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In 1817, under British colonial rule, Uva Wellassa erupted in full force in open revolt. The Portuguese, the Dutch and the British, had tried at various times to entice the dissenters of Uva Wellassa to support the ousting of the King in Kandy, but had not succeeded, until the foreign Nayakkar rulers showed such complete contempt for the Dasa Raja Dharma and the traditional customs and ‘Sirith Virith’ which were the ground rules of good governance in a Buddhist monarchical system, that the Buddhist monks and the chieftains were roused to call upon the people to remove the Nayakkar rulers with British help. British retribution, after the 1817 revolt was crushed, by British Indian Army troops, was horrific, they redefined what was meant by ‘scorched earth’
The failure of the British to honour the terms of the 1815 Kandyan Convention, by which the Kandyan throne was ceded to the British Crown, led to the 1817 rebellion, which is described in detail in the article reproduced below.
In 2014, Uva Wellassa was once again the harbinger of revolt. A corrupt dynastic family rule was thrown into panic and an ill-judged early presidential election brought forward, mainly triggered by the rebuff the dissenting voters of Uva Wellassa gave them at the Provincial Council election. Combined of course with the alleged self-confessed lying of the Royal Astrologer, who has declared in so many words, ex post facto, that he was unable to foretell what would happen according to planetary positioning truthfully as he was more concerned and worried about the number of teeth he would have had left in his mouth if he bravely ventured to do so!
An unprecedented voter turnout at the presidential election vindicated the path set out by the voters of Uva Wellassa at the Provincial Council election. The UNP was back in force. The anti-dynastic, anti-corruption vote was decisive. Financial support for political parties was available in spades once the people realised that that the all-empowering presidency was up for grabs. Decisive political leadership was the turning point. Pro-dynastic campaigners were seen to be fast losing their enthusiasm as the campaign progressed and the anti-incumbency trend was apparent.
But all this would have been utterly meaningless, if the voters of Uva Wellassa had not, at the Provincial Council election, given the incumbent President the scare they gave him and showed that he could be beaten. A column written just after that provincial election is reproduced so that readers will remember the lessons to be learnt.
Wel Lakshe Wedi Handa
Many moons ago, ‘Wel Lakshe Wedi Handa’ was a very popular Sinhala drama, about a revolution brooding in the Uva Wellassa region of South East Sri Lanka.
At one time in our history, the area which is now be described as Lower Uva, parts of the Badulla, Moneragala, and Hambantota Districts, were depicted as a fertile rice bowl to parallel the Raja Rata (Wel Lakshaya – a hundred thousand paddy fields).
Thousands of cascades of small irrigation tanks in the plains and in the mountainous regions small and medium anicuts were used to divert, store and husband rain fall from the South West and North East monsoons, from seasonal oyas and perennial gangas, nurturing a civilisation which was the granary of the Uva Wel Lakshe and Ruhuna and the Kandyan Kingdom at various times of our history.
Both during the Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kandyan Kingdoms, Uva Wellassa was physically located geographically many miles away from the Capital City where the King reigned. A Yuva Raja or regional satrap was generally appointed for Uva Wellassa. Or in other times a Dissawa from among the courtiers was appointed to go and administer the Dissawaniya. The Uva Wellassa Yuva Raja was the Crown Prince or another junior Royal and the Dissawa was a senior courtier who was trusted by the King.
But following the famous dictum ‘Trust, but verify,’ the Dissawa had to leave his wife and family at the ancestral Walauwa in or around the capital city of Kandy. They were virtual hostages for the good behaviour of the Dissawa, in far off Uva Wellassa, where, far away from the day-to-day micro management of the Palace and its intrigues, the Dissawa, as long as he maintained law and order, collected taxes and remitted them to Kandy, raised a peasant militia when the King needed it for battle, kept anti-Royal elements which would naturally gather in this remote corner of the kingdom under control and report to the Palace any usurper who could be fomenting a revolution, could govern the Dissawaniya virtually as he pleased, as long he had contacts and allies in the Palace at Senkadagala Kande Maha Nuwara who would keep him briefed of any attempt to subvert him in the confidence of the King and the other senior courtiers.
