During the 1795, Dutch Ceylon dropped for the Uk hands, and managed to get a crown nest in the 1802. From the 1815, they had and beaten the previous separate Empire from Kandy. The british stipulated that in the former Dutch countries the current legislation might possibly be kept, while within the Kandy conventional statutes were to be followed, that have been subsequently codified. We have seen in the basic part you to definitely numerous authors believed the fresh Portuguese together with Dutch got effectively stamped away polyandry when you look at the the fresh new maritime provinces. Multiple pros declare that, in practice, vintage law had kept precedence, until what the law states try ‘hushed otherwise inapplicable’. Footnote 68 Actually, we have seen for the area step 3 just how a good Eu lawyer indeed invoked these traditional legislation in order to plead this new legitimacy regarding polyandry. Footnote 69 But not, british presumed from the beginning that the coastal provinces got become governed predicated on Roman-Dutch rules. Currently into the 1822, it purchased the fresh lso are-introduction of the school thombos, just to have Christians however for the entire inhabitants of your own maritime provinces. The pre-eminence away from Roman Dutch Rules is actually codified into the a rent of 1831, and you may an ordinance out of 1847 given the blocked degrees of wedding, restricted age of people, and you can grounds for splitting up. Ultimately, for the 1861 Roman-Dutch law are announced since binding for your isle. Footnote 70 So it paradoxical legal problem might have been summarised aswell by Jayawardene: ‘[The new Dutch] put the new Roman-Dutch Law to Ceylon; but it is the English… just who centered it within Singhalese, just who managed to get regulations of the land’. Footnote 71
The new lady gets dinner regarding for every single spouse, and additionally they all of the do have more
I surmise your significantly more strict application of Roman-Dutch laws and regulations plus the expansion out-of ilies regarding the coastal portion considering an excellent polyandrous commitment. As such a marriage was not judge, children couldn’t inherit off their second dad. How about the interior? The latest codified Kandyan laws and regulations consisted of all types of fine print about precisely how inheritances out-of shared husbands was to end up being separated. However in the fresh 1850s a beneficial reent took place. For the 1855, Governor Ward acquired a great petition in the Chiefs out-of Kandy, ‘hoping toward abolition by regulations off polygamy and polyandry’. The plea try repeated twice in 1858, in the long run to be found from the instead perplexed British, exactly who proceeded inside the 1859 to help you outlaw polygamy and you will divorce proceedings because of the mutual consent and create inserted monogamous matrimony the only legal form. Why performed the fresh new elites change up against her lifestyle and just why performed they give british it possible opportunity to ‘civilise’ this new Sinhalese? Particular scholars exhort us to comprehend between your lines of the petitions. They claim that elite away from landowners desired a ‘reform’ out of matrimony as they aligned to attenuate separated and you will widowed women’s typical claims on the places of its moms and dads, that happen to be generally rooked by the the brothers. House deals and you will setting-up highest ranches called for simplified marriage and you can heredity legislation, however, this was cloaked within the a strike to the polygamy, a bait that your British got. Footnote 72 Therefore, british enforced a European notion of marriage into Kandyan inhabitants, and this quickly caused an excellent flurry regarding legal actions as the unregistered ous – was now considered illegal. Berwick, the fresh new critical courtroom away from Colombo, aptly known as 1859 Ordinance a great ‘bad gift out of bastardy’. Footnote 73
That it supposition maybe stems from the misunderstandings regarding the loved ones ranging from Dutch official legislation while the regular, uncodified, laws and regulations of Sinhalese
Even though polyandry was penalized by up to 3 years out-of hard work, the fresh new habit continuing up to well towards the twentieth century, albeit into the dwindling amounts. Ergo, it actually was nonetheless possible for the ethnographers who noticed community life in the mountainous indoor regarding the 1950s to learn existing polyandrous relations or collect reminiscences off previous like affairs. For example, individuals from Udumulla in eastern Sri Lanka examined polyandry positively: ‘It is very ideal for all. .. These folks need not mask the newest arrangement, you’ll find nothing are ashamed of’. Footnote 74 The fresh new ethnographic descriptions often stress brand new practical and you can a little harmonious nature of your own polyandrous arrangement, that an area happened to be named ‘located in you to definitely peace’. Footnote 75 Why indian gГјzel kadД±nlar after that did it drop off?
