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Status, Achievement, and Education in Ceylon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Bryce Ryan
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The Ethic that produced a Ben Franklin or a John D. Rockefeller has imbued relatively few persons in Ceylon. There is no doubt that Ceylonese are as ambitious as other peoples, but their historic value systems have been quite different from that of Western society. Their status-achievement-work value matrix has been nurtured by institutions of government, education, marriage, social class, and caste—particularly by education in modern times. The major characteristics of this set of values are: (1) Employment in government service is of higher status than equivalent work in private enterprise; (2) Neither work itself nor idleness has much moral flavor, i.e., productive employment is not a value in and of itself; (3) Except for agriculture, manual employments of any type are denigrated, as are, to a lesser extent, entrepreneurial activities; (4) Thrift and savings are typically viewed as serving the purposes of consumption rather than of investment; (5) Wealth in land is more highly esteemed and secure than is any alternative form of investment. Although elements of this value set are shared by Sinhalese and Tamils, the present analysis has more explicit reference to the Sinhalese.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 1961 , pp. 463 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1961

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References

1 Various studies carried out independently by T. L. Green, Murray Straus, and Bryce Ryan support this observation. The data cited in this paragraph are taken from an unpublished study by the writer.

2 Green, T. L., “Education and Social Needs in Ceylon,” University of Ceylon Review (UCR), X, (October 1952), 297–316Google Scholar. Cf. Green, T. L. and Wickramasooriya, Chitra, “The Vocational Attitudes of Ceylonese Graduate Teachers,” UCR, XI (January 1953), 10–16Google Scholar.

3 Bryce, Ryan, Jayasena, L. D., and Wickremesinghe, D. C. R., Sinhalese Village (Coral Gables, 1958), p. 176Google Scholar.

4 “Family Characteristics and Occupational Choice of University Entrants as Clues to the Social Structure of Ceylon,” VCR, IX (April 1951), 125–134Google Scholar.

5 Ceylon National Chamber of Commerce, “Programme for Progress,” The Ceylon Economist (CE), in (May 1957), 281–298Google Scholar.

6 Unpublished data derived in connection with a study by Ryan, Bryce and Fernando, Sylvia and reported upon in “The Female Factory Worker in Colombo,” International Labour Review, LXIV (November-December 1951), 438–461Google Scholar.

7 Green, “Education and Social Needs in Ceylon.”

8 Sinhalese Village, p. 176.

9 “Mental Ability and Cultural Needs: A Psycho-Cultural Interpretation of the Intelligence Test Performance of Ceylon University Entrants,” ASR, XVI (June 1951), 371–375Google Scholar.

10 In a fully socialized economy the drive toward government employment per se and the reluctance of private wealth toward industrial and business enterprise might not be serious. Capital is not fully regimented in Ceylon and in those areas where government has entered industry the results have not been heartening. The collaboration of government and private capital has not been entirely satisfactory either. A leading Colombo newspaper, the Ceylon Observer, as recently as May 3, 1959, reports the failure of such a joint scheme for the production of car batteries, a project which experts are said to have found economically sound.

11 Few studies of agricultural problems fail to report the adverse effects of the tenure system on farm economy, but this is not the sole restraining factor. Recently a drastic Paddy Lands Bill has been passed which among other effects is designed to ameliorate this condition. See Kelegama, J. B., “The Economic Significance of the Paddy Lands Bill,” CE, IV (January 1958), 80–124Google Scholar.

12 As an example, see Sinhalese Village, pp. 172–178.

13 Tambiah, S. J., “The Process of Secularization in Three Ceylonese Peasant Communities,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Cornell University, Ithaca, 1954)Google Scholar.

14 Sinhalese Village, pp. 173–174.

15 Kelegama, J. B., “The Ceylon Economy in the War and Post-War Years,” CE, III (May 1957), 318–368.Google Scholar

16 The Economic Development of Ceylon (Baltimore, 1953), p. 55Google Scholar.

17 Ryan, Bryce, Caste in Modern Ceylon (New Brunswick, 1953), esp. Chapter 13.Google Scholar

18 Reimers, E., “Some Sinhalese Names and Surnames,” Journal of Ceylon Royal Asiatic Society (JCRAS), XXXI (1930), 437–454Google Scholar. Taxation of names possibly refers to the Dutch period.

19 Knox, Robert, An Historical Relation of Ceylon (James Ryan edition, Glasgow, 1911)Google Scholar. The first edition of this work appeared in London, 1681.

