The
different religious groups are not evenly spread
throughout the island, but live in concentrated
areas, depending upon where they settled historically.
The Indian Tamils are heavily concentrated in the
highland districts, especially in Nuwara Eliya,
where they constitute almost half the population.
This settlement pattern reflects their strong relationship
with the plantation economy for which they provided
much of the unskilled labor. The Sri Lankan Tamils
make up more than 95 percent of the population in
the Jaffna Peninsula, more than 70 percent of the
population in Batticaloa District, and substantial
minorities in other northern and eastern districts.
The Muslims are not in the majority anywhere, although
they make up large minorities in Mannar district
on the northwest coast and in the east coast districts;
their strongest presence is in Amparai district,
where they comprise 42 percent of the population.
Colombo district approaches the closest to an ethnic
melting pot, with a Sinhalese majority and substantial
Tamil and Muslim minorities. Colombo is also home
to most of the Burghers (72 percent) and Malays
(65 percent).
In
many cases, the different religious groups live in
separate villages or sections of villages, and in
towns or cities they inhabit different neighborhoods.
The fact that primary education is in either Tamil
or Sinhala effectively segregates the children of
the different communities at an early age.
Sports
teams tend to include members of only one community,
while Buddhist and Hindu religious services are automatically
limited to one ethnic group. Relatively few persons
are fluent in both Tamil and Sinhala. Countering the
intense pressures favoring segregation, however, are
official government policies that treat all citizens
equally and numerous personal networks within neighborhoods
and among individuals that link members of different
religions and ethnic groups and foster friendships.
Religious
segregation is reinforced by fears that ethnic majorities
will try to dominate positions of influence and repress
the religious, linguistic, or cultural systems of
minorities. The recent memories of Tamil prominence
in colonial and postcolonial administration, combined
with a modern renaissance in Tamil consciousness in
south India, are constant reminders of the potential
power of the Tamil community.
The
Tamils are a minority within Sri Lanka. They cannot
be sure of Indian support, and they experience increasing
restrictions on social mobility as the Sinhalese majority
increases its hold on the government. AntiTamil riots
and military actions in the 1980s alienated a large
sector of the Tamil community. In the middle are the
Muslims, who speak Tamil but whose religious and cultural
systems are alien to both other ethnic groups. Muslim
leaders increasingly seek to safeguard the cultural
heritage of their own community by adopting a public
stance of ethnic confrontation.
