{"id":90986,"date":"2019-07-02T16:24:44","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T23:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90986"},"modified":"2019-07-02T16:24:44","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T23:24:44","slug":"human-diversity-religious-hate-and-demographic-trends-in-sri-lanka-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/02\/human-diversity-religious-hate-and-demographic-trends-in-sri-lanka-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"HUMAN DIVERSITY, RELIGIOUS HATE AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS IN SRI LANKA PART 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n

Archaeological\ndiscoveries in Sri Lanka have proven that human settlements had been in the\ncountry since prehistoric era and the country had a long history of living\nhumans who were at the civilized level or not. \nArchaeologists and anthropologists attempted to give a clear picture of\nthe beginning humans based on the traces in the country and the historical evidence\nalso give conflicting views on the ancient population of Sri Lanka. The\nconflicting opinion seems to be concerned with the ethnic identity and it also\nappears that conflicting views of ethnic identity have involved in political\nbeliefs of historical analysts.  My focus\nof this article is to mainly consider the demographical trends related issues\nin Sri Lanka.  Current Sri Lanka has\nmisunderstandings about the population structure, its trend, and the patterns\nof growth.  The statistics published in\nthis article are official statistics of the population of Sri Lanka which were\npublished by the Census and Statistics Department and they are reliable\nstatistics found from official census with less than 0.05% of errors.  Before I enter to the focus, I would like to\ndiscuss in brief, some controversial issues in relation to ethnic identity and\nsome significant historical factors that had been influenced to the shape of\nthe population of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to\nhistorical evidence given in the Mahavansa, the ethnic group of Sinhala began\nwith effect from the arrival of Vijaya and his associates but historical\nevidence in the same book confirms that there were groups of humans called\nDevils in the country, when Vijaya embarked (Please read Chapter 1, the Visit\nof the Thathagatha in Mahavansa). \nFurther, the Mahavansa described that when Lord Buddha visited the\ncountry there were other groups of humans called Nagas and Devas. When we read\nthe book, a doubt creates in our minds whether so-called devils and nagas or\ndevas were humans or animals or spirits of real devils. If so-called devils\nwere demons, they were supposed to exist in all over the world in terms of\ngeneral beliefs of people, not only in Sri Lanka according to religious\nmythology.  The book further indicates\nthat human arrived under the leadership of Vijaya and the group of Vijaya\nassociated with devils.  As a result of\nthis union, a mixed-race people were originated in the country, they were\ncalled Sinhala.  My understanding is that\nso-called devils, nagas, and devas were humans, but they were religiously\nassociated with the worship of devils, cobras, and Gods. The diversity of\npopulation had existed in Sri Lanka since the beginning of settlements in the\ncountry. The settlements don\u2019t mean that the beginning of a new civilization\nand a culture after the embarkation of Vijaya and his followers but people who\nsettled before them had a civilization and a culture and Vijaya and his\nassociate mixing with domestic people open for a new civilization and a\nculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The significant\npoint we need to consider is that Sri Lanka was not an empty land (Terra\nNolias) when Vijaya and his associates embarked to the country.  Whatever the religious beliefs people had,\nthere were humans in the country and the arrival of Vijaya and his associates\nsubjected to alloying with existed people and to generate new groups of people,\nthey were called Sinhala.  There is an\ninternational wide story that a King called Ravana ruled the country with a\nlarge human population and the devils, who were described in the Mahavansa would\nhave related to them. The rule and the stories of Ravana have a historical\ncontroversy and some historians claim that Lanka of Ravana was not Sri Lanka,\nwhere we called now.  When we think in\nthat line, indigenous people of Sri Lanka were a community mixed with ancient\nhumans and the group of Vijaya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another\nissue relates to the beginning of Sinhala race. The historic book, the\nMahavansa attempted to interpret the ethnic group (Sinhala) began from a lady\nSuppa Devi who was forcefully eloped by Sinha (Lion), while she was going with\ncart traders. Suppa Devi was born to a couple, Princes of Kalinga who married\nto a Wanga King.  Two kids were born to\nSuppa Devi, they were named as Sinhabahu and Sinhasevali and Sinhabahu killed\nhis father Sinha and build a city called Sinhapura where was the origin of\nVijay and associates.  Archaeological\nresearchers found that there was a town called Sinhapura in the Orissa Province\nin India. However, there is a clear doubt whether Sinha was a lion (animal) or\na human called Sinha, which means according to the Sinhala language is a\nStrongman. (This Sinha name widely used in India and the former Indian High\nCommissioner to Sri Lanka also got the same name) The biological truth leads us\nto assume that Sinha was not an animal but a human who was named as Sinha based\non his characteristics and the behaviour. \nRecently I read a book titled The People of The Lion\u201d, which was\npublished by Verite Research Organization in Colombo.  