{"id":54924,"date":"2016-05-23T15:30:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T21:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=54924"},"modified":"2016-05-23T08:22:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:22:10","slug":"the-census-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/05\/23\/the-census-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"THE CENSUS OF SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The first census of Ceylon of which there is a record is the census of 1824. That was an incomplete census which grouped the population by caste.\u00a0 The first complete population census \u00a0\u00a0of Ceylon was the census of 1871.\u00a0 This census left out \u2018caste\u2019 and introduced \u2018race\u2019 and \u2018nationality\u2019, \u00a0\u00a0two European\u00a0\u00a0 concepts which were in vogue at the time.\u00a0\u00a0 Race appeared for the first time in this census.\u00a0 There were 72 nationalities and 24 races, including foreign ones such as Chinese, German and Irish. The local \u2018races\u2019 were Sinhalese, Tamil, Burgher, Chetty, Malay and Moor. Sinhalese and Tamils were \u2018races\u2019 as well as \u2018nationalities\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Sinhala, Tamil and Moor races were officially recognized for the first time in 1871. The proportions were Sinhalese 69.40%, Tamils 22.21% and Moor 6.79%. There was a census every ten years or so after 1871. \u00a0At the 8th International Statistical Congress 1872, it was agreed that a census must include language, religion, birthplace and nationality. The 1881 Census referred to 72 nationalities in the text but classified the population only by \u2018race.\u2019 The races were \u2018Europeans, Sinhalese, Tamil, Moors, Malay, Veddahs and Other\u2019. Race became the main category of classification thereafter. The 1911 Census\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 had ten races, \u2018Low country Sinhalese, Kandyan Sinhalese, Indian Tamils, Ceylon Tamils, Indian\u00a0\u00a0 Moors, (also known as Coast Moors) Ceylon Moors, Malays, Burghers, Veddahs, Europeans and Other\u2019.<\/p>\n

The 1911 Census said Sinhalese and Tamils are distinct, clearly differentiated races. They have their own religion and speak different languages. \u2018Their settlements are clearly defined.\u2019 Intermarriage between them is very rare. Even a superficial observer could see, it said, that there are marked physical differences between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. However, \u00a0the 1921 census has photographs of the \u2018races\u2019. They all look alike. The\u00a0\u00a0 difference was in their costumes, not in facial or physical characteristic.<\/p>\n

Ponnambalam Arunachalam in his introduction to the 1901 census used history to show that the Sinhala and Tamil races were genuine and long standing. Arunachalam added a chapter on the history of Ceylon to the 1901 census. This\u00a0\u00a0 was not there in the earlier reports. \u00a0He wrote that the Tamils and Sinhalese have lived in the island for two thousand years. He drew attention to Dutugemunu\u2019s fight with Elara. Denham in 1911 said that the Sinhalese and Tamils had been in Sri Lanka for centuries, fighting with each other. However, he added that only the Sinhalese could \u2018regard Ceylon as home\u2019. It was the \u2018shrine of their national traditions.\u2019<\/p>\n

Each district was\u00a0\u00a0 designated \u2018Tamil\u2019 district\u2019 and \u2018Sinhala district\u2019 according to the racial percentage. This created geographically contiguous \u2018Tamil areas\u2019 and \u2018Sinhala areas\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0Census of 1871 showed 50-90% Sinhalese in all provinces except Jaffna, Vanni, Mannar (5%) and Trincomalee, Batticaloa (10%). Tamils were 90% in Vanni and Jaffna, 70% in Mannar and Eastern province, 40% in Central province and 16% in Badulla. Moors were 35% in Batticaloa 30-20% in Mannar, Trincomalee and Puttalam.<\/p>\n

The Census of 1891 has three separate maps indicating the \u2018relative proportions of races\u2019 for Tamil, Sinhala and Moor. Jaffna, Vanni, Mannar, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts were assigned in bright pink to the Tamils. These figures ignore the important issue of population density. \u00a0The 1911 census showed the following population density. In Northern Province, Jaffna with 998 sq miles had 326,510 persons. Mannar had 904 sq miles and 25,603 persons, Mullaitivu had 1466 sq miles and 17,336 persons.\u00a0 In Eastern province, Batticaloa had 2800 sq miles and 153,943 persons Trincomalee had 1048 sq miles and 29,374 persons.<\/p>\n

Sometime after the Sinhala race\u201d was invented, it got bisected.\u00a0 Ponnambalam Arunachalam, Superintendant of Census, divided the Sinhalese into Kandyan and Low country for the 1901 census. Then he said that Tamils were equal to each of the Sinhala groups when taken separately. Census of 1921 stated that the Kandyan Sinhalese differed from the Low country Sinhalese in all respects except those of color, religion and language. Kandyan villagers saw the Low country Sinhalese as a separate race (pahata rata minissu), probably due to the impact of Portuguese, Dutch, British, Malay and Chinese influences (sic).<\/p>\n

