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Sri Lanka Ethnic Groups
The people of Sri Lanka are divided into ethnic groups whose
conflicts have dominated public life since the nineteenth
century. The two main characteristics that mark a person's ethnic
heritage are language and religion, which intersect to create
four major ethnic groups--the Sinhalese, the Tamils, the Muslims,
and the Burghers
(see
fig. 6). Ethnic divisions are not based on
race or physical appearance; some Sri Lankans claim to determine
the ethnicity of a person by his facial characteristics or color,
but in reality such premises are not provable. There is nothing
in the languages or religious systems in Sri Lanka that
officially promotes the social segregation of their adherents,
but historical circumstances have favored one or more of the
groups at different times, leading to hostility and competition
for political and economic power.
Data as of October 1988
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