The Adaptable Peasant: Agrarian Society in Western Sri Lanka under Dutch Rule, 1740-1800 Book

Acknowledgements     xv
Notes to the reader     xviii
Glossary     xix
Maps     xxiii
Prologue     1
Introduction     3
Historical setting     4
Historiography     10
Conceptualising the 'peasant' in the context of the colonial hegemony     13
Some methodological issues     15
Sources     19
Organisation of chapters     22
The World of the Peasant     25
Everyday life of the peasant     25
Links with the outside world     29
The world of the peasant and external forces     32
Demographic patterns     33
The horizons of the peasant's life     42
Gama: What's in a name?     43
The boundaries and the geographical sense of gama     47
The internal setting of the village     49
The internal setting of Kahambilihena     53
The vasagama group and the internal setting of gama     55
Caste in the internal setting of the gama     57
Some concluding remarks     57
The System of Production and Its Changes     59
Level of rice production     59
Three systemsof production     62
Changing patterns of land utilisation in the peasant production     63
Company policy towards chena cultivation     65
The changing role of gardens     67
Coconut, areca nut, and jak trees as garden crops     70
The market for garden crops     76
Plantations as a new mode of land consumption     77
The rise and fall of cinnamon plantations     78
Ownership of cinnamon plantations     81
Coconut plantations     82
Changing aspects of the traditional labour organisation     84
Colonial rule and the social division of labour     88
Draining labour out of peasant production through rajakariya     93
Labour supply for plantations     99
Changing labour relations among manufacturing and service castes     102
Some concluding remarks     102
Land Tenure and Its Changes     105
The main features of pre-colonial land tenure     107
The land tenure system as found in the tombos     109
Paraveni lands     110
Lands that belong to the 'lord of the land'     111
Principal Land Holders (PLH)     113
Absentee Principal Land Holders     114
Changes in the land tenure     116
A historical explanation of the change     118
Accommodessan grants     125
The theory and practice of the concept of bhupati     131
Summary of structural changes that occurred in traditional land tenure under the Dutch administration     136
The Emergence of a New Class Formation and the Rise of a Landowning Class     141
Prelude to the new class differentiation     141
Class structure of the Ogodapola formation     145
Class structure of Mapitigama     155
Some comparative observations on the class structure in Ogodapola formation and Mapitigama     167
The rise of the landowning class     170
Numerical strength of the landowning class     172
Sources of economic power of the landowning class     174
Modes of acquisition of lands by the landowning class     176
Labour mobilisation by the landowning class     179
Production process of the lands of the landowning class     180
Some concluding remarks     181
Caste and Social Mobility     185
Caste in a colonial context     185
Caste communities and hierarchies     186
Revisiting caste hierarchy: some problems in the history and historiography      187
The Goyigama caste and the ritual order     192
Perpetuation of caste distinction     197
Caste formation in the mid-eighteenth century     199
Some features of the mid-eighteenth century     202
Regional specificities of the concentration and dispersal tendencies of the geographical distribution of castes     206
Long term dynamics of the caste formation     207
Caste and the Company     211
Changing economic power of non-Goyigama interior castes     211
Emergence of internal hierarchies in castes     214
Communities v. hierarchy: some concluding remarks     217
The Discussion     221
Land and labour     221
Class and caste     224
Dynamics of caste relations     230
The problem of 'change' in peasant societies     235
Epilogue     239
Notes     243
Appendices
Chronological list of Kings of Kandy and Dutch Governors of Ceylon     273
List of accommodessan grants     274
Classification of people in various sources     276
Bibliography     281
Index     289
List of Maps
VOC possessions in Sri Lanka     xxiii
Location map of the central area of the study     xxiv
Peasants' link to the outside world     xxv
Some important settlement areas of Hina Korale     xxvi
Settlement pattern of the Ogodapola formation     xxvii
Internal setting of Kahambilihena     xxviii
