Dr. Sooriya Gunasekara 

As there is no English word to express Jathiya, they simply called Sinhalese a Nation.

Nation is a group of people with similarities in cultures and lifestyle.

Jathiya is also a group of people having their deep roots in the earth and sky of that particular country.

Jathiya is birth.

That is why, Jathiya can only be found in that particular country and not elsewhere.

Along with Sinhalese there can’t be more than six Jathies nowadays, although there are hundreds of nations.

There are two categories of Nations and Jathies in the world today.

First comes, those countries named by their Nations. E.g. Chinese – China, French – France, Sinhalese – Sinhale (up to 1815) Germans – Germany are some examples.

Second comes those Africans and Latin American countries which were civilized by Europeans during the 19^th century. Eg. Kenya-Kenyans, Nigeria-Nigerians, Cuba-Cubans, Guatemala-Guatemalans, are some examples for that category. As they did not have, civilizations or cultures, Nation got name of the country.

In 1972 all of a sudden Ceylon became Sri Lanka and the Jathiya became Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka Freedom Party was in power along with two other parties. Politicians along with Media gave wide publicity for this game. The cover page of constitution of 1972 indicated as (Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka)

Politicians and media may have thought that the cover page is also a part of the constitution.

For a prudent person intention is very clear both Politician and Media wanted to bring down Sinhalese Jathiya to be Africans or Latin American tribal group.

Dr. Sooriya Gunasekara