what an irony the name Fonseka denotes that he belongs to the Sinhala Karawe caste( fishermen), These people are descended from the Tamil Paravars and Kariyars and the Mukkuvars ( all fisher castes from southern Tamil Nadu and south Kerala) who migrated from South India to Sri Lanka around 600 years ago and settled on the western and southern coasts. During the Portuguese rule in the 1600;s al lthese people were forcibly converted to Catholism, and teh Portuguese to increase the Catholic population brought in more Catholic Tamil Paravars from the Tuticorin area. The Duthc brught in more of these indentures Tamils labourers/slaves in the 1700s ( mainly from the Coromandel coast) they were mainly brought in to work in the Cinamon estates. The descendents of these slaves now belong to a Sinhla caste called Salagama and FOnseka is a common surname amongst them too. Nealrly al of these people (except for a few villages in CHilaw) were forced to convert to Catholism and later many of them converted to Buddhism during the British times. However the language of all these Tamils changed from Tamil to Sinhala with all these conversions. These people make up aorund 50 % of the present Sinhala population and despite their low origins have now prospered in business and are now very rich and politically powerful, but are stil looked down by the upper Govi caste. THe now take pains to hide their low Tamil origins and are the most anti Eelam Tamil.Many Sinhala extremists are from them
