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Nationalisms in Ceylon: Origins, Stimulants and Ingredients-by MICHAEL ROBERTS Source:Thuppahis REPRODUCING CHAPTER III IN VOLUME I OF DOCUMENTS OF THE CEYLON NATIONAL CONGRESS AND NATIONALIST POLITICS IN CEYLON, 1929-1950, VOL I, 1977, DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL ARCHIVES, 1977 , PP. LXVIII–LXXVIII ** While the political activists of the first half of the twentieth century were drawn from both the national and the local elites, the political leadership (at significant island-wide levels) was largely composed of individuals who could be ranked among the national elite. As indicated earlier, the national elite was a small segment of the Ceylonese population. Its levels of wealth, power and status, its lifestyle, and its value-system marked it off from the rest of the population. In such circumstances, it is no surprise that the older, rosy image of “nationalists” as selfless-patriots who led the struggle against foreign political domination is no longer accepted. Indeed, the tendency in some circles today ...