Simon Casie Chetty

Casie Chetty was born on 21 March 1807 in Kalpity in north-western Ceylon.[1][2][3] He was the son of Gabriel Casie Chetty, Mudaliyar of Kalpity, and Marie de Rosairo.[3] He belonged to Ceylon's small Chetty community, descendants of Tamils from Tirunelveli district in India who migrated to Ceylon during Portuguese rule and converted to Catholicism.[2][3] Gabriel's father Adrian converted to Protestantism during Dutch rule and was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church.[3]

Simon Casie Chetty was baptised as an Anglican in Colombo.[3] He was educated at a Tamil school in Kalpity and in Colombo.[3] As well as Tamil, he was proficient in English, Sinhalese, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic.[3] He also had knowledge of Portuguese, Dutch, Latin and Greek.[3]

Casie Chetty married his cousin in 1839.[3] They had two sons (John and Aloysius) and a daughter.

Casie Chetty was appointed interpreter to the magistrates court in Kalpity in 1824, aged 17.[1][3] He was appointed interpreter to the Office of Assistant Collector of Puttalam in 1826 and in 1828 he became collector of Chilaw.[3] Following the death of his father in 1837 he was appointed Mudaliyar and a proctor.[3] He later became Maniagar (British appointed administrative chief) for Puttalam.[2][3]

Following the death of A. Coomaraswamy Casie Chetty was appointed to the Legislative Council of Ceylon in 1838 as the unofficial member representing Tamils.[1][2][3] He resigned after seven years and joined the Ceylon Civil Service, becoming the first Ceylonese civil servant.[1][3][4] He was appointed police magistrate in Kalpity in 1847 and district judge for Chilaw, a position he held until his death.[1][2][3]

Casie Chetty was responsible for the construction of St. Peter's Church in Kalpity in 1839 and paid half the costs himself.[3] He also ran a Tamil school in Kalpity catering for 50 boys.[3] He became a member of the Ceylonese branch of the Royal Asiatic Society when it was established in 1845.[3] He wrote several books and manuscripts, most notably Ceylon Gazetteer (1834), The Tamil Plutarch (1859) and The Castes, Customs, Manners and Literature of the Tamils (1934).[1][2][3]

Casie Chetty died on 5 November 1860 in Kalpity.[3] Prior to his death he had converted to Catholicism.[3] The Sri Lankan government issued a 75 cent stamp in 1989 honouring Casie Chetty.[1][3][5]