British Took Ceylon to Expand Empire [15min]

As early as AD 1250 Marco Polo wrote about the island of Zeilan -- the name used by Arab sailors for island or place of jewels. Portuguese and then Dutch corrupted Zeilan to Seelan, and then, with the arrival of the British, Seelan became Ceylon. The islander name was 'Lanka' from the Sanskrit 'Lankadeepa' -- resplendent island. 'Sri' means 'honourable' as in 'honourable sir'. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. (You may listen again online to the five most recent episodes of "Empire".)

Legend claims the Hindu Mahavamsa, arrived from northern India sometime during the 6th century BC. In the 4th century from NW India came king Vijaya. His capital became Anuradhapura, from where orders were given to irrigate and cultivate land and souls. Here would be one of the holiest centres of Buddhism. Then followed the Tamils of south India and, inevitably, the island split between the two cultures.

The Dutch replaced the Portuguese as the ruling traders and were in turn dislodged by 1796 by the British, who sent from Madras Robert Andrews to negotiate the first proper British foothold in Ceylon and one that had the blessing of the local princes. The Sinhalese Court wanted more than the British were willing to give. The British took Ceylon by force. Two years later there was a British governor and commander-in-chief. Ceylon became part of the Madras Presidency of the East India Company. But the presidency was a corrupt and bureaucratic mess.

True, schooling was introduced and a few attempts to get roads, buildings and land reform onto a surer footing had moderate success. In 1815 the whole island of Ceylon became British and remained so until 1948. There were a couple of rebellions during the 1800s but not much of any consequence. In fact the East India Company, losing much of its own authority to the British government, seems to have neglected Ceylon. Certainly that's the impression if we read the diaries and papers of Samuel White Baker.

Sir Samuel White Baker (1821-1893) was a Londoner and one of the earliest enthusiasts for a British occupation of Sri Lanka. At the age of 24 he set up a farm in Ceylon at the idyllic settlement of Nuwara Eliya, importing ideas from England as well as exploiting the local climate. Later, he and his Hungarian wife explored the Nile in 1863, met John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) and, in 1864, named the African inland sea, Albert Nyanza. He was knighted and attended the Prince of Wales at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. He led an expedition, not entirely successful, to put down slavery in Egypt. Later he explored the Middle East and America.

His view was that Ceylon was the most wonderful island but, while the East India Company had been doing well in India, Ceylon was forgotten, had been virtually abandoned and its former glories all but ignored.