Dr. Sudath Gunasekara

22.8.2017.

There is much talk in the press these days about holding a series of Celebratory activities and events to commemorate 150 years of tea production in Sri Lanka. It is also reported that action is underway to organize several events by the Authorities to commemorate 150 years of tea production in Sri Lanka.  A Global Tea Party, an International Tea Convention and a charity auction are among the highlights planned throughout the year to mark this event according to Ground View reports. They are organized by The Ceylon Tea Traders Association, Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Tourist Board and tea companies.

Should Sri Lanka celebrate or moan tea cultivation?

Should Sri Lanka celebrate or moan tea production in Sri Lanka is my question? When you go through the list of destructions and devastative effects left behind by this colonial legacy, in my opinion it is definitely the latter and not the former, we should do as a nation. Celebrations are usually held to mark memorable achievements or a happy occasion. A birthday you celebrate but a death you moan. Celebrating something that has brought disaster and destruction to one’s country or a nation makes is ridiculous. When you look at the devastation and the damage the tea cultivation and connected activities have done to this country within the past 150 years since its introduction, no sensible person will ever imagine celebrating the story of Tea industry in this country. I my opinion it is like someone celebrating the death of his own mother. In this instance they are celebrating the loss of their own bellowed Motherland. How crazy and stupid are they.

Quite contrary to the popularly accepted notion that tea has done enormous good to the development of this country it is high time that at least after 70 years of Independence now we critically examine as to what tea cultivation has actually done to this Island nation. Therefore I suggest that someone undertake a proper assessment of the overall impact tea cultivation has had on the physical, economic, political, social, cultural and technological fields and look for measures to redeem the country from the dire depths to which it has pushed this 2600 year old civilization within a span of 150 years.

In this regard I would like to first focus my readers attention to the enormous physical devastation it had brought about on this country.

Physical

In the first place British took over 1.3 million acres of our land by force through colonial invasion and exploitation under various  aggressive devices like the Crown Land Encroachment Ordinance no 12 of 1840, Temple Land Ordinance of 1853 and Wasteland Ordinance of 1897, belonging to the Kandyan peasants and religious institutions like  Buddhist Temples and Devalas. This included the major virgin Forest Reserves (Thanachikele) at the centre of the country declared by Royal decree by the Sinhala Kings as strictly forbidden forest. Out of this over 600,000 acres on the central watersheds were first converted to Coffee and to Tea after 1860. This comprised one of the richest and untouched primordial forest covers in the world with a rich bio diversity not found anywhere else that protected the Central Hill country of this Island nation that provided the mother source for all the rivers in the Island. The entire forest cover, with very few patches here and there, were removed by the vandal invaders to provide for coffee and tea plantations to enrich their Empire and satisfy their greed, depriving a nation’s most valuable natures heritage for the posterity.

The removal of the forest cover also has converted all our torrential and perennial rivers in to trickling rivulets in their upper reaches and sand  silted  river beds leading to menacing flood in the downstream lowlands It has also destroyed the underground water deposits on the high lands that formed the biggest natural ’reservoir’ right at the centre of this Island and drastically affected agriculture all over the country, the very foundation of the economy of this nation by drying up the Dry Zone tanks and causing menacing floods in the Wet Zone. It has also disturbed the climatic conditions due to loss of the montane forest cover and also drastically affected river transportation in the downstream areas making them un-navigable as the Kelani valley Report has pointed out

The nation’s major watershed, that provided the source for all rivers in Sri Lanka that sustained the entire life system and the civilization in this country was thus destroyed and all rivers were left dry in their upper reaches with debris filled river beds in the downstream areas causing heavy floods and playing havocs during rainy seasons.

The destruction of the natural forest cover led to eroding down millions of tons of fertile soil in to the ocean converting the central hills once covered with dense natural forests to an eroded, degraded, unfertile and almost barren land. This situation required heavy use of chemical fertilizer, insecticides and pesticide’s to keep the tea plantation going. The enormous toxic matter annually washed down the rivers from these vast stretches of plantations and extensive vegetable cultivations has polluted all rivers in the country killing valuable aquatic life and particularly filling the Dry Zone Tanks with toxic matter where water gets stored still. The resulting toxic deposits have been the main reason behind the widespread kidney disease which might turn the entire Dry Zone completely unsuitable for human habitation in future. This will have more serious and lasting impact on re-depopulation of the Dry Zone than the conventional malaria and early medieval south Indian Invasions had on its pristine civilization.

Secondly,

Now I would like to briefly touch upon the impact it exerted on economic, political, social, cultural and technological fields.

1Sinhalese as a people have lost their traditional Home land on the hills first to the British and now it is on its way to losing to South Indian estate Tamil labour

2 They were chased out from their historic settlements that resulted in mass exodus in the 19^th century. Those few who survived got caged in to narrow valley bottoms below were reduced to abject poverty were gazing at the rapidly sprawling white man’s Tea Empire all over the hills once belonged to them above their isolated valley bottom settlements then and today they are witnessing the handing over these lands by the government elected by them to Indian migrant Estate labour who will own these lands in future, thus dispossessing the sons of their 2600 year old heritage.

