Sri L an k a h as had a very long history of contact w ith the outside world. Its geographical position h as m ean t th a t it has been a t the centre of the g rea t trad e routes crossing the In d ian Ocean since ancient tim es. Trade connected it to th e In d ian subcontinent to th e north, to S o u th east Asia and m ore d istan tly to C hina and th e M iddle-East.
Because of th is cen tral position, Sri L an k a h ad very early contacts w ith E uropeans first as tra d e rs (including Marco Polo) b u t la te r as colonizers. C oastal Sri L an k a h ad an un u su ally long period of colonial rule, over four h u n d red years, more th a n twice as long as m ost other p a rts of South Asia. From th e early six teen th century u n til 1948 coastal Sri L anka was ruled successively by th e Portuguese, the D utch and th e B ritish. In the in terio r the K andyans, in contrast, retain ed th e ir independence u n til 1815 w hen they were conquered by the B ritish.
The colonial period w as m arked by the developm ent of an export economy based on p lan tatio n agriculture. Ceylon had long been fam ed as the source of cinnam on b u t th is was overshadow ed in the n in eteen th century w ith the developm ent of m odern p lan tatio n agriculture; w ith coconuts and ru b b er on the lowlands and coffee and la te r tea in the K andyan highlands.
The consequences of these developm ents are th a t, while Sri L anka is not a rich country, it does not have a tru e p e asa n try isolated from the outside world, as is still tru e of m any of the ru ra l areas of the m ainland subcontinent. This is especially tru e in Sri L anka's low country w here this study was concentrated; an d w here a m ajority of Sri L an k an s live. While ag ricu ltu ral income and m ore often home-grown food are im p o rtan t for m any fam ilies, few are totally dependent upon it. Most im portantly, w ealth from trad itio n al ag ricu ltu re as d istin ct from the proprietorship of a p lan tatio n h as rarely been th e basis of g reat w ealth.
The sh rin k in g role of trad itio n al agriculture owed m uch to the developm ent of th e p lan tatio n sector. The two rarely competed directly. The p lan tatio n sector w as geared to export w hereas trad itio n al agriculture was entirely dom estically oriented, growing m ostly food crops such as rice. The two forms of ag ricu ltu re grew different crops, were territo rially segregated and h ad essentially sep arate work forces; th e p lan tatio n s im ported th e ir own lab o u r force of In d ian Tam ils.
W hile p lan tatio n agriculture m ay not have directly competed w ith trad itio n al agriculture, it affected it indirectly. It supported an economy in which trad itio n a l ag ricu ltu re had only a very m inor role. The indigenous population of Sri L an k a benefited from p lan tatio n ag ricu ltu re in th a t a few fam ilies h a d capital in some of the sm aller p lan tatio n s (particularly in coconuts), by the provision of services to the p lan tatio n s and to the p lan ters,
the infusion of money into the economy, by the governm ent's provision of in fra stru c tu re for the p lan tatio n s and by the benefits of the governm ent's
increased tax revenue. The benefits to governm ent revenues were
p articu larly im p o rtan t for they allowed a large governm ent sector w ith an
u n u su ally extensive range of services, for a developing country. In
p a rtic u la r they provided an extrem ely im pressive system of education and h e alth care. The sta te became a m ajor source of jobs and largesse.
Inevitably, such far-reaching economic changes have h ad a m ajor im pact on Sri L an k an society and more specifically on m arriage. One of the m ost im p o rtan t ways in which economic change h as affected social in stitu tio n s is by replacing the trad itio n al village-based social hierarchy w ith a m odern tow n-based one. In th e p e asa n t societies th a t still dom inate m uch of South Asia each village is in m any ways a sep arate social universe w ith its own elite based on the ow nership of land, and on ascribed sta tu s such as th a t derived from m em bership of a p a rticu la r caste. Now, however, the Sri L an k a village elite cannot compete in social stan d in g w ith the new u rb an elites w here position is based on th e ir access to the new sources of income an d education.
A n u m b er of factors can be suggested to explain these changes, which have been m uch more thoroughgoing th a n elsew here in South Asia. An im p o rtan t factor is sim ply th e sheer w ealth resu ltin g from the p lan tatio n sector. Local ag ricu ltu re did not provide access to sim ilar w ealth. The local elite lost prestige as it could not compare in w ealth to the tow n elites, and it also lost its control over th e village as an increasing proportion of the labour force worked outside th e village.
Village elites in Sinhalese areas probably never h ad the sam e hold economically over the villages th a t they h ad in neighbouring India. Moore points out th a t th ere is a very sm all landless population dependent on
ag ricu ltu ral em ploym ent provided by the village elite. He does not speculate on why th is is so except to note th a t such a class is found in the Tam il and M uslim areas of n o rth ern and e aste rn Sri L anka, and th a t it 'conform s to the more hierarchical and trad itio n al n a tu re of the Sri L anka Tam il and M uslim social stru ctu res' (Moore, 1985: 188).
The w eakness of the Sri L an k a village elite is not purely economic.
T here are a num ber of other im p o rtan t factors. A key factor here is
geography. Sri L an k a's very high population density, especially in the
Southw estern lowlands, m ean t th a t villages had m uch g rea ter contact w ith each other and w ith the towns th a n would have been the case in a more sparsely populated country.
