The Jews were a thriving community in this country till the beginning of World War II. We had a Justice of the Supreme Court in the colonial days who was a Jew, name of Schneider. Then came World War II and with it we lost track of them. Perhaps they returned to Israel with the formation of that country in 1948.

The Kaffirs were brought to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, as a part of the naval force and for domestic work. Portuguese seafarers carried the first kaffirs to what was then Ceylon in the 1500s, most likely from Mozambique. Later, British colonists brought others to fight against Ceylonese armies in "kaffir regiments."

When the Portuguese began to trade extensively with South Asia, they quickly noticed a fundamental difference between South Asian societies and those of other world areas. In India and Sri Lanka, societies are broken up into a large number of groups who do not intermarry, who are ranked in relation to each other, and whose interactions are governed by a multitude of ritualized behaviors. The Portuguese called these groups casta, from which the English term caste is derived. In South Asia, they are described by the term jati, or birth. According to traditional culture, every person is born into a particular group that defines his or her unchangeable position within society.

The dominant caste among the Sinhalese population is the Goyigama. Although the government keeps no official statistics on caste, it appears that the Goyigama comprise at least half the Sinhalese population

Durava. The Durava community can boast of a long presence in Sri Lanka which may date back to several centuries or even millennia if their claims to Naga ancestry are to be taken seriously. Yet this largely coastal population has had to struggle hard to debunk a myth perpetuated since Portuguese times that they are toddy tappers, one which they believe lower them in the eyes of other men.

Karava Cast. The history recorded here charts the Karava from the time of the 'Mahabharata', to their arrival here during the Kotte period, their rise and fall through the Portuguese, Dutch and British periods, and the sweeping social changes of the 20th century.

No Sinhalese caste has aroused so much wonder and curiosity as the Rodi once the `untouchables' of Sri Lanka. Indeed there is something mysterious about this people who claim descent from Sinhalese royalty but who have for centuries been despised and down trodden by society

The origins of the Rodi who constitute the lowest ranking caste and the only 'untouchables' in traditional Sinhalese society is an interesting one. Although traditionally regarded as a Sinhalese caste, there is reason to believe that the Rodi are descended from an aboriginal tribe of eastern India who migrated to Sri Lanka during some remote period.