The book is mainly focused on a debate in relation\nto the people of the lion, between Prof RALH Gunawardane and Prof KNO\nDharmadasa. Many interesting points were discussed in the book, but they were\nnot authentic facts because no archaeological evidence has found in relation to\nthe arguments.  The debate leads us to\nfurther thinking and investigation requirements based on various assumptions on\nthis matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we read\nmany historical books in Sri Lanka, they help us to understand a significant\nfact on the population history of the country. Sri Lanka was a place of living\nhumans before Prince Vijay arrived in the country.  Anthropologically they were a group of\nhumans, who had a root of Indians or mixed with Indian and Mongolians. Most\nprobably they were with dark and light skin colours. Human diversity was a\nremarkable characteristic of the population and the human diversity has\ncontributed to developing an assorted culture in Sri Lanka.  This situation can be seen in other countries\nof the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another vital\nfact is that Indian population has contributed to maintaining the population\nlevel of Sri Lanka and the ethnic identity of the population of Sri Lanka was\nstrongly influenced by Indian population and characteristics of them.  Indian people migrated to Sri Lanka legally\nor illegally and Indian people bought to Sri Lanka as mercenaries, slavers and\nfor other purposes such as to participate in economic and military activities.\nThe obvious information from historical evidence is that Sri Lankan authorities\nbrought Indians to Sri Lanka to perform work, which was unwilling or unskilled\nto be performed by Sinhala people.  It\nhas recorded that seven or seventy thousand people were brought to Sri Lanka\nduring the reign of King Gajaba and people were brought by King Vijayaba too\nfrom India and settled them in seaside area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the\nBritish rule, many Indian labourers brought to work in the plantation industry\nand to work as coolies in public offices in urban areas.  Poor Indians illegally came to Sri Lanka and\nworked as tody tappers in a coconut plantation and later these illegal Indian\nmigrants engaged in retail trades in rural areas. Many of Indians migrated to\nrural villages converted to Sinhala race by changing their names. The Illegal\narrival of Indian migrants stopped mainly because of the JVP Insurrection in\n1971.  There was a strong opposition to\nIndian expansionism by JVP leaders in 1971. In this way, human diversity of the\npopulation of Sri Lanka incurred from time to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslim people\nwere also allowed to settle in Sri Lanka after Polonnaruwa era and some\nChristians in Assyrian Sect also were in Anuradhapura era, but religious\ndiversity was not an issue in the history as the prime objectives of Christians\narrived at the country was to engaged in business rather than religious\nmissions. According to the experiences of Robert Knox, Sri Lanka\u2019s king\nRajasinghe 11 (Senkadagala Rajasinghe 1635 -1687) treated well Muslims and\nChristians, however, some Muslim persons\u2019 behaviour appeared to be cunning or\nquestionable to the Sinhala king and people. It also noted that Senerat praised\nPortuguese attacking to Muslim settlements. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Muslim\nreligion was not an issue in Sri Lanka in the history except Sinhala Muslim\nconflict in early 1900, even in Europe it was not a problem.  The European history clearly indicates that\nMuslim religion contributed lots to the culture of Spain and there was no\nopposition from Christianity for Muslim activities as they were peaceful\npurposes.  There was not developing ideas\nagainst the expansion of Muslim religion in Europe.  However, the issues between Israel and\nPalestinians and wars in the Middle East supported to develop opinions against\nthe Muslims in the world.  After the\nemerging of Islam fundamentalism and the activities of these fundamentalists in\nthe name of religion also created a reasonable suspicion on the behaviour of\nIslam fundamentalists.  Many peace-loving\nreligious communities have questioned the unacceptable behaviour of some Islam\npersons. Many Islam countries have attempted to use oil as an instrument of building\neconomic and religious hegemony over oil using countries.  Developed nations in the west formulated\nstrategies to successfully respond to oil hegemony, but developing countries\ntremendously suffered and the oil hegemony reasonably contributed to religious\nhate in many countries.  People in\ndeveloping countries were not happy about the strategy. Naturally, the actions\nof oil-producing countries created an opposition to the Muslim community.