Social Position
The Karave community of today is made up of many Clans as indicated by their hereditary ancestral names also known as "Ge" names and Clan names. In Sri Lanka they are an influential and prominent caste among the majority Sinhalese. They are now said to be behind the majority Govigama.
Most Karave were forcibly converted to the Catholic religion during the Portuguese period. (See Patabendige for Portuguese conversion strategies). During the British period several Karava families, along with families from other communities achieved elite status by participating in the colonial economic activities. Although the strides made thus far by a few families are impressive, and many members of the community are leading professionals and businessmen, a great many of them now languish at the bottom of the economic order, deprived of opportunities for progress.
Read more about this topic: Karava
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or position:
“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”
—George Marshall (1880–1959)
“To place oneself in the position of God is painful: being God is equivalent to being tortured. For being God means that one is in harmony with all that is, including the worst. The existence of the worst evils is unimaginable unless God willed them.”
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)