The sad episode of Adigar Ehelepola, whose wife Ehelepola Kumarihami and children were brutally murdered, while living in Kandy, for the alleged traitorous activities of the Adigar, is an example of the risks involved in running afoul of the King and other jealous courtiers.
Uva Wellassa’s independence and free spirit
Due to its remoteness, Uva Wellassa, always nurtured an independence and free spirit which was deeply resented and suspect by the King and the courtiers in Kandy, to whom the people of Uva Wellassa showed no servility. Close links with spice and salt traders, both Muslim and Sinhala from the maritime provinces, controlled by successive European powers, were always the basis of jealous courtiers trying to poison the mind of the King against a Dissawa who was in their jealous estimation getting ‘too independent and uppity’!
In ancient times the borders of Uva Wellassa were said to be from the east Muttettuwegama, the West the Hakgala Kadawatha Mountains, the South Kirindi Oya and the North the Bibile Fort Rubeiro the Portuguese chronicler has written that ‘the kingdom of Uva stretched from the Sri Pada Mountain to Batticaloa to the limits of the Kingdom of Kandy’. At various times the divisions of Udukinda, Madikinda, Yatikinda, Buttala, Wellawaya and even Tissa and Walapane, were taken to mean the Uva Wellassa region.
The fate of Uva Wellassa, blessed with the presence of the jungle shrine of Kataragam Deviyo on the banks of the Menik Ganga, waxed and waned with the history of the Raja Rata, Ruhunu Rata and Kande Uda Rata kingdoms. During times of peace and tranquillity, when just rulers in terms of that golden rule of good governance – “Devo Wassatu Kalena, Raja Bhavatu Dhammiko,” may the rains fall on time and may the Ruler be Just’ – the one hundred thousand paddy fields produced surpluses of rice which were distributed to all parts of the kingdom and even exported from this veritable ‘Granary of the East’ to enable all citizens to enjoy a good quality of life.
Where there was inequity and an unjust ruler, exploiting the people, ferment and rebellion and resistance was naturally kindled in the Uva Wellassa region, far away from the capital city and inhabited by a tough breed of independent-minded men and women. Indeed Wel Lakshe Wedi Handa throughout our history heralded the revolt of the downtrodden and deprived citizenry against unjust rulers.
In some cases the revolts were successful and a new ruler was installed on the throne promising to be rule in a just and fair. Unfortunately, it was not in all cases that the humble people of Uva Wellassa were able to overcome the might of State power, and once the rebellion was suppressed, retribution in the most brutal manner was taken by the ruler and his acolytes, which will make the Saddam Husseins and Qadaffis of today seem like saints by comparison. Such actions only resulted, predictably, in the collective memory of the Uva Wellassa people being strengthened by these inequities and the seeds of the next rebellion being sown. Such are the lessons of history.
1817 revolt
In 1817, once again, the people of Uva Wellassa revolted. They rose against the British for not honouring the clauses in the Kandyan Convention, by which the Chiefs ceded the Kandyan Kingdom to the British conditionally.
Madugalle, the Uda Gabada Nilame, conspired with senior monks to spirit away the symbol of State power, the Scared Tooth Relic, from the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. The British suspected the loyalty of the Chief Adigar Molligoda, he was tried summarily and dismissed from office, and exiled to Colombo under arrest, without being allowed to bid farewell to his family. The Governor ordered his Walauwe to be burnt and his possessions were confiscated and sold. The Kandyans were incensed by this brutality.
William Tolfry, the British Chief Translator in Kandy, warned the Commissioner in Charge of Kandyan Affairs, Sutherland, that there was an impending revolt. Vilbawe, a Malabar relative of the last King, moved to Uva Wellassa from Sat Korale and fomented the revolt. At this time, the British administration did an utterly foolish thing. The Government Agent of the Eastern Province appointed a Malay Muhandiram as Chief of the Madigey Department. This was post held previously by Sinhala officials. A Vedda marksman assassinated the Muhandiram.
