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The story of the 29 British Proconsuls

British Governors of Ceylon

by H. A. J. Hulugalle

Published by Arjuna Hulugalle Dictionaries (Collectors Edition in art paper) Illustrations of the 29 Governors

To those who were born after the colonial era, the subject of the British occupation from 1797 to 1948 remains just another chapter in the long history of this country. To my father H.A.J. Hulugalle, the author of The British Governors of Ceylon, and his generation it was quite different. They were born into, brought up and lived in the milieu of colonial Ceylon.

He was from a rural stock in Kurunegala with an ancestry from a little village in the Wanni. It must have been a traumatic moment to come face to face with the culture of the privileged British rulers. It was good fortune that he came under the influence of British teachers like the poet W. S. Senior, educationist like A. G. Fraser and Warden Stone and to befriend such men of vision like W. T. Keble, Dr. Hayman, Sir Ivor Jennings and Sir Thomas Villiers. Many of these men were good men, dedicated to imparting knowledge, human value systems and building the character of their protegees. Some had a deep religious and philosophical motivation which brought them to this country because they lived and worked with such commitment to build the great schools of all the different faiths which this country had at Independence.

Placed against the backdrop of these educationists, planters, businessmen and public servants stood the imposing figure of the representative of the British sovereign, the Governor. He could have fallen into the category of what we today call, an imperialist. Derogatory as that term may sound, there was no doubt that the Government was well run and a well ordered establishment and justice was meted so meticulously that even today our judiciary look upon that period with respect and awe.

It is about the 29 men that presided over the destiny of this country that HAJ, as I will refer to my father in this article, wrote in British Governors of Ceylon.

Throughout this book, the central theme is the personality of the individuals involved in the drama of the 150 year British occupation. HAJ revelled in sympathetically understanding the humans he wrote about.

Their questions and possible answers interested him; their thought processes fascinated him; and the insight he got from this study was the inspiration for his work. The good that these men did he recognised and applauded. However, he had no illusions of human limitations and therefore never expected grandiose answers. He was tolerant of human frailties and he admonished his subjects with gentle criticisms and objectivity. Whether he acquired this quality from the Kandyan peasantry he came from or the influence of the Anglican ethos he embraced is an open question. Writing about HAJ after his death, Tarzie Vittachi observed that "Nothing human was alien to him".

The story of the Governors is the story of some outstanding administrators like Sir Thomas Maitland, Sir Edward Barnes, Sir Henry Ward, Sir Hercules Robinson, Sir William Gregory, Sir Arthur Gordon and Sir Joseph West Ridgeway. They had all distinguished themselves with substantial contributions in all parts of the empire. In those days that meant a good part of the globe.

The author however, has put them into categories when he wrote, "The thirty Governors can be broadly divided into three groups: soldiers, administrators and politicians, by profession". Some were scholars, like Frederick North, Charles MacCarthy and Robert Charmers. Charmers, John Andersen and Graeme Thomson were distinguished British Civil Servants. Brownrigg, Paget, Barnes and Campbell had fought with the Duke of Wellington in peninsular War or at Waterloo. Maitland, Horton, MacKenzie, Ward, Gregory and Gordon had been members of the British parliament. Clifford and Caldecott came through the Malaysian Civil Service. Torrington was probably the only one who owed his appointment to influence.

It is quite evident that except for a few exceptions they were honed by years of cadetship and apprenticeship before they assumed office as Governors of Ceylon. Their skill to run an efficient country was one reason as to why Sri Lanka at Independence was considered the pride of the British Empire. Without bloodshed and devoid of any civil war, Ceylon became an independent country. The succession was thought out and its inevitability was wisely accepted. From 800,000 at the advent of the British, Ceylon had seven million at Independence. In a passage of the introduction to the book, Haj sums up the spirit of the times and the relationship between the rulers and the ruled:

"The background and way of life of the rulers and the ruled being so different, opportunities for social exchange were limited in scope, and mistakes were made through inability to appreciate the thoughts and ideals of each other. The British rulers are rightly criticised as a class for being aloof, and even arrogant. Too few among them were able to see anything admirable in the ancient civilisation of the country or in a culture different from their own. They are also blamed for interfering too much by implanting alien traditions and values among an oriental people with age-old traditions and values of their own.

These criticisms are sometimes self-contradictory. In any case, a conscientious administrator can do no better than act according to his own ideals and beliefs, which is what most Governors did. Furthermore, aloofness is often the path of expediency when a small number of foreigners rule a large indigenous population with whom they have little in common. The British were able, when the time came for them to withdraw, to do so with more grace than certain other Colonial powers which were more deeply involved in the social and economic life of the people they governed.

The Governor of a British Colony in the nineteenth century was not unlike a proconsul of any other imperial power. Subject to instructions and corrections from home, he was an autocrat when he had the strength of personality to command his Executive Council composed mainly of his own subordinates. He was like the captain of a ship into whose care the lives and welfare of his charges were committed. The main qualification was a capacity to exercise intelligently the power which the office conferred and take decisions on behalf of a Government several thousands of miles away."

