title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The protestors placed a placard made out of a card box naming the protestor's area at the Galle Face Green "Gota Go Gama" or "Gotagogama" () which means "Gota Go Village" in Sinhala. Gota-Go-Gama has been set up (similar to Occupy Wall Street moment) like a small model village, providing basic necessities, including free food, free water bottles, toilets and also limited free emergency medical services. The camp was initially set up by volunteers on 9 April during the night with just a handful of tents but the number of tents increased to around 24 on 10 April. Portable toilet facilities have been made including three each allocated for men and women.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The youth protestors created a township right in front of the President's House. The protestors also follow the habit of cleaning the garbage on every night.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: "Daily Mirror" on its official Twitter handle confirmed that an unnamed leading telecommunications company had installed a telephone tower to send and enhance signals at the Gotagogama site. It was later confirmed that the Dialog Axiata had installed the 20 ft (6m) pole antenna structure at Galle Face Green as a solution to network congestion. Later, Dialog decided to deinstall the tower with mutual respect to the concerns raised by the public, as the installation of said tower caused protestors discomfort and panic due to privacy issues, while people also alleged that the personal data of them would be compromised which would lead to tracking of individuals.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: A new branch of the Gotagogama was declared open in the Southern Province of the country in Galle on 15 April 2022 in support of the Colombo Galle Face protests. However, tensions arose in Galle when police officers attempted to discard the Gotagogama temporary tents in Galle. The police officers removed the tents but they were later restored with the intervention of the lawyers. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka ordered a complete investigation regarding the removal of the tents in Galle which were installed by the protestors.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On the morning of 16 April, a convoy of riot police trucks was placed on the outskirts of Galle Face. The trucks raised eyebrows, especially the issue raised by users on social media triggering speculations regarding a possible crackdown on the protests by the government. The trucks were later cleared and removed from the site with the timely intervention of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL). The BASL also requested the government to not oppress the protestors and to respect the legitimate exercise of the freedom of dissent of the people.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 3 May, Ramadan Eid-Ul-Fitr Festival was celebrated at the Gotagogama site at Galle Face with the participation of several religious leaders including Buddhist monks and Christian priests. The protestors were also seen sharing Sawans with biriyani on the opposite side of the Old Parliament on Galle Road. Several members of Sri Lankan Muslim Civil Society donated 700 lunch parcels on the eve of Ramadan at the Gotagogama site.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Mynagogama protest site was also launched mocking the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in front of his official residence Temple Trees outside the Galle Road entrance. The site was launched by taking inspiration from Gotagogama and also due to the fact that Mahinda Rajapaksa got the nickname "Myna" from protestors as part of recent developments.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 29 April, one of the protestors who were protesting at Mynagogama was assaulted by a police officer who was apparently without badges on his uniform. The injured protestor was admitted to the accident ward of the Colombo National Hospital. On the same day police officers reportedly attempted to induce violence by removing the placards that were placed on the police buses which were parked at the Mynagogama protest site.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: People standing in long queues to obtain fuel since the early morning started to protest at the Rambukkana Crossing by obstructing the railway tracks, blocking all entry and exit roads to Rambukkana for over 15 hours. The police arrived and fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse the protesters. According to the police spokesperson, the police began to fire in order to control the situation after the protestors threw rocks and attempted to set fire to a fuel bowser and a three-wheeler. The police justification for the use of live ammunition was contradicted by protesters and videos that showed that the fuel truck was not threatened by protesters, with the protesters instead claiming that the vehicles were set on fire by the police. Videos released by the protesters also showed that they were trying to put down fires in a fuel station. Witnesses to the incident claimed that the protesters were initially peaceful until the police arrived and it was the police that burned down the vehicles. A video clip of the incident also showed that police officers had vandalized parked vehicles in the area.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Several people were injured and rushed to the Kegalle Hospital for treatment. It was later confirmed that one person died with 12 others injured in the incident. A police curfew was imposed in the Rambukkana Police area with immediate effect.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: According to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the police intimidated witnesses into providing false evidence. Kegalle Magistrate Wasana Nawaratne ordered the Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickramaratne to arrest the officer who gave the orders to fire at protestors and other officers involved in the shooting.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 28 April 2022, over 1000 trade unions conducted a massive island wide one-day token strike in support of the ongoing public protests against the government at the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo. Unions representing banking, ports, education, health, plantations, railway and petroleum would take part in the one-day strike.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: 'HoruGoGama' (Go Home Thieves Village) was established by protesters initially led by university students around the Sri Lankan Parliament building on 5 May. The protesters demanded the resignation of the entire parliament and demanded the Rajapaksa family return stolen money. Despite heavy rain, protesters surrounded the parliament and withstood tear gas. The police used water cannons to destroy tents and a food distribution stall and attempted to stop people from joining the protests by barricading the area. The protesters shouted insults at opposition MPs leaving the parliament and accused them of making deals with the government.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The continued use of a state of emergency and violence against peaceful protesters received international condemnation. UNICEF expressed concern with reports of violence in protests involving children and cited the Convention on the Rights of the Child which support the right of children and adolescents to express their views. Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, David McKinnon, expressed surprise at the decision claiming "Sri Lankans had a right to peaceful protest under a democracy", and that it was "hard to understand why it is necessary, then, to declare a state of emergency". US ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung claimed that the second state of emergency would not help and instead urged the government to listen to the public and seek long-term solutions. The European Union said that the protests were peaceful and warned a state of emergency "could have a counterproductive effect".