3 In the 1818 and 1848 revolts staged by them against the invaders the natives were massacred in thousands, their ripe paddy fields burned, cattle were slaughtered and home gardens, food and fruit trees were destroyed, all irrigation works were destroyed, native institutions like the village councils they themselves later described as the Magna Carta (Village Council system) of the East and those escaped the gun were made to starve and die.

4 All men over 16 years were killed. As Senali Waduge has once wrote ” The British order issued – ‘Kill every man, woman and child including the babes suckling at their mother’s breast. Destroy all dwelling houses. Burn all crops. Cut down all fruit trees. Slaughter all cattle; take what meat is necessary to feed the troops and burn the rest. Destroy all reservoirs, canals and channels. Poison the wells. Lay waste utterly the countryside denying any relief whatsoever to the rebels.’ Major Callabine – 19th regiment, raped women in the villages and left many children before leaving the country. All temples in Uva Wellassa were ransacked; palm leaves where sacred Doctrine, Ayurveda and literature was written were destroyed”.

5 Their irrigation works were all destroyed and paddy fields were left to fallow and some were cultivated with tea and coffee (Eg large stretches of paddy field under Mana Amuna in Uma Oya basin LB)”

6 Remaining paddy fields were heavily taxed leading to confiscation in default

7 Plantation areas were made out of bound for the native Sinhalese

8 All profits were repatriated to British coffers and all riches were mined and taken home

9 Tamil labour also repatriated all their savings to South India

10 The technology introduced by the British for the plantation agriculture on the hills of Sri Lanka was alien and new to the local environment. Unlike the Indigenous system it did not treat resource management in the entire watershed as an integrated and holistic exercise. It is primarily exploitation oriented rather that conservation and sustainability in agriculture. Its objectives were short term profit. Environmentally and ecologically it was unfriendly and devastative and compared with the age old native system the life span of tea cultivation is very much shorter. It is interesting to note here what John Still (1930) a planter and an antiquarian has predicted in this regard ‘the commercial agricultural system would slide back in to forest quicker than the ancient tank agricultural system on the land. (The Hills of Paradise 2001 Breckenridge)

11 Thus overall it was the British planters, Britain and Indian coolies who benefitted from the tea Industry and its riches, and not the native Sinhalese – the sons of the soil.

12The tea cultivation converted the entire central hill country to an enclave of White men and Indian labourers – the future Home land of South Indian Tamils

13. The British left behind over 1 million Indians coolies whom they brought as indentured coolies when they left the colony in 1948 and leaving behind an ugly political, economic, social and cultural burden and a colonial legacy paving the way for a future Tamilnadu within Sri Lanka, right at the center of the Motherland of the Sinhala nation. Thereby they deprived the Sinhalese, more particularly the Kandyan Sinhalese who fought against the invaders for 500 years from 1505 to defend and protect their Sinhala Buddhist civilization and that was their Motherland land for 2500 years.

This is only a glimpse of what destructions and devastations British have done to this country and particularly to the core of the Kandyan Kingdom and a wee bit of the sad legacies the British colonial invaders and tea cultivation have left behind.

What should we do now?

It is in this backdrop,

I propose that

First, we should organize a massive nationwide mourning and condemnation programme against the Tea Industry instead of the proposed mad celebrations

Second, that the patriotic forces jointly organize a countrywide awareness programme against the crimes the British have committed against this Island nation and its people, from 1797 -1948 an also which they continue to do up to date.

Third, immediately start a struggle to get beck the land the natives have lost during colonial rule

Fourth, file a case in the international courts against the Government and people of the United Kingdom claiming compensation for all the crimes And conspiracies they have committed against us including ,

1. The land and its resources
2. The divide and rule colonial policy they have left behind to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist Civilization in this country starting from 1832 with the setting up of Provinces) inclusive of what they continue to do even now
3. C) Demanding them to repatriate all our archaeological and literary treasure they have plundered and now keeping in their museums and other places.
4. d) Demand them to take back all Indians they have left behind when they left the shores of this country in 1948. In fact the British should have taken their slaves they brought from India as well when they left the shores of this country and handed over vacant possession to the native Sinhalese from whom they took it over in 1815 March 2nd .

These labourers were then British citizens as India was also a part of the British Empire. The temporary occupier is legally bound to take back his servants as well when he leaves).They were not recognized as Ceylon Citizens in 1948.That is why they were called stateless people. In fact they always behaved and thought as Indian citizens. Only their bodies were here but the minds have been always there beyond the shores. They earn their living here but deposited all what they earned back in India which they always considered their motherland. The same situation continues even today. To that extent all estate Tamils are Indian citizens or people of Indian origin who owes allegiance to India as their motherland, though they have been illegally given Sri Lankan citizenship by our unpatriotic politicians to get their vote and cared and looked after by Sri Lanka government at its own expense.

