Advantages and Disadvantages of Colonial Economy in Sri Lanka

Introduction

Colonial Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon. Sri Lanka was colonized by Portuguese (1505), Dutch (1638) and British (1796) because of its Natural and Geographical Lactation and climate and soil were well suited to the plantation.[1] From the 16^th century, some coastal areas of the country were ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and British. After 1815 the entire nation was ruled by the British colonialists until political independence was granted in 1948. (History of Sri Lanks Towards Independence, 2008)As colony economic, Sri Lanka was more affected by British colonialists than Portuguese and Dutch.[2] Most of the actions that taken by colonialists in the colonial period to Sri Lanka such as introduced plantation agriculture built railroads, reformed administration, changed the educational system, etc. affected to the country as favorable and unfavorable.

Plantation Agriculture

The British began experimenting with plantation agriculture in the 1830s. Under that, different crops such as Coffee, Cinchona, Tea, rubber was introduced into the highland time to time and was initially a tremendous success that revolutionized the Sri Lanka economy, which was hitherto based upon subsistence agriculture. Although, previously permission was granted for farming of royal land, Under the British crown were sold to private owners. Hence, land tenure also was changed. When introducing tea crops, Tamil people were brought from south India in large numbers because the cost of Sri Lankan Tamil peoples was high and there were not enough laborers in Sri Lanka. It was a reason to best tea was grown. (Watkins)

Advantages

·         Generated the new source of income by exporting plantation product.

·         Increased the foreign direct investment inflows to Sri Lanka by foreign investors invested their money in the plantation industry. (Bandarage, 1950) (Appendix A)

·         Expanded The opportunities for trading Sri Lankan products in different foreign countries. Especially Ceylon tea had become a staple of the British market bringing great wealth to a small number of white tea planters. Crops such as tea, rubber, etc. Still, bring wealth to Sri Lanka today. (History of Sri Lanks Towards Independence, 2008)

·         A network Of roads and railroads were built in the country to the success of the plantation. It is still useful for the convenience of transportation and traveling. (Appendix B)

·         Plantation agriculture continuously contribute to a considerable part of Sri Lanka Gross Domestic Production, because of increased additional export earning sources. (Appendix C)

Disadvantages

·         The the government sold lands at a prevailing minimum upset price which was 5 shilling an Acre until 1844 and 20 shillings after that. A large proportion of land in the Island bough from the crown and resold to other parties at a huge profit margin. Most of the foreign peoples who are owners of these land still earn huge profits from this land. (Appendix A)

·         Most Sri Lankan people had disentitled their lands which did not have documentary evidence and clear many cutting forests for Plantation.

·         The Domestic production of rice fell short of the domestic demand, and rice had to be imported. (Bandarage, 1950) (Appendix D & E)

·         Because of rice was produced primarily to the domestic market, most of the people who engaged in rice cultivation lost their source of income due to reducing cultivation. (Watkins)

System of government

The colonialists brought the new and alien system of government. It had changed each governor such as Cole brook-Cameroon, Soul bury, etc. in different periods,

Advantages

·         Well-structured system of government and new laws and regulation system which suitable with modern society was introduced to the country.

·         Peoples life was more complaisant by obeying to these laws.

·         Eliminated the ruthless punishments such as beheading, impale, etc. that used by kings

Disadvantages

·         Under this the system, compulsory labor (Rajakari Kramaya) inherited from the pre-colonial The governing system in Sri Lanka was abolished and introduced different taxes on a commodity such as Capitation, cinnamon, fish, etc. Those taxes made many difficulties in native people’s life. (Cameron)

·         This system Of government is alien to the natives. Hence people had to face more punishments by violating those rules.

·         Some control Had been used to fill full their needs, such as to stop conflicts that done by people against them. Thus, some practices were unfair to native people of Sri Lanka.