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The Rajapaksas also increasingly began to turn to appeals for supernatural and divine intervention to maintain power, with media reports of the president's personal shaman, Gnana Akka, sending charmed bottles of water to the protest site. Shiranthi Rajapaksa visited a Hindu temple seeking divine help for her family. Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Anuradhapura to seek blessings from the Sri Maha Bodhi but was booed and heckled by citizens while residents protested, demanding that "thieves" be banned from the city, which is considered holy by Buddhists.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 9 May 2022, SLPP members supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived in buses at Temple Trees and staged a protest urging Rajapaksa to stay on and Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed the crowd. It was revealed that Moratuwa mayor Saman Lal Fernando had accompanied the attacks by taking eight busloads of municipal workers with him to meet Mahinda Rajapaksa to ask Mahinda not to resign. Soon after this, Rajapaksa loyalists attacked the MainaGoGama protest site in front of Temple Trees, assaulting anti-government protesters there and moved to the larger GotaGoGama protest site at Galle Face Green with little intervention from the police. The Rajapaksa loyalists assaulted anti-government protesters at the GotaGoGama protest site and destroyed many of the structures there. Over 130 were wounded and hospitalized following the attacks. SDIG Deshabandu Tennakoon, who is in charge of the Western Province, was seen during the attack standing with SLPP MPs that attacked the protests. It was later revealed that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne ordered the police not to use force against Rajapaksa loyalists on instructions from Public Security Ministry Secretary (Retd.) Maj. Gen. Jagath Alwis. Police later intervened by using a water cannon and tear gas to disperse the two groups after Gotabaya ordered them to intervene. A police curfew was imposed in Colombo and was thereafter extended across the island. Simultaneously the GotaGoGama in Kandy was also attacked by Rajapaksa loyalists. Videos showed government MPs such as Sanath Nishantha leading the attacks against protestors. The military was also deployed to the Gotagogama site at Galle Face following the attack perpetrated by pro-Rajapaksa loyalists on peaceful protestors. As a result of the chaotic incident, the holidays for all ranks of police officers were cancelled with immediate effect and all police recalled to report on duty.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The Rajapaksa loyalists also attacked nearby businesses which were selling flags to the protestors. They threatened vendors if they value their children or their business before they burnt down the shops. Many of the vendors were suffering from the effects of the economic crisis and had bought goods to sell by taking debt. It was also alleged that inmates of the Watareka Prison were brought by the Avant Garde PMC to carry out the attack as several of the Rajapaksa loyalists that were captured by protestors confessed to being prisoners. The government denied that the prisoners were provided to the attackers and claimed that buses carrying prisoners were simply caught up in the unrest. News First disputed the government's excuse and showed footage of attackers wearing clothing similar to those worn by the captured prisoners. The General Secretary of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners, Sudesh Nandimal de Silva expressed concern over the allegations.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The attacks carried out by Rajapaksa loyalists triggered severe backlash in the country, with many calling it "state sponsored violence" and "state sponsored terrorism". JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake reportedly arrived at the scene with his supporters. SJB leader Sajith Premadasa was attacked by a group of protestors when he was walking in Galle Face following the eruption of violence and he was soon escorted out with the help of security guards. SJB MP Kumara Welgama who was travelling in a car was also assaulted by unidentified men.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Sri Lankan cricketers and celebrities condemned the assaults as thuggery. PM Mahinda Rajapaksa issued a statement condemning the violence, but the tweet was quoted by Kumar Sangakkara who tweeted "The only violence was perpetrated by your "supporters" – goons and thugs who came to your office first before going on to assault the peaceful protestors." Mahela Jayawardana also tweeted the fact that the thugs began attacking protesters after meeting Mahinda Rajapaksa and that the police did not take any action to stop them. Sanath Jayasuriya called it the end of the Rajapaksas.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Some of the attackers were caught by protesters who threw them into the Beira Lake and challenged them to ask for their "boss" to save them. Three pickup trucks and buses which were used to transport Rajapaksa loyalists were also pushed into the Beira lake by the protestors.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The attacks caused widespread retaliation and rioting against Rajapaksa loyalists. The buses that were carrying those that attacked the protestors were ambushed in various parts of the country and destroyed. Houses and offices of SLPP politicians were torched, including that of Ramesh Pathirana, Sanath Nishantha, Nimal Lanza, Johnston Fernando, Thushara Sanjeewa. The house of Sanath Nishantha, who led the attacks, was entirely burnt to the ground. The protestors also set ablaze the houses of the Moratuwa mayor and Kurunegala mayor as both mayors were deemed as hardcore Rajapaksa supporters. Protestors in Maharagama forced a leader of a pro-Rajapaksa government group out of a bus and threw him into a garbage cart. The bus was later rammed with the use of a bulldozer.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: MP Amarakeerthi Athukorala was reported to have shot several protesters who were gathered in Nittambuwa but had to take refuge in a building after he was surrounded by thousands of protestors, where it was unclear if he allegedly committed suicide with his own firearm or was beaten to death by the protest mob. The Avenra Garden Hotel in Negombo, which was rumoured to be belonging to Rajapaksa's associates, was also burned down by the protestors and several vehicles at the hotel premises were destroyed by burning, including a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Ferrari 488 Spyder, a Cadillac stretch limousine, a Brabus G-class and a Hummer H2.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 9 May 2022, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa tendered his resignation to the President. Rajapaksa was heavily criticised by citizens and the public for resigning after instigating violence against peaceful protests.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Despite the resignation, retaliatory violence continued, with houses and offices of former government ministers also being destroyed. Protestors also began targeting properties and monuments of the Rajapaksa family. The D. A. Rajapaksa Museum was burnt down, and a monument to D. A. Rajapaksa, the father of the ruling Rajapaksa brothers, was destroyed, while the wax statues of the Rajapaksa parents from the museum were flattened. The Rajapaksa family house in Medamulana as well as Mahinda Rajapaksa's house in Kurunegala were destroyed. Violent clashes occurred as protesters also attempted to storm Temple Trees and the army and navy were deployed. Protesters turned police barricades as battering rams against the heavy iron gates while some managed to commandeer a police bus and used it as a battering ram. The government used tear gas and rubber bullets against the protestors.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Further Opposition MPs such as M. A. Sumanthiran (Tamil National Alliance) demanded the arrest of Ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa for his role in the mob attack against peaceful protestors. Former President Maithripala Sirisena also agreed that sending armed mobs to attack peaceful protestors should result in Mahinda and the leaders of the mob such as Johnston Fernando and Samanlal Fernando being arrested. However, Wimal Weerawansa (Jathika Nidahas Peramuna) claimed that Johnston attacked the protestors under Basil Rajapaksa's orders and it is Johnston that should be arrested. Government MP Charitha Herath claimed that the attack was an attempt by Mahinda Rajapaksa to prove his power to Gotabaya by removing the protestors with his supporters, as Gotabaya was increasingly trying to sideline his brothers after realizing that the brothers were taking advantage of his political inexperience.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: By the morning of 10 May, security forces had managed end the siege of Temple Trees and evacuated Mahinda Rajapaksa under high security. It was reported that Mahinda and his family had fled to the Trincomalee and are hiding in the naval base. Protestors gathered around the base demanding him to be arrested for his crimes.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On the night of the same day a group supported by a politician from the area attacked houses of residents, accusing them of looting the Avendra Hotel. The mob damaged several properties including several shops, injuring four.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The inability of the police to control the violence mass retaliatory violence on politicians was blamed on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which removed the independence of the police commission, allowing SLPP politicians to interfere in the police appointments, resulting in politicians taking control of transfers and appointments of officers. Thus by the time the riots hit, almost all officers in charge of police stations across the country were those hand-picked by the local SLPP politicians. These hand-picked officers in charge ended up ignoring their immediate superiors and instead were taking orders from their patrons, resulting in widespread incompetence leading to a breakdown of law and order. Notable politicians that appointed their own officers in charge included Ramesh Pathirana and Rohitha Abeygunawardene, both of whom lost their homes. By contrast, the properties of politicians that lived in areas where officers were still appointed based on merit were saved, such as in Elpitiya, where the police managed to save house of ex-state minister Geetha Kumarasinghe. Many government MPs were angry that the army was used to protect the president's personal shaman Gnana Akka over them.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: An attempt was made by a pro-Government mob to instigate violence against Muslims to create a communal clash between Sinhalese and Muslims and rumours of racial tensions were spread. Residents launched live streams debunking the claims of tensions and residents expressed anger, noting that an outside group was brought to incite violence. Religious leaders in Negombo also joined to oppose the violent mobs. Locals claimed that Rajapaksa loyalists were trying to create conflicts and requested religious leaders to remain vigilant. Catholic priests and nuns stayed until midnight to maintain peace and diffuse the situation.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 11 May, the government deployed the military with shoot-on-sight orders to bring the violence under control. The military was given powers to detain people without a warrant for up to 24 hours before they need to be handed over to the police, and any private property can be searched by forces. Many expressed fears that the government was planning a military takeover and is preparing to declare martial law, but this was denied by defence officials. The decision received international criticism, with the U.S. State Department issuing a statement: "We stress that peaceful protesters should never be subject to violence or intimidation, whether that's on the part of a military force or civilian units." It was suggested that the initial attacks by Rajapaksa loyalists on peaceful anti-government protesters "served a greater scheme of things", as this allowed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to call a state of emergency permitting "a more conspicuous use of the military to control public protesters under the pretext of law and order".


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 12 May, Fort Magistrate's Court issued a travel ban on 17 individuals due to the investigations on the GotaGoGama and MynaGoGama peaceful protest sites. These include Mahinda Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Johnston Fernando, Sanjeewa Edirimanne, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, C. B. Ratnayake, Sanath Nishantha, Kanchana Jayaratne, Sampath Athukorala, Mahinda Kahandagama, Renuka Perera, Nishantha Abeysinghe, Amitha Abeywickrama, Pushpalal Kumarasinghe, Dilip Fernando, Senior DIG Deshabandu Thennakoon and seven other witnesses and victims of the attacks essential for investigations.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 13 May, the former MynaGoGama near Temple Trees was replaced with No-Deal-Gama. While the initial proposal was to establish a RanilGoGama against the appointment Ranil Wickremesinghe as PM, protestors decided to name it No-Deal-Gama to emphasize opposition to making deals with the Rajapaksas rather than opposition to the new PM.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: A personal complaint was also lodged before the Colombo Magistrate's Court requesting the immediate arrest of seven persons responsible for the 9 May attack under conspiracy to commit criminal intimidation and aiding and abetting to attack a peaceful protest in front of the Temple Trees and Galle Face. The seven persons are Mahinda Rajapaksa, Johnston Fernando, Sanjeewa Edirimanne, Sanath Nishantha and Saman Lal Fernando, Senior DIG in charge of the Western Province Deshabandu Tennakoon and IGP Chandana Wickremeratne.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 18 May the protestors at GotaGoGama held a remembrance event to remember all those who were killed or disappeared during the Sri Lankan Civil War which ended in 2009.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 23 May the Government tabled the new 21st amendment to the constitution which revert most of the 20th amendment which the protestors demanded to be abolished due to giving almost unlimited powers to the president. The amendment also proposes to re-empower independent commissions and to add the National Audit Commission and the Procurement Commission as Independent Commissions. It will ban dual citizens from holding parliamentary seats thus ending Basil Rajapaksa's political career.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 25 May a protest demanding the arrest of Johnston Fernando took place outside the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters over 9 May 'Black Monday' attacks. Many of the protestors were victims of attacks by Rajapaksa loyalists and came to the protests still wearing bandages and casts.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 9 June former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa resigned from his National list MP post but promised that he will contest again and return. He blamed the economic crisis on voters for voting for the Rajapaksas and denied that the Rajapaksa family will exit politics and claimed that if the Rajapaksa family cannot govern Sri Lanka they will use other methods to influence governance.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: During the Australian cricket tour of Sri Lanka residents of Galle who had been waiting in lines to get LPG gas cylinders surrounded the Galle Cricket Stadium with used cylinders claiming that they will not leave until they were provided with new cylinders. The police and army were used to remove anti-government protesters from the fort ramparts overlooking the ground at Galle, even though the public is allowed to hold banners and placards. According to ESPNcricinfo, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) told the game's broadcasters not to show any visuals of protests. BASL criticized the removal of protestors as the decision to remove them had no basis in Sri Lankan law.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 6 July former MP Hirunika Premachandra was arrested for protesting near the President's House. The arrest sparked another protest which came under tear gas attack by the police.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 8 July the IGP Chandana Wickremesinghe declared a "police curfew" which legal experts noted to be illegal and unconstitutional as there is no provision for such a curfew. MP M. A. Sumanthiran, Senior lawyer Viran Cores and the BASL issued statements condemning the "police curfew" as an illegal action to prohibit the right to peaceful protest which would be a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens. The IGP removed the curfew the next day.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 9 July, the president fled his official residence in Colombo before large numbers of protesters gathered at Chatham Street, Colombo, near the President's House, demanding his immediate resignation. They were able to break into the Presidential Residence despite the police barricades and tear gas attacks. Protesters also broke into the Presidential Secretariat and Temple Trees, the Prime Minister's official residence and gathered around the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Wickremesinghe later announced that he was willing to step down from his position. Though the protests were mostly peaceful, 55 people were hospitalized at Colombo National Hospital.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The Sri Lanka Police, together with the Police's Special Task Force, launched a violent attack near the Prime Minister's residence, beating up protestors, including journalists. Four journalists including Waruna Sampath and Sarasi Peiris of News First were beaten up despite media identification and pleading not to be attacked which was broadcast on live TV. The journalists were hospitalized after the attacks. SSP Romesh Liyanage was identified as the one ordering the attack on journalists. Ranil Wickremesinghe "expressed regret" over the attacks.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The speaker of the Parliament issued a statement that night that President Rajapaksa would resign from office on 13 July 2022. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe also announced that he would be willing to resign, saying that he would do so once a new government was formed. Later that evening, protesters broke into the private residence of the Prime Minister in Colombo and set it on fire.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Some of the protesters who breached President's House, Temple Trees, and the Presidential Secretariat spent the night there, refusing to leave the premises until the Prime Minister and the President resign. On 10 July, three people were arrested for the arson of the Prime Minister's residence.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: By 10 July the Presidential Residence had become a tourist attraction with large numbers of Sri Lankans visiting the building to observe the luxuries enjoyed by the president despite the economic crisis. The Gordon Garden within the residence was also used by families to have picnics. Security forces were still present but maintained their distance allowing volunteers from protestors to handle the large influx of Sri Lankans and in some cases security joined protestors taking selfies within the complex. The Presidential Secretariat was turned into a temporary library with over 8,000 books in Sinhala, Tamil and English for visitors to read. On 9 and 10 July, the whereabouts of the President remained unknown. On 11 July, BBC News reported that the President was on a Navy vessel in Sri Lankan waters, citing Sri Lankan military sources. The Speaker of the Parliament claimed that Gotabaya had left the country and would return by Wednesday but later announced that the President was still in Sri Lanka.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On the morning of 13 July, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives with his wife and two bodyguards, and Sri Lanka Air Force confirmed that a SLAF plane was given to the President to depart for the Maldives. He then flew to Singapore on a Saudia Boeing 787 Dreamliner since he had been "allowed entry on a private visit". He fled as making the resignation within the country would end his presidential immunity. As a result, his resignation was made while outside of Sri Lanka, removing the risk of him being detained.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The Speaker of Parliament announced in the afternoon that President Rajapaksa appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president in his absence. Protesters stormed the office of the Prime Minister demanding his resignation.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Protestors stormed the studios of the state-run television channel Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and demanded that news on the anti-government protests to be broadcast. The channel went off the air and resumed the live transmission later. Another state-owned television channel, the Independent Television Network (ITN) was also taken off the air and later resumed it's broadcasts. In the evening, protesters reportedly attempted to breach the police barricades placed along the road leading to the Parliament. where protesters confiscated a T-56 weapon and 2 magazines with 60 rounds of ammunition from an Army Soldier during protests. An Army soldier and a Police Constable were hospitalized with injuries sustained after being attacked by protesters. Later that night Acting President Wickremesinghe declared an islandwide curfew until 5:00 am next day (14 July).


