Sinhalisation

In a sociological context it could refer to the assimilation of ethno-cultural minorities in Sri Lanka such as the Sri Lankan Tamils, Chetties, and indigenous Veddas into the majority Sinhalese identity,Susantha Goonetilleke, Sinhalisation: Migration or Cultural Colonization? Lanka Guardian Vol. 3, No. I, May I, 1980, pp. 22-29, and May 15 1980, pp. 18-19. including some Sinhala Buddhists of the interior such as the Demalagattara and some Catholics such as the Bharatha of the coastal areas of the island nation.Power and Religiosity in a Post-Colonial Setting: Sinhala Catholics in Contemporary Sri Lanka by R. L. Stirrat American Ethnologist, Vol. 22, No. 2 (May, 1995), pp. 428-429[https://books.google.com/books?id=3MO_86VwNSkC&q=rice-farming%2F&pg=PA1 Buddhism Betrayed?: Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka By Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, p. 152-3][http://lakdiva.org/codrington/chap01.html A SHORT HISTORY OF LANKA by Humphry William Codrington, CHAPTER I; THE BEGINNINGS 'The princess and her retinue/dowry (service castes)'][https://books.google.com/books?id=9PiwJF7V4EQC&q=Prince+Vijaya&pg=PA19 'Pandyan retinue of Prince Vijaya': Sea: Our Saviour By K. Sridharan, p.19][http://www.island.lk/2008/07/20/features14.html Pre-Vijayan Agriculture in Sri Lanka, by Prof. T. W. Wikramanayake]{{cite journal | pmid = 8543296 | volume=67 | issue=6 | title=Genetic affinities of Sri Lankan populations | date=December 1995 | journal=Hum. Biol. | pages=843–66 | last1 = Kshatriya | first1 = GK}}[http://www.nature.com/jhg/journal/v59/n1/full/jhg2013112a.html Mitochondrial DNA history of Sri Lankan ethnic people: their relations within the island and with the Indian subcontinental populations, L Ranaweera, et al; Journal of Human Genetics (2014)]

Many noted elite{{cref|a}} families that had contributed to Sinhala nationalism had been of Tamil origin, themselves Sinhalised in the recent past.[https://www.sangam.org/ANALYSIS/Sachi07_18_02.htm Nilaperumal Kalukapuge aka Badaranayaka][http://sundaytimes.lk/010708/plus6.html J.R. Jayawardena family History of the Colombo Chetties, edited and compiled by Deshabandu Reggie Candappa, Reviewed by Anne Abayasekara (Sunday Times, 08.07.2001)][http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/gen3146.html Pilimatalavuva - Family], roots.web, Accessed 13-06-2015

In a political context it could refer to the Sinhala language-favouring policies{{cref|b}} of the post colonial governments of Sri Lanka that are considered to be major causes{{cite web |url= http://www.paradisepoisoned.com/PDFs/Preview21.pdf

|title= How it Came to This – Learning from Sri Lanka's Civil Wars By Professor John Richardson|access-date=2006-03-30 |work=paradisepoisoned.com}} of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It is termed as culturo-ideological exclusivism by some{{who|date=July 2014}} when one's cultural values and norms are absolutised in such a manner that a particular way of life is enshrined as superior to all others and must therefore be adopted by others (e.g. the Tamil reaction to the perceived "Sinhalisation" processes of the Sri Lankan state){{cite web |url= http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/kuala-docs13-makarios.pdf |title= Ethnic Identity, National Identity and the Search for Unity|access-date=2006-03-30 |work=World Council of Churches}}

It was said to be a cause of the abortive coup by disgruntled Catholic army officers in 1962.{{cite web |url= http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/7752_1708229,004100180006.htm

|title= Significance of the abortive 1962 military coup|access-date=2006-03-30 |work=Hindustan Times}}

Currently, some observers note that Sri Lankan political parties such as JHU and JVP adhere to a policy of political Sinhalisation.{{cite web |url= http://www.uthr.org/Briefings/Briefing6.htm

|title= The Human Rights and Humanitarian Fallout from the Sri Lankan Government's Eastern Agenda and the LTTE's Obduracy|access-date=2006-03-30 |work=UTHR}}

