The Sinhala Peasant

The book first examines the political economy of the traditional Sinhala peasant system. It discusses the role of the king, chiefs, landowners, temples, service tenants, caste groups, and village institutions in regulating land, labour, cultivation, irrigation, and social obligations. Particular attention is given to paddy cultivation, share systems, communal labour, and the relationship between land tenure and political authority. The next section analyzes structural changes introduced under colonial rule. Hettiarachchy shows how Portuguese and Dutch rule maintained several traditional mechanisms, while British administration brought more systematic transformation. The study focuses on the weakening of service tenure, the monetization of obligations, the rise of commercial interests, and the increasing conflict between traditional production systems and colonial economic priorities. The later chapters examine the forced movement toward cash-crop cultivation and the emergence of a landless peasantry. The book highlights how plantations, land speculation, forest clearance, irrigation decline, taxation, and debt altered the ecological and social basis of village life. The work concludes by presenting the Sinhala peasant not as a static rural figure, but as a community deeply affected by colonial capitalism, environmental change, and institutional restructuring.