Some on this forum seem to say as if Tamils migrated to Sri Lanka a few centuries back... That is not true. Tamils of Lanka have deep rooted history in that land. They are as native to that land as Sinhalese. In face Sinhalese are non other than the once Pali speaking migrants to that land from north India where as Sri Lanka is closer to Tamil Nadu and so Tamils are more native to that land in many ways...
By all this I am in no way supporting the violence in Sri Lanka by LTTE. I am against that. But that does not in any way make Tamils second class citizens in their own home land...
RE:Tamils are as native to Lanka as Sinhalese
by shivram sreenivasan adithya on Jan 11, 2008 02:47 PM Permalink
While I completely agree with you, I would like to say that Sinhalese are not migrants from India. They are natives of Srilanka who has taken Buddhism as religion (recollect Ashoka effort on spreading Buddism). Their language is a mix of Pali, Sanskrit and a local dialect.
Srilanka was ruled by Kings who spoke Tamil and followed Hinduism.
Very high influence of India was present continuously on Srilanka.
Apart from ethnic tamils their were migrants during early british rule of India to work in Tea gardens. This community can be identified from other ehtnic tamils through their accent. The migrant tamils are settled mainly in central Srilanka including Kandy.