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 14 July protestors from Galle Face announced in a press conference that the protestors who had stormed and occupied the Presidential Palace and the Prime Minister's Office would withdraw from such properties and hand them over to the state, except for the Old Parliament Building and Galle Face where the protestors would continue to showcase their voices and send a clear message to both executive and legislature. Protesters peacefully withdrew from the President's Official House, Temple Trees Prime Minister's official residence, and the Prime Minister's Office.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: President Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to the Speaker of the Parliament later that day. The news of his resignation was celebrated by the public mainly at Galle Face and also in the other parts of Colombo.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 15 July, the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abewardhana announced the official resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe was officially sworn in as the Acting President. Protesters renamed "Gota Go Gama" to "Ranil Go Gama" (Ranil Go Village), demanding Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 20 July, Colombo Fort Magistrate issued a court order barring people from assembling within a 50-metre radius of the statue of the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike at the Galle Face Green after Colombo Fort Police requested it, citing reports of impending damages to the statue by those who were engaged in protests at Galle Face.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 21 July, the protesters at 'No Deal Gama', located outside Temple Trees in Kollupitiya, left the protest site. Protestors at the Galle Face protest site announced that they would release the President Secretariat back to the authorities by 2 pm on 22 July.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: At around 2:00 am on 22 July, the thousands of armed forces in a joint operation of the Army, police and Special Task Force stormed the protest site at Galle Face Green to clear the Presidential Secretariat and remove the demonstrators. While forcefully removing the protesters, several civilians and journalists including one from the BBC were reportedly assaulted by the forces. More than 50 people were injured and 9 people were arrested. Several foreign envoys in Sri Lanka including the U.S. Ambassador, Canadian High Commissioner and British High Commissioner raised concerns about this pre-dawn raid. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, who came to collect accounts from the scene in the aftermath, said it was "a total violation of the fundamental rights of the people by the executive". A day later, the police explained that the protestors were unwilling to vacate the premises and acted aggressively in previous occasions when the police requested them to vacate the Presidential Secretariat.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 3 August, Police informed the protestors at Galle Face to remove all illegally set up tents and camps at premises before 5 PM on 5 August. On 4 August, after considering three writ applications filed on behalf of protestors, the Court of Appeal assured that protesters will not be removed from the Galle Face premises until 10 August.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: By early November, protests were beginning to cool off, and economic conditions were beginning to improve somewhat. Tourism was slowly resuming again, fuel and gas queues had disappeared, and power cuts had reduced. Many claimed that the situation had dramatically improved since the departure of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Inflation rates rapidly declined, the country was declared safe again and tourists resumed visiting the country.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: In the United States, several protests were held, including one outside the residence of Gotabaya Rajapaksa's son in Los Angeles during which protesters demanded he summon his father back to the U.S., and one in Columbia, Missouri. A protest was also held in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in London, England.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Protests were also held in Melbourne, Australia, at Federation Square and in Mount Wellington, Auckland, New Zealand. In Australia, protests were also organized in other cities such as Perth, Brisbane, and Sydney.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Upon Gotabaya Rajapaksa's flight from Sri Lanka to the Maldives on 13 July, minor protests organized by Sri Lankans living in the country broke out in Malé, urging the government not to provide a safe haven for Rajapaksa.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: After the protest in front of the President's house, the government of Sri Lanka called the protesters "terrorists" and blamed an "extremist group" for instigating the riot. In the wake of nationwide protests, the Rajapaksa government declared a 36-hour state of emergency that lasted from the evening of 2 April until the morning of 4 April. The president's proclamation said that the state of emergency was in the interest of "public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community". Dozens of Sri Lankan police were deployed to the main square in Colombo to prevent protesters from gathering. The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence also blocked access to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp as public criticism grew against the ruling Rajapaksa family. However, Sports and Youth Minister Namal Rajapaksa said that imposing internet block was "completely useless", as the use of VPNs has been widespread. Access to social media was restored 15 hours later.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: In March, in response to the #GoHomeGota hashtag, the #WeAreWithGota hashtag was launched on social media and cabinet ministers in the government, artists, celebrities, and media personalities all tweeted under the hashtag #WeAreWithGota in support of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his administration.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Government politicians came under fire for using a Facebook frame with the national flag on their profile photos similar to the ones used by the public who have been protesting against the government under the hashtag #GoHomeGota.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 13 April, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa made a request to meet a delegation from the protestors in Galle Face, but was refused.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 18 April 2022, Gotabaya appointed a new 17-member cabinet despite the protests calling the entire government to resign, including the president alongside all 225 MPs in parliament. Dinesh Gunawardena was appointed as Public Administration, Internal Affairs minister while Douglas Devananda was appointed as Fisheries minister, Kanaka Herath was appointed as Highways minister, Dilum Amunugama was appointed as Transport & Industries minister, Prasanna Ranatunga was appointed as Public security and tourism minister, Channa Jayasumana was appointed as Health minister, Nalaka Godahewa was appointed as Media minister, Pramitha Tennakoon was appointed as Ports and Shipping minister, Amith Thenuka Vidanagamage was appointed as Sports & Youth Affairs ministry, Kanchana Wijesekera was appointed as Power & Energy minister, Asanka Shehan Semasinghe was appointed as Trade & Samurdhi Development minister, Janaka Wakkumbura was appointed as Agriculture & Irrigation minister, Vidura Wickremanayake was appointed as Labour minister, Mohan Priyadarshana De Silva was appointed as Water supply minister, Ramesh Pathirana was appointed as Education & Plantation Industries, Wimalaweera Dissanayake was appointed as Wildlife & Forest Resources Conservation minister and Ahamed Nazeer Zainulabdeen was appointed as Environment minister. In the new cabinet portfolio, female representation was completely excluded, with all 17 ministers being males.This cabinet was also forced to resign on the afternoon of July 9.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The government's handling of the protests has been met with criticism and condemnation from several opposition politicians. Opposition MP for Tamil National Alliance M. A. Sumanthiran condemned the government's handling of the protests and called on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to immediately rescind the gazette notification. Sumanthiran also urged fellow MPs to reject the state of emergency bill. Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Harsha de Silva said that the government had lost its legitimacy for its mishandling of the country's debt crisis. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa called the state of emergency unconstitutional and condemned the government for violating the law. Premadasa has also called on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the Sri Lankan political and economic crisis. Ranil Wickremesinghe, at the time former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and MP of the United National Party (UNP), also criticized the Rajapaksas' handling of the crisis and expressed optimism that it could bring an end to the nationalist politics of the Rajapaksas.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 6 April, members of the SJB held placards and protested inside Parliament demanding that Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign immediately. The SJB party said that it would try to bring a no-confidence motion in Parliament if the President and Prime Minister do not step down.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Samagi Jana Balawageya organised a protest march carrying the slogan "The Struggle for Freedom" began on 26 April 2022 from Kandy and it was expected that the final destination would be Colombo by 1 May 2022.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The United Nations Human Rights Council said that it was closely monitoring the situation, stating: "The drift towards militarisation and the weakening of institutional checks and balances in Sri Lanka have affected the state's ability to effectively tackle the economic crisis".


