Are The Tamils And The Sinhalese, Same Or Different?

By Laksiri Fernando -September 28, 2013 |

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole, quite gently responding to my article on “Some Ethnic Differences Observed by Robert Knox” has stated “I am particularly not sure about the following statement about Sinhalese light-skin.” To clarify my point of view, first I must say that I don’t believe that Sinhalese are light-skin or Tamils are dark-skin, but there are both light-skin and dark-skin people among both communities. How does this happen might be an intriguing question, explanations often going haywire, and anyway, light-skin or dark-skin does not represent any racial difference in my opinion or to authoritative views. This short rejoinder is a further explanation of my view on the issue, if I have not clarified it clearly enough.

I was commenting on a reference by Robert Knox in 1681 where he said “It is more probable, they came from the Malabars, their Country lying next, tho they do resemble them little or nothing. I know no nation in the world do so exactly resemble Chingulays as the people of Europe.”

I could have avoided Knox’s above observation given its sensitivity today, but as an academic, I am not in the habit of hiding issues and doing so to me is a dishonest exercise. My main purpose however was different. I made two explanations prefacing that “what the above shows is the apparent mix character of the Sinhalese as he had seen.” First was “Knox was mainly living in the Hill Country, where people were relatively fair-skinned due to the climatic conditions.” I also said that “Knox had not seen the Sinhalese people who were living in the coastal areas of the West and the South who would have mostly resembled what he called the Malabars,” which Hoole has not quoted because it is not very relevant to his point. But the second sentence put my point of view into a better perspective.

I do believe that climatic conditions do make a difference to the skin complexion, among other factors. Second I said, “…among the Sinhalese, it is also possible that there had been an ancestral mix of people who came from the Northern parts of India as well” (emphasis newly added). It is my view that when we discuss the ethnological issues, we should not completely disregard the possible play of ‘genetic’ or ‘hereditary’ factors. But we should not exaggerate them either. What are genes? To me or for my present purposes, genes are primarily the accumulation of environment, climate being one. Genes are specific to a person and not necessarily common to a community or ethnicity. There can be some and only some common genes running through at a given time and a given place. But those do not determine people’s psychological or ideological sphere but limited physical or physiological aspects.

I was referring to some ancestors (not all) of the Sinhalese coming from Northern parts of India where climatic conditions are again milder. When I said, “among the Sinhalese” I was referring to ‘Chingulays’ in Kandy and in the 17^th century and not today. I also believe that some of the ancestral roots of low country Sinhalese people are from South India including my own! I do have some reasons to say so.

In support of my particular comment on Knox, let me quote the following from a UNESCO Statement on Race dated June 1951.                         Read More