Burgher

Sri Lankan ethnic group typically with mixed Portuguese, Dutch, and Sinhala or Tamil ancestry. ‘Burgher’ derives from the Dutch vrijburger (‘free citizen’), used to describe employees of the Dutch East India Company who became residents of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) during the island’s Dutch colonisation (1658–1796). Many vrijburgers married women with mixed Portuguese and Sinhala or Tamil ancestry from the earlier Portuguese colonisation (1505–1658). During the British colonial era (1796–1947) in Sri Lanka, the term ‘Burgher’ was used to refer to all residents with non-British European lineage. They spoke mainly creole Portuguese and their customs borrowed from Portuguese and local cultures. However, whilst Dutch Burghers served important clerical and administrative roles in the bureaucracy, forming a strong middle class, Portuguese Burghers were largely involved in artisan work and faced harsh discrimination. Following Sri Lankan independence in 1948, a number of Burgher families immigrated to other countries. Today, Burghers are an urban, creole Portuguese-speaking minority here, largely settled in Trincomalee and cities of the Batticaloa region.