The relationship between India and Sri Lanka is deeply rooted on economic, political and linguistic levels. There have been ups and downs in the relation between the two countries. However, despite those ups and downs, their relationship still stands and guess who is Sri Lanka’s greatest trade partner in the region? It is India. Tourism plays another positive role in creating good relations between the two countries. And when it comes to tourism, the concept of languages lingers in the background.
This is where translation services help integrate an understanding between the two nations. For example, Indian immigrants in Sri Lanka who speak Hindi, look out for Hindi translation services in order to understand the foreign language.
Historical Context
The relationship between India and Sri Lanka dates back to 2500 years. India is the closest country to Sri Lanka. And in SAARC countries, India and Sri Lanka have the healthiest and longest trade relations. Buddhim is the main culture of Sri Lanka, but as a big majority of Indian immigrants live in Sri Lanka, Hinduism is also a prevalent religion. Just like India, Sri Lanka also inhabits people of different religions which include, Muslims and Christians.
In the past years, both countries have helped each other in certain developmental projects. For instance, the project of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) where India helped Sri Lanka recruiting its disadvantaged section. Also, every year there are multiple job opportunities that India creates for Sri Lankans because of how hard working that nation is.
India and Sri Lanka – How are the Relations Between the Two Countries?
Tourism
As mentioned in the start, tourism is another positive relation between the two countries. There are many tourist spots in both India and Sri Lanka which invite both nations to visit each other’s homeland. With the presence of tourism culture in both countries, the use of translation services is very common. India’s tourism industry provides Sinhala translation services to Sinhalese tourists to make their stay a pleasant one.
Integration in Housing Projects
The Indian government has started many housing projects in Sri Lanka where it builds houses for Sri Lankan people. In the long run, India hires people from Sri Lanka in its various development projects. Recently, the Indian government has signed an agreement with the Sri Lankan government regarding building homes for the homeless Sri Lankan.
This project consists of construction of 600 houses in 25 different districts of Sri Lanka. The cost of this project is SLR 300 million and will take approximately a year for its completion. With the help of Sinhala translation, the Indian government translates documents regarding the housing project.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
BHEL, short for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, is an engineering and manufacturing company in India. This company deals with construction, its testing and many other things. There are certain BHEL projects that are operated in Sri Lanka. For instance, the Sri Lankan power plant construction project. The Indian government took responsibility for this project and completed the project in record time. Here Hindi translation services are of vital importance as they translate both from Hindi to Sinhala as well as other languages for the easy understanding of Sinhala and Hindi speakers.
Sri Lankan Ports
India uses Sri Lankan ports to ship its products across the world. Back in 2022, Sri Lanka signed an agreement with the huge Indian business group, Adani Group, for building a terminal next to the Chinese sprawling port.
Hence, there are many examples of business mergers between India and Sri Lanka that showcases how these two countries benefit from each other.
Role of Languages in Contributing to the Relations Between India and Sri Lanka
One thing you might not know is that there are very few Sinhala speakers in India. The number is so low that often it is considered zero. There are multiple reasons behind this among which the most important and dominant one is the difference of language families. Yes, it is true that Sinhala and Hindi belong to the same language family. But the other languages spoken in India like Bengali, Tamil etc belong to distinct language families.
There are also fewer Hindi speakers in Sri Lanka. But despite this, the relations between the two countries are very great. The major products that India exports to Sri Lanka are semi-finished iron, refined petroleum and light rubberized knitted fabric. On the other hand, India imports cosmetics, perfumes, metals, coins, pearls, precious stones, essential oils and milling products from Sri Lanka.
Final Words!
In the end, today the relations between India and Sri Lanka are very great because of trade and other development projects. The housing project is another successful endeavor of the two countries that further strengthens their relationship. Sri Lankan visit India for accretion as well as religious reasons.