History of Sri Lanka Army - The Colonial Era
The capacity to sail enabled European powers to conquer nations which had not developed their sea powers. Two significant developments in the military sphere occurred during the Portuguese occupation. Firstly, military commanders such as Vidiya Bandara, Mayadunne, Rajasinghe and Vimaladharma organised resistance by raising a fighting element of the public into lascoreens and militias.
They built up fierce resistance to the foreign power, and to do so, developed strong espirit de corps which gave the Sinhala soldier a commendable fighting spirit. It is also reported that the manufacture of arms commenced during this period. So much so, that the weapons used by lascoreens included not only the traditional bows and arrows, swords, spears but also muskets made for them locally.
Artillery, in the form of 'Jingals' capable of throwing a ball four to twelve ounces in weight were also locally manufactured and used against fortifications. The sophistication of the weaponry was remarkable for those times and was a sign of the maturity of the Sinhala Armies which fought the foreign rulers.
The Portuguese must also be credited with the introduction of fortresses to Sri Lanka. During this era, whilst Sri Lanka's own forces developed in defence of their Motherland, there is no indication of the employment of local inhabitants in the Portuguese forces.
Like the Portuguese, the Dutch were confined to the maritime regions of the country. Their entry was regarded by the locals as a merciful alternative to the Portuguese occupation, but as time moved on and with Court intrigues amongst the rulers, discontent grew.
Local rulers made overtures to the British for assistance against the Dutch. The Dutch did not employ locals in their forces and preferred to live in isolation pursuing their interests in trade and commerce and defending their Forts with their own forces, which included Swiss and Malay mercenaries. The Dutch Forts in Jaffna, Galle, Matara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee were sturdily built and are a tribute to their Military engineering skills. The Colombo Fort was destroyed in British times.
During the first half century of British occupation there were uprisings and palace intrigues particularly after the adventure into the Kandyan Kingdom. The Kandyan forces resorted to guerrilla warfare and were quite successful in their conflict against a better armed force of the British. Initially the British had their own troops for the defence of the Island which included naval vessels, artillery troops and infantry. Their headquarters was in Trincomalee.
In 1796, troops in the Dutch service who were Swiss and Malay mercenaries transferred to the British East India Company. The British found that neither the Sinhalese nor the Tamils made trustworthy soldiers; and the Moormen and Malays, though a more warlike people, had no inclination towards the military profession. The Malays formed initially as a Malay Corps and later in 1802 as the 1st Ceylon Regiment under a British Commanding Officer. In the same year, a 'Sinhalese' unit was was raised and called the 2nd Ceylon Regiment, also known as the 'Sepoy' corps. In 1803 a 3rd Ceylon Regiment was raised with Moluccans and recruits from Penang. All these regiments fought in the Kandyan wars of 1803.
More Sinhalese and Malays were recruited to these regiments and in 1814 a 4th regiment was raised comprising African troops. In 1817 the name of the regiment was changed to the Ceylon Rifle Regiment. The first purely local corps was known as the "Armed Lascareyns," which existed from 1819 to 1822.
The regular armed force maintained in the island consisted in 1837 of four King's regiments of infantry (the head-quarters of which were stationed at Colombo, Kandy, and Trincomalee,) two companies of the Royal foot Artillery, a mounted body-guard for the Governor, and the 1st Ceylon regiment, composed principally of Malays, nearly two thousand strong.
By one account the 1st Ceylon regiment was "... one of the finest regiments in His Majesty's service. I have never seen any native troops on the continent pf India to equal the 1st Ceylon light infantry, either in appearance or manoeuvring, and their conduct during the Kandian war proved them to be inferior to no light infantry in the world. Their dress is dark green, and their arms a compact rifle, with a short strong sword attachable instead of a bayonet. They are native officered, as in the E. I. C.'s- Sepoy regiments, with European officers to each of the 16 companies, and their fidelity to their leaders has been evinced in every possible manner whenever an opportunity presented itself. I have seen many regiments of different nations under arms, but none ever offered to my view such a striking coup oVaeil as His Majesty's 1st Ceylon rifle regiment. Their bugle band surpasses anything of the kind to be met with in Europe, and the rapidity with which all the evolntions of the corps are performed at the war-stirring bugle's sound is really extraordinary."
After the Matale rebellion led by Puran Appu in 1848, the recruitment of Sinhalese was stopped. The history of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment marked the first phase of the employment of non-British personnel in Ceylon for service in the British Military establishment.
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