Contradictions in the Sri Lankan Society – By Randika Jayakody & Jerome Perera
Contradictions are rife within Sri Lankan society.
Sri Lanka has an indigenous population that is over 48,000 years old with a wealth of knowledge and history, yet the nation’s origin stories focus on the much younger Sinhalese civilisation.
Sri Lanka is home to the majestic Sri Lankan elephant, but the nation often represents itself with references to a lion, an animal that has never lived on our islands.
Millennia of multicultural interactions with South India, Rome, Greece, Europe, Africa, Middle East, the Far East, and Austronesia and the tens of ethnic groups that settled our islands is ignored and discounted. Instead ethnic purity has dominated the mindset of society for decades leading to ethnic conflicts and societal disintegration and instability.
We consume potatoes, corn, tomatoes, chillies, papayas, smoke tobacco brought to us from the Americas by the Portuguese. We eat dosa, idly, vada and kothu from South India. We eat dodol and nasi goreng, and wear sarongs adorned in batik from Indonesia. Yet, society ignores the contributions by the many communities that have made Sri Lanka their home over millennia.
At every celebration, we sing baila, a 600 year old Sri Lankan folk music created by Afro Ceylonese people with Portuguese violins and the Sinhala, Tamil, Malay, and other languages. We even dance to
baila in the same perfect movements and rhythms of the Caribbean and African nations. However, Sri Lanka is represented to the world through the lens of Kandyan dancing and attire to the exclusion of everything else.
The wealth of Sri Lanka lies in its people, community, culture, cuisine, music, dancing, languages, traditions and the web of their connections to the entire globe.
It’s time that the Sri Lankan society began to develop our own identity as a multicultural nation by appreciating the nuance and subtlety of our cultural differences. It’s time that we develop an appreciation towards each other without being threatened by each other’s presence. It’s time we start non-judgemental conversations with each other without the need to impose a narrative of ethno-cultural exclusivity.
Our journey with Daehaena newsletter began with our appearance on the radio show with our dear friend Yashan. Daehaena has given us an opportunity to inform its community of readers about the
diversity of Sri Lankan society. This has been a rewarding experience for us and it is with much thought that we have decided to conclude our journey with Daehaena.
We hope that the readers have developed an understanding and an appreciation for the uniqueness of Sri Lankan culture, traditions and people through our articles over the last 3 years. We hope that
our articles have challenged your biases and inspired curiosity about the truly multicultural nature of Sri Lanka.
As we bid farewell to the Daehaena community, we would like to thank you for your support through the years. We will continue our work on exploring Sri Lankan culture and multiculturalism through Mathaya Project on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.
Editors Note
We thank Randika and Jerome for their valuable contributions over the past three years and wish them the best.
Randika Jayakody & Jerome Perera
Among Randika and Jerome’s many interests is a deep passion to understand Sri Lankan history and culture.