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The European Union said that it has been monitoring the situation and recent developments in Sri Lanka, stating: "We stress the extreme emergency of the situation, which require the authorities to start in-depth discussions with the International Monetary Fund on the reforms needed to bring the Sri Lankan economy back to a sustainable path". The delegation of the EU together with the diplomatic missions of the EU Member States issued a joint statement on 8 April.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer and the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung condemned the shooting in Rambukkana and urged to maintain peace, law and order.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: The ambassador of Germany to Sri Lanka Holger Seubert praised the protests for being conducted in a peaceful manner. He likened the protests to those that occurred during the 1989–1990 German reunification.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Pope Francis made an appeal for the Sri Lankan authorities to "listen to the aspirations of the people", and said, "I offer a special thought to the people of Sri Lanka, in particular to the young, who in recent times have made their cry heard in the face of the country's social and economic challenges and problems".


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 5 August 2022, a number of international human rights organizations issued a joint statement to condemn the authorities’ violent crackdown and increasing reprisals against peaceful protesters in Sri Lanka.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Several reports of members and associates of the Rajapaksa family fleeing the country emerged during the protests. On 3 April, it was reported that a group of nine people, including the wife and in-laws of Namal Rajapaksa, had fled the country. Namal's father-in-law had been appointed director of the state-owned Airport and Aviation (Services) Sri Lanka Limited. On 4 April, Nissanka Senadhipathi, a close ally of the Rajapaksas and the chairman of the Avant Garde PMC, allegedly fled to the Maldives with his family members aboard Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL-102. On 5 April, the former deputy minister Nirupama Rajapaksa and niece of current prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was embroiled in the Pandora Papers scandal, also fled the country to Dubai.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 7 April, the Colombo Magistrate Court issued an order preventing former CBSL governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal from leaving Sri Lanka until 18 April. The court order was issued on the basis of a case filed by political activist Keerthi Tennakoon against Cabraal regarding misappropriation and misuse of public funds which led to a massive economic crisis in Sri Lanka.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: It was reported that on 16 April 2022, Basil Rajapaksa tested positive for COVID-19 and was hospitalized for treatment. However, speculations and rumours were rife that Basil Rajapaksa would have eventually left Colombo for Dubai on 16 April 2022 through the private jet named N750GF. However, the reports which speculated Basil would have fled the country were refuted and the media confirmed that the private jet which left the Ratmalana Airport on 16 April was owned by British fashion designer and millionaire George Davies.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: Housing Development Authority Chairman and former MP Duminda Silva left for Singapore on 7 May. Silva was convicted of murdering a rival politician and his supporters in 2011 and had been sentenced to death in 2016 but was pardoned by Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2021. On 9 May 2022 Yoshitha Rajapaksa, the second son of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his acting chief of staff, left the country with his family. On 13 May 2022 local media reported that State Minister of Rural Road Development Pillayan had fled to Malaysia after the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Pillayan had been charged and arrested for the murder of a rival MP but was acquitted after the Attorney General withdrew charges against him following the election victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 8 July, Namal Rajapaksa's wife, Limini Weerasinghe and her son, again left the country for France via Singapore. However, Namal Rajapaksa denied claims that she fled via a tweet and showed his frustration against the incident being reported as breaking news by a local newspaper.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 12 July, Basil Rajapaksa, who attempted to flee the country via Bandaranaike International Airport had to turn back, as he was met with strong protests at the airport. The immigration and emigration officers attached to the Silk Road Departures, which provides a dedicated service to VIPs, also withdrew from their duties. On the same day, "The Hindu" reported that the US rejected President Rajapaksa's recent request for a visa.


title: 2022 Sri Lankan protests

text: On 13 July, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in an SLAF aircraft and arrived at Maldives. On 15 July, Supreme Court issued a temporary travel ban on Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa, barring them from flying out of the country until 28 July.


title: Demographics of California

text: California is the most populated U.S. state, with an estimated population of 39.2 million as of January 1, 2022. It has people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds.


title: Demographics of California

text: California is the most populated sub-national entity in North America. If it were an independent country, California would rank 34th in population in the world. It has a larger population than either Canada or Australia. Its population is one third larger than that of the next most populous state, Texas. California surpassed New York to become the most populous state in 1962. California's population growth has slowed dramatically in the 21st century. In 2010, the state's five most populous counties were Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Orange County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County, with Riverside County having the largest percentage increase in population. The largest metro areas in California, as of 2010, are Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, San Diego, Riverside-San Bernardino, and Sacramento. From 2006 until 2016, the state lost a net population of about 1 million people from emigration to other states, yet the population of the state continued to grow due to immigration from overseas and more births than deaths.


title: Demographics of California

text: As of 2006, California had an estimated population of 37,172,015, more than 12 percent of the U.S. population. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 1,557,112 people (i.e., 2,781,539 births minus 1,224,427 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 751,419 people. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 1,415,879 people, and migration from within the U.S. resulted in a net decrease of 564,100 people. California is the 13th fastest-growing state. As of 2008, the total fertility rate was 2.15.


title: Demographics of California

text: No single ethnic group forms a majority of California's population, making the state a minority-majority state. Hispanics (of any race) are the largest single ethnic group in the state. Spanish is the state's second most widely spoken language. Areas with especially large Spanish speaking populations include the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the California-Mexico border counties of San Diego and Imperial, and the San Joaquin Valley. Nearly 43% of Californian residents speak a language other than English at home, a proportion far higher than any other state.


title: Demographics of California

text: In 2011, there were an estimated 2.6 million undocumented immigrants residing in California. California is home to almost 25% of the country's undocumented population, making up 6% of California's residents overall. Two-thirds of California's undocumented population have lived in the state for more than 10 years.


title: Demographics of California

text: About 52% of California's public school students in the 2011–12 school year identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino and 26% as non-Hispanic Caucasian. The following ethnic groups made up the rest of the statewide public school student body: Asians (11%), African Americans (7%), Native Americans (0.7%), and Pacific Islanders (0.6%). Students of mixed race made up about 2% of the public schools. Hispanics have made up the majority of the state's public schools since 2010. Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest school district in California and second largest in the nation, is 73% Hispanic, 10% African American, 9% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 6% Asian, 0.5% Native American, and 0.4% Pacific Islander.


title: Demographics of California

text: According to the 2020 US Census Bureau, California's population was 34.7% Non-Hispanic White, 5.7% African American, 1.5% Native American, 16.1% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 13% Two or more races, and 36% Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Demographics of California

text: According to 2018 US Census Bureau estimates, California's population was 59.5% White (36.6% Non-Hispanic White), 14.7% Asian, 13.8% Some Other Race, 5.8% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American and Alaskan Native, 0.4% Pacific Islander, and 5.1% from two or more races. with others identifying as Some Other Race (34.4%), Multiracial (5.1%), Black (0.7%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (1.1%), Asian (0.5%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%). By ethnicity, 39.3% of the total population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race) and 60.7% is Non-Hispanic (of any race).


