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Gaadi: History from below – By UDITHA DEVAPRIYA Source : sundayobserver Prasanna Vithanage’s Gaadi opens with a meeting between Ehelepola Adigar and John D’Oyly in 1814. The two of them are negotiating the deposal of the Kandyan King, and the issue of who is to follow him. The British have their motives: D’Oyly tells the Adigar that all they want is to access the region for trade. The Adigar has his: he tells D’Oyly that he and the other native chiefs wish to get rid of the “Vaduga king”, but want to preserve the social order in their realm. The Adigar grants D’Oyly permission to do what he wants, then makes him swear upon the Bible that he will protect that order. By this point, the Kandyan Kingdom was facing a blockade by the colonial Government, which had established control in the Maritime Provinces. As Gananath Obeyesekere has observed in his ...