Coconut plantations in Hina Korale     xxix
Hakuru settlements in Hina, Alutkuru, Hewagam, and Salpity Korales     xxx
Padu settlements in Hina, Alutkuru, Hewagam, and Salpity Korales     xxxi
List of Illustrations
Rural landscape overlooking Radaliyagoda (Hina/Mada)     24
Temple of Varana (Hina/Mada)     28
A footpath (next to the Udugoda ambalama)     30
Remnants of an ambalama (rest house) after restoration (Udugoda-Hina/Mada)     48
List of Figures
Settlement structure of interior areas     42
The theory of land tenure (the simple model-stage one)     106
Ideal model of pre-colonial service tenure (stage two)     106
Portuguese system of village grants     123
Traditional system of authority and drain of surplus     137
The Company-Chiefs-Peasants Triad     139
List of Graphs
Population increase in Weliweriya and surrounding villages     39
Changes of the sustainability of peasant families in the Ogodapola formation as shown in the changes in per capita paddy-land ownership     89
Relative accumulation capability of the Ogodapola formation (paddy-lands)     150
Ownership of garden crops in the Ogodapola formation     152
Paddy-land ownership in Mapitigama     158
Accumulation capability in Mapitigama: paddy-lands (in kuruni)     159
Access to owiti lands in Mapitigama (in kuruni)     160
Per capita coconut tree ownership, Mapitigama     162
Per capita jak tree ownership, Mapitigama     163
Variations in the accumulation pattern of coconut trees, Mapitigama     165
Variations in the accumulation pattern of areca nut trees, Mapitigama     165
Variations in the accumulation pattern of jak trees, Mapitigama     165
Distribution of non-Goyigama castes in interior villages, 1760-1771     204
List of Tables
Model of structural change     16
Distribution of PLH groups in some settlement units of four korale divisions in the Colombo Disavany     34
Population in the Hina Korale Meda Pattuwa Division     35
Distribution of population in the Weliweriya formation     38
High population density villages of the Wandurawa formation     40
Comparative population figures of some villages of Mada Pattuwa of Hina Korale, 1760 and 2001     44
Caste/family composition (464 villages)     50
Demographic and social figures of Kahambilihena     53
Distribution of chenas     63
Distribution of chenas in the Weliweriya formation and surrounding villages     64
Distribution of chenas in the Wilimbula formation     64
Requests for chenas in the Colombo Disavany: Report of the Disava, 1768     67
Relative importance of paddy and coconut     68
Delivery of pepper and coffee     70
Garden crop in Udugaha Pattuwa of Hina Korale     71
Number of coconut trees in the gardens of eight villages in Hina Korale     72
Ownership of coconut trees by each family in four villages of Hina Korale     72
Distribution of jak trees as a garden crop in eight villages of Hina Korale     74
Areca nut delivery, 1742-1750     74
Regional distribution of cinnamon gardens in the Colombo Disavany     80
Ownership of cinnamon plantations in 1786     82
Distribution of coconut plantations exceeding 200 trees     83
Ownership of large and medium size coconut plantations in Hina Korale     84
Slave ownership in Colombo     85
Social division of labour (old) caste distribution in Mada Pattuwa of Hina Korale     87
Ownership of paddy and garden trees by potter families in Mada Pattuwa of Hina Korale     88
Change of the sustainability of a peasant family in three villages     90
Social division of labour (new)     98
Comparison of pre-colonial and colonial land tenure     116
Villages given away as accommodessans     129
Social composition of the Ogodapola formation     146
Ownership of paddy-lands in the Ogodapola formation     147
Distribution pattern of per-capita paddy ownership among 17 PLHs in the Ogodapola formation     149
Relative accumulation capabilities of the Ogodapola formation     149
Accumulation capability in garden crops in the Ogodapola formation     153
Social composition and access to paddy-land in Mapitigama     156
Social composition of owners of coconut plantations     171
Distribution of inhabitants according to the service rendered to the Company, 1707     173
Purchase of garden lands in Mapitigama     178
Caste based population distribution, 1707, 1760s, and 1814     200
Caste based population (Colombo Four Gravets, 1760s)     201
Distribution of castes in 365 interior villages, 1760s     203
Ownership of coconut plantations by non-Goyigama interior castes     212
Hierarchical formation of Chalias (Salagama caste)      215