From 1919, when he first joined the Ceylon Daily News as a junior reporter, HAJ would have watched the work of Manning, Clifford, Stanley, Thomson, Stubbs, Caldecott and Monck-Mason Moore from the Press box. One Governor who he seems to have been able to relate particularly well was Andrew Caldecott.

Through the profile on Caldecott in chapter 28 of the book, HAJ depicts a personal insight of the character and personality of not only Sir Andrew but of many of the other governors. This is best seen in the passage: "When Caldecott left Ceylon on October 17th, 1944, a tired and sick man, at the end of his labours as a Colonial administrator for 37 years, I published a review of his term of office.

His Secretary, who like his chief was a man of culture, wrote to me: "I hope you will forgive my writing to you like this but having come to know that you were the author of the centre page article on Sir Andrew Caldecott which appeared on the 17th, entitled 'An English Gentleman Retires', I thought I would just write to tell you what great pleasure it gave Sir Andrew. It was wonderfully timed-appearing as it did on the very day on which he left the Island, and it did, I believe, a great deal to cheer him up.

He was naturally very distressed at leaving Ceylon, as were all at his going, and I am not exaggerating at all when I say that your article put new heart into us. It really is a most discerning analysis if I may say so. I have lived with Sir Andrew for nearly five years and would claim to know him pretty well, and your appraisal of his character, abilities and personality seems exactly right.

I can't tell you how much it has meant realising that Sir Andrew really has been appreciated and that though of course people naturally hold different opinions about his course of action in certain matters the discerning ones value his sincerity and singleness of purpose".

Our problems of Sri Lanka today are so different from the world of the 29 Governors. A democratically elected government in a vibrant society is desperately attempting to manage a nation with 19 million people with exposure to education and all the influences of a changing global scene. The tranquillity which the country enjoyed in those times is no more. There are several social and political aspects that altered for the better in the country under the 29 Governors and these have had a balanced resonance in this work.

Yet the problems we still have in this country can also be traced to this period where the self-reliance of the local population and the capacity to innovate indigenous remedies for local problems had been diluted.

This aspect my father has not dealt with, perhaps adequately, but that is because he was not a historian or sociologist. He looked at the problem as a journalist and biographer. That was his training.

- Arjuna Hulugalla

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Communication strategies in curbing Aids

Reviewed by Talia Jayasekera
Combating AIDS (Communication Strategies in Action)
Authors: Arvind Singhal, Ohio University, Everett M. Rogers, University of New Mexico.
Sage Publications (New Delhi, USA and London)

AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. It has the ability to wipe out entire families in the blink of an eye. Today, there are 40 million AIDS sufferers worldwide and a further 25 million who have succumbed to it. The prevention and spreading of HIV/AIDS is a matter of global concern and these issues are addressed comprehensively in the book 'Combating AIDS'.

The book begins by tracing the possible developments of the disease and the first reported cases in Africa. It discusses, in detail, the reasons for the soaring rate of this epidemic. With over a million deaths per year due to this fatal disease, doctors and scientists are no more closer to a cure nor a vaccine than 20 years ago, when the disease first surfaced.

However, the two authors of this book, Singhal and Rogers, both notable professors, see communication strategies as the best way to curb, if not prevent, the spread of AIDS. They keenly focus on communication methods that could mobilize political action, target high risk groups and overcome stigma. They believe communication to be the best form of prevention because in poor nations like Africa, which has almost four million AIDS sufferers, anti-retroviral therapy is out of reach both in availability and financially. The book also shines its light on India, which so far has done nothing but deny the existence of AIDS.

The authors describe strategies that are culturally engaging including the use of television and radio to engage audiences emotionally in this fight against AIDS.

The discussion and awareness programs on AIDS involves sex. The often taboo topic in most countries is not discussed openly. The book focuses on, effective as well as ineffective, work being carried out by individuals and organisations. It outlines the problems with various inappropriate strategies that only served to offend people culturally. An AIDS sufferer, in several countries, is stigmatized for his condition. Many chapters are devoted to the AIDS stigma.

Ignorance is the biggest problem in this fight. People are driven by pre-conceived notions of how the disease is spread. The sufferers' are stereotyped as homosexuals or drug users and having behaved immorally. He then becomes both a victim to his disease and society. The book also highlights work done by AIDS crusaders like HIV+ basketball star Magic Johnson and United Nations Kofi Annan.

Also countries like Senegal, Thailand and Cambodia that have fought hard against AIDS and reduced the number of victims.

Each chapter ends with a comprehensive summary reminding the reader of vital information that may have gone undigested before.

It is a thoroughly researched book, scanning the globe and probing countries that are severely at risk from the disease.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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