5. Epilogue: polyandry regarding nineteenth and you can 20th centuries

Inside the 1795, Dutch Ceylon dropped with the Uk give, and additionally they managed to make it a crown colony in the 1802. By 1815, they had including overcome the former separate Kingdom away from Kandy. The british stipulated one to on former Dutch places the current guidelines was kept, while in the Kandy conventional laws and regulations was to end up being observed, which were next codified. There are on the introductory section that multiple authors believed the Portuguese and also the Dutch got effectively stamped away polyandry inside the this new coastal provinces. Numerous advantages point out that, used, traditional law had stored precedence, unless of course regulations is actually ‘hushed otherwise inapplicable’. Footnote 68 In fact, we come across within the part step 3 just how an excellent Eu attorney indeed invoked these typical rules so you can plead this new legitimacy of polyandry. Footnote 69 not, the british assumed from the start your maritime provinces had come influenced centered on Roman-Dutch law. Currently inside the 1822, it purchased the fresh re-introduction of the college thombos, just to have Christians but also for the whole people of your own coastal provinces. The new pre-eminence regarding Roman Dutch Legislation was codified in a rental out of 1831, and you can an ordinance of 1847 specified its prohibited quantities of wedding, limited ages of events, and you may cause of separation and divorce. Eventually, inside 1861 Roman-Dutch law are proclaimed because the binding for the whole island. Footnote 70 That it paradoxical court situation has been summarised as well because of the Jayawardene: ‘[The fresh Dutch] put the new Roman-Dutch Legislation so you’re able to Ceylon; but it is the latest English… exactly who based it between your Singhalese, just who managed to get legislation of land’. Footnote 71

The lady gets dinner off for each and every husband, plus they every have significantly more

We surmise that a lot more stringent application of Roman-Dutch guidelines therefore the expansion out of ilies throughout the seaside section given a polyandrous relationship. Therefore a married relationship wasn’t court, people could not inherit off their 2nd dad. What about the interior? The brand new codified Kandyan regulations contains all types of conditions and terms on how inheritances out of mutual husbands was to getting separated. In this new 1850s good reent took place. In 1855, Governor Ward gotten a good petition about Chiefs away from Kandy, ‘praying into abolition because of the rules out-of polygamy and you can polyandry’. The new plea is actually repeated double when https://getbride.org/tr/sicak-kuba-kadinlari/ you look at the 1858, ultimately becoming acquired by instead puzzled Uk, which went on inside 1859 to outlaw polygamy and you will divorce proceedings by shared consent also to build registered monogamous wedding really the only courtroom form. As to why did the new elites change up against their unique customs and exactly why performed they offer british that it chance to ‘civilise’ new Sinhalese? Certain scholars exhort me to realize between your traces of your petitions. They do say this professional out-of landowners wanted a ‘reform’ of matrimony while they aimed to reduce separated and you will widowed ladies’ conventional says into lands of the moms and dads, which were fundamentally taken advantage of of the their brothers. House deals and you will establishing highest plantations needed basic relationship and you can heredity laws and regulations, but this is cloaked during the a strike into the polygamy, a lure that Uk took. Footnote 72 Ergo, the british implemented an excellent European concept of wedding for the Kandyan populace, and this immediately caused a great flurry off legal actions as the every unregistered ous – were now deemed illegal. Berwick, this new vital court out-of Colombo, appropriately called the 1859 Ordinance a ‘sour gift out of bastardy’. Footnote 73

So it conjecture possibly is due to this new misunderstandings regarding the family relations ranging from Dutch formal legislation therefore the typical, uncodified, laws of your own Sinhalese

Even when polyandry could be punished from the to 36 months from tough labour, this new routine carried on until well for the twentieth-century, albeit inside the dwindling number. Thus, it actually was still easy for the fresh ethnographers which observed village lifetime throughout the mountainous indoor throughout the 1950s to review established polyandrous relationships or collect reminiscences away from past instance relations. Such as, individuals away from Udumulla in the eastern Sri Lanka evaluated polyandry surely: ‘It is rather good for every. .. These people need not mask the fresh new plan, there is nothing is ashamed of’. Footnote 74 Brand new ethnographic descriptions usually stress the brand new practical and somewhat unified characteristics of your polyandrous arrangement, which in an area was even named ‘surviving in one to peace’. Footnote 75 As to the reasons after that made it happen drop-off?