Fifth, Demand both the British and Indian Governments to immediately stop interfering with the internal affairs of this country at least now as we are a fully pledged free and independent Nation ceased to be a colony of theirs long time ago.

Sixth, Demand them to apologize for all crimes they have committed against our country and its people

Seventh, immediately declare all land over 5000 ft as strict forest reserves and restore the physical stability of the nation’s watersheds lest this green paradise Island become semi arid country for lack of perennial water.

Finally

Since Sri Lanka is the only country in the whole world where you get politicians who betray its own native people and commit treachery against them and give preferential treatment to immigrant minorities for political expediency,

I am posing the following question to all those who were supposed to have governed this country from 1948 onwards to date,

1 Have our politicians ever asked the British to hand over a land free from all encumbrances and shackles like the Indian estate labour force,

2 Have you ever asked the British to allow us to make our own Constitution like India

3 Have you ever asked the British for compensation for the enormous damages they have done to this country, particularly to the hill country

4 What have they done to alleviate the problems of the sons of the soils who protected the Motherland from the invaders since 1948

5 Have you restored an inch of their motherland nearing 1.3 million acres they lost to the British?

6 What have you done to implement the recommendations of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission Report of 1951 other than treating the Kandyans as a pack of jack asses since they don’t revolt against the impotence of the Government and the discrimination openly committed against the natives, even worse than what the British had done.

7 What have you done to free the Motherland taken over by the British in 1840, 1853 and 1897 using draconian laws back to  the Sinhala people and Buddhist temples and return them to their original owners.

8 Does any one of you is even aware of the existing crisis the Sinhala people, particularly the  Kandyan are facing, most likely complete extinction within the next 50 years the way the demographic changes are taking place, both in numbers and ethnic polarizations all over the country

9 Have you ever seen at least in your dreams the appalling denial of human rights & land rights of the Kandyan peasantry on whose lands the tea was forcibly grown.

10 Isn’t it is time all those whose lands were forcibly taken away had their grievances addressed first and justice meted out before you run after Tamil labourers for their vote.

The stark truth is NO

In this backdrop is it the British imperialist alone who have to be blamed for all these problems faced by this country and the plethora of unsolved sad legacies left behind for us by the British.

In this scenario I am not against writing by anyone on the Indian estate labour or addressing their human problems like the opinion expressed in ‘From Tamil Nadu to Badulla: A Century in the Tea Estates of Sri Lanka” What I am grieved is against the lethargy, Treachery, inactiveness, and un-patriotism of our own self- centered politicians. My grievance is why don’t we have a single politician or any social leader, ecclesiastic or lay, now, as we had in 1940s, to shed a tear for the millions of Kandyan Peasants who once owned and occupied these lands as their motherland.

Conclusion

All tea estates are now running at a loss. 76 % of production (Ceylon Business) is reported from the small holder sector where as it constitutes a small percentage of the total acreage under tea in the country. Isn’t this a pathetic situation? Why should we maintain such a large extent of large tea acreage with State subsidies right at the center of the hill country which has done so much damage to the nation an continues to do the same. Most of the plantations are marginal and unproductive and the whole tea industry today has become a national curse and a huge white elephant. Are we not maintaining an unpatriotic, parasitic and hostile Indian population from a Sri Lankan point of view, whose total allegiance is to India?  The Estate sector is running with Treasury money. Its management and even the salaries of labourers are paid by the State. That simply means we are maintaining 1.2 m Indian Estate labour force whose hearts and souls are in India and only the bodies are here at Government expense. Furthermore it is also revealed that most of the tea estates are presently owned by foreign interests.

In short first the colonial British administration forcibly robbed more than 1.3 million acres of our motherland for tea cultivation and deprived and fully destroyed the nation, its geographical ‘Heartland’ that remained a national heritage for thousands of years along with all its forests, animals and birds that made it their home was destroyed, resulting in the destruction of one of the richest biodiversity reserves in the world. British left behind a legacy of deforested, eroded, degraded, unfertile land a British hatched long term plan to hand it over to the  Indian Tamil labour they brought here in the latter part of the 19^th century as slaves to work on British plantations and create an Indian sub province within this country just to destabilize and ruin this Island Nation that was once the envy of the whole world . The present government has already made final plans to complete what was started by the British, before 2025. Their programe of giving estate lands to Tamil labour and the Ten Year Upcountry Tamil Village and Infra Structure Development Plan and the special Ministry and the Authority set up for that are conclusive proof of their intentions and traitorous plans.

Above all Tea plantation has planted a deadly political time bomb right in the The Heartland” of this Island Nation thus threatening the future independence and political stability of this Nation State that had remained the only Sinhala Buddhist nation for the past 2600 years. This is the stark reality and the saddest legacy British Colonialism and Tea cultivation has left behind to us.

As for me I am deeply grieved that there is no one to save this country from this virtual nemesis.

So I ask ‘Celebration or moaning’?  Over to you all patriots?.