Memons in Sri Lanka

The majority of Sri Lankan Memons (who belong to the subgroup of the Kathiawari Memons) are the descendants of those who initially arrived in small numbers to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the Kathiawar region of Gujarat, India beginning in the 1870s, as well as the descendants of later wave of migration occurred after the Partition of India in the 1940s.

They are Sunni Muslims who follow the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, and the Memons are entrepreneurs and traders who settled in Sri Lanka for business opportunities during the colonial period. Some of these people came to the country as far back as the Portuguese period. Another large number settled permanently in Sri Lanka after the partition of India in 1947.

The majority of these Memons were from the historical village of Kutiyana, in Junagadh, Gujarat, India; among other villages in Kathiawar.

Sri Lankan Memons are strictly following the traditional and cultural values of the International Memon community. Memons in Sri Lanka are represented by the Memon Association of Sri Lanka.