Salagama

Salagama is a Sinhalese caste in Sri Lanka. The community was traditionally associated with the cultivation and management of cinnamon and are found mostly in Southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka.

The Salagamas trace their roots back to the Coromandel Coast of South India, and settled in the southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka. Like the other coastel castes such as the Karavas and Duravas, the Salagamas migrated to Sri Lanka between 13th to 18th century.

Under Portuguese rule, many Karavas and Salagamas converted to Catholicism, which opened way to education and administrative careers.

The Portuguese continued the tradition of using Salagamas as cinnamon planters, who had to provide cinnamon as a tax. Queyroz mentions 'Chaleaz' as among the 'high castes' and that they prepared Cinnamon for the 'great tax'.

When the Dutch East India Company (VOC) took over the coastal areas, it re-organised cinnamon cultivation on modern capitalist lines, with plantations located within the boundaries of VOC rule, mainly in the Galle district. The Salagamas were converted from a feudal caste into a modern proletariat.The Dutch demand for cinnamon was more intense than that of the Portuguese, and by the era of British control mortality rates among Salagamas had increased sharply. It became common practice for cinnamon peelers' children to be registered under the names of other castes in order to spare them a life of ever-growing misery.

The census of 1824 identified the Salagamas as about 7.5% of the coastal Sinhalese population. However, they were concentrated in the Galle district, where about half of them lived and where they made up almost 20% of the population.

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