20 Knox, pp. 80–83.

21 Knox, p. 86.

22 SirTennent, J. Emerson, Ceylon (London, second edition, 1859), II, 410Google Scholar.

23 Knox, p. 51.

24 Tennent, II, 91.

26 Tennent, II, 58, 487.

26 The dilemma of “British conscience” is evident in a variety of writers. Cf. Caste in Modern Ceylon, pp. 79–81. Dr. Ralph Pieris has presented a superb analysis of the clash between British liberal ideology and the Sinhalese ethos during the early years of colonization. See Pieris, Ralph, “Society and Ideology in Ceylon during a ‘Time of Troubles,’” UCR. This paper is in three parts beginning IX (July 1951), 171–185Google Scholar, and continued in two consecutive issues.

27 Cited by Kuruppu, N. S. G., “History of the Working–Class Movement in Ceylon: Pt. I, Labour and the Rise of Capitalism,” The Ceylon Historical Journal (CHJ), I (October 1951), 133–146Google Scholar.

28 Tennent, II, 131 and 144–148.

29 Robert Boyd so wrote in 1815. Cited in Ralph Pieris, IX (October 1951), 269.

30 See Pieris, especially X (January 1952), 179–202. Cf. Perera, A. B., “Plantation Economy and Colonial Policy in Ceylon,” CHJ, I (July 1951), 46–58Google Scholar.

31 Tennent, II, 410.

32 Pieris, IX (July 1951), 178.

33 Remembered Yesterdays, Being the Reminiscences of Maha Mudaliyar Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, K. C. M. G. (London, 1929).Google Scholar

34 Cited by Pieris, Ralph, “Administration of Justice and of Revenue on the Island of Ceylon under the Dutch Government (‘The Cleghorn Minute’), Introductory Note,” JCRAS, New Series, III (June 1954), 125–152. Citation p. 143.Google Scholar

35 The Autobiography of Tikjiri Banda Panabokke, edited by P. B. Panabokke and J. A. Halangoda (Kandy, undated). Significantly, the son of this Kandyan patriot in his own autobiography makes no secret of his own driving ambition for knighthood. Cf. The Autobiography of Sir Tikiri Banda panabokke (Kandy, 1939–1949).

36 Tennent, II, 172–173.

37 “Secular Education in the Pirivena,” CHJ, I (July 1951), 38–41Google Scholar.

38 Knox, p. 175.

39 Memoir of Joan Gideon Loten. Selections from the Dutch Records of the Ceylon Government, trans, by Reimers, E. (Colombo, 1935), p. 44Google Scholar.

40 Gratiaen, L. J., “The Central School Commission, 1841–1848,” JCRAS, XXXI, No. 83, 488–509. Reference is to p. 495.Google Scholar

41 Mendis, C. G., “Adult Franchise and Educational Reform,” UCR, II (October 1944), 37–43Google Scholar.

42 Regarding educational history and problems in Ceylon, I am deeply indebted to Rev. Sydney Bunker of Jaffna Christian College and Dr. H. Howes, formerly Director of Education in the Ceylon Government, for their personal discussions. Published sources utilized here include the following: Mendis, “Adult Franchise and Educational Reform,” pp. 37–43; Rev.Fernando, C. N. V., “Christian Missionary Enterprise in the Early British Period,” Pt. III, UCR, III (April 1950), 110–115Google Scholar; C. N. V. Fernando, ibid., IX (July 1951), 191–201; Ceylon Government, “Sessional Paper XXIV,” Report of the Special Committee on Education (Colombo, 1943); “Sessional Paper XXVII–1929,” Report of the Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Present System of Education in Ceylon (Colombo, October 1929); Boudens, Robrecht, “Attempts of Catholic Missionaries to Enter Ceylon in 1681–1683,” JCRAS, New Series, IV (Pt. I, May 1955), 35–44Google Scholar.

43 SirJennings, Ivor, “Nationalism and Political Development,” CHJ, III (July 1953), 62–84 (first of two consecutive parts).Google Scholar

44 “Education and Social Needs in Ceylon,” pp. 297–316.

45 Tambiah, S. J., “Ethnic Representation in Ceylon's Higher Administrative Services 1870–1946,” UCR, XIII (April–July 1955), 113–134Google Scholar; Straus, “Family Characteristics and Occupational Choice …”; SirJennings, Ivor, “Race, Religion and Economic Opportunity in the University of Ceylon,” UCR, II (October 1944), 1–13Google Scholar.