Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:34:18.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic and Political Factors in the 1915 Riots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Kumari Jayawardena
Get access

Abstract

The 1915 Buddhist-Muslim riots in Ceylon are often attributed to religious animosity, but economic and political factors significantly influenced the environment in which the riots occurred and help to explain the drastic government reaction to the disorders. The Muslims involved, recent arrivals from India called Coast Moors, were primarily traders and moneylenders. Resentment against price increases and alleged profiteering developed among the Sinhalese Buddhists. Before 1915, communal tensions had grown, with many Sinhalese-language newspapers denouncing the Coast Moors for exploitation of the Ceylonese. A Buddhist temperence movement had become a channel for articulating nationalist sentiments and was viewed with suspicion by the colonial regime. Labor unrest and trade unionism had appeared in Colombo prior to the riots. There, the 1915 disorders were led by the most militant urban workers, particularly railway workers, and reflected working-class grievances over rising living costs and unemployment. Fear of German intrigue during the war, the spread of nationalism and terrorism from India, and urban working-class unrest led colonial officials to interpret the riots as a threat to British rule. The officials were divided on the severity of action required, but those favoring the most drastic measures prevailed.

Type
The 1915 Riots in Ceylon: A Symposium
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , February 1970 , pp. 223 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Vijayavardhana, D. C., The Revolt in the Temple (Colombo: Sinha Publications, 1953), p. 121.Google Scholar

2 Public Records Office (P.R.O.), London, CO. 54/784, Confidential Report on the Colombo Riots, Byrde, R. W., 08 26, 1915.Google Scholar

3 Command Paper 8167 of 1916, p. 3, Despatch of Governor of Ceylon to Secretary of State for the Colonies, June 1, 1915.

4 Ibid.

5 Debates of the Legislative Council, 08 24, 1914.Google Scholar

6 Ceylon Government Archives (C.G.A.) Report 14502: Report of the Riots of 1915 by the Inspector General of Police.

7 Mahabodhi Journal, 10 1909.Google Scholar

8 Sinhala Bauddhayā, 1912Google Scholar, quoted in C.G.A. Report 14502 of 1915, op. cit.

9 Quoted in C.G.A. Report 14502 of 1915, op. cit.

10 Ibid.

11 “Amicus,” Ceylon Illustrated Weekly, 11 22, 1912.Google Scholar

12 I.G.P.'s Report 14502 of 1915, op. cit.

13 Ibid.

14 P.R.O. C.O. 54/783, (39834), Report on the disturbances in the Matara District.

15 Report 14502, op. cit.

16 Ibid.

17 C.O. 54/785, Confidential Report, Buddhist Schools, by the Inspector General of Police, Aug. 6, 1915.

18 C.O. 54/784, Confidential Report on the Colombo Riots, op. cit., Aug. 1915.

19 Sessional Paper I of 1913, Railway Commission Rider of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, p. XIV.

20 Quoted in Rudé, George, The Crowd in the French Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), p. 2.Google Scholar

21 Vijayavardhana, , op. cit., p. 122.Google Scholar

22 For a more detailed account, See Jayawardena, Kumari, “Pioneer Rebels among the Colombo Working-class,” Young Socialist, IV (11 1968), pp. 80–87.Google Scholar

23 Hobsbawm, Eric, Primitive Rebels (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1959), pp. 110–11.Google Scholar

24 Ramanathan, P., Riots and Martial Law in Ceylon, 1915, (London: St. Martin's Press, 1916), p. 269.Google Scholar

25 Sessional Paper I of 1913.

26 The Sinhalese Memorial, 1915, pp. 4–5.

27 Ramanathan, , op. cit.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 27.

29 Statement of H. L. de Mel, quoted in Ramanathan, , op. cit., p. 275.Google Scholar

30 Command Paper 8167, Despatch of the Governor, June 7, 1915.

31 Administration Report of 1915, Police Report, p. 36.

32 C.O. 54/784, Confidential Report on the Colombo Riots, op. cit.

33 C.O. 54/784 (43941), Comment of H. A. Cowell, Sept. 2, 1915. There is no proof either way about German activities in Ceylon. However, the Germans were active in supporting and financing anti-British movements in India during the First World War.

34 C.O. 54/782 (29056), Letter of Stubbs, R. E. to Collins, A. E., 06 2, 1915.Google Scholar

35 C.O. 54/782 (35109), Letter of Capt. L. A. Northcote to the Governor, July 7, 1915.

36 C.O. 54/784, Confidential Report of G. F. Forrest, Special Commissioner for Kegalle, Aug. 27, 1915.

37 CO. 54/784, Confidential Report on the Colombo riots, op. cit.

38 Command Paper 8167, p. 32, Despatch of Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Aug. 17, 1915.

39 Ibid., Despatch of June 1, 1915.

40 C.O. 54/784, Report on the Colombo Riots by the Government Agent, W. P. (J. G. Fraser).

41 C.O. 54/782 (35846), Comment of Collins, A. E., 07 16, 1916.Google Scholar

42 C.O. 54/782 (29924), Letter of Stubbs, R. E. to Collins, A. E., 06 8, 1915.Google Scholar

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid., Letter of Stubbs, R. E. to Collins, A. E., 06 2, 1915.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., Letter of Stubbs, R. E., 06 8, 1915Google Scholar, op. cit.

46 C.O. 54/782 (35109), Letter of Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies, July 8, 1915.

47 C.O. 54/782, Letter of Stubbs, R. E., 06 8, 1915Google Scholar, op. cit.