The rise and fall of Royal-Thomian- Bridget's era

25 Oct 2009

There are twelve local rulers in our country since we were given so called ‘independence’ by our colonial masters in 1948. And do you know that eleven out of these twelve rulers (11/12) were products of schools with Christian/Catholic background!!

Following is the list in the order of the terms;

1. 1947-1952 - Don Stephen Senanayake (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia)
2. 1952-1953 - Dudley Shelton Senanayake (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia)
3. 1953-1956 - John Lionel Kotalawela (Royal College, Collombo)
4. 1956-1959 - Solomon Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia)
5. 1959-1960 - Wijeyananda Dahanayake (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia)
6. 1960-1960 - Dudley Shelton Senanayake (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia)
7. 1960-1965 - Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (St Bridget's Convent, Colombo)
8. 1965-1972 - Dudley Shelton Senanayake (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia)
9. 1972-1978 - Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (St. Bridget's Convent, Colombo)
10. 1978-1989 - Junius Richard Jayewardene (Royal College, Colombo)
11. 1989-1993 - Ranasinghe Premadasa  (St Joseph's College, Colombo)
12. 1993-1994 - Dingiri Banda Wijetunga (St. Andrew's College, Gampola)
13. 1994-2001 - Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (St. Bridget's Convent, Colombo)
14. 2001-2004 - Ranil Wickremesinghe (Royal College, Collombo)
15. 2004-2005 - Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (St. Bridget's Convent, Colombo)
16. 2005-ToDate - Mahinda Rajapaksa (Richmond College - Galle, Nalanda College - Colombo, Thurstan College- Colombo)

Not surprisingly, the first two (so called) leaders were product of St. Thomas college Mt. Lavinia, followed by Royal College Collombo. Since (so called) independence till 1971, for continues 23 years, the helm of the country was sole property of Royal and Thomians.

Then it was the term of St Bridget's Convent, Colombo which was another missionary school. Until 1989 (for continues 41 years since independence), Sri Lanka has been governed by (so called) leaders of only three schools. !!! That is Thomian-Royal-Briget’s monarchy under neo-colonialism.

In 1505, the Portuguese landed in our emerald island with gun in one hand and Bible in the other hand. The gun officially silenced in 1948, but they made sure that the Bible keeps in actions in the background so that they can keep on exploiting.

How this was made possible? It’s the missionary education system established under colonial rule that did the trick. Let’s have a look at the inception of these three king (queen) makers.

Royal College:
The school was founded by the Rev. Joseph Marsh, the acting Colonial Chaplain at St. Paul's Church as the Hill Street Academy in 1835, as a private institution with 20 students, mainly from the upper class community situated at Hill Street, Pettah. (Resource – WIKI page of Royal College)

St. Thomas College:
St Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, is an Anglican school, founded by the first Bishop of Colombo, the Rt Rev James Chapman. It was his vision to build a College & Cathedral for the new Diocese of Colombo of the Church of Ceylon. On 3 February 1851 the College of St Thomas the Apostle, Colombo was opened with the objective of training a Christian clergy and making children into good citizens. (Resource – WIKI page of St.Thomas, Mt. Lavinia)

St Bridget's Convent:
St Bridget's Convent is a private girls' school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was founded on February 1st, 1902 by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd order, making it one of the earliest mission schools of the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland in Ceylon. (Resource – WIKI page of St Bridget's Convent, Colombo)

It is clear that all these three schools were founded under the patronage of Anglican-Catholic missionaries with full consent of the colonial rulers. While St. Thomas and St. Bridget’s retained their Saint Hood, the other preferred the symbolic name of Royal monarchy of England.

Initially, the colonial masters needed academic institutions to get their own sons and daughters educated. Later, the need of generating obedient government servants and clerical staff for their companies was fulfilled by those. At the latter part of colonial era, These Anglican schools served to educate the native comprodor segment of the country.

They were native in birth, but their soul was Christianized by their parents and later confirmed by the Anglican-Missionary education system. The products of these schools were brained washed and had no roots in the value system of Sinhala-Buddhist culture. They never dare to think beyond the boundaries set by their white masters and continued to serve them in whatever category. Few were assigned roles in Political arena and the rest were absorbed to the companies (Part of the pirated wealth was invested back in Sri Lanka under the flagship of multinational companies) set up by colonial masters.

The Anglo-Catholic education system has been producing obedient servant for over six decades and now facing the greatest challenge.

Related Posts:
- Neocolonialism (Origin of Compradors) – Part 1 (24 Oct 2007)
- Raj Rajaratnam - St. Thomes College, Mt Lavinia saga (18 Oct 2009)

References:
- WIKI page of St.Thomas college Mt.Lavinia
- WIKI page of Royal college Colombo
- WIKI page of St. Bridget college Colombo