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the highest number, and second highest percentage, of Asian Americans by state. Only Hawaii has a higher Asian American percentage than California. While New Mexico and Texas have higher percentages of Hispanics, California has the highest total number of Hispanics of any U.S. state. Hispanics are the largest single ethnic group in the state.


title: Demographics of California

text: The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), German (9%), Irish (7.7%), English (7.4%), and Italian(5.8%); there are 65 other ethnicities with sizable populations in California including Arabs, Albanians, Australians, Brazilians, Canadians, Haitians, Iranians/Persians, and Somalis as examples. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have large numbers of residents with English, French, Italian, Iranian/Persian, German, Russian, and Scandinavian ancestry.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., totaling 21,453,934 residents as of the 2010 census. The state has the fifth largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,299,072 residents. California's Asian population is estimated at 4.9 million, approximately one-third of the nation's estimated 15 million Asian Americans. California's Native American population of 285,512 is the third-largest of any state, behind Arizona and Oklahoma.


title: Demographics of California

text: Since the 2000 U.S. Census, California has been known as the second state in US history (after Hawaii since its statehood in 1959) to have a non-white majority when excluding Hispanic Whites, and since 2014, the first state to have a Latino plurality surpass other racial/ethnic groups. The media discussed the possibility of Latinos becoming a majority in the 21st century, for the first time since statehood (1850) when massive immigration of Anglo-Americans during the California Gold Rush of 1848-49 reduced Spanish speakers to 20 percent of the population.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the largest population of European Americans of any state. For example, in 2000 California had more Bulgarian Americans, Romanian Americans and Hungarian Americans than any other U.S. state. Los Angeles and San Francisco have large Russian American and Ukrainian American populations; and a long history of German, Irish, Italian, English, and Polish communities established by immigrants in the late 19th century. There are also many English Americans, Irish Americans, and French Americans whose ancestors were the original 49ers, also known as the California Gold Rush immigrants.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has over one million residents each with Spanish or Portuguese ancestry, with communities along coastal parts of the state such as San Diego, Long Beach, Camarillo, Santa Clara Valley (including Cupertino, Gilroy and San Jose), Salinas Valley, Santa Maria Valley, and San Joaquin Valley. A small wave of Danish, Dutch and Swedish immigrants founded towns like Lathrop near Stockton, Artesia near Los Angeles, Kingsburg south of Fresno, Solvang north of Santa Barbara in the late 1800s and the private community of Sveadal located 15 miles south of San Jose and populated entirely by members of the Swedish American Patriotic League. Small colonies of early 19th century Russian settlement under the Russian American Company are in Fort Ross, Calistoga and the Russian River Valley in Sonoma and Napa counties. California also has the third largest Greek American population in the United States, behind New York and Massachusetts. The Los Angeles Harbor area of San Pedro has a sizeable Croatian American population. Small Amish/Mennonite colonies exist in an area bordered by the towns Oakdale, Riverbank and Ripon near Modesto and in Reedley, Sanger and Orange Cove near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley; and in the outer Salinas Valley.


title: Demographics of California

text: The most important Italian community in California is in North Beach District at San Francisco. 60% of Californian Italo-Americans are from northern Italy.


title: Demographics of California

text: Many Italians also live in San Diego, with Little Italy having San Diego's largest Italian population.


title: Demographics of California

text: There is also a large Dutch community in California. The Dutch settled in Redlands, Ontario, Ripon and Bellflower.


title: Demographics of California

text: Latinos, mainly Mexican Americans, form major portions of the population of Southern California, especially in Los Angeles, as well as the San Joaquin Valley. The city of Los Angeles is often said to be the largest Mexican community in the United States. Census records kept track of the growth since 1850, but Mexicans and Mexican Americans have lived in California since Spanish Colonial times. However, the number and percentage population of Latinos living in California increased rapidly in the late 20th century.


title: Demographics of California

text: The Imperial Valley on the U.S.-Mexican border is about 70–75% Latino; communities with many Latinos can also be found in Riverside County, especially at its eastern end, and the Coachella Valley. The Central Valley has many Mexican American migrant farm workers. Latinos are the majority in 14 counties: Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Tulare, and Yolo counties.


title: Demographics of California

text: Latinos make up at least 20% of the San Francisco Bay Area. Many live in San Mateo, Redwood City, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties, as well in San Francisco. The Napa Valley and Salinas Valley have predominantly Latino communities established by migrant farm workers. San Jose is about 30–35 percent Latino, the largest Latino community in northern California, while the Mission District, San Francisco and Lower/West Oakland have barrios established by Mexican and Latin American immigrants. The Mexican American communities of East Los Angeles and Logan Heights, San Diego, as well the San Joaquin Valley are centers of historic Chicano and Latino cultures.


title: Demographics of California

text: California also has the largest populations of Hispanics/Latinos in the country. Most of the state's Latinos have Mexican ancestry, having the largest Mexican population in the United States, making up about 31 percent of the state population. California has a large and diverse population, having the largest Central American, especially Salvadoran population in the United States. Guatemalan Americans are spread out in Southern California after previously being centered in Los Angeles between 1970 and 2010. California also has many Cuban Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Honduran Americans, and Nicaraguan Americans, along with people of Chilean, Colombian, Peruvian, and other South American ancestry. Los Angeles has had the United States' largest Central American community, as well as the largest Mexican American community, since the 1910s. In fact, the 1900 census record finds 319 to 619 out of 100,000 residents in the city of Los Angeles were "Spanish" or "Mexican". (see Demographics of Los Angeles). Nearly 31 percent of Los Angeles itself is of Mexican descent, having the largest Mexican population of any city in the United States. 12,392 Belizeans also live in California.


title: Demographics of California

text: In Mariposa County, there is a very small community of "Californios" or Spanish American people as they identify themselves, that dates back before the U.S. annexation of California. Hornitos is home to an estimated 1,000 people and many have Spanish heritage. The community's "Spanish" Californio culture is closely linked with Mexico and other Latin American nations.


title: Demographics of California

text: Little Arabia is an ethnic enclave in Orange County, California, the center for Orange County's Arab Americans, who number more than 24,000 (as of 2000). It is sometimes referred to as "Little Gaza" which was a play on the original designation of this area as the "Garza Island." Little Arabia grew significantly in the 1990s with the arrival of immigrants from the Middle East, and is the home to thousands of Arab Americans predominantly hailing from Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Yemen.


title: Demographics of California

text: More than 500,000 Iranian Americans live throughout Southern California, including about 20% of the population of Beverly Hills. Iranian American communities also flourish in the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, San Diego and the San Joaquin Valley. The majority of Iranian Americans immigrated after the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown in 1979.


title: Demographics of California

text: California is also home to many Armenian Americans; the highest concentration of Americans of Armenian descent is in the Greater Los Angeles area, where 166,498 people have identified themselves as Armenian to the 2000 Census, comprising over 40% of the 385,488 people who identified Armenian origins in the US at the time. Many of these live in Glendale north of Los Angeles, as well as a large community in Fresno. The size of the Armenian American population is disputed, however. According to a 1988 news article, California had about 500,000 ethnic Armenians with over half of them living in the Greater Los Angeles area.


title: Demographics of California

text: More than 1,300,000 Jewish Americans live in California, the majority of whom are Ashkenazi Jews. In addition, there are more than 250,000 Israeli Americans live in the Los Angeles area, according to the Israeli American Council. There are also significant Israeli American populations in the Bay Area, San Francisco, and San Jose areas of Northern California. The largest Karaite Jewish population outside of Israel exists in the Bay Area, consisting of several hundreds descendants of refugees from the Egyptian Karaite community, as well as some recent converts. Their community is centered around the only Karaite synagogue outside the Middle East, Congregation B'nai Israel, located in Daly City. The Moroccan Jewish community in California is one of the largest in North America, approximately 10,000 Moroccan Jews reside in the Greater Los Angeles area, mostly in Pico-Robertson, North Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. Many are the descendants of community members who first emigrated to the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Many others came later in the 20th century from Israel, and beginning in the early 21st century from France due to increasing antisemitism there. The community has their own synagogues as well as a community center.


title: Demographics of California

text: Over 50,000 Afghan Americans are concentrated in the East Bay primarily in Alameda County and its communities of Fremont and Hayward; Afghans also live throughout the state (esp. Orange County and Ventura County).


title: Demographics of California

text: There is also large population of Assyrian/Chaldean descent living in the Central Valley, with large communities in Modesto, Ceres and Turlock, as well as throughout the Central Coast and the California Desert (i.e. the Coachella and Imperial valleys). San Diego has one of the largest concentrations of Chaldean immigrants in the United States.


title: Demographics of California

text: Turkish Americans and Azerbaijani Americans form moderately-sized communities in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. The state also has over 2,000 Circassian Americans with a little community in Anaheim.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has 2.3 million African Americans as of 2010, the largest population of Black or African Americans of the western U.S states, and the 5th largest Black population in the United States. Cities that have the largest share of African Americans and have historically been Black cultural centers include (11 largest in the state): Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Richmond, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego and Vallejo.


title: Demographics of California

text: Most African Americans in California have origins from Southern states like Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.


title: Demographics of California

text: There are many other cities and towns in the state with sizeable African American populations. These include:


title: Demographics of California

text: African Americans are approximately 7 percent of the state population. The state percentage of African Americans has dropped in the 1990s and 2000s, though the state's overall "number" of African-Americans has increased in that time period. The black population in East and West Oakland and South Central Los Angeles - places where they held the majority for decades - has greatly decreased as the black middle class has relocated to nearby suburbs, including those in the Inland Empire and Antelope Valley in Southern California and the Sacramento metropolitan area in Northern California. Many African Americans have also moved to the South, where their grandparents may have come from in the "Great Migration" of the mid-20th century.


title: Demographics of California

text: African Americans have made important contributions to the state's hip-hop and R&B music culture. African-American musical artists born and/or raised in California include: Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, E-40, Nate Dogg, En Vogue, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Too Short, Eazy-E, N.W.A, Keyshia Cole, Digital Underground, JJ Fad, Barry White, The Pointer Sisters, Saweetie, Tyga, Doja Cat, Blueface and Kendrick Lamar.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has a number of West Indian (Afro-Caribbean American) and African immigrants from countries such as Cape Verde, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa (including White South Africans), Tanzania, and Yemen across from the Horn of Africa. Immigrants from these countries have established communities in a number of cities in the state, such as Little Ethiopia in West Los Angeles. In addition to the Ethiopian community in Los Angeles, there is a significant Ethiopian population in Oakland/Berkeley. Nuer refugees from South Sudan have migrated to the Sacramento area. There are Cape Verdean communities in Solano County, the Santa Clara Valley, and the San Diego area. As of 2019, there are 13,061 Jamaicans in the state.


