{"id":90271,"date":"2019-06-12T15:11:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T22:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90271"},"modified":"2019-06-12T15:13:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T22:13:19","slug":"ethnicity-in-sri-lanka-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/12\/ethnicity-in-sri-lanka-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"ETHNICITY IN SRI LANKA Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The\nBritish who ruled Sri Lanka from 1815-1948 invented three bogus races for Sri\nLanka, when they were ruling in Sri Lanka. The three races were       \u2018Sinhala\u2019<\/strong>,\n\u2018Ceylon Tamil\u2019<\/strong> and \u2018Ceylon Moor\u2019<\/strong> . The word Sinhala which indicated\na nationality, and which included all the citizens of Sinhaladvipa was now\nreduced to the status of a race.   The\nTamil speaking, landless agricultural labor arriving in Dutch times from\npresent day Tamilnadu became the \u2018Ceylon Tamil\u2019 race. Muslims engaged in the\ncarrying trade, who were present in the island when the British arrived, became\nthe \u2018Ceylon Moor\u2019 race. The fourth race, Burghers\u201d<\/strong>\nwere those left behind after Dutch rule.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSinhala leaders in charge of ushering in Independence on February 4. 1948,\nfully believed that the island   was\npopulated by Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors and Burghers, they had been there for\ncenturies and it was the British who kindly pointed this out. The possibility\nthat these were imaginary categories invented by the British did not occur to\nthem. The four races were recognized in a big way on Independence Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceylon gained independence\nfrom Britain on February 4, 1948.  Sir\nHenry Monck-Mason Moore, then governor of Ceylon was sworn in as Ceylon’s new\nGovernor General, at a solemn ceremony at King’s House, Colombo, early that\nmorning. The action then moved to Torrington Place, Colombo.\nThe lion flag was hoisted at a ceremony at the Assembly Hall at Torrington\nPlace, signaling Ceylon\u2019s new status as a free country. I vividly remember the\nUnion Jack coming down, and the Lion Flag being hoisted,\u201d said 96-year-old\nEdwin Ariyadasa.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tissa Devendra\nalso recalled the event in   some detail.\nA spacious quadrangle had been cleared on the old Spitfire airstrip opposite\nthe former Lunatic Asylum, he said.  Independence\nHall sits there today. A towering flagstaff was erected with four clear avenues\nleading up to it from the four cardinal directions, north south east and\nwest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From these\nfour avenues, the four races of Sri Lanka came running in to announce\nindependence.  Tissa Devendra recalls\nthis \u2018Great Run\u2019. Four messages were\nbrought by four runners from four corners of the Island. Four champion athletes came running in from Point Pedro, Dondra,\nBatticaloa   and Colombo, bearing\nscrolls. The runners were Walter May of Richmond, Lakshman Kadirgamar of\nTrinity, Oscar Wijesinghe of St Thomas and Mohamed Sheriff of Wesley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sinhala\nscroll came from Dondra via Matara, Galle, Kalutara, Panadura, Dehiwala,\nWellawatta and Pamankada, the Tamil one from Point Pedro, through Jaffna,\nVavuniya, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Kegalle and Kelaniya. The Arabic message came\nfrom Batticaloa through the Uva plantations and Kirillapone. The English one\nstarted from Wellawatta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nsynchronized grace, these four athletic young men , Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim,\nBurgher ,ran up   and handed over scrolls\nof solidarity, to four  <\/em>  charming and self-conscious young ladies,  representing Burghers, Tamils, Muslims and\nSinhalese,  who were standing  facing the four\navenues. There were   loud cheers and the \u2018ululation of conch\nshells\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The messages\ncontained in the scrolls were thereafter read by the four\ngirls. They wore ethnic dress. Kandyan saree, Jaffna style saree, full skirted\nMuslim garb, and a stylish frock,\u201d said Tissa. \n Swarnamali Amarasuriya, Sirimani\nRamachandran, Ayesha Zally and Phyllis de Kretser read those messages in their\nrespective languages. The messages\nwere read in the order of Sinhala, Arabic, English and Tamil. The\nmessages were thereafter handed over to Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake to be deposited in\nthe foundation of the Independence pillar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three\ngirls representing Tamil, Muslim and Burgher were undergraduates in the\nuniversity. The girl selected as the representative for Sinhala was unable to\ntake part. The authorities had to come up with a replacement in a hurry.