Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
DOI
10.4038/ucr.v5i1.183
Publication Title
University of Colombo Review
Volume
5
Issue
1
Pages
5-25
Abstract
Local history has been conventionally defined as a chronicle of a limited geographical area. The study of local history can have positive outcomes including reconstructing our ancestor’s everyday lives and providing opportunities for students to develop investigative research skills, develop linkages with locals and to also motivate students to improve their basic skills of reading, writing and critical thinking. Unlike in the West, however, where local historians use old records of their locality, local historians of lands colonized by Westerners have problems finding source material. For example, in Sri Lanka, the Portuguese occupying the southwest lowlands destroyed Buddhist and Hindu temples which often contained local records. They tried to replace the temples with Roman Catholic churches, but these records also seem to have been lost when they were also mostly abandoned or destroyed under Calvinist Dutch rule. This article, based on an examination of Portuguese archival material relating to an area on the western coast of Sri Lanka during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, argues that, despite the gaps created by the loss of local records, data from colonial archival sources when used with a critical eye, can be used to give us some insights on economic practices within localities that were colonized. They also provide at least a glimpse of both the changes and the continuities in the life of the people, as well as the economic burdens imposed on them by the state during colonial rule and the social changes that resulted from colonial policies.
Rights
© 2024 The Author.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ORCID
0000-0002-2906-4601 (de Silva)
Original Publication Citation
de Silva, C. R. (2024). The challenges of writing the history of localities that were under colonial rule in the early phase of European expansion: An investigation into writing the history of Negombo (Sri Lanka) in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. University of Colombo Review, 5(1), 5-25. https://doi.org/10.4038/ucr.v5i1.183
Repository Citation
de Silva, Chandra R., "The Challenges of Writing the History of Localities That Were Under Colonial Rule in the Early Phase of European Expansion: An Investigation into Writing the History of Negombo (Sri Lanka) in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries" (2024). History Faculty Publications. 60.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/history_fac_pubs/60
Included in
Asian History Commons, Economic History Commons, Labor History Commons, Social History Commons