2017 Feb 4
by Aazam Ameen
Sixty nine years ago, the people of this island nation were granted independence from British Rule. Ceylon then had a Dominion status which remained unchanged until twenty four years later when Sri Lanka became a republic. Mother Lanka has been independent for almost a centenary now and the departure of the British has brought about a tidal wave of change. Having said that, here are four reasons why we are better off without the British.
We became a Democracy
Today we are the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and if we face the facts, we would have never been able to call ourselves that if the British continued their reign of power in our land. The citizens of this country are able to freely exercise power directly to elect representatives to form a governing body, our Parliament. This is something that most of us ironically take for granted. This should not be the case because in essence, democracy represents freedom.
We elected the world’s first female prime minister
This feat certainly put our country on the map, mainly for being such a young nation at the time to break traditional male dominated stereotypes on leadership. Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s party managed to win 75 of the 151 elected seats which was a landslide majority in the Parliament. Under her leadership we were able to nationalize our country’s then British owned tea and rubber estates, which benefitted our economy greatly in the long run.
Our culture would have been dusted under the carpets
If the British never left, we would have assimilated into their way of life and culture . While this may not necessarily be a bad thing, what would have become of our own? Thousands of years of traditions would have been forgotten through the advancements of each generation. Let us not forget that our culture and traditions attract many people from lands afar to come experience it for themselves, thus directly contributing to our booming and growing tourism industry.
Last but not least, the food
Had our colonizers decided to stick around for longer, Sri Lankan food as we know it would not be the same. Imagine living here without rice and curry being a staple meal; pretty hard to comprehend right? Instead of our diverse range of spices that goes into our cuisine we would only have salt and pepper at our disposal. That is not the Lanka that I want to live in.
So there you have it, four reasons why we are better off without the British. However that doesn’t mean we aren’t grateful for the good things they have done for our country, namely infrastructure developments from building road networks to underground sewers. In that sense they really did help with getting us to stand on our own feet. Happy Independence Day folks!