\nVisakha Vidyalaya     was contacted.\nVisakha teachers put together 10 presentable girls. J.R. Jayewardene Minister\nof Finance, and A. Ratnayaka, Minister of Food, Co-operatives and Home Affairs,\nwere entrusted the task of picking a suitable person, heard the girls read the\nimpromptu message aloud. They selected Swarnamali Amarasuriya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Swarnamali Amarasuriya, now Salgado is the\nonly one living today, of the four girls. Island<\/em>\ninterviewed her. Swarnamali and the other three girls were allowed their choice\nof attire for the occasion. The Burgher girl wore a dress and the Muslim girl a\nfull skirted Muslim garb. At 16, Swarnamali had never worn a saree.\n“Besides it wouldn\u2019t have been right to wear a saree since the Tamil girl\nalso wore a saree,” Her young age at the time prevented her from wearing a\nKandyan. Swarnamali finally decided on the half saree.”Athlete Oscar\nWijesinghe handed me the message,” said Swarnamali. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swarnamali\nread, in English, a translation of the Sinhala message she delivered on that\nhistoric day. Island <\/em>recorded the\nmessage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Rejoice, for we conquer! We have come from\nthe four corners of Lanka, from Point Pedro, the Northern most, Batticaloa, the\neastern most, Devundara, the Southernmost and Colombo the Western most\ncities.”In our journey whither to the Independence Memorial, our feet had\ntouched every province, in the land and the chief towns therein.”We recall\nthe glories of our ancient civilizations as we pass through Anuradhapura. The\ntrials and difficulties of the living present impressed themselves on our minds\nas we approached the capital city of Colombo.”A vision of the future that\nis to be, appeared before us as we thought of the great irrigation works such\nas Gal Oya, now under construction.”We the youth of this country drawn\nfrom all races, classes and creeds, who have travelled night and day through\njungle and town, over hill and dale, seeking you, the leader of our nation,\noffer a promise of sacrifice, and cooperation in the common task of rebuilding\nour nation.”On this historic day, when we commemorate the first\nanniversary of a Lanka, free once again after 133 years of subjection, at this\nhallowed spot, where the first free parliament of the people assembled, we\npledge ourselves as citizens of one nation to combat and defeat the evils that\nwe have inherited from the recent past, so that we too may say, \u2018Rejoice, for\nwe conquer!\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This absurd  \u2018Independence ceremony\u2019, featuring non-existence\n\u2018races\u2019 showed that  from the first day\nof Independence, Sri Lanka  firmly\nembraced the notion of four separate races in Sri Lanka .The  public  \nalso was encouraged by this ceremony to think in terms of these bogus\nraces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Independence Day Great Run\u201d presented all\nfour bogus races as equal. But they were NOT equal. The ethnic percentages given\nin the Census of 1946 were Sinhala 69.4%, Ceylon Tamil 11.02%, Ceylon Moor\n5.61% and Burghers 0.63%.  The total\npopulation of Ceylon in the Census of 1946 was 46,205,00. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The British who ruled Sri Lanka from 1815-1948 invented three bogus races for Sri Lanka, when they were ruling in Sri Lanka. The three races were       \u2018Sinhala\u2019, \u2018Ceylon Tamil\u2019 and \u2018Ceylon Moor\u2019 . The word Sinhala which indicated a nationality, and which included all the citizens of Sinhaladvipa was now reduced to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90271","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\/90271","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=90271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}