The Sunday Times - The British taste first signs of discontent

Today 189 years ago -September 10, 1817 to be exact - marked the beginning of the Uva or Wellassa rebellion against the British. To understand the reasons for the rebellion, it's best that we briefly look at the developments after the British took over the Kandyan kingdom.

Following the capture of the Kandyan kingdom, the British became masters of the entire country in March 1815. The Kandyans soon found that they had to get used to a different form of administration from what they had been used to for centuries under a Sinhalese king. In January 1816, Sri Vickrema Rajasinghe, the deposed King of Kandy was taken to Madras and from there to Vellore where he died sixteen years later.

The Kandyan provinces were placed under the control of a Resident, Sir John D'Oyly and a small military unit was kept in Kandy to maintain law and order. Ehelepola who helped the British in their attempt to capture the Kandyan kingdom expected to be rewarded for the services he rendered by handing over the administration to him. He was bitterly disappointed and declined to accept any high office but indicated that he simply wished to remain “a friend of the British Government.” After that, Molligoda was appointed first adigar.

Meanwhile, though the Kandyan people were happy to get rid of the tyrant king, they were not entirely happy to be governed by foreigners. The Kandyan chieftains were also a discontented lot because they realised that under the British, they did not have much say. Their powers had been taken away to a great extent. They could not act the way they pleased as they were used to. They gradually began to stir up the people to revolt.

The first outbreak was in Uva. A pretender was set up in the guise of a Nayakkar prince claiming to be a member of the deposed royal family. His name was Vilbave, an ex-monk and he posed as one Doraisami. Having appeared in the Kataragama devale soon after the Esala festival there, he declared that he had been chosen by the God of Kataragama to be king of Sri Lanka. He received the support of Keppetipola, the dissave of Uva who defected to the side of the rebels. Keppatipola was Ehelepola's brother-in-law and soon took over the leadership of the rebellion.

Six days after the start of the revolt, Sylvester Douglas Wilson, Assistant Resident & Agent at Badulla was killed by the rebels. The British were ruthless in their efforts to crush the rebellion. They burnt down villages and harassed and killed the villagers, who in turn retaliated. The British troops faced many hardships and suffered due to disease. As the revolt spread covering many areas, the British were seriously thinking of withdrawing the troops when they found that the Kandyans who had suffered enough, were willing to surrender.

The chiefs had grown jealous of each other and were disunited. Keppetipola was defeated and taken prisoner and the rebellion was over by October 1818. Two of the rebel chiefs, Keppetipola and Madugalle of Dumbara were beheaded. The British suspected that Ehelepola was also involved with the rebellion and he was banished to the island of Mauritius where he died in 1829.

The birth of a stalwart in Sinhala journalism occurred on September 10, 1890. He is Piyasena Nissanka, who was editor of the 'Dinamina' for many decades. He was a close associate of D. R. Wijewardene from the time he joined Lake House in 1918 until Wijewardene's death in 1950.

While serving in the editorial staff of the 'Dinamina', he was appointed as editor of the 'Silumina' when it was started as a Sinhala weekly in 1930. He belonged to the vintage of H. S. Perera, Martin Wickramasingha, M. C. F. Perera and Alexander Welivita, pioneers of Sinhala journalism. He returned to the 'Dinamina' as editor and served over thirty years in that capacity. In fact, he served as editor alternatively in both newspapers several times. He was the longest to occupy the editorial chair of the 'Dinamina'.

Hailing from the village of Kandeliyaddapaluwa close to Kadawata, he was a typical villager who revelled in relating folk stories and reciting folk verses. He had an easy style of writing and his column written under the pen name 'Basuru' was a very popular one.