C.A. Lorenz Archives

The Burgher Elite and the British Raj-by Michael Roberts George F Nell, Louis Nell, C. A. Lorenz, James Alwis and Charles Ferdinands moving anti-clockwise Source:Thuppahis Preamble:[1] In locating the Burghers in ‘social space’ the book People Inbetween deploys statistical detail, text and quotation to place them within the Ceylonese middle class of British Ceylon.[2] The socio-political clout which accrued to the Burgher segment of the middle class is further illustrated by indicating the complex ways in which they fulfilled intermediary roles between the mass of the people and the British rulers and/or between powerful segments of the majority community, the Sinhalese. The extract printed below is a section of Chapter 6 [in People Inbetween] devoted to this purpose and is reproduced without citations. The best known of the intermediaries in the British Raj, of course, were the headmen, whether the cohorts of lower-echelon headmen or the top layers represented by the maniagars, ratēmahatmayas, and mudaliyars. In the low-country districts the latter were ...

The Burgher Exodus from Sri Lanka: A Reading in 1988 source:-thuppahis Barbara Crossette, in New York Times way back in 1988 …. where the title runs thus “Colombo Journal; A Proud People, Scattered and Forgotten by Time” In Sri Lanka, a country torn by violence, the holiday season is perhaps most poignant for a small minority that has not been part of the ethnic strife at all. They call themselves the Dutch Burghers, but the name, most generously defined, can cover a rich ethnic mix of Portuguese, Dutch, British and other Europeans who settled here over several centuries. The Burghers, who are Christians, also number among themselves the Eurasian descendants of Europeans and high-born Sinhalese or, less often, Tamils. Ethnic Sinhalese account for about 74 percent of the Sri Lankan population of about 16 million; Tamils, 18 percent. Once a wealthy, visible and influential population, there are no more than 30,000 Burghers now, ...