Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island nation in South Asia with a documented history of more than 3,000 years, including Buddhist writings dating to 29 BCE, and endured Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial rule before gaining independence from Britain on 4 February 1948 as the Dominion of Ceylon under the Soulbury constitution, with D. S. Senanayake as its first prime minister. It became a republic in 1972 and adopted its current constitution on 7 September 1978, when it took its present name; the country operates as a unitary semi-presidential republic, with Colombo serving as executive and judicial capital and largest city while Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital. Its population of about 22 million is roughly 74 percent Sinhalese and 15 percent Tamil, with Moor, Indian Tamil and Burgher minorities, and Sri Lanka has the highest level of human development in South Asia while participating in SAARC, the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned Movement.
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