Census of 1911 \u00a0however, stated \u2018 the distinction between Kandyan and Low country Sinhalese is every year lessened, intermarriages are on the increase and in many parts\u00a0\u00a0 of the\u00a0 \u2018Up country\u2019, it is difficult to distinguish\u00a0 between Kandyan and Low country men and women\u2019\u00a0 Then\u00a0 in \u00a01922\u00a0\u00a0 a\u00a0 district court case dealing with property rights in marriage\u00a0 went\u00a0 into appeal and\u00a0 Supreme Court ruled that\u00a0 that Low country Sinhalese\u00a0 and Kandyan Sinhalese were the same race. (NLR vol.24 p245)<\/p>\n

But as late as 1946, persons from the Central, North central, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces, the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts and the \u2019Sinhalese divisions\u2019 of the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Vavuniya continued to be Kandyan. Persons from Western and Southern provinces and Chilaw and Puttalam districts were Low country (Census 1946). Arthur Ranasinghe, Superintendant of census for 1946 cited the 1922 case and observed that this division made no sense. Kandyan and Low- country Sinhalese were treated as two separate census groups from 1901 to 1971. \u00a0They were combined in the 1981 census.<\/p>\n

Ponnambalam Arunachalam said in the 1901 census that the \u2018modern\u2019 approach at that time was to identify \u2018aggregations of persons believed or presumed to belong to the same stock and having a common language, character and political institutions.\u2019 \u00a0But no objective criteria \u00a0were devised for this. The answer given by the respondent was accepted by the enumerators in 1981. Denham had said in 1911 that it is inconceivable that any Sinhalese would enter himself as Tamil or vice versa.<\/p>\n

The British rulers used the census to sort the population into ethnic groups.\u00a0 The reason was political. They needed it for dividing and ranking the population. The groups \u00a0that emerged violated the\u00a0 first principle in classification, which is to classify by one single criterion. The British have used mixed criteria, known as cross classification. This is similar to classifying one person by height, another by weight and the third by age.\u00a0 The \u2018Moors\u2019 are Muslim (religion) \u2018Tamils\u2019 are an immigrant Tamil speaking group\u00a0\u00a0 (language). The \u2018Sinhalese\u2019 are the\u00a0 citizens of Sinhaladvipa.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The word \u2018Sinhala \u2018\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0indicates nationality. They are not a race.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018race \u2018was replaced by \u2018ethnic group\u2019 in the late 1960s. An \u2018<\/em>ethnic<\/em> group\u2019<\/em> was defined as a group that shared a distinct culture, religion or language, which differed from the other groups living close by.\u00a0 Critics point out however, that the ethnic groups that appear in the national census of former colonies were mostly invented by their European rulers. Though ethnic groups said they had existed for centuries, historians found that many of their cultural practices were \u2018of recent invention.\u2019 Some societies had not even heard of \u2018race\u2019. Sinhala had no separate word for \u2018race\u2019. The Sinhala term “jati\/jatiya” was\u00a0 adopted for \u2018nation,\u2019 \u2018caste\u2019 and \u2018race\u2019 depending on the context.<\/p>\n

The Population Census, which is based on the Census Ordinance, has a great deal of authority and influence. Its statistics are used as the base for many economic activities, such as distribution of state resources.\u00a0\u00a0 Its ethnic categories, which are utterly artificial, are accepted as official. This has led to other complications. These artificial ethnic Identities then started to\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 develop a life \u00a0\u00a0and history of their own \u00a0\u00a0and became fixed.\u00a0\u00a0 Now they are claiming land rights\u00a0 and\u00a0\u00a0 sovreignity.<\/p>\n

The 1981 census classified the population into six ethnic groups: \u2018Sinhalese, Sri Lanka Tamil, Indian Tamil, Sri Lanka Moor, Burgher, Malay and other.\u2019\u00a0 The 2012 census added \u2018Sri Lanka Chetty\u2019 and \u2018Bharatha\u2019 to the list. The ethnic pattern in 2012 was: Sinhalese (15,250,081) Sri Lanka Tamil (2,269,266) Indian Tamil (839,504) Sri Lanka Moor (1,892,638) Burgher (38,293) Malay (44,130) Sri Lanka Chetty (5,595), Bharatha (1,717) Other (18,215).\u00a0 Total 20,359,439. (Census 2012).<\/p>\n

The ethnic groups in this list consist of two categories, indigenous and immigrant. The \u2018Sinhalese\u2019 were there when the Europeans rulers came in. \u2018Moors\u2019 arrived spasmodically from south India, to the Kotte and Udarata kingdoms. \u2018Burghers, Malay and Tamils\u2019 came during Dutch rule. \u2018Indian Tamils, Sri Lanka Tamils, Chetty, Bharatha\u2019 came during British rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS The first census of Ceylon of which there is a record is the census of 1824. That was an incomplete census which grouped the population by caste.\u00a0 The first complete population census \u00a0\u00a0of Ceylon was the census of 1871.\u00a0 This census left out \u2018caste\u2019 and introduced \u2018race\u2019 and \u2018nationality\u2019, \u00a0\u00a0two European\u00a0\u00a0 concepts which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}