List of Indians in Sri Lanka explained

This is a list of Indians in Sri Lanka. The list includes notable people from multiple different ethnicities, as well as people native to India who are living in or notable in Sri Lanka.

There is also large number of Sinhalese identifying Sri Lankans of Indian descent, such as the Karava caste and Demalagattara^[1]

Indian Tamils

• S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike - Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Founder of Sinhalese Nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party
• Mano Ganesan – prominent human rights activist and politician
• K. Natesa Iyer – Sri Lankan pre-independence politician
• Chandrika Kumaratunga - Sri Lankan President, daughter of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.
• Muthiah Muralidaran – Sri Lanka international spin bowler; world record holder for most wickets taken in Test cricket
• M.G. Ramachandran – Sri Lankan-born Indian politician and actor
• Arumugan Thondaman – Sri Lankan politician, son of Savumiamoorthy Thondaman
• Savumiamoorthy Thondaman – Sri Lankan politician, patriarch of the Thondaman political family
• Jeevan Thondaman - Sri Lankan politician, son of Arumugan Thondaman

Colombo Chetties

• Reggie Candappa – founder and chairman of Grant McCann Erickson
• Rohan Candappa – Canadian author
• Gritakumar E. Chitty – Sri Lankan First Registrar and Secretary-General of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (retired)
• Rukmani Devi – actress and singer
• Roy Dias – former cricket captain
• Jeyaraj Fernandopulle – Sri Lankan politician
• Neela Marikkar – Chairperson of Grant McCann Erickson
• Christopher Ondaatje – OC, CBE, Sri Lankan-Canadian businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and Olympian
• Michael Ondaatje – OC, Sri Lankan Canadian novelist and poet, perhaps best known for his Booker Prize winning novel adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, The English Patient
• J. R. Jayewardene - 1st Executive President of Sri Lanka

Karava, Demalagattara and Kshatriya Solar Dynasty

• Rohana Wijeweera - Activist, Militant and found of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
• Chaminda Vaas - Sri Lankan Cricketer
• Dayasritha Tissera - Sri Lankan politician
• Arnolis Weerasooriya (1854-1888), first Ceylonese Colonel, and Sinhalese member of the Salvation Army
• Channa Weerasuriya, Sri Lankan army officer
• Risira Weerasuriya (born 2000), Sri Lankan cricketer
• Sri Piyaratana Tissa Mahanayake Thero (1826-1907) - Mahanayaka Thero of the Amarapura Nikaya (circa 1860s), and the Sanganayake of the Southern Province
• Srilal Weerasooriya (born 1943), 15th Commander of the Sri Lankan Army and a former Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Pakistan
• Tilak Weerasooriya (1967-2022), Sri Lankan Physician & Academic

Others

• Mahesh Amalean – engineer, industrialist and chairman of MAS Holdings
• Nirj Deva – British politician and former MP
• Hanif Yusuf - Born to parents of Gujarati ancestry, 12th Governor of Western Province

Usurpers of the Sri Lankan throne

• Ellalan
• The Five Dravidians
• Kalinga Magha
• Parakrama Pandya
• Sena and Guttika
• The Six Dravidians

Indian dynasty of the Kingdom of Kandy

• Nayaks of Kandy

See also

• List of Sri Lankans by ethnicity

Notes and References

1. Book: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, Volume 36-37. Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka. 1993. University of Michigan. 137.