Major Wilson with 15 Malay sepoys of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment and a British officer set off to capture the assassins. He had seriously underestimated the hostility to the British. The troops were ambushed, Wilson was killed and decapitated. The British sent in reinforcements – Major Macdonald of the 19th Regiment, Captain Richie of the 73rd Regiment. They advanced into Uva Wellassa and found Major Wilson’s head impaled on a pole, with an Ola leaf wrapped in a white cloth, which was a proclamation by Vilbawe declaring himself King and calling on the people to drive out the British.
Sir John D’Oyly, the Administrator of the Kandyan provinces, dispatched Monarawila Keppetipola Dissawa with arms and ammunition to take on the rebels. A leader of the rebellion Kohukumbure Raterala met Keppetipola and convinced him to join the rebels to drive out the British. Monarawila Keppetipola took 500 men and joined the rebels, but returned the arms and ammunition D’Oyly had given him.
The British, in a panic, summoned reinforcements from Madras – one battalion of European Infantry and another battalion of Sepoys from the Madras Native Infantry. The British put on the pressure. They desolated the Uva Wellassa region – all males between 15 and 60 years were driven out, exiled or killed, houses were burnt, paddy burnt; it is said paddy looted from the traditional storage in bissas and atuwas in village dwellings was burnt for two consecutive weeks on the Badulla esplanade. Livestock were killed, irrigation works destroyed, Wewas breached and anicuts cut. A brutal policy of scorched earth, in every sense of the word.
The British had a stroke of luck – an officer of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment took his men and pretended to cross over to the rebels. They met with Kohukumbure Raterala and captured him. The people of Uva Wellassa were feeling the pressure of the total violence bordering on terrorism they were being subjected to and the scorched earth policy. The British Governor offered lenience to rebels who surrendered. Starvation and deprivation took its toll. The people had no choice but to surrender in the face of this State terror. The Chieftains, Monarawila Keppetipola and Madugalle, were captured, they were court martialled and executed.
The level of destruction
The level of destruction brought about by the British in Uva Wellassa in suppressing the rebellion of 1817-1818 could be judged by the words of Herbert White, a Government Agent in Badulla, in his Journal of Uva: “It is a pity that there is no evidence left behind to show the exact situation in Uva in terms of population or agricultural development after the rebellion. The new rulers are 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 battle they were all fearless and clever fighters. If one considers the remaining population of 4/5 after battle, to be children, women and the aged, the havoc caused is unlimited. In short, people have lost their lives and all other valuable belongings. It is doubtful whether Uva at least now has recovered from the catastrophe.”
Writing in 1844, historian Charles Macfarlane says: “The war was now entirely ended, but dreadful and disgraceful had it been during its process. Execrable cruelties had been practiced, as well as the native troops in our service as by the Singhalese, and we blush to admit that our British-born and our Irish soldiers had, in many cases, turned the contest into a war of retaliation and extermination. The chief fault lay in very high quarters. By general orders our troops were commanded to burn and destroy, and to quench the flame of insurrection in blood. The troops were employed in following the insurgents into their fastness. The dwellings of the inhabitants were burned, and their fruit-bearing trees, their coconut trees, were often cut down and their rice grounds often laid waste by breaking down the immense mounds or embankments constructed to retain water, so essential to the cultivation of this grain. The whole country was scoured in every direction by military parties, who burned and destroyed whatever provisions and other property that they could not carry away.”
In 1821, John Day, a British Army physician, speaking on the British role in the Kandyan Provinces after the rebellion said: “…and we shall have much to answer for, both politically and morally, if we do not exert ourselves, and, availing ourselves of the capacity, ameliorate the condition of the people, and improve the state of the country... If these sanguine sentiments be not realised, the natives may well rue the day we crossed their mountains, and deplore the time when their old system of government was overturned.”
Hambantota’s one-time Government Agent, Leonard Woolf captured the penury in his classic novel ‘Village in the Jungle’ of 1913.
