THE BRITISH "INDIAN EMPIRE" IN THE ASIAN CONTINENT

             THE BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE IN THE ASIAN CONTINENT

                                    (LARGEST EMPIRE IN ASIA)
                                         BY  DR. DHARMADASA TENNAKOON

1. PREAMBLE

India is a sub-continent situated adjacent to Sri Lanka in the north in northern hemisphere.   It extends from southern sea shore of Tamil Nadu to north parts of Pakistan and Kashmir, and from western boundary of Myanmar to the west to the eastern boundaries of Iran and Afghanistan.  This vast geographical area, in the ancient times, was named by Middle Asian and Central Europeans as “India”.  There was no country/state/sovereign in name of “India”, until British Empire established an Indian Government under their rule, annexing many states/Countries/Sovereigns in to one administration which is called “THE BRITISH INDIAN EMPIRE”.  

           The East India Company and the British Government annexed a number of sovereign states in Indian sub-continent by military force, or by agreements, or by paying compensations and accepting power of local authorities and kings, and Sultans.   In 1958, the British parliament enacted the first “statute” for administration of India    by “Government of India Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vict., c. 106).  They ruled the country in accordance of that law, using a system of “unitary” and rigidly centralized.  The British Administration found the difficulties of governance as they had united many individual sovereigns, which had different main languages, different systems of worship, and different ethnical status.   The central administration was supervised by the Secretary of State, and governed by Governor General appointed by the British Government, and an Executive Council was established to assist the Governor General.  The Indian Territory was divided in to “Provinces” synchronizing to the states/sovereign they annexed, and established “provincial Governments” under the appointed ‘Governor, and his appointed council, and they acted subject to the advices and supervision of the Governor General of India.

Another political reform introduced in 1861, “Indian Council Act, 1861, which introduced to appoint non-official members to the Governor General’s Executive Council function as Legislative Council, but they were appointed, not elected members.   After 30 years, the British Government made another reform in 1892, called “Indian Council Act, 1892, which made further improvements in appointing non-official members to the Indian legislative Council and ‘provincial legislative Councils.   The first attempt at introducing representative element was introduced by the “Morely-Minto” reforms and the ‘Indian Council Act, 1909.  Afeter few years by the act of Government of India Act 1915, 95 & 6 Geo. V., c 61), all Acts and provisions were consolidated in one Act.  The most important act was The Government of India Act 1919, based on the Montagu-Chelmsford report.  This act made eminent landmark in constitutional development of India.  This act has put steps towards establishing federal system of India, and it divided the subjects of provincial and central government, and increased the number of members in both provincial and central government Legislative Councils.

   The Indian National Congress established in 1885, has launched  a continuous claim for ‘swaraj” state, it made influence on the British Government to proceed gradually.  Mahathma Gandhi had realized that the British made  “British Indian Empire” necessary to continue at the end of getting “swaraj” state.  The Simon Commission headed by Sir John Simon was appointed by the by the British Government in 1929, and report was released in 1930, which indicated that the dominion status was the goal of Indian political development.  This lead to pass the Government of India Act, 1935.  This act strengthened the performance of legislative, executive and judicial power at Central government and Provincial Government level.  The Indian Independence Act of 1947 was passed to grant the independence to India, and by this act the Federal System was strengthened as it was established in 1935 by the British Government.  This process of constitutional and legal reforms since 1850s to 1950 had created massive knowledge of philosophy of making constitutions by the British Scholars, and Dr. Durga Basu has pointed out this pattern of development helped India to establish and pass its independent Indian constitution in 1950.

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THE VANNI REGIONS AND LIVES OF INHABITANTS.

The Vanni region completely falls with in the "Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, and their main livelihood was agriculture, and animal husbandry, and some people earned earned (only few people) some money collecting, bee Honey, medicinal herbal plants, fire wood, and by hunting.  In 18th, and early 19th centuries, the people from other areas used to intruduce these people as "Gam Veddas" (village wildmen").  They lived at subsistence level, every thing what they want to live produced themselves.  Das Guptha's report in 1940-45, has identified the levels of their poverty, as meager subsistence.  It was estimated more than one half of Singhala, Muslim, and Tamil original inhabitants were poor, and from May to October is the most criticalmonths  in a year that these people confront with want of fod and water.  Due to prolonged drought all rivulets and small ruined irrigation tanks run dried for few months.   These areas were controlled by King Shri Wickrama Rajasinghe, until British aquired upcountry regions by a treaty with the King's ex. Nilames (Dissawes) agreement.  British considered Vanni area as 'Udarata" /upcountry, and they have had allocated special funds for poor relief programmes in these areas.

In the light of knowledge left by Portuguese,  Dutch, and British writers and administrative reports the “Eastern Province” in which area “vanni” inhabitants were lived in 17^th, 1nd 18^th centuries in the dispersed areas of the vanni region, particularly in north of the Deduru Oya, covering Noth central province, North part of North-western province, Southern parts of Northern provinve, eastern province and Moneragala District, and they were lived largely dispersed and isolated traditional hamlet settlements.  The population was very thin, and isolated from developed settlement areas.  According to writings of foreign administrators and visitors, the eastern province is geographically very peculiar ambients and dissimilar with other provinces of Sri Lanka, and can be considered as “distinctive province”.  Even today, Tamil, Muslim and Singhala communities live in purana traditional villages with strong ambitions, and they respect to cultures and religions of each other.   It is the responsibility of our policy makers to help them to live with their regional entity and identity and cultural harmony.

I believe that the people in the “Eastern province should have their desire to involve in decision making in the eastern province.  The government need to invest sufficient funds to in eastern province for industrial and agriculture development, as it is the only way to develop ethnical cooperation and harmony, and trust of each other.

THE DRAFT OF A CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENT MADE BY A TEAM HEADED BY PRO. G.L. PEIRIS WAS ABABDONED BY THE MAJORITY OF PMS IN THE PARLIAMENT IN 2000.  THIS DRAFT CONSTITUTION HAD PROPOSED TO ESTABLISHE “STATES OR REGIONS” IN SRI LANKA GIVING MORE PWERS TO ‘States”  UNDER A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM. SRI LANKA FREEDOM PARTY AND LANKA SAMASAMAJA PAKSHAYA WAS IN STRONG STAND FOR INTRODUCING FEDERAL SYSTEM.   FOR ALL THESE REFORMS STRONG GUIDANCE WERE GIVEN BY MOST SENIOR MINISTERS OF THEN GOVERNMENT AND THE PRESIDENT CHANDRIKA BANDARANAYAKE.