5. Epilogue: polyandry on 19th and twentieth years
In 1795, Dutch Ceylon decrease for the United kingdom give, plus they managed to get a top colony inside the 1802. Because of the 1815, that they had as well as beaten the former separate Empire out of Kandy. British stipulated you to definitely regarding the previous Dutch places the current rules will be upheld, whereas in Kandy vintage statutes was to become followed, that have been then codified. We have seen regarding the introductory section you to numerous article writers presumed the new Portuguese together with Dutch got effectively stamped aside polyandry from inside the the newest maritime provinces. Several pros say that, used, customary legislation had kept precedence, until regulations try ‘silent or inapplicable’. Footnote 68 Indeed, we come across inside the section step three exactly how good European attorney in fact invoked these types of traditional laws so you can ask the latest validity of polyandry. Footnote 69 However, british believed right away the coastal provinces had started influenced according to Roman-Dutch legislation. Already inside 1822, it purchased the newest re-regarding the school thombos, not just for Christians but for the whole populace of one’s coastal provinces. This new pre-eminence out-of Roman Dutch Legislation is codified for the a rent out-of 1831, and you can a regulation of 1847 specified the banned amounts of wedding, minimal age of events, and good reasons for separation. Eventually, in 1861 Roman-Dutch laws are stated while the joining for the entire isle. Footnote 70 It paradoxical courtroom situation might have been summarised besides by Jayawardene: ‘[The fresh Dutch] produced this new Roman-Dutch Law to Ceylon; but it is the fresh new English… exactly who mainly based they between your Singhalese, exactly who caused it to be regulations of your land’. Footnote 71
The brand new lady gets restaurants from for every spouse, and so they all of the have more
I surmise that the far more stringent application of Roman-Dutch laws and regulations while the extension out-of ilies regarding the coastal elements considering good polyandrous union. Therefore a wedding was not court, students could not inherit from their 2nd father. What about the within? The newest codified Kandyan rules consisted of all sorts of stipulations about how precisely inheritances of mutual husbands would be to be divided. In the 1850s a reent took place. In 1855, Governor Ward acquired a good petition on Chiefs away from Kandy, ‘hoping with the abolition by the laws and regulations away from polygamy and you may polyandry’. The fresh plea is repeated twice during the 1858, in the end becoming obtained of the as an alternative confused United kingdom, which went on inside the 1859 so you can outlaw polygamy and you may divorce case by common agree and make inserted monogamous matrimony really the only legal form. As to why performed the fresh new elites change up against their community and why performed they give british which opportunity to ‘civilise’ this new Sinhalese? Particular students exhort us to understand between your traces of your petitions. It is said this particular elite group off landowners wanted good ‘reform’ regarding relationships as they lined up to azerbaijani bayanlarla nasД±l tanД±ЕџД±lД±r attenuate separated and you may widowed women’s standard states into the countries of their moms and dads, that happen to be basically exploited by the the brothers. Property purchases and you can installing high plantations needed simplistic relationship and you may inheritance statutes, however, this was cloaked for the a strike into the polygamy, a lure that United kingdom grabbed. Footnote 72 For this reason, the british imposed an excellent Western european thought of relationship for the Kandyan population, and this instantly triggered good flurry out-of lawsuits due to the fact the unregistered ous – had been today considered unlawful. Berwick, the important judge of Colombo, aptly known as 1859 Ordinance a great ‘bitter gift out of bastardy’. Footnote 73
So it conjecture possibly stems from brand new confusion about your family between Dutch official legislation and also the classic, uncodified, regulations of the Sinhalese
Even when polyandry was punished of the to 3 years out-of difficult work, the routine continuous until well with the twentieth-century, albeit in dwindling wide variety. Ergo, it absolutely was however easy for this new ethnographers whom noticed village lifetime regarding the mountainous indoor regarding the 1950s to study established polyandrous connections or collect reminiscences regarding past like affairs. By way of example, people of Udumulla within the east Sri Lanka examined polyandry definitely: ‘It is extremely ideal for all of the. .. These individuals do not need to mask this new plan, you’ll find nothing as ashamed of’. Footnote 74 The latest ethnographic descriptions tend to stress brand new simple and you will slightly good nature of the polyandrous plan, which in one area happened to be named ‘surviving in one peace’. Footnote 75 As to the reasons after that did it drop off?
