any conclusion on the exact situation of Uva before the rebellion as there is no trace of evidence left behind to come to such conclusions. If thousands died in the battle they were all fearless and clever fighters. If one considers the remaining population of 4/5 after the battle to be children, women and the aged the havoc caused is unlimited. In short the people have lost their lives and all other valuable belongings. It is doubtful whether Uva has at least now recovered from the catastrophe".

Why are these areas neglected

History records the many rebellions and wars fought against the British Raj by the people of these areas, the Kandyan wars in 1802, 1803, 1805 the Uva rebellion of 1817/18 Matale rebellion of 1848 fought against the draconian legislations introduced in 1840, 1856, 1878 etc. To put a long story short it is relevant to quote Sir A.C. Lawrie "the story of the British rule in the Kandyan country during the rebellion of 1818 cannot be related without shame.

By 1819 hardly a member of the leading families remained alive, those whom the sword and the gun had spared, cholera and small-pox and privations had slain by hundreds, any subsequent efforts by the government to develop Kandyan areas were only attempts begun and abandoned". It was in this background that the first Prime Minister Rt. Hon. D.S. Senanayake appointed the Kandyan Peasantry Commission and in January 1953 and the Cabinet decided to launch the Kandyan peasantry rehabilitation programme. The year 2003 marks the 50th year after such rehabilitation and reconstruction activities were implemented to ameliorate the conditions of the class of people living in the areas coming within the ambit of the K.P.C. The Presidential Commission appointed in 1994 to evaluate the performance and achievements of the Kandyan Peasantry Rehabilitation efforts observed that "there are still deficiencies and the main objective of improving the living conditions of the people remained illusive, the region continued to lag behind and the people continue to be poor backward and disadvantaged. The pace of development has been slow and uneven." The National Human Development Report of the UNDP 1998 states that out of the 17 districts (North & East excluded) where the consumptive poverty exceeds 50% are all Kandyan districts. All the districts where the abject "human poverty" is over 25% are Kandyan districts. The average per capita gross regional domestic product (GRDP) for the central region is 34% lower than the average figure for the whole country according to JICA report for 1994. It is reported that 46.2% of the total number of families in the K.P.R. commission area are food stamp recipients which means a household of five members earn less than Rs.700/- a month. The tale of woe is reflected in every aspect of their life and is endless. It is to address these problems that a new plan of action and strategies are necessary.

New vision

The Prime Minister’s new vision for accelerated sustainable economic and infrastructure development for the entire country has created five economic regions. The Central Region Economic Ministry area covers the entire area of the upcountry Peasantry Rehabilitation Commission. The minister in-charge of the subject has given a new dimension to his approach to the problem. The entire period after setting up off the KPC and subsequent periods under the UPR never approached the problems faced by the people in any logical. Methodical scientific modern problem solving process. Instead .more emphasis was given to appointment of advisory body consisting of majority of members who had to be given political assylum for a period. Come what may this is the only time in the half century of existence that the Minister has appointed a special Task Force for strategic action planing consisting of highly imminent academics, Internationally acclaimed, scientists, planners, professors administrators and an assorted section of a few from other disciplines under the chairmanship of a former Pradeniya Vice Chancellar a product of Cambridge. For the first time the Task Force is comprised of representative from the three major ethnic groups living in the area coming under its authority. The village estate integration process is addressed and prioratized for the first time in the history of the KPC action plan is ready and it is hoped that the cool room "Pukka Sahibs" will not see it as another institution to run concurrently or as a duplication or an infringement on their domain to under mine their jealously guarded authorities and privileges.

The entire future of the Kandyan peasantry is in the hands of the representatives whom the people mandated to decide their future. It is therefore necessary that the government the donor Agencies and other concerned institutions, the NGO’s and all those interested in the welfare of the peasantry give their patronage and blessings for the success of this programme. I conclude this article with a poem murmured by Rev. Degaldoruwa Unnanse seated on the threshold of the Dalada Maligawa after the surrender of the king to the British.