title: Demographics of California

text: As of 2010, California's Native American population of 362,801 was the most of any state. It also has the most Native American tribes, indigenous to the state or not, but the majority of known Californian Indian tribes became extinct in the late 19th century. The U.S. Census includes "Latin American Indian", especially immigrants who belonged to indigenous peoples or who have Amerindian heritage from North and South America.


title: Demographics of California

text: The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the state with a population of 22,000 in 2020, although the number of Cherokee descendants are at 110,000 in the earlier census taken in 2010 and any persons residing in California of Cherokee descent may surpass 600,000 according to demographers. Their tribal nation is in the northeast part of Oklahoma but they live across the state and neighboring states. They are often descendants of Dust Bowl refugees in the 1930s and 1940s who migrated to the state's farming counties and urban areas for jobs. The largest urban American Indian communities are Los Angeles/Long Beach, San Francisco/Oakland, Sacramento, and San Diego areas.


title: Demographics of California

text: California also has significant populations of the Apache, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Seminole, Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Paiute, Pueblo, Tohono Oʼodham, Cahuilla, Chumash, Karuk, Yurok, and Yokuts tribes. The Cahuilla in the Coachella Valley have profited from real estate land leases, and much of Indio and Palm Springs are tribal-owned lands under legal tribal jurisdiction.


title: Demographics of California

text: The state has a long history of established East, South, and Southeast Asian American communities, including Chinese since the 1850s, Japanese since the 1880s, Indians since the 1890s and Filipinos for over a century since 1900. A large wave of Asian immigration since 1965, following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which ended the ban on Asian immigration, brought in more Chinese along with Koreans and Southeast Asians after the Vietnam war ended in the late 1970s. South Asians are also a fast-growing group.


title: Demographics of California

text: As of the 2010 Census there were a total of 17,941,286 respondents who claimed to be Asian American and Asian. Out of these respondents in the United States, 30.9% live in California, with 5,556,592 Asian Americans being counted by the 2010 Census. This is a 1.5 million growth in population from the 2000 census, making Asian Americans 14.9 percent of the state's population. Out of those almost 5.6 million Asian Americans in California there are 1,474,707 Filipinos, 1,349,111 Chinese, 647,589 Vietnamese, 590,445 Indians, 505,225 Koreans, 428,140 Japanese, 109,928 Taiwanese, 102,317 Cambodians, 91,224 Hmong, 69,303 Laotians, 67,707 Thais, 53,474 Pakistanis, 39,506 Borneans, Sumatrans, and Indonesians, 17,978 Burmese, 11,929 Sri Lankans, 10,494 Bangladeshis, 6,231 Nepalese, 5,595 Malaysians, 4,993 Mongolians, 1,513 Singaporeans, 1,377 Ryukyuans, and 750 Bhutanese.


title: Demographics of California

text: Chinese Americans are numerous in San Francisco, Oakland, the East Bay, South Bay, the Central Coast of California, Sacramento, San Diego, and the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County. The San Francisco Bay Area has a greater concentration of Cantonese-speaking Chinese than any other region in the United States. The Mexican border community of Calexico, California in addition to Mexicali has large numbers of Chinese Mexican Americans, that is, Mexican Americans of Chinese ancestry. Smaller Chinese communities can also be found in San Jacinto Valley, Lake Elsinore, and Victorville.


title: Demographics of California

text: Southern California has perhaps the largest Taiwan-born Chinese American community in the U.S., particularly in the San Gabriel Valley (i.e. Walnut and Diamond Bar), Buena Park, Cerritos, West Covina, Irvine, communities in the South Bay, Los Angeles and southern Orange County. Many minority groups from China also live in California, for example, there are Tibetan and Mongolian Americans concentrated in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Orange County, and the Los Angeles/Long Beach area.


title: Demographics of California

text: Large Korean American communities exist in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, the eastern San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley, Cerritos/Long Beach, South Bay, Los Angeles, northern Orange County and San Diego area. There is another large Korean American population in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Koreans are growing in number in the suburban Inland Empire region, in cities such as Chino Hills, Corona, Desert Hot Springs, and Loma Linda south of San Bernardino. Since 1990, the Korean American and African American populations relocated westward and northward in the Los Angeles area.


title: Demographics of California

text: The South Bay area and Little Tokyo have a large Japanese American community. Japanese Americans, however, are also concentrated in San Francisco and across the Bay Area, San Jose, the Salinas Valley and Santa Cruz County; and smaller communities in the Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Anaheim, San Diego, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Stockton areas. Despite the presence of Japanese goods stores, media outlets and restaurants in the state, most "Little Tokyos" and "Japantowns" were evacuated during the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II (see Japanese American Internment). As a result, most Japanese Americans in urban areas do not reside in historical Japanese communities.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the largest Indian American population in the U.S. Many live in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Los Angeles suburbs of Artesia and Cerritos have large Indian American communities. San Jose, Fremont, and other Silicon Valley cities have many Indian Americans who are employed in the high-tech industry. Many Indian Americans are in Central Valley cities such as Stockton, Bakersfield, Fresno, Yuba City, and the Imperial Valley. Most South Asians in California are Indian American, but there are also Pakistani Americans, Bangladeshi Americans, and Sri Lankan Americans (see Sinhalese and Tamils) esp. concentrated in the San Gabriel Valley (Covina Valley) of the Los Angeles area. California is home to the unique Punjabi Mexican American community, mostly centered around Yuba City.


title: Demographics of California

text: California is home to 200,000 Roma of the estimated one million in America. Romani Americans, also known pejoratively as American Gypsies, originated in India and came to the United States via Europe. There is a Romani community in Los Angeles and San Francisco.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the largest American population of Southeast Asians, concentrated in the Los Angeles-Long Beach, Sacramento, and Fresno areas. This includes the Hmong and Vietnamese, including Chinese Vietnamese. Long Beach has one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States. The neighboring cities of Westminster and Garden Grove have the largest Vietnamese American community outside of Vietnam and are often dubbed "Little Saigon". Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants also settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, as well across the San Joaquin Valley and in San Diego.


title: Demographics of California

text: Filipino Americans are particularly numerous in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, San Mateo, and Solano counties, and in southern California communities such as Artesia, Baldwin Park, Carson, Cerritos, Covina, West Covina, and the Eagle Rock district of Los Angeles. Around San Diego, many Filipinos live in the communities of Mira Mesa, National City, and Chula Vista. Delano near Bakersfield, other towns in the San Joaquin Valley, the Inland Empire of Riverside-San Bernardino, Coachella Valley-Imperial Valley region, Salinas, Stockton and Lathrop, and the Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo area also have large Filipino American populations. Daly City south of San Francisco has a large Filipino population and is the largest percentage wise in the United States. As of the 1980s, Filipinos have been the largest population of Asians in California. Twenty percent of registered nurses, in 2013, in California are Filipino.


title: Demographics of California

text: Over 6,000 Laotian Americans live in the Fresno area, including an even larger Hmong American community, the second-largest of its kind. Other Hmong colonies in the Central Valley of California and Northern California developed since the end of the Vietnam war (1975–79).


title: Demographics of California

text: California also has a Thai American community of over 250,000, concentrated in Southern California, with small Thai and Southeast Asian communities in Perris and Banning in the Inland Empire region. Los Angeles has the largest Thai population outside of Thailand and is also home to the world's first Thai Town. About 150,000 Indonesians live in Southern California, primarily the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.


title: Demographics of California

text: The state has 150,000 residents with Pacific Islander ancestry. Most, 80,000, are Native Hawaiians of measurable Polynesian ancestry; many also have Asian, European, or other ancestries. There are also 25,000 Samoan Americans originally from American Samoa or Western Samoa. Most live in Long Beach and the Los Angeles suburbs of Carson, Artesia, Cerritos, and Redondo Beach, Oceanside, and Upland. About 10,000 Chamorros from Guam and Northern Mariana Islands live in northern California, the largest Micronesian community in the mainland United States. An estimated 10,000 Tahitians from French Polynesia live in southern California.


title: Demographics of California

text: There are also many Palauan Americans in southern California, specifically in the San Diego area. This includes Vista which has a population of 677 Palauan Americans according to the 2010 US Census. Members of the Palauan community often also have Malay, Indonesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, Japanese, and other East Asian ancestries. Many Chuukese or Trukese live in San Diego.


title: Demographics of California

text: "Note: Births in table do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number."


title: Demographics of California

text: As of 2010, 20,379,282 of California residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 10,672,610 spoke Spanish, 1,231,425 Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Mandarin), 796,451 Tagalog, 559,932 Vietnamese, 367,523 Korean, 192,980 Armenian, and Persian was spoken as a main language by 203,770 of the population over the age of five. In total, 14,644,136 of California's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.


title: Demographics of California

text: Comparatively, according to the 2007 American Community Survey, 42.6 percent of California's population older than five spoke a language other than English at home, with 73 percent of those also speaking English well or very well, while 9.8 did not speak English at all.


