How would a Portuguese Sri Lanka look like today if the Portuguese had saved it from the Dutch?

[Terranical]

The Portuguese at one point controlled Sri Lanka for a while, then they lost the colony due to Dutch Invasions which was turned into a Dutch Colony, what would happen if Portugal managed to keep the colony from invaders like the Dutch?

Would we have a Portuguese speaking island country like East Timor? Would Christianity replace Buddhism in Sri Lanka? How would this affect British Raj? What would happen afterwards?

 

[vuun]

Assuming the British Raj and 20th century decolonization went similar to OTL, I could see an independent India move to invade/annex Sri Lanka. I suspect this might be more difficult than the OTL annexation of the remaining mainland Portuguese exclaves, and it's less justified since the island has no prior history as part of a mainland Indian state. Sri Lanka may end up in a similar situation to East Timor.

 

[Lusitania]

For the Portuguese to have been able to retain Sri Lanka it would of meant that they also were able to defeat the Dutch in the Portuguese - Dutch war of the 17th century. This would of also left the Portuguese with a much stronger mainland presence and over the next three centuries of turned those areas distinct from rest of India.

There is no reason to assume that the British Raj would of been as successful and that there would of been a United India pressuring or invading Portuguese India.

The more likely scenario is a number of independent Indian princely states attaining independence.

As for Sri Lanka itself it might of become the center of Portuguese India and very similar to Goa. But Goa, Portuguese India and Sri Lanka would in many ways be hybrid of East Timor and local with its own distinct flavor.

 

[Galba Otho Vitelius]

One of my alternative history fantasies is one of the 16th century Portuguese monarchs anticipating Joao VI and relocating the court and much of Portugal's population to Sri Lanka, and constructing a Lusitanian-Sinhalese empire in the Indian Ocean.

 

[Falecius]

Assuming the British Raj and 20th century decolonization went similar to OTL, I could see an independent India move to invade/annex Sri Lanka. I suspect this might be more difficult than the OTL annexation of the remaining mainland Portuguese exclaves, and it's less justified since the island has no prior history as part of a mainland Indian state. Sri Lanka may end up in a similar situation to East Timor.

I don't see why. India has shown no desire to incorporate Sri Lanka IOTL despite it being under the same colonial overlord. I see the Goa/East Timor parallels, but I don't think they really hold. Of course, as said by others, with this POD it would be far from clear that you'd have a British Raj, or a united India after it.

 

[Hvalrossen]

There would probably be a larger colonial population if Portogal had kept Sri Lanka. Colonial population as in european settlers and mixed europeanized population. Portogueese colonies tended to get larger settler and mixed populations than Dutch, French or British colonies. Long term this would likely lead to more cultural links between Portogal and Sri Lanka than between OTL Netherlands and Sri Lanka.

Denmark-Norway were once also intrested in Sri Lanka but were to late.

 

[WilliamOfOckham]

Would Christianity replace Buddhism in Sri Lanka?

No. A Portuguese colony might well get more European immigrants and a bigger Eurasian population than OTL, but nowhere near enough to overcome the majority popular religion of the island. That isn't how South Asia works; Europeans were Christian, Eurasians usually went with their father's religion but often couldn't use the same facilities, and natives kept their own religious tradition (in the case of Hinduism, at least, with significant reanalysis by colonial politics).

There are quite a few Catholics in SL today, I think. Probably that population will get bigger, but I don't think you'd be seeing much conversion by full-blooded natives.

 

[St. Just]

Portuguese Sri Lanka surviving gives you another 300 years of top-down Catholicism, use of the Portuguese language, and the influx of Portuguese and "Portuguese" soldiers and men. Honestly, I think the Portuguese creole population and language would both be much larger, and given how long Portugal stayed in the game IOTL, you could even see Portuguese mass education as well. Still ineffably Sri Lankan, but almost 500 years of contact, assimilation and rule is a lot different from the 150 years we saw OTL (and even in 150 years, there was a ton of cross-cultural contact; having almost 500 years would be this on a much larger scale)

 

[Falecius]

Portuguese Sri Lanka surviving gives you another 300 years of top-down Catholicism, use of the Portuguese language, and the influx of Portuguese and "Portuguese" soldiers and men. Honestly, I think the Portuguese creole population and language would both be much larger, and given how long Portugal stayed in the game IOTL, you could even see Portuguese mass education as well. Still ineffably Sri Lankan, but almost 500 years of contact, assimilation and rule is a lot different from the 150 years we saw OTL (and even in 150 years, there was a ton of cross-cultural contact; having almost 500 years would be this on a much larger scale)

Yes, Sri Lanka would be a very different, and very interesting, place. While East Timor is very different, the Portuguese impact might be about as deep as there, though not along the same lines.