Cultures in Conflict |
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Detail of Hindu Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, here |
The Tamil speaking population of Sri Lanka was estimated in 1981 as 2.7 million, around 18 percent of the population. Although there have been large-scale Tamil population fleeing Sri Lanka in recent years, more recent data are unavailable, given restrictions on travel to the most violent areas in the North and East.
Tamil refers to populations that speak Tamil, which is also one of the major languages of South India. Many Tamils are Hindu, although some are Christian.
The North and East of the country, described by separatists as Tamil Eelam, was Tamil before the beginning of British colonialism and, indeed, before the arrival of the ancestors of the Sinhala in the third century BCE.
The Tamil language is one of the country's "national" languages, although Sinhalese is the only "official" language. Government schools in Tamil regions are taught in the Tamil language, and study of Hinduism is compulsory in grades 1 through 11 in those regions. From 1956 to 1978, Sinhalese was the only official language, excluding most Tamils from the governmental process.
The map below shows the modern distribution of Tamil speakers in Sri Lanka. The language distribution outlines two regions: the North and East of the country, described by separatists as Tamil Eelam, and additional Tamil speakers in the central region of the country. The Tamil speakers in the center of the country are referred to as Estate Tamils, descendents of South Indians brought by the British to work in Sri Lanka's tea plantations.
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Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka. The numbers show the percentage of tamils of Indian origin in the district. Based on the 2001 census data, except for the districts with numbers in cursive; these are from 1981 census instead. The census data is available from Department of Census and Statistics. Created by Sadalmelik, on Wikipedia Commons. |
Additional Resources
A website for Ilankai Tamil Sangam, the Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USA, is here.
A website for the Tamil diaspora, aimed at gaining support for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, is here.