title: Demographics of California

text: California had the highest concentration of Vietnamese or Chinese speakers in the United States, second highest concentration of Korean or Spanish speakers in the United States, and third highest concentration of Tagalog speakers in the United States. California was historically one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, and is home to more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in 6 language families. A survey conducted between 2007 and 2009 identified 23 different indigenous languages of Mexico that are spoken among California farmworkers.


title: Demographics of California

text: Over 200 languages are known to be spoken and read in California, with Spanish used as the state's "alternative" language. California has more than 100 indigenous languages, making California one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world. All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.


title: Demographics of California

text: The official language of California has been English since the passage of Proposition 63 in 1986. However, many state, city, and local government agencies still continue to print official public documents in numerous languages. For example, the California Department of Motor Vehicles offers the written exam for the standard C Class driver's license in 31 languages along with English, and the audio exam in 11 languages. The politics of language is a major political issue in the state, especially in regard to language policy controlling the teaching and official use of immigrant languages.


title: Demographics of California

text: As a result of the state's increasing diversity and migration from other areas across the country and around the globe, linguists began noticing a noteworthy set of emerging characteristics of spoken English in California since the late 20th Century. This dialect, known as California English, has a vowel shift and several other phonological processes that are different from the dialects used in other regions of the country.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the most Roman Catholics in the United States, ahead of New York State, as well as large Protestant, non-religious, Jewish, and Muslim populations. It also has the largest Latter-day Saint population outside of Utah. The state also has a large American Jewish community, the second-largest in the nation, as well as largest in the western U.S., and third-largest in the world, mainly concentrated in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and Palm Springs.


title: Demographics of California

text: California also has large Muslim communities in west Los Angeles, San Diego, Beverly Hills, Orange County, Santa Clara County, and the Modesto area.


title: Demographics of California

text: Religions indigenous to California includes LaVeyan Satanism. The Eckankar religion was founded in California.


title: Demographics of California

text: Most Roman Catholics in California are of Mexican, Central American, Irish, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Filipino and Korean ancestry. The population of Catholic Californians is rapidly growing due to the influx of Latin American, Asian, African and Middle Eastern Christian immigrants. In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Sunday Mass is celebrated in 42 different languages representing more than 30 ethnic groups from around the world. The Roman Catholic dioceses of Orange, Los Angeles and San Jose have the largest Catholic diaspora of Vietnamese Roman Catholics in world outside of Vietnam, estimated to be about 250,000-300,000 Roman Catholics out of a total Vietnamese California population of 1.3 Million.


title: Demographics of California

text: The largest Christian denominations in California in 2000 were the Roman Catholic Church with 10,079,310; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 529,575; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 471,119. Jewish congregations had 994,000 adherents, or 3% of the Californian population.


title: Demographics of California

text: Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintō, Sikhism and Taoism were introduced in part by Asian immigrants. As the twentieth century came to a close, forty percent of all Buddhists in America resided in Southern California. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has become unique in the Buddhist world as the only place where representative organizations of every major school of Buddhism can be found in a single urban center. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Northern California and Hsi Lai Temple in Southern California are two of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has the highest Hindu population in the United States, most of them Indian Americans. Many of the prominent Hindu temples including the Malibu Hindu Temple are located in California.


title: Demographics of California

text: With more than 1,232,000 Jews as of 2015, California has the highest number of Jews of any state except New York. Many Jews live in the West Los Angeles and (esp. west) San Fernando Valley regions of Los Angeles. At the present time, one of California's senators, Dianne Feinstein, is Jewish. Historic synagogues include Beth Jacob Congregation (Beverly Hills, California), Congregation B'nai Israel (Sacramento, California), and Temple Israel (Stockton, California). Chabad, The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, and Aish HaTorah are active in California.


title: Demographics of California

text: California also has the largest Muslim community in the United States, an estimated one percent of the population, mostly residing in Southern California. Approximately 100,000 Muslims reside in San Diego.


title: Demographics of California

text: California has more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Temples than any state except Utah. Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have played important roles in the settlement of California throughout the state's history. For example, a group of a few hundred Latter-day Saint converts from the Northeastern United States and Europe arrived at what would become San Francisco in the 1840s aboard the ship "Brooklyn", more than doubling the population of the small town. A group of Latter-day Saints also established the city of San Bernardino in Southern California in 1851. According to the LDS Church 2014 statistics, 780,200 Latter-day Saints reside in the state of California, attending almost 1400 congregations statewide.


title: Demographics of California

text: The Seventh-day Adventist Church is headquartered in Loma Linda in San Bernardino county 60 miles east of Los Angeles, where the church members form the majority of the town's population. The SDA church there has a university, a free hospital and a TV station (3ABN or the 3 Angels Broadcasting Network). The town is known for a large number of centenarians.


title: Demographics of California

text: A Pew Research Center survey revealed, however, that California is less religious than the rest of the United States: 62% of Californians say they are "absolutely certain" of the belief "in God or a universal spirit", while in the nation 71% say so. The survey also revealed that 48% of Californians say religion is "very important", while the figure for the U.S. in general is 56%.


title: Demographics of California

text: According to Pew Forum there are less than 1% Wiccans and other pagans in state with Central Valley Wicca and Reclaiming Wicca as key.


title: Demographics of California

text: California's income distribution is quite broad compared to the country's as a whole; its proportions of residents with no income and of residents with income over $100,000 are both higher than the national average. This broad distribution combined with high housing and living costs give California an abnormally high poverty rate. The Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, calculated by comparing household income to a locally-adjusted poverty threshold, reports that 20.7% of California's population has income insufficient for their basic needs, as compared to 12.9% for the U.S. as a whole. This calculation of income includes the benefits of California welfare programs such as food stamps and earned income tax credits — without these, the state's poverty rate would be 28%.


title: Demographics of California

text: The trends of low income in California are complex; from 1975 to 2014, real (inflation-adjusted) incomes have alternated between rises and sharp declines. These incomes have decreased overall for those outside the top 20th percentile, with the bottom 20th percentile seeing an average decline of 1% per year during that period. Correspondingly, the percent of Californians with income below their poverty threshold has risen and fallen, but has on average increased by a tenth of a percentage point per year.


title: Demographics of California

text: Increasing income inequality has had many effects on Californians' lives, including on life expectancy, which can be taken as a proxy for health or even general welfare. A study conducted by Clarke et al. related life expectancy to socioeconomic status (SES, an index including income and other related factors), finding that Californians in the top 20% by SES live on average six years longer than those in the bottom 20% (81 years, compared to 75). This disparity becomes even more pronounced when intersected with race: White males in the top 20% live 14 years longer than African American males in the bottom 20% (for females, the difference is 10 years).


title: Demographics of California

text: The complexity of the state's low-income trends were visible when, in response to growing Chinese and Spanish-speaking populations, the city of Oakland implemented the nation's first policy of recruiting bilingual applicants for public-facing city jobs in 2001. This increased the employment of Hispanic and Chinese bilinguals throughout the public workforce, but also lowered (monolingual) Black employment.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Hero is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language romantic action film written and directed by Nikkhil Advani, co-written by Umesh Bist, and produced by Salman Khan and Subhash Ghai under Salman Khan Films and Mukta Arts, with Eros International serving as distributor. A remake of Ghai's 1983 blockbuster film "of the same name", which starred Jackie Shroff, the film stars debutantes Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty, son of actor Aditya Pancholi and daughter of actor Sunil Shetty respectively. Aditya Pancholi has an important role in the film himself.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Sooraj Kaushik is a gangster from Mumbai who meets Radha Mathur, daughter of the city's Chief of Police, IG Shrikant Mathur, during a party.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Sooraj, under instructions from his gangster father, Suryakant 'Pasha' Ranade, pretends to be a police officer and kidnaps Radha because Shrikant brought evidence against Pasha in court. Radha, believes the ruse and leaves the city to an isolated location in Jammu with Suraj and his friends.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: During these days, they slowly fall in love. While in Mumbai Pasha uses the kidnapping to threaten Mathur. Soon, the group is discovered by the police led by Radha’s brother. The couple escape although Radha believes they are being attacked by Pasha’s men, and in the ensuing chase, Sooraj is shot in the arm while trying to jump over a broken bridge, and they both fall in the water. This leads the police and the world to believe both Radha and Suraj are dead. Both Radha’s family and Pasha are enraged by the news and the latter swears to avenge Suraj’s death.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Unaware of all this the couple are rescued by some Buddhist monks. Sooraj, who was severely injured, remained unconscious and Radha stays by his side and confesses her feelings. Sooraj who has fallen in love with Radha as well confessed to her that he had kidnapped her and that he was Pasha’s henchman. She has, however, fallen in love with him and asks him to surrender.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: As the lovers return to the city Sooraj is coldly intercepted and held at gunpoint by Shrikant during a fatal attempt on Pasha's part to escape a trial, is sent to jail for two years. This decision by Sooraj leaves Pasha feeling betrayed. Due to the disapproval of their father over Sooraj and Radha’s relationship, Dheeraj asks her to go to Paris, hoping the lovers could reunite once Sooraj is released from prison. To make this happen Dheeraj also lies to his family that he planned to set up a blind date between Radha and his old friend Ranvijay.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: One and a half years later, the court reduces Sooraj's sentence on the grounds of good behavior. Sooraj is out of jail and is ready to start a new life with Radha, but to live a life, he needed to earn. So he creates a fitness center for living with support from Radha and Dheeraj. All seemed to be going well until one day Dheeraj’s wife, meets Ranvijay and brings him home. Dheeraj had been lying to his family that Radha and Ranvijay were a couple so that they wouldn’t coerce Radha into a marriage she didn’t like. Unbeknownst to the family, Ranvijay is a smuggler and a criminal, who strikes a deal with Pasha to separate Sooraj and Radha. Slowly he wins the approval of Radha's family and further turns them against Sooraj.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Shrikant decides to accept Ranvijay as his son-in-law and get enraged when he finds out that Radha and Sooraj were still a couple. Despite several attempts by the couple and Dheeraj he remains stubborn about their relationship. Ranvijay, being Pasha's henchman uses this situation to break Radha's and Sooraj's love.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: In a last ditch attempt to convince her father, Radha and Sooraj narrate their love story to Shrikant and Dheeraj about what happened, in a musical theatre performance, but Shrikant still refuses to accept Sooraj due to his former life as a goon. Instead, he informs Dheeraj that he would be willing to consider their relationship only if Sooraj agrees to become a state witness and confesses against Pasha. When Dheeraj proposes this to Sooraj, he calmly rejects the offer stating that becoming a state witness against Pasha just to marry Radha is degrading to their love, moreover the adds that he is not willing to betray Pasha who is his father. The same day. Ranvijay, waiting for the right opportunity, arrives after Dheeraj leaves and stabs Sooraj.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Later, in the morning, Pasha arrives intending to kill Sooraj for his betrayal, but Radha who arrives at the scene tells him that Sooraj would rather leave her and even go to prison than betray Pasha who is his father. Pasha and Sooraj reconcile. But Ranvijay still holds a grudge against Sooraj kills Pasha’s men and tries to kill Pasha and Sooraj. A fight ensues, and Ranvijay is shot by Shrikant who arrives at the scene and finally chooses to accept Sooraj. Radha and Sooraj reunite and get married.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: In May 2013 it was announced that Subhash Ghai is all set to remake his 1983 blockbuster "Hero", which will be re-edited and re-


