Negombo Tamils - Assimilation

Assimilation

The main feature of the Negombo Tamils is the continuing process of assimilation into the majority Sinhalese ethnic group known as Sinhalisation. This process is enabled via number of caste myths and legends.

In the Gampaha district ethnic Tamils have historically inhabited the coastal belt where as in the neighboring Puttalam district, until the first two decades of the twentieth century it had a substantial ethnic Tamil population of whom majority were Catholics and a minority were Hindus.

According to L.J.B.Turner, although the distinction between Sinhalese and Tamils of the present day Sri Lanka is so marked but in the past there was considerable fusion between these ethnic groups. According to him the results of this fusion are most obvious on the western coast between Negombo and Puttalam, where a large proportion of the villagers, though they call themselves Sinhalese, speak Tamil, and are, undoubtedly, of Tamil descent. According to local legends their ancestors being captives from India or imported weavers and other artisans.

This historic process was embraced by the educational policies of a local Bishop Edmund Peiris who was instrumental in changing the medium of education from Tamil to Sinhalese.