Constructing the Modern Sinhalese Identity: Colonialism and the Consolidation of Sinhalaness in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Previous explorations of the evolution of the Sinhalese or Sinhala identity in Sri Lanka by scholars such as RALH Gunawardana and KNO Dharmadasa have sought to account for how and when such an identity emerged and became consolidated. This paper, however, examines not just how and when “Sinhalaness” developed but also why. Colonization, of course, did not invent the modern Sinhalese community, but the need to incorporate colonized peoples into a new, concrete political structure resulted in significant upheavals which brought new meanings to the Sinhalese label. A Foucauldian means of controlling the unfamiliar, arbitrary colonial classifications and categorizations served only to freeze and distort what were – in pre-colonial times – often overlapping and adaptable outward communal identities. Tracking changes in economic structures, religious practices, and cultural activities, this paper further demonstrates how the Sinhalese identity developed alongside other ethnic identities such as those of Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims and how the influx of migrants from India, the East Indies, and beyond further complicated what it meant to be Sinhalese. Using colonial-era academic scholarship, government records, and the written testimonies of islanders, this paper thus highlights the wide-ranging effects of colonialism in shaping the modern Sinhalese identity and also the identities of those who live alongside them