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: written. On 6 August 2013 it was announced that Nikhil Advani is all set to direct and re-write the script for the film, which Salman Khan is producing. On 19 September 2013, Khan announced the launch of his own production house "Salman Khan Films", which was to debut with the remake, though the 2014 Canadian film Dr. Cabbie and the 2015 Kabir Khan-directed Indian film Bajrangi Bhaijaan actually marked Khan's production debut. On 7 January 2014, it was reported that Khan set the film to start production on 18 February, and the film would be released on 12 December 2014.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: On 10 February 2014, it was reported that Ghai, who helmed the original, had approved the script re-written by Advani and his co-writer Umesh Bist. Ghai said ""I think they've done a fantastic job of contemporising my script to suit today's tastes"".


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: On 14 August 2013 news told that Govinda and Vinod Khanna will also star in the remake film. On 25 October 2013 Ghai said "Yes, Salman may make a special appearance but he will primarily be working as the producer of the film" and he will be singing the title song of the film. On 9 February 2014 it was confirmed that Athiya Shetty will make her acting debut in the remake film opposite Sooraj Pancholi, another debutante. Pancholi's father Aditya Pancholi, a lead actor of the 1980s and 1990s, was also cast in the film.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: On 19 September 2013 it was announced that both Pancholi and Shetty are currently undergoing training to start the film's production. On 7 January 2014 Khan set the film to start shooting on 18 February. Later Advani began the principal photography of the film on 16 February 2014 at the Gateway of India.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Mohar Bash from Times of India gave 3* to the film stating that "Sculpted as a full throttle masala entertainer, Hero is plot-heavy. And while you are well acquainted with the story, Nikhil and Salman's sensibility works as midas touch, giving the film a different texture. It is slick and never allows its viewers to feel restless. For its 132 minutes' crisp runtime."


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Bollywood Hungama gave 2/5* to the film stating that "On the whole, HERO fails the litmus test of rehashing a classic for the Generation Next. It appeals in very small measures and is not an ideal weekend entertainer. If you a die-hard Salman Khan fan, you may want to patronise, else avoid."


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Koimoi gave 2.5/5* to the film stating that " Hero is a complete throwback of the 'Ek Gunda Ek IG Ki Beti Se Kaise Pyaar Kar Sakta Hai' era. Nikhil Advani misses out on presenting a completely entertaining plot. All the elements seem scattered and hence there is neither enough romance nor action nor drama. The screenplay is a little hotchpotch and that is what affects the film badly."


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN gave 2/5*, stating that "This is lazy, indifferent filmmaking, and a colossal bore for most of its running time. A video featuring Salman Khan singing the terrific title track at the end is too little too late. I'm going with two out of five."


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Indian express gave 0/5* to the film stating that "This stale story is transported to 2015 for reasons best known to the filmmakers. If you are giving us a brand new pair, what is to stop you from giving us a brand new plot? And if you do have to remake that 80s show, why can't you do a better job?"


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Martin D'souza from Glamsham gave 0/5* to the film stating that "This film is just an extended promo for two star kids of the industry who have got the backing from Salman Khan, Subhash Ghai and Eros International; not necessarily in that order."


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: Vishal Thakur of the Hindi daily "Hindustan" gave the film a 1.5/5 rating and criticised the film's plot and acting.


title: Hero (2015 Hindi film)

text: The music for "Hero" is composed by Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan and Sachin–Jigar while lyrics are by Kumaar and Niranjan Iyengar. This was the first film, the other being the 2019 film "Batla House", where Advani had not worked with Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, though they were at parallel with Advani's successive release, "Katti Batti". The first song "Main Hoon Hero Tera" in Salman's voice, composed by Mallik and arranged & produced by Meghdeep Bose, was released on 9 August 2015 and it received more than 55 million views. The soundtrack was released on 14 August 2015 by T-Series.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: Viva Las Vegas is a 1964 American musical film directed by George Sidney and starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. The film is regarded by fans and film critics as one of Presley's best films, and it is noted for the on-screen chemistry between Presley and Ann-Margret. It also presents a strong set of ten musical song-and-dance scenes choreographed by David Winters and features his dancers. "Viva Las Vegas" was a hit at film theaters, as it was #14 on the "Variety" year end box office list of the top-grossing films of 1964.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: Lucky Jackson (Elvis) goes to Las Vegas, Nevada to participate in the city's first annual Grand Prix Race. However, his race car, an Elva Mark VI Maserati, is in need of a new engine in order to compete in the event.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: Lucky raises the necessary money in Las Vegas, but he loses it when he is shoved into the pool by the hotel's young swimming instructor, Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret). Lucky then has to work as a waiter at the hotel to replace the lost money to pay his hotel bill, as well as enter the hotel's talent contest in hopes of winning a cash prize sizable enough to pay for his car's engine.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: During all this time, Lucky attempts to win the affections of Rusty. His main competition arrives in the form of Count Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova) and his Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta. Mancini attempts to win both the Grand Prix and the affections of Rusty. Rusty soon falls in love with Lucky, and immediately tries to change him into what she wants.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: George Sidney later said "that was one of those cases where we had no script and we had a commitment. Originally it was something about an Arabian or something... But we turned it around and we wrote the script in about eleven days... We changed the whole thing and decided to do it in Las Vegas."


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: In March 1963 MGM president Robert O'Brien announced "Viva Las Vegas" starring Elvis would be one of 20 made at the studio the following year. By May Ann Margret signed to co star. She was paid $15,000 a week over ten weeks. Viva Las Vegas was filmed during the summer of 1963, before production of Presley's film "Kissin' Cousins", but was released after "Kissin' Cousins" in the summer of 1964.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: In Great Britain, both the film and its soundtrack were sold as "Love In Las Vegas", since there was another, different film called "Viva Las Vegas" that was being shown in British cinemas at the same time that Presley's was released.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: The chemistry between the two stars was genuine during filming. Presley and Ann-Margret began an affair, and this received considerable attention from film and music gossip columnists. This reportedly led to a showdown with Presley's worried girlfriend Priscilla Beaulieu. (Elvis and Priscilla married in 1967.) In her 1985 book "Elvis and Me", Priscilla Presley describes the difficulties that she experienced when the gossip columnists erroneously "announced" that Ann-Margret and Presley had become engaged to be married.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: In her memoirs, Ann-Margret refers to Elvis Presley as her "soulmate" and stated: "We felt there was a need in 'The Industry' for a female Elvis Presley."


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: In addition, the filming of "Viva Las Vegas" reportedly produced unusually heated exchanges between the director, film veteran George Sidney, and Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who was not credited as a "Technical Advisor" in the film's credits.


title: Viva Las Vegas

text: The arguments reportedly concerned the amount of time and effort allotted by the cinematographer, Joseph Biroc, to the song and dance numbers that featured Ann-Margret, ostensibly on the orders of the director. These scenes include views of Ann-Margret's dancing taken from many different camera angles, the use of multiple cameras for each scene, and several retakes of each of her song-and-dance scenes.