Sitemap
Tales from the Long War

A compilation of oral histories from the combatants on both sides of Sri Lanka’s long running conflict. We aim to be impartial and record the memories of those who were involved, with no political judgements offered.

Member-only story

The Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps

4 min readMay 25, 2023

--

By the dawn of the 20th century Ceylon was a prosperous colony. Tea and rubber plantations produced a great deal of the island’s wealth. Spread mainly in the misty highlands, on land seized by the Crown and sold to British investors at nominal rates, the sprawling estates were originally planted with coffee. But a blight decimated the bushes in the 1870s and tea (Camellia sinensis) was planted in lieu. This proved successful, with Ceylon Tea gaining a reputation as the world’s best in a few years’ time.

A typical tea estate in the central hills of Sri Lanka

The backbone of the industry was its indentured labour, mostly brought in from southern India, who lived on the estates. They were supervised by British ‘planters’, usually recruited at a relatively young age directly from Britain. The class-system was firmly in place, with planters being exclusively British (i.e. ‘white’) and from ‘good’ schools. Planters’ Clubs were scattered around the hill towns in Ceylon. Equipped with tennis courts, rugger grounds and bars, the planters would congregate there on weekends, taking a break from what must have been a lonely, albeit comfortable, life on isolated estate bungalows — at least for the bachelors.

--

--

Tales from the Long War
Tales from the Long War

Published in Tales from the Long War

A compilation of oral histories from the combatants on both sides of Sri Lanka’s long running conflict. We aim to be impartial and record the memories of those who were involved, with no political judgements offered.

Suren Ratwatte
Suren Ratwatte

Written by Suren Ratwatte

I love airplanes and history. Trying to combine both interests in this blog, with stories of the old aircraft and the recollections of those who flew them.

No responses yet