·         Colonialism caused the death of a lot of indigenous leaders and other peoples who against colonialists to the Independence of Sri Lanka. (The British In Sri Lanka)

Education

They introduced a new education system to Sri Lanka. But their syllabus was taught only in English language and mainly before expanding their Christian religion and their habits among the student. And parent had to pay more money for their children’s’ education.

Advantages

·         Peoples were able to learn modern education methods and increase English knowledge and it helped peoples to spend a better life.

·         Opened doors to deal with the entire world and get opportunities to higher education in other countries as well as earn money by working in other foreign countries.

·         The Knowledge of the English language was more comfortable to communicate with each ethnic groups in the country. (Sri Lanka Traditional and Colonial Systems, 2004)

Disadvantages

·         British admitted Sri Lankans, both Sinhalese, and Tamil, into the lower ranks of the the administration created after being educated in the British school.

·         Most students who were in poor families were unable to get an education, and they lost better job opportunities. (Sri Lanka Traditional and Colonial Systems, 2004)

Modernization and Technology advancement

In this period, Colonialists introduced new advanced technology to development in transportation, modern education, the building of railroads, health care, and medical services, exploration of natural resources[3] and different industries. They brought modernization to underdevelopment area on the island. (The British In Sri Lanka)

Advantages

·         Increased effectiveness and efficiency of this area that was introduced advance technology.

·         Building transportation infrastructures, it was saved peoples’ time which travels to another area in the country and developed trade on the island.

·         Developed the indigenous industries and peoples got different job opportunities from these industries and also they were able to acquire knowledge and learned new skills about those industries.

Disadvantages

·         Some indigenous method of that industrial area had wiped out.

·         Colonialists earned more money by using our valuable resource and we lost those opportunities and destroyed the natural forests and other natural resources in the island. (Ghosh, 2016)

·         Simplicity and cultural values of the people life.

·         Lost peoples’ job who was unable to adapt to new technology advancement.

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[1] Economic and Expansion Religion was the main Purposes of Portuguese to arrive at Sri Lanka. The Dutch period, they're main purposes were gaining a monopoly on trade, introducing Roman-Dutch Law and Explanation of their religion on the island. However, British entities have anticipated acquiring the power of economic and political in the entire country

[2]. The British attempted to reform the administration of the island by introducing their methods to reduce the ethnic tensions between the Tamils and the Sinhalese as well as the lowland Sinhalese and the highland Kandyan Sinhalese

[3] The use of new technology made exploration of natural resources such as gems, mining, Porcelain etc. easier and more efficient. And they had a good market for those natural resources especial in the European market.

Appendix

Appendix (A).

Crown Land Surveyed and Sold: Central Province, 1844-1860

	Number of lots	Extent (Acres)	Sold £	Fees £
European	750	79,172	116,293	13,648
Natives	1,514	10,471	25,796	3,702

(Bandarage, 1950)

Ownership of Cultivated Plantation Coffee Lands

	1871-1872		1880-1881
	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent
Total	195,627	100	256,500	100
Non-European	12,642	6.4	20,352	7.9
European	182,985	93.6	236,148	92.1

(Bandarage, 1950)

Appendix (B)

Sri Lanka Railway Map

(Sri lanka Railway Map, 2011)

Appendix (C)

Tea and Rubber Contribution to GDP (National output, Expenditure, and Income, Annual Report)

Crop	Contribution to GNP (Rs. Million)	As a % of GDP
Tea	83,321	0.7
Rubber	10,643	0.3

(Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2016)

Appendix (D)

Government Revenue from Grain Tax

Tax on Home Grown paddy	1823	1876
	£ 36,716	£ 106,325

(Bandarage, 1950)

Appendix (E)

Rice Imports to Ceylon,1837-1872

           

Period	Amount (Cwts.)	Value £’000
1837-1839	798	167
1840-1849	1689	296
1850-1859	2728	323
1860-1862	4197	1186
1870-1872	4794	1558

            (Bandarage, 1950)

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