Proud of being a ‘half-caste’: Perceptions of Eurasians in Sri Lanka
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Although there were times when to be an Eurasian meant that one was generally looked down upon, considered ‘half caste’, Rosemarie is proud of her mixed heritage. At the time when she was growing up, Eurasians and Burghers saw themselves as being distinct and different from each other. Now, both communities are a rarity in Sri Lanka and frequently perceived as being outsiders, foreign. “Where are you from?” is a familiar refrain.
For Rosemarie’s story and video, please click here. For Part 1 of Rosemarie’s story, click here.
Produced by Menika van der Poorten for Moving Images. A trailer of A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka can be seen below, and all the videos on the Moving Images website.
There are not many differences between ‘eurasians’ and ‘burghers’.Both are a mix of europeans and sri lankans ( ceylonese ).
Many of them have held high office in the professions and were/are respected members of society.
The lady forgets ‘portugese’ connections.
In the late thirties, many of my classmates in batticaloa were ‘portugese burghers’ and spoke the ‘portugese’ language.There was a community of them in batticaloa. There were also a few ‘dutch burghers’ who were fair skinned. Both communities intermarried with tamils and sinhalese.
Later at university there were batchmates who were fairskinned “kandyans” who derived their complexions from the colonial british. These too could be called ‘eurasians’.
Really, there are genetically no “pure” tamils or sinhalese.
Most of us are genetically “many castes” rather than “half castes”.