In 1970, after the change of government, many senior civil servants were abruptly sent on transfers to remote outstation postings; including Bradman Weerakoon to Ampara, Neville Jayaweera to Vavuniya and W.J. Fernando to Monergala as Government Agents.
W.J. Fernando was appalled at the condition of the average resident of Monergala and rapidly put together the Lower Uva Development Plan to ameliorate their condition. His basic argument was that the people of Uva Wellassa in general , and Moneragala in particular, Lower Uva in his definition, were in 1970 still suffering the deprivations imposed by the marauding British troops scorched earth policy during the suppression of the 1817 rebellion, so well chronicled years before by White and Macfarlane. Clearly Dr. John Day’s prophecy had come to pass.
In 2014, history repeats itself
Uva Wellassa were, true their history and reputation for revolt, trouble spots in the 1971 and 1989 insurgencies. In 2014, history repeated itself; the first rounds of gunfire of an impending revolt were again heard from Uva Wellassa.
A young politician, Harin Fernando, energised the people of Uva Wellassa, and has given the governing party a fright from which they are still to recover! The headline in a Government newspaper “58% landslide” says it all! Some landslide! Disastrous debacle more likely!
The Opposition had to take on not only the party in Government but the might of the Government of Sri Lanka – State power. Everything was thrown into Uva Wellassa – State machinery, men and materials, even the military, it is reported, did a tattoo!
Election laws were observed more in the breach. Bribery and treating were rampant. The Election Commissioners commendably stopped the distribution of spurious ‘drought relief’ solely in Moneragala, out of all the drought-affected districts; the Judiciary allowed it! (The proverbial bread and circus which has been used to try to win over the public since the time of the Roman Emperors at the Coliseum in ancient Rome!). The Uva provincial election was scheduled as the clincher – the cakewalk, before the presidential election, the walk over which would show the might of the regime.
Lessons of the 2014 Wel Lakshe Wedi Handa
What are the lessons of the 2014 Wel Lakshe Wedi Handa? Analysts have drawn many. The first would be that the United National party is not the ‘write-off’ its detractors would make it out to be. There is a residual vote base which can be effectively mobilised. Second, the anti-incumbency to the present dynastic regime is finally kicked in. Third, any electoral alliance will be meaningless without the leadership of the UNP; other parties were virtual nonstarters in Uva Wellassa. Fourth, economic resources for an election campaign will appear, if the donors have confidence in the team who is contesting.
Fifth, elections are won by an effective political organisation, first; volunteers who are organised, second; and who are effectively led, third! No salaried Government servant can match the enthusiasm of a volunteer-driven political campaign. Political parties must have strong grass root political organisations – salaried State employees, however ‘Samurdhimath,’ ‘Divi Negumaised’ or ‘Chinthanist’ they may be, are not a substitute.
Sixth, party unity at the leadership level is fundamental; pulling in various directions by so called leaders has a negative effect on voters. Seventh, to give preferential votes at elections, the voters choose new faces, the same old candidates, who have been in the scene continuously for umpteen years, cannot attract votes. At least take a sabbatical or otherwise re-invent yourself!
Eight, whatever presidential election offices are declared open at auspicious times, there was a doubt whether it will be a presidential election or a referendum to extend the life of Parliament which will take place next. Ninth, political parties can gain popularity by introducing a new younger generation of leaders to voters at the hustings – witness the impact Harin Fernando (173,993 preference votes) in Uva Wellassa.
Tenth, a political party’s leadership cadres must be seen to be pulling together unitedly during elections. The right hand promoting and the left hand demoting, cut throat-ism, causes confusion among supporters and voters.
The people have spoken. We all know that ‘Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty’. We the current generation of citizens have to honour the sacred rust of preserving the citizen’s liberties and handing them over to the next generation intact. We have to undertake this responsibility.
(The writer is a lawyer, who has over 30 years of experience as a CEO in both State and private sectors. He retired from the office of Secretary, Ministry of Finance and currently is the Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre.)
