‘Two leaves and a bud: History of Malaiyaham as pedagogy’ – A response

I found Prof. Sivamohan Sumathy’s Kuppi Talk column (02 Jan.) very interesting. She says, among other things, “… going far back into our colonial history 200 years ago, in 1823, land was allocated for the first large scale coffee plantation in the hill country. This was followed by the steady migration of Tamil speaking workers from South India who came over as indentured labour to work first in the coffee plantations and then the tea plantations. The trickle of workers in the early years expanded to hundreds of thousands over the decades. The industry boomed and came to define Ceylon as a major producer and exporter of tea. But there is also the history of the worker and the community that needs to be reckoned with.” In this context, I would like to bring to the attention of Sumathy what Sir Hugh Clifford, Governor of Ceylon said when addressing the Second Annual Agricultural Conference, held on 11th March 1927, quoting Emerson Tennent of the employment of South Indian Tamil labour and the pioneer European planter. Here is what is said of the pioneer European planter:

“The first ardent adventurers pioneered the way through pathless woods and lived for months in log huts, whilst felling the forest [mark those words] and making preliminary nurseries, preparatory to planting; but within a few years the tracks by which they came were converted into highways, and their cabins replaced by bungalows, which though rough were picturesque ….’ Today, these highways have been widened, carpeted

and at taxpayers’ expense to meet the present demands, not to speak of some politicians enriching themselves. The bungalows at picturesque sites have today become tourist resorts.

As for engaging South Indian workers he said: ‘… though the Sinhalese of the last century, displayed an unconquerable repugnance to undertake work upon the European estates – disliking the wage-labour on its own account, but detesting even more the cold and the wet amid which that work had to be carried on up yonder on the mountain heights and slopes,  which Europeans had converted from forest into coffee garden.

That the Ceylon estates enjoy a perennial supply of voluntary immigrant labour is one of the happy accidents which have contributed to the welfare of this fortunate Isle; but if the districts of the Madras Presidency from which that supply is drawn, were as fertile as is that of the most thickly populated parts of Ceylon, the estate owners might whistle in vain for Tamil labourers to flock to their assistance, and their principal agricultural industries would quickly languish, for the place of these workers on the upland tea-estates at least, could never be taken by the people of the Island. The repugnance to work upon the upland estates to which Emmerson Tennent bore testimony in 1857, is I believe, as unconquerable today as it was seventy years ago.”

Apart from the fertility of land in Madras Presidency, which Sir Hugh Clifford mentions, the appalling living conditions without any sanitary facilities and cramped up hovels they lived in was another factor for them to rush to undertake work on estates in this island, as the facilities provided by the European planters were luxurious when compared to what they endured in their homeland – Line rooms provided with toilets, water on tap and other  benefits. The estates had schools to teach Tamil to children, a dispensary with a Dispenser and a midwife to attend to minor ailments and assist in     childbirth. There was a creche for children and meals provided while the parents were at work.

The Colonial rulers were careful to prevent the immigrant workers from mixing with the indigenous population and they were repatriated after their term of service and even provided a railway service to Danuskodi. Today, the younger generation of estate Indian Tamils are leaving the estates and seeking employment in cities and towns. We see young Tamil girls working in Supermarkets, shops and even as helpers in homes while some young men drive trishaws.

Sumathy mentions education and here is what Sir Hugh Clifford, said at this conference on education in general, which includes estate schools as well: ‘Yet, as an illustration of the fact that the wealth which the colony  derived from the establishment and maintenance of this important industry was largely spent for the benefit of the indigenous population of the country, it is at once interesting and instructive to note that, whereas in 1866 there were only 874 schools in existence in Ceylon harbouring no more than 25,147  scholars, by the year 1876 – the year preceding the culmination of coffee-bred prosperity – the number of schools had risen to 1,725 and that of the scholars to 73,789. During the decade, therefore, the number of schools had more than doubled, and that of the scholars had nearly trebled. Still more impressive is the fact that decade later – in 1886, the year during which financial stringency was at its worst – though public expenditure had been cut down ruthlessly in a variety of directions, yet still without attaining financial equilibrium – the expenditure upon education [the service most vitally necessary to the rising generation of Ceylonese] had almost alone escaped the axe of retrenchment, and in that year the schools numbered 3,460 and the scholars 112,652. This, during to worst decade of increasing financial depression that Ceylon had so far known the British Colonial Government had, nonetheless, succeeded in once again doubling the number of schools available in Ceylonese students, and had rendered education available to nearly 40,000 more of the latter than that had been the case at the beginning of the period.”

The above excerpts of Sir Hugh Clifford’s speech show how dedicated, devoted the colonial rulers were to developing this country for the benefit of its inhabitants unlike our present-day local rulers who acquire wealth and power at the expense of taxpayers.

G. A. D. Sirimal

BORALESGAMUWA