Robert Knox, then and now

Ravi Perera

"At their leisure when their affairs will permit, they commonly meet at places built for strangers and way-faring men to lodge in, in their language called Amblomb, where they sit chewing betel, and looking one upon the other very gravely, solidly discoursing concerning the affairs of the court, between the King and the great men..." Robert Knox We are indebted to Robert Knox for recording his observations of 17 Century Sri Lanka, the land in which he spent nearly 20 years as a guest of the Kandyan king, willy-nilly. By the time he marooned himself here, the island had been exposed to European influences in various forms for more than two centuries.

The first European to have put on paper impressions of the prevailing social and economic life from first hand experience of the beleaguered kingdom of Kandy, Knox's "An Historical Relation of Ceylon" is essential reading for a student of our pre-colonial society. Knox wrote the book after escaping from the island and therefore was free of any need to please his former captors.

Nevertheless right through the narration there is a discernible empathy for the inhabitants of the island among whom circumstances compelled the seafaring Englishman to make home for a good part of his adult life.

As our opening quote bears out, the people of this land even then were political animals. The goings on at the King's court obviously held their interest very much. Given that the subjects of the small kingdom were affected almost on a daily basis by the capricious moods of the monarch and his high officials this perhaps was only natural. But befitting the existing political structure, their fascination with matters of the court was evidently passive.

The democratic impulses, which by this time had begun to stir in Europe, were conspicuously absent in our public life. The reasons and imperatives behind their Kings actions were not matters that could ever be comprehended or challenged.

Their deeds in births past had determined the universe they inhabited now. In fact our general contentment with the ageless feudal political order appears to have remained more or less unchanged from the time of King Vijaya right up to 1815 when we went under the venturesome British.

Knox also noted the extremely Spartan existence of the average subject in the Kingdom. " Their dyet and ordinary fare, is but very mean, as to our account. If they have but rice and salt in their house they reckon they want for nothing.

For with a few green leaves and the juice of a lemon with pepper and salt they will make a hearty meal". And their dwelling places " their houses are small, low, thatched cottages built with stick, daubed with clay..." As to the furniture " their furniture is but small. A few earthen pots...a stool or two without backs. For none but the King may sit upon a stool with a back".

The impression is of an indigent people vulnerable to the whim of both nature as well as their autocratic rulers. This inevitably led to a kind of existence that encouraged only minimal expectations and then required infinite patience in attaining even those.

It was a situation, which bred a helpless fatalism, dark superstitions and abject resignation. This bleak image repeatedly comes through in several passages of Knox describing the nature and habits of the people he observed during his enforced stay.

Knox did not think much of the industry or diligence of the native people. "For the Chingulays are naturally, a people given to sloth and laziness; if they can but any ways live, they abhor to work; only what their necessities force them to, they do, that is to get food and raiment. Yet in this I must little vindicate them. For what indeed should they do with more food and raiment, seeing as their estates encrease, so do their taxes also?"

The imprisoned sailor was a clear-eyed observer of the causal interplay between taxes and economic prosperity. The existing system was such that more production and the consequential increase in wealth invited such high taxes that the extra effort was counter productive. The system trapped the people in to a vicious cycle of poverty.

It is now more than 300 years since Robert Knox lived in, and subsequently wrote, about what turned out to be the dying stages of the Kandyan Kingdom. Much water has flowed down the river Thames as well as the Mahaweli since then.

Britain, from where Knox came, went on to build a world empire on which it was said the sun never set. Today it has lost most of the empire but remains a very prosperous and democratic country.

Sri Lanka of course had a very different evolution. A few decades after Knox published his book, the Kandyan Kingdom ceased to be when we lost our sovereignty to a far away European King. Internal dissention and the inner corruption of his court had made the situation untenable for our last Monarch. Our strengths, capabilities and ideas stuck determinedly in ancient times, were no match to the burgeoning commercial strength and military prowess of Europe.

After living under the British rule for more than a century, in 1948 we became independent and had the responsibility of running our affairs given to us once again. But we now faced a vastly different world from 1815.

In this new order there were regular elections, Parliaments, political parties, newspapers, general literacy and a host of other new concepts and institutions. Obviously these novel concepts demand a vastly different approach to the art of governing. How we have managed our affairs since is recent history.

While we can see the obvious changes in the form and methodology of Government there are also features that seem to have not changed much since the times of Knox.

The people in this land are still very much captivated by matters political although it is now not necessary to find Ambalams to discourse thereon.

The number of persons who are occupied exclusively in activities, which can be broadly described as politics, is amazingly high here. Our small island has in addition to the national parliament several provincial level governments, which again create more vacancies for politicians of different hues and shapes.

Add to this the large following each politician invariably commands, we seem to have almost half the population in politics.

The poverty that Knox observed among the common folk of the land is undoubtedly now reduced. In a democracy there is tremendous pressure on the rulers to ameliorate the living conditions of the voters. The world is much smaller today and we are well aware of the living standards of other nations, particularly in the Developed world, and their path to prosperity.

According to the Annual Report of the Central Bank, in the Human Development Index we are at a mid-point ranking (among 177 countries), 45 % of our population earn less than US $ 2 a day, while just 39 % have access to pipe borne water. These figures while acceptable in comparison to the poor nations in our neighbourhood is really no reason for pride for a country with the potential we possess.

For Knox also made the perceptive observation " they are a people proper and very well favoured, beyond all people that I have seen in India..." and "in short, in carriage and behaviour they are very grave and stately like unto the Portugals, in understanding quick and apprehensive, in design subtle and crafty, in discourse courteous..."

But potential to be realised needs dedication, discipline and hard work. Knox thought we were given to sloth and laziness, which he attributed to a tax regime which discouraged industry. But certain national traits may flourish with or without a tax!