Media uses the word "Sinhalisation" to refer to the process by which the Sri Lankan government funded and sponsored the settlement of Sinhala people in areas traditionally inhabited by Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka{{Cite book |title=Redefining Genocide: Settler Colonialism, Social Death and Ecocide |publisher=Zed Books |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-84277-930-9 |editor-last=Short |editor-first=Damien |location=London, UK |pages=93-126}} in order to make the Tamils the minority in the region. Some reports claims that the Sinhalese and Sinhala military families are settled in houses built by money from the Indian government that were intended to improve the welfare of the Tamil people.{{cite web |url=http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=36250

|title= TamilNet: 23.04.13 Indian news magazine highlights accelerated Sinhalization of Tamil north|access-date=2013-04-23 |work=UTHR}}{{cite web |url=http://www.theweekendleader.com/Causes/615/Exclusive:-Inside-Lanka.html

|title= Exclusive: Erasing the cultural leftover of Tamils to convert Sri Lanka into Sinhala country|access-date=2013-04-23 |work=UTHR}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.lankanewsweb.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3359:-new-military-colonies-in-murukandi-sinhalization-in-puthumathalan&catid=1:general&Itemid=29

|title= New military colonies in Murukandi; Sinhalization in Puthumathalan|access-date=2013-04-23 |work=UTHR}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2012/3/75428_space.html

|title= Salt on Old Wounds: The systematic Sinhalization of Sri Lanka's North, East, the historic habitat of the Tamil speaking people |access-date=2013-04-23 |work=UTHR}}

{{refbegin}}

{{cnote|a|Former President J. R. Jayewardene's first paternal ancestor was a Colombo Chetty and there is an excerpt from his biography, authored by Prof. K.M. De Silva & Howard Wriggins, in support of this. Don Adrian Jayewardene, J.R.'s paternal great-grandfather, descended from a Chetty family, but two or three generations earlier, a male of this family had married a Sinhalese by the name of Jayewardene from the village of Walgama near Hanwella and had taken on the name of Jayewardene and by the time Don Adrian arrived on the scene at the tail-end of the 18th century, the process of 'Sinhalisation' of his family had been completed.[http://sundaytimes.lk/010708/plus6.html]}}

The ancestor of the Bandaranayke family was a 17th-century Tamil immigrant Pandaram; a non-Brahmin priest known as Neelaperumal Kalukapuge. The term 'Kalu' in Tamil is different in meaning to the Sinhalese meaning.

A similar process was witnessed in the Kandyan kingdom, where (for example) the ancestor of Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram and related families trace or claim ancestry from a Pandyan emperor of the late 17th century,[http://www.worldgenweb.org/lkawgw/gen3146.html Pilimatalavuva Family] by Ananda Pilimatalavuva, 05-08-2019 though the Pandyan kingdom had ceased to exist by the 15th century and the region was ruled by the Madurai Sultanate, the Vijayanagara Empire, and the Nayak dynasties.

{{cnote|b|Sri Lanka’s nation-building programme became intimately linked with a Sinhalisation of the state directive. It was expected that the minorities would be assimilated into this new Sinhalese Buddhist nation-state. Moreover, the 1956 election marked the beginning of an era of ethnically-based party politics. [http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/confres/assets/CCR2.pdf]}}

{{refend}}

• Sri Lankan Mudaliyars
• Bharatakula
• Demalagattara
• Negombo Tamils
• Kandyan Convention

{{reflist}}

• [http://globaltamilnews.net/GTMNEditorial/tabid/71/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/63916/language/en-US/Sinhalization-of-the-Vanni-Mainland--Kuru-Nadarajahn-for-GTN.aspx Sinhalization of the Vanni Mainland]
• [http://www.colombotelegraph.com/?s=Sinhalization&x=6&y=6 Colombo Telegraph]
• [http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/mampuri.htm Sinhalisation of a coastal village in Puttalam district]
• [http://www.infolanka.com/org/kalaya/fea006.htm Sinhalisation of the Vedda community]
• [http://sangam.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Signatures-of-11-Sinhalese-Chiefs-in-1815-Document.jpg Kandya Convention signatories]

{{Cultural assimilation}}

Category:Cultural assimilation

Category:Sri Lankan Tamil culture

Category:British Ceylon

Category:Political history of Sri Lanka