First, what were you? I'm dying to know.
Second, is an actual answer. The British first gained footing in Sri Lanka during a war with the Dutch who had control over the west coast of Sri Lanka. The British obtained formal control over the coasts while Kandy held the central in 1786. Of course the British were dissatisfied with just the coasts and demanded, sorry, politely asked for Kandy to become a British protectorate after. King Rajasingha IV refused but the British began to encroach further.
In 1803 the Kandians were betrayed and the British advanced upon the capital of Kandy (also called Kandy) and seiged it. They were successful and installed a puppet ruler, but the Kandians waged a guerilla counteroffenssive and restored the throne, driving out the British in 1805. This did not stop the British advance and they retained control of the non-mountainous parts of the island.
In 1815 the British took advantage of rebellion to dethrone the King of Kandy and disolve all pretense of independence. The Kandyan Convention ended with a treaty essentially ceading all lands to the British empire while rights were granted to the populace and the protection of Buddhism was guaranteed. Thus the British Empire took control of Sri Lanka. They were very unpopular and had to deal with another war in 1817 due to not really following the treaty and importing thousands of laborers to work the tea fields, but it isn't really important.
What is is that this all happened while British India was under Company Rule. Of course, this isn't to say that the East India Company had no power in British Ceylon, they had the exclusive cinnamon contract and often were vital to the trade of tea, rubber, and coffee to India, but they did not administer it. British officers administered Ceylon directly, and often heavy-handedly.
A key difference between the Company rule (and later the Raj) and British Rule over Ceylon was that in the later case, the British relied little on the native population and often were dismissive or actively antagonistic to them. Similarly, law in Ceylon was British law and by 1830 took little from traditional or Kandyan law. This made administration more direct, but inefficient.
An important event in British Ceylon was the "rebellion" of 1848. While smaller than the 1817-19 rebellion I glossed over, it had a greater impact on British policy. Begining in 1840 there was increasing pressure for the government to sever all ties with Buddhism and actively support Christianity. Despite the protests of the government, the colonial office would not relent so in 1844 they reluctantly severed all ties and supported Christian missionary activities. In 1847 the coffee market collapsed and Ceylon entered an economic depression leading to a minor famine since the British had decided to go with a plantation economy for tea and coffee. Around the same time the crime problem that had been growing since the first rebellion worsened and the British decided to restate their disassociation from Buddhism and support of The Church of England. All of this led to rebellion in central Ceylon and rioting in some coastal areas. While the rioting and rebellion was quelled, it had an enormous effect on policy and the Government quietly restored protection of Buddhism, while not supporting it in 1852.
When the British took over direct administration of mainland India, their policies were fundamentally opposed and Ceylon's administration was already quite different. In fact, British Ceylon had it's own constitution. Because of this, it seems there was little to no discussion as to whether to incorperate it into the Raj, and perhaps fear that the resistance in Ceylon would lead to rebellion in British India. By the time the administration had stabilized in the 1890's the Raj wanted no part in it since the economy had again collapsed.
That said, British India often found themselves importing workers elsewhere and Ceylon was no exception. The British had extreme difficulties with the Sinhalese and often used Tamils in their administration. Similarly, much of the goods produced in Ceylon went to British India and then to England via British Indians.
De Silva, K.M. (2005) A History of Sri Lanka 2nd Edition
James, Lawrence (1997) Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India
Malalgoda, Kitsiri (1976) Buddhism in Sinhalese Society: 1750-1900