Ane Kumbiyane - topatat rajek inne
Mokade karanne - ape karumeta apata vanne
Rajek lebunothin - eda kiribath kannan
Perehera karannan - sadu nadin gigumdennan

(Writer is a former Member of Parliament)

Opinion - Sunday Island Aug 17 2003

The Plight of the Kandyan Peasantry - A Viewpoint

by Dr. Wickrema Weerasooria

I read with interest the excellent and thought provoking article by Mr. S. B. Karaliyadde on Fifty Years of the Kandyan Peasantry in the Island of 1st August. It certainly aroused interest and the next day the Island editorial was on it. I like to add some of my own views especially because Mr. Karaliyadde referred to the Kandyan Peasantry Commission. It was one of the first Royal Commissions established in January 1949 by our first post-Independence Prime Minister Mr. D. S. Senanayake. All the Commission members were Kandyans. My father the late Mr. N. E. Weerasooria QC was its Chairman. The other members were Mr. M. D. Banda, Mr. H. R. U. Premachandra (both MPs), Mr. T. B. Panabokke (later Chairman People’s Bank). It’s Secretary was Mr. Victor Tennakoon (later Attorney-General and Chief Justice). Shortly thereafter, Mr. M. D. Banda became a Cabinet Minister and in his place was appointed Mr. C. E. Attygalle (another MP). The Commission records the invaluable services rendered to it by Mr. D. B. Ellepola, — another Kandyan —— who was then Director Rural Development, (the father of former Vice-Chancellor Professor Savitri Goonesekera).

The Commission Report issued in February 1951, two years after it was established, was well received. Copies of the report are no longer available. Some still ask me even to photocopy it. Although my father was then a successful lawyer living in Kotte, with a busy legal practice, he was selected as Chairman, because his ancestry was Denike a small village in Rikkillagaskada in the Hanguranketha area. He was proud to call himself a grandson of a "Kandyan Peasant".

Although now over fifty years old the Kandyan Peasantry Commission report of 1951 highlighted the real issues that befell the Kandyan peasantry which consisted essentially of the population of the Central Province and the Uva Province which in the 1901 census showed a total population of about one million. The Commission outlined the major issues as follows:

(a) Firstly, the Kandyan peasants are landless and the main problem is landlessness. This was mainly due to the take over of peasants’ lands for the plantation industry (first coffee, then tea) and the British governments Crown Lands Ordinance in 1840 which enacted that all forest, waste unoccupied and uncultivated land belonged automatically to the Crown. By this one stroke of legislation, the "bread" was taken out of the peasant’s month.

(b) Secondly, the absence of road communications. This was the second major problem.

(c) Thirdly, the lack of educational facilities which resulted in a large illiterate adult population. The Commission highlighted a peasant’s response to this issue. "No land, no money; no money, no education; no education, no jobs; no jobs, no money for education or for the purchase of cultivable land"

In my view, on issues two and three above — roads and communications and better educational facilities — there has been considerable development and improvement since the Commission’s Report in 1951. The Free Education scheme and the establishment of Central Colleges and the Mahaweli Projects and its attendant human settlement programmes, has opened up and connected much of the Kandyan areas. The landlessness issue however, remains because the peasantry’s lands taken for the plantations of the British Raj became of no benefit to the peasantry even after nationalization of plantations in the 1970s.

The Soulbury Commission Report of 1945 which resulted in our Independence in 1948, also adverted to the poor economic / social conditions of the Kandyan peasantry. It said "that the establishment of the plantations had reacted very unfavourably on the peasantry because their land had been acquired from them by various means, which to say the least was very prejudicial to them. The backwardness of the Kandyan areas as compared with their Maritime neighbours was also accentuated by the lack of educational and health facilities.

The result is that today (that is in 1945) the Kandyan peasantry labour under serious social and economic disabilities as compared with their more fortunate low-country population".

Indeed it was these findings in the Soulbury Commission Report of 1945 that had prompted the independent Government of Ceylon to appoint the Kandyan Peasantry Commission in January 1949, barely an year after the grant of Independence.

Prior to his death in 1974, my father Mr. N. E. Weerasooria wrote a four volume history of Sri Lanka entitled "Ceylon and Her People" In volume two, he refers to his work as the Chairman, Kandyan Peasantry Commission. He said:

"My brother Commissioners and I visited almost every village in Kande Udarata and Uva which consisted of 3887 villages. Though customary now with visits of dignitaries, we insisted that there be no garlands, processions and speeches. We also gave no promises and avoided all red tape. We spoke to the villagers and their elders as friends. Our report contains a valuable record of the social and economic conditions of the Kandyan Provinces. How I survived the stress and strain of these two arduous years now passeth my understanding. A karmic force, so to say, appears to have chosen me, the grandson of Kandyan peasant, to make his little contribution towards the rehabilitation of his brothers and sisters".

Here, I am proud to mention that my father took me (then aged 10) and my brothers on his visits to the Kandyan villages and since then I have visited those areas often.

Both Mr. Karaliyadde and the Island editorial on the subject highlighted the fact that there was no permanent lobby groups to fight for the rights of the Kandyan people. "We have no Thomian or Royal Groups" who will come to our rescue said Mr. Karaliyadde. The Island editorial spoke of kingmakers like the late Mr. Thondaman (Senior) who fought for the Estate Tamil people.