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka has a\nclose relationship with Islam countries and Muslim people. After the oil crisis\nin 1973, Sri Lanka used a variety of economic strategies to deal with the\neconomic disadvantages, which were incurred with the result of increasing oil\nprices. Economic strategies concerned with the diversification of export\nearning concentrating on invisible exports such as tourism and export of skills\nand knowledge. The Middle East oil producing countries became a good market for\ninvisible exports and the country was to increase its export revenue to the US\n$ 8 billion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this\nbackground, Sri Lanka and its people must be diplomatic when dealing with\nreligious groups and religious mentality contains the priority of the life to\nreligion.  This mentality relates to\nChristian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindus and other major religions. Nobody can\nspecifically blame a religious community as all these people seem to be blind\nwith religion rather than really thinking about religious philosophy which\npreaches life after the death that we cannot test like living humans.  Therefore, hating each other based on unknown\nmatters reflects the unwise behaviour rather than logically thinking of human\nvalues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major reason\nto create hate between Sinhala Buddhist and Muslim people could be considered\nthe misunderstanding of each other and the current problematic environment in\nthe country created because the religious practice of Muslim religion is very\nclosed process and non-Muslim have no idea about what is going on in Mosques\nbut other religions in Sri Lanka are opened to outsiders. Christian population\nin Sri Lanka had not specific hate for Muslim people but the Easter Sunday\nattacks to Christian churches and tourist hotel has created a specific distance\nbetween Islam and Christianity. The personal laws in Sri Lanka, where has ample\ntypes of personal laws as Muslim Law, Upcountry Law, Buddhist Vihara and\nProperty Law, and Thesawalamai law have created some suspicious feelings to\nSinhala majority.  These personal laws\npurposed to ensure various rights of community groups and there is a common\nlaw, which is applicable when there is a problem in the application of personal\nlaws.  Many Sinhala Buddhists consider\nthat the Muslim community was given specific rights over the other communities\nin relation to marriage, school management, and various matters. However, this\nissue is a purely legal matter that needs to be resolved by legal professionals\nand relevant community representatives without discriminating people in other\nreligion. The universal principle of the law is that all humans are equal\nbefore the law irrespective of race, religion, caste, belief or individual\npolicies.  It is seen that in Western\ncountries have not specific personal laws and the law means them is equal to\neverybody in the country,         because\nof a person is a Buddhist or, Sinhala or Christian or Tamil or Muslim the\napplication of Law does not vary and law treat equally all and the method of\napplication of law in Sri Lanka has created tremendous problems in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If people of\nIslam religion in Sri Lanka consider that they should be allowed to do whatever\nthey wish over the other ethnic and religious groups, it is against the\nfundamental rights of other religious or ethnic groups that ensured in the\nconstitution. No ethnic group or religion of the country can enjoy fundamental\nrights over others despite the constitutional clauses.  Because of Sri Lanka economy gained\nadvantages from Muslim majority countries in the Middle East, it is not a valid\nreason to gain advantages over other ethnic and religious groups to\ndiscriminate Non-Muslim people in Sri Lanka. \nSimilarly, Buddhists also cannot work against people belonging to other\nreligious and ethnic groups despite the constitutional safeguard for the\nprominence of Buddhism.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can see that\nAmerica, UK, Australia, Canada, Russia, Europe and China punish Muslims and\nother religious people if they violate law and order or do wrong things against\nthe humanity.  Middle East Muslim\ncountries where to have a harsh punishment system do not safeguard wrongdoers\nbecause they are a Muslim and similar way if Muslim people do the wrong thing\nin Sri Lanka, the economic relationship of the country with Muslim countries\nwould not be a reason to allow Muslims in Sri Lanka to do wrong things.  Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians in\nSri Lanka must respect the law and order of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that\nmisinformation in Sri Lanka travels through news media and social media in\nrelation to the population and the trend of population growth.  Most of the information is fabricated by a\nvariety of individuals and groups without using the statistics published by the\ngovernment of Sri Lanka.  Although the\nofficial statistics on the population began in 1881, the human diversity of\npopulation has remained for centuries with a clear broadening of the diversity\nsince the European rule beginning in 1505.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS Archaeological discoveries in Sri Lanka have proven that human settlements had been in the country since prehistoric era and the country had a long history of living humans who were at the civilized level or not.  Archaeologists and anthropologists attempted to give a clear picture of the beginning humans based on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90986","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=90986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}