The first matter is the whole question of the Muslim identity. In the 1880s, for instance, attempts were made by Tamil politicians, such as Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan to show that Muslims were Tamils whose religion was Islam in the same way as other Tamils were Hindus or Christians.
In a paper entitled "The ethnology of the 'Moors' of Ceylon", read before the prestigious Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ramanathan contended, advancing physical, social and cultural evidence in his support, that the Muslims originated from South India and were of the same race as the one to which he belonged: in short, the Muslims were really a group of Tamils who had embraced a new religion, Islam. (Collective Identities, Nationalisms and Protest in modern Sri Lanka, edited Michael Roberts).
