Ceylonese Mudaliyars

Mudali (or Mudaliyar) was a colonial title and office in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The Portuguese colonials created the Mudaliyar class in the 17th century by enlisting natives of different castes form the coastal areas, who were most likely to serve the Portuguese masters with utmost loyalty. The Dutch continued the practice of the Portuguese. This class used the Mudali as a hereditary title; however, the British re-established a Mudaliyar class, with appointments that had the title of Mudali, this process was stopped in the 1930s when the Native Department of the British government of Ceylon was closed down. All Official and Titular appointments of Mudaliyars were made by the Governor of Ceylon. Appointments were non-transferable and usually hereditary, made to locals from wealthy influential families loyal the British Crown.

History

Mudaliyar is a South Indian and Tamil name for ‘first’ and a person endowed with wealth. The position was created in the 17th century by the Portuguese to function as a link between the colonial administration and the local populace, as they had done in South India. Incumbents received payment in form of land grants and use of tenured service (Rajakariya) of the local population which they extracted for their own estates.[1]

The 4th Maha Mudaliyar, Christofel de Saram (assumed name Wanigasekera Ekanayake), and his son Johannes Hendrick. Johannes was one of two de Sarams sent to England for education at the expense of the British government. On 15 March 1811, he sailed to England as a 14-year-old boy with the retiring Governor Sir Thomas Maitland.

The De Saram Family

A De Saram family of Dutch and Malay ancestry had Sinhalised itself in the late 18th century by posing as the representatives of the masses and subsequently convincing the British rulers that they were from the numerous Govigama caste. This was a strategic move as it gave the British masters the impression that the De Saram family had the backing of a large body of natives. It was also the easiest route to Sinhalisation as the peasant community was widely dispersed, still unstructured and without inter-community networks or leaders.

The first notable ancestor of the De Saram family was an interpreter who accompanied the Dutch Embassy to Kandy 1731–1732. Despite his advanced age of 71 years, this early De Saram had to make the entire journey by foot as his social status did not warrant travel in a palanquin.[2] From there, the De Saram family progressively gained power and position by loyalty, switching religions from Dutch Protestantism to British Anglicanism and benefitting from the preference of British rulers to appoint individuals of unknown ancestry to high positions. By respectively collaborating with the Dutch and British rulers, the De Sarams succeeded in marginalizing the traditional ruling class.

Mudaliyar Don Spater Senanayake, son of Don Bartholomew who assumed the name Senanayake, with son-in-law F. H. Dias-Bandaranaike, sons Don Stephen Senanayake, Don Charles and Fredrick Richard, daughter Maria Frances and wife Dona Catherina Elizabeth Perera. They were Anglican Christians.

Governors Maitland (1805–1811), Gordon (1883–1890) and others effectively used divide and rule policies and created caste animosity among the native elite and finally confined all Native Headmen appointments to the Govigama caste in 1897. A leading newspaper of the day, The Examiner, stated in a letter on 30 March 1870 that the Muhandiram of Siyana Korale West was low in ability but was appointed purely for rendering domestic service to Mrs. Layard, the British Government Agent’s wife, for eight years, getting good meat for her from the public market.[3]

The De Saram family eventually had a strong and exclusive network of relatives as Mudaliyars by the late 19th century. Later, through marriage alliances the network extended to the Obeyesekere, Dias-Bandaranaike, Ilangakoon, de Alwis, de Livera, Pieris, Siriwardena and Senanayake families. This Anglican Christian, so called “Govigama”, network expanded further with the preponderance of native headmen appointments by the British as Mudaliyars, Korales and Vidanes from the Buddhist Govigama section of the community.

The Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy Family

As much as the De Sarams family was responsible for the rise of the Govigama caste, the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy Family was responsible for the 20th century, rise of the Tamil Vellalar caste. The ascendance of the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy family commences with a Coomaraswamy (1783–1836) from Point Pedro joining the seminary that Governor North started for producing interpreters. Coomaraswamy passed out and served as an interpreter from 1805.

He was appointed by the Governor to a Mudaliyar position at the age of 26 and became the Jaffna Tamil with the highest government appointment. He played a critical role as the Tamil-English interpreter when the Kandyan king Sri Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy was captured in 1815. He was rewarded by Governor Brownrigg in 1819 for loyal service to the British crown.

There were allegations that he was not from the Vellala caste. James Rutnam's research has shown that Coomaraswamy's Father was Arumugampillai, a South Indian, who had migrated to Gurudavil in Jaffna. (Tribune 1957). But James Rutnam does not have any conclusive evidence or documents to prove this claim.

Ponnanbalam Ramanathan in 1906 with his future wife Ms. Harrison (right). Several members of the family were married to western women.

