Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon before 1972), the compact, pearshaped island located just 35 kilometers (22 mi) across the Palk Strait from southernmost India, became independent from Britain in 1948. There were good reasons to create a separate sovereignty for Sri Lanka. This is neither a Hindu nor a Muslim country: just over 70 percent of its population of 21 million are adherents of Buddhism. . . . The Tamil-speaking Dravidians, who lived on the mainland side of the Palk Strait, arrived much later. During the nineteenth century, the British colonizers brought hundreds of thousands of Tamils to the island to labor on their tea plantations, and they soon became a substantial component of then-Ceylonese society. Not only did the Tamils bring their Dravidian language to the island—they also introduced their Hindu faith. At the time of independence, one year after the India-Pakistan partition, this minority constituted more than 15 percent of the island’s population; in the mid-2010s, they comprise just over 11 percent. When Ceylon became independent, it was one of the great hopes of the postcolonial world. . . . This country of tropical beauty has a sound economy and a democratic government." [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 368-9]