5. Epilogue: polyandry about nineteenth and you will 20th centuries

For the 1795, Dutch Ceylon decrease to your British hands, in addition they managed to get a top nest in 1802. Of the 1815, they had and beaten the previous separate Kingdom of Kandy. British specified that throughout the previous Dutch countries the present rules might possibly be kept, whereas in the Kandy classic guidelines were to become adopted, which were then codified. We have seen regarding the basic area one multiple article authors thought the Portuguese and also the Dutch got efficiently stamped away polyandry from inside the the fresh new coastal provinces. Multiple masters claim that, used, vintage legislation got held precedence, except if what the law states are ‘hushed or inapplicable’. Footnote 68 In reality, we come across during the section 3 exactly how a good Eu lawyer actually invoked these types of traditional statutes to help you plead the latest authenticity regarding polyandry. Footnote 69 But not, the british assumed from the start that maritime provinces had been influenced centered on Roman-Dutch legislation. Currently inside the 1822, they bought the newest lso are-regarding the school thombos, not just to own Christians but for the whole inhabitants of coastal provinces. The newest pre-eminence of Roman Dutch Law was codified inside a charter out of 1831, and you may a regulation regarding 1847 given the banned levels of relationships, minimal ages of people, and you may grounds for divorce. Ultimately, within the 1861 Roman-Dutch rules try proclaimed since the binding for the entire island. Footnote 70 Which paradoxical courtroom state has been summarised as well by Jayawardene: ‘[The new Dutch] put the newest Roman-Dutch Law in order to Ceylon; but it’s brand new English… who centered it involving the Singhalese, who managed to get legislation of your land’. Footnote 71

The new woman becomes food from for each and every spouse, and so they the do have more

We surmise the even more strict application of Roman-Dutch regulations and also the expansion out of ilies regarding coastal parts offered an effective polyandrous partnership. As such a wedding wasn’t courtroom, pupils couldn’t inherit off their 2nd father. Think about the interior? The codified Kandyan laws and regulations contained all sorts of stipulations regarding how inheritances regarding shared husbands would be to end up being split. But in the 1850s good reent occurred. Within the 1855, Governor Ward gotten a great petition on the Chiefs out-of Kandy, ‘hoping towards abolition because of the laws and regulations away from polygamy and you can polyandry’. The new plea was constant twice from inside the 1858, eventually becoming picked up by as an alternative confused British, exactly who continued inside 1859 to outlaw polygamy and split up from the shared consent and create registered monogamous wedding the only legal form. As to the reasons did brand new elites change against her lifestyle and exactly why performed they give you the british that it possible opportunity to ‘civilise’ the Sinhalese? Some scholars exhort me to comprehend between your outlines of the petitions. People say that elite regarding landowners wished a ‘reform’ away from relationship while they aimed to attenuate separated and you will widowed women’s standard says towards places of its parents, that have been essentially taken advantage of by their brothers. Land deals and you may setting-up highest plantations called for basic matrimony and you may inheritance guidelines, but this was cloaked inside the a strike to the polygamy, a lure that the United kingdom got. Footnote 72 Thus, british enforced a great European thought of matrimony into the Kandyan population, and this immediately caused an excellent flurry regarding legal actions as every unregistered ous – was indeed now considered illegal. Berwick, the newest important judge from Colombo, appropriately called the 1859 Regulation a good ‘bitter provide regarding bastardy’. Footnote 73

That it supposition possibly stems from the new dilemma regarding the relation between Dutch official law together with regular, uncodified, regulations of your own Sinhalese

Regardless if polyandry was punished by the doing 36 months regarding difficult labour, brand new habit continued until well on the twentieth https://gorgeousbrides.net/fi/kuumia-ja-seksikkaita-japanilaisia-tyttoja/ century, albeit in diminishing numbers. Therefore, it had been however possible for the latest ethnographers whom seen village lifetime on the mountainous indoor on 1950s to study current polyandrous affairs or assemble reminiscences off previous such affairs. As an example, individuals away from Udumulla in the east Sri Lanka analyzed polyandry undoubtedly: ‘It’s very perfect for most of the. .. They need not cover-up the newest arrangement, there is nothing are ashamed of’. Footnote 74 The ethnographic definitions commonly emphasise the newest practical and you will quite harmonious characteristics of one’s polyandrous plan, that one area happened to be entitled ‘staying in one peace’. Footnote 75 As to why up coming made it happen disappear?