Arunachalam Ponnambalam’s (1814–87) step Father Ariyaputhira was Coomaraswamy’s brother-in-law and in 1844 Ponnambalam married Coomaraswamy’s daughter Selachchi.

James Edward Corea, a wealthy landowner from Chilaw was appointed Gate Mudaliyar by the Governor of Ceylon. He was placed in charge of the rural police of Pitigal Korale North. Gate Mudaliyar J.E.Corea came from an Anglican Christian background.

Ponnambalam was appointed cashier of the Colombo Kachcheri in 1845 and deputy Coroner for Colombo in 1847. Many leading Englishmen were his friends and it transpired in the 1849 Parliamentary Commission that he used to lend money to government officials.[4]

His three sons P. Coomaraswamy (1849–1905), P. Ramanathan (1851–1930) and P. Arunachalam (1853–1926) were national figures and two of them, P. C. and P. A. married two daughters of Namasiyayam, an extremely successful Broker from Manipay. This closely related and endogamous clan emerged as the pre-eminent Tamil family of the country and rose to national elite status.[5]

Despite their anglicized background which propelled their rise, the family presented a staunch Hindu appearance and assumed the role of ‘Patrons of the Vellalas in Colombo. However many of its members; Muttu Coomaraswamy, P. Coomaraswamy, P. Ramanathan married western women. Ananda Coomaraswamy was married four times to western women.

They helped many young Tamils to secure employment in English Banks and Mercantile establishments. On the death of Mudaliyar Coomaraswamy’s wife in 1897, the leading daily, ‘The Ceylon Independent’ wrote “to her and her husband, almost every important Hindu family in the city owes its rise”.

The 20th century

The introduction of democracy in the early 20th century transferred political power to the above affiliated Senanayake, Wijewardene, Corea, Kotelawala, Jayewardene and Dias Bandaranaike families in the West and Southern parts of the country and to interconnected Vellala families in the north of Sri Lanka.

Despite their Anglican Christian background, these families were respectively accepted by the Sinhala Buddhist mass vote-base and the Tamil voters as their communal democratic leaders and representatives. Since the grant of independence by the British in 1948, Sri Lanka’s political power has rarely slipped away from this closely connected group and even so only for short periods.

However, it has always been the Catholic Church and not the Anglican denomination that has been at the receiving end of the religious antipathy of the Sinhala masses. Similarly the Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka are the target of Tamil hostility for the atrocities perpetrated on them by this Anglican minority.

Ranks of British Mudaliyars

Mudaliyars had several classes, of which the official and ex-offico were government servants, whilst the titular was awarded as an honour.

The order of precedence[6]
Official
Awarded as an honor(Titular)
Ex-offico

List of prominent Mudaliyars

Official
Awarded as an honor(Titular)

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Ceylon Under British Rule, 1795-1932 By Lennox A. Mills
  2. ↑ "Unknown". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Ceylon Branch XXI (62): 197. 1909.
  3. ↑ D. S. Senanayake
  4. ↑ Vythilingam, M. (1971). The life of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan 1. Ramanathan Commemoration Society. p. 58.
  5. ↑ Jayawardena, Kumari (2000). Nobodies to somebodies: the rise of the colonial bourgeoisie in Sri Lanka. Zed Books. pp. 210–212. ISBN 9781842772287.
  6. ↑ Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon: The Native Headman System
  7. ↑ "Family # 3729 Rajapakse". Sri Lankan Sinhala Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  8. ↑ "Family #1001 Nilaperumal aka Kalukapuge". Sri Lankan Sinhala Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  9. ↑ "Family # 3002 Jayewardene". Sri Lankan Sinhala Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  10. ↑ "Family #090 Sultan Albdin". Sri Lankan Muslim Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  11. ↑ "Family # 3148 Dassenaike". Sri Lankan Sinhala Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  12. ↑ "Family #5013 Coomaraswamy Point Pedro". Sri Lankan Tamil Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  13. ↑ "Family # 5006 Ulaganathar of Manipay". Sri Lankan Tamil Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  14. ↑ "Gate Mudaliyar Baba Hakim Muthaliph (1779-1839) of Magampattuwa".
  15. ↑ "Gate Mudliyar Baba Thajul Arifin Doole (1834-1909) of Hambantota".
  16. ↑ "Family #219 Kariapper". Sri Lankan Muslim Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  17. ↑ "Family #098 Aboobucker Mudaliyar of Galle". Sri Lankan Muslim Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  18. ↑ "The proposer of the lion flag: Mudlr. Sinnalebbe".
  19. ↑ "Family # 1005 Peiris Deraniyagala". Sri Lankan Sinhala Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  20. ↑ "Family #3001 Senanayake". Sri Lankan Sinhala Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
  21. ↑ "Family #5019 Shanmugam Tambyah Mudaliyar of Manipay". Sri Lankan Tamil Family Genealogy. rootsweb.
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