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‘Furnished in English Style’: Anglicization of Local Elite Domestic Interiors in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) c. 1850 to 1910

Present-day historians of Sri Lanka have noted a growing Anglicization in the life-styles and consumption habits of the indigenous social elite on the island during the nineteenth century. The causes of such a change in local society and the extent of factors, such as access to western education, in this process have also been debated, particularly in relation to the formation of this local elite. There is, however, general agreement that the development of Anglicized tastes and habits of consumption amongst this group were new factors particular to the colonial era that set members of this group apart from the majority of the population. Assimilation of the cultural attributes of the west aided the social (as well as political) advancement of the local elite within colonial society and smoothed the processes of government on the island; yet the development of taste for western goods amongst high-placed members of the local population in Ceylon has not been given the attention it deserves. Lord Macaulay's well-known memorandum of 1835, although intended to outline British education policy in India, at the same time advanced taste as an agent for the development of a new class of Indian subjects that were to be the interface between: '[the British] and the millions we govern — a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, in intellect.' If anything, adoption of British taste in their choice of consumer goods by the social elite of Ceylon was more pronounced than that of their peers in India.