M oreover, Sri L an k an villages, especially in the w etter p a rts of the country (the w et zone), are not generally nucleated, b u t ten d to be widely dispersed w ith houses scattered here and there. The reason for th is is
probably principally ecological. In regions w here farm ing is heavily
dependent on a lim ited am ount of irrig ated lan d tied to a few w ater sources villages are tig h tly concentrated round those sources. T his is the case in m ost of S outh Asia b u t is not tru e of Sri L anka w here high and relatively even rainfall m eans th a t th ere are m any w ater sources.
The lack of village nucleation seem s to have w eakened village id en tity as well as the village elite's hold over the village. In a sense w hen th ere are no clear cut boundaries w ith neighbouring villages the village has less of an identity. V illagers have less concern w ith w h at occurs in th eir village because w h at happens in the n ex t village is also im p o rtan t to them . The elite too is likely to have in te rests in neighbouring villages. P erh ap s it is significant also th a t each house has m uch g rea ter privacy. Not only are houses m ore dispersed b u t they are surrounded by th e ir own gardens of ornam ental an d food trees an d m any even have th e ir own well or a t least
easy access to one; in India one of the m ain occasions for village gossip is while th e women are queuing to draw w ater from the well. The g reater privacy m ay reduce the im pact of com m unity a ttitu d e s, for people can to some ex ten t ignore them . It is perh ap s also im p o rtan t th a t each household is largely self-sufficient; w ith th e ir own fru it trees including jack-fruit, b read fru it, coconuts and m angoes, households can provide m uch of th eir needs.
P erh ap s an equally im p o rtan t factor is the com parative w eakness of the caste system in Sri L anka, a t le a st am ongst the Sinhalese; the M uslims claim not to believe in caste a t all. Sri L anka's caste system is superficially sim ilar to India's w ith a h ierarch y of castes each w ith th e ir traditional occupation. C aste, however, h as m uch less of an im pact on an individual's life. It is im p o rtan t in th e choice of a m arriage p a rtn e r b u t is of lim ited significance elsewhere. I t is notew orthy, for exam ple, th a t Sri L an k a does not have eith er B rah m an s or H arijan s (untouchables), who provide the top and the bottom of th e caste hierarchy in India, nor do they have a strong concept of pollution. The absence of these factors removes some of the more salien t aspects of caste. Its im portance was g re a te r in th e p a st b u t there are reasons for believing th a t it was never as all-pervading as it is in Indian society. The m ajor difference betw een the Sinhalese and th e In d ian caste system s is th a t am ongst th e form er the system lacks a religious basis. B uddha never rejected caste o u trig h t b u t he did reg ard it as irrelev an t to a tta in in g enlightenm ent. One did not need to be a B rah m an to know the
tru th . In effect, B uddhism distinguishes betw een th a t which is etern al
w here tru e knowledge lies an d the everyday reality or ra th e r illusion in which people operate. The form er is p erm an en t and m ajestic, the la tte r im p erm an en t, taw dry and th e source of desire and disappointm ent. C aste is relegated from the sacred to the profane world in which we operate. This does not m ean th a t caste an d religion were entirely sep arate. The m ain
B uddhist frate rn ity of m onks in Sri L anka, and indeed the only one until the n in etee n th century, the Siyam N ikaya, still restricts ordination of m onks to the Govigama, the h ighest and larg est caste, constituting about h a lf the population. W orship, however, h as alw ays been open to m em bers of all castes equally.
The full distinction betw een B uddhism as a religion and caste as a secular activity seem s to have been com paratively recent. The n in eteen th century w as m arked by w h at has come to be called the B uddhist Revival M ovement, which grew out of an a tte m p t to counter the activities of C h ristian m issionaries. P a rt of the stren g th of the m issionaries was th a t through th e ir schools they offered access to W estern knowledge and to jobs such as clerks in th e towns. The B uddhist R evivalists responded not by stressin g non-W estern values b u t by adopting m uch of th e organization and approach of th e m issionaries, settin g up schools, p rin tin g presses, Sunday schools, th e Young W omen's B uddhist Association (YWBA) and so forth (DeSilva 1981:346), an d by p resen tin g a B uddhism m ore in sym pathy w ith W estern rationalism , supposedly close to the original B uddhism cleansed of im p u rities such as caste.
The Revival M ovem ent's approach to caste w as influenced by the fact m any of th e ir key su p p o rters came from a num ber of lower castes which had tak en ad v an tag e of th e economic changes w rought by colonialism to a much g rea ter degree th a n did th e dom inant Govigama caste. A m ajor role in the m ovem ent w as perform ed by a new B uddhist fratern ity , the A m arap u ra N ikaya, established by m em bers of these castes an d open to all irrespective of caste background (M alalgoda, 1976:87-105).
The lack of a religious sanction for caste w eakened th e hold of the trad itio n al elite over th e village population; ju s t as th eir economic hold was weak so too was the ideological justification for th e ir position. In Sri L anka
th ere is little correspondence betw een caste and occupational structure. While to some degree all castes were alw ays concerned w ith agriculture they were also expected to carry out th eir caste occupation. T here is little
sign of th is today. Sri L anka h as no trace of the In d ian ja jm a n i system by
which castes provide farm ers w ith th e ir services in exchange for a share of the h a rv e st grain (see B.Caldwell, 1991), though the system clearly once
existed (cf. Knox, 1981: 205). T his is presum ably a sign of increased
com m ercialism b u t also of the lack of religious sanction. In India a m ajor factor which m ain tain s th e system is th a t the castes provide not ju s t secular services b u t ritu a l services as well.
2.4.6 T h e r e q u ir e m e n ts o f m a rria g e h a v e c h a n g e d a s a v illa g e -b a se d