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The Burghers of Sri Lanka

The Burghers are a ethnic group that are descendants of the Dutch, Portuguese and British, who married Ceylonese. They have their own culture, food and worldview. Upon arriving in the Netherlands, I was puzzled at how little was known about the Burghers, especially as my mother has always been very proud of her Burgher upbringing, which is a topic of contention in our household. Majority of the Burghers left the island after 1956, with the imposition of the ‘Sinhala (Language) Only’ Act. This Act excluded many minority communities that spoke their own languages such as Tamil, English and Malay speaking communities. With the emigration of most Burghers to Australia, Canada and England, the Burghers are slowly vanishing from Sri Lanka. Furthermore with the changing socio-political culture as well as the inter-marrying of many ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the Burgher descendants are now being ‘watered down’. Perhaps some Burghers do begin to question the ‘purity of the lineage’. Whilst compiling this video I was aware that the outlook on the Burghers is changing, especially between generations.