In a manner similar to what Mr. Karaliyadde stated in his Article in 2003, the Kandyan Peasantry Commission was also told over fifty years ago in 1951, that the country’s wealth has been diverted to the more "progressive and vociferous areas" and to districts which had "more powerful representatives", while the Kandyan Peasantry had been left landless and poor. The Commission said that it was not necessary for them to pursue truth or otherwise of those allegations but it could not resist the impression that the more vocal areas of the country which had more powerful representation had secured greater social benefits than others. The Commission recommended that the bias should be in the opposite direction and that backward areas be identified for more and greater development.

The Kandyan Peasantry Commission used the terms "more progressive, vociferous and powerful representatives" that had obtained a better deal for the low-country population. Mr. Karaliyadde however, prefers the terms "powerful lobby groups —— like Thomian groups or Royal groups". (I don’t know why he put Thomians before Royalists. Normally, they are behind!).

I am sure that Mr. Karaliyadde knows that my late father was a Royalist and to his last-days he did what he could to improve the lot of the Kandyan peasants. Sri Lanka has had many Kandyans holding high posts since Independence in 1948. To name only a few we have had several Kandyans as Central Bank Governors, Mr. Herbert Tennakoon, Mr. William Tennakoon, Mr. H. B. Dissanayake (who was also a former Government Agent) and currently Mr A. S. Jajawardena, Mr. D. B. Wijetunga long time Parliamentarian, Cabinet Minister, Prime Minister and President is a — Kandyan — Mr. Karaliyadde also a Kandyan, was his Private Secretary and later a Member of Parliament. I can add to this list. The development of Sri Lanka has, in my view, nothing to do with lack of lobby groups whether they be Royalists or Thomians. Products of Dharmaraja and Poramadulla Central and Mahamaya College (to be gender neutral) are equally good. I say this as a Royalist and a Kandyan.

Mr. Karaliyadde’s laments about the plight of the Kandyan peasantry was emotional but understandable. He had relied and quoted historical records and statistics to prove his point. He had also, welcomed the creation by the Prime Minister of the Five Regional Economic Zones, one of which covers the Kandyan areas.

Here one can refer to more updated modern surveys and studies on the subject. These are used by the "Regaining Sri Lanka" strategy for Poverty Reduction. The first is the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) and the second entitled, the Consumer Finance and Socio-Economic Survey (CFSES), by the Central Bank (CB). Both these studies confirm Mr. Karaliyadde’s plea that the Kandyan Provinces have a significantly higher poverty level than the other Provinces. The studies confirm that the highest Incidence of poverty is in the Uva Province. Among the most impoverished of the 26 districts are Moneragala, Ratnapura, Badulla, Kurunegala and Matale - 5 of which are in the Kandyan areas.

These studies also confirm the following. The more urbanized the Province, the lower the poverty level. Poverty in Sri Lanka is a distinctly rural phenomenon. Most poor households are employed in agriculture and they live in remote, isolated areas which lack basic infrastructure facilities such as access roads for communications and electricity for industrial enterprises. The title to the land on which they normally cultivate low - value crops is also uncertain and fragmented thus preventing any credit for finance. (The Swarnabhoomi land title programme was introduced to alleviate this situation).

The Island editorial of 2 August 2003 in Mr. Karaliyadde’s, article referred to Mr. Thondaman (Senior) and the "very effective CWC" which has canvassed the cause of the estate labour and said that there are no similar power groups to spearhead the plight of the Kandyan peasant. I do not think the Kandyan people want the return of a king to "Regain the Kandyan Region" like the plea of the Buddhist monk Degaldoruwe Unnase (quoted in both Mr. Kariliyadde’s article and the Island editorial). Today "kingmakers" exist because of our multicultural Parliament and the proportional representation system and the inability to cohabitate politically. Also, both the Census study and the Central Bank study referred to earlier confirm that "the incidence of human poverty in Sri Lanka is highest in the Estate Sector. In terms of social indicators such as access to safe sanitation, safe drinking water, safe cooking fuel and electricity, the Estate sector is the least developed of all sectors —despite having reasonably stable employment, free housing and basic health facilities. Thus despite power groups much more needs to be done for the Estate (Plantation) sector who constitute a very high foreign exchange earner for our country.

The Kandyan areas that Mr. Karaliyadde outlined in his recent article falls within two of the fire Economic Zones now created by the Prime Minister. I am confident that those in charge of those two Economic Zones - especially the Central Region Economic Ministry - will give some special recognition to the plight of the Kandyan peasantry which has not improved to the extent envisaged by the Kandyan Peasantry Commission over fifty years ago in 1951.