06-12-2009, 08:04 AM
uthr.org
sinhala colonisation
From the 1940s the government pursued with vigour the policy of restoring or constructing irrigation works in the wet-zone and the planned migration of principally Sinhalese poor from the more populous wet-zone districts into the dry-zone. This was ostensibly meant to relieve landlessness among peasantry in the former. Enormous subsidies were given at state expense. In the main the Gal Oya, Kanthalai and Allai schemes had the effect of increasing the Sinhalese population in the Eastern Province from about 5% in 1901 to 25% in 1981, the balance being 42% Tamil and 32% Muslim.
sinhala colonisation
From the 1940s the government pursued with vigour the policy of restoring or constructing irrigation works in the wet-zone and the planned migration of principally Sinhalese poor from the more populous wet-zone districts into the dry-zone. This was ostensibly meant to relieve landlessness among peasantry in the former. Enormous subsidies were given at state expense. In the main the Gal Oya, Kanthalai and Allai schemes had the effect of increasing the Sinhalese population in the Eastern Province from about 5% in 1901 to 25% in 1981, the balance being 42% Tamil and 32% Muslim.