Introduction

This and the two succeeding chapters are very closely connected and are jointly intended to serve three broad purposes: to justify the claim that Sri Lankan smallholders have not been active in promoting their class interests in politics – they have failed to voice class demands and have been passive recipients of some of the major policy measures affecting their interests; to illustrate the nature of the demands with which smallholders have been associated; and to explain some of the other important factors shaping rural policy.

No attempt is made to provide a comprehensive chronological or thematic account of rural policy. The latter, at least in a relatively descriptive form, is already available elsewhere, and the information required to update it is easily obtained. The method used here is to select a few policy instances – events, processes or issues – for detailed analysis. Their treatment is necessarily shaped by the availability of information, but in no case have potential candidates been ignored for lack of information. The justification for the choices made should become evident from the text.

The subject of the present chapter is the process by which the state has acquired, protected and alienated very large extents of Crown land, and the consequences of this for political culture and political action in the contemporary period. While there has been considerable debate on these issues among historians, I believe that the full political and sociological implications of this process have not been realised.