An Editorial Note from Michael Roberts, 27 January 2022
Recent items on the Senanayake family and on DS Senanayake (Sri Lanka’s first Prime Minister) in Thuppahi touched on his work in promoting peasant agriculture . One of Sri Lanka’s foremost researchers in this field is my friend and colleague from undergraduate days in Ramanathan Hall and Peradeniya University in the late 1950s, namely, Gerald H Peiris. As it would be of wider benefit, I asked him to present Thuppahi with a list of his research work on agriculture and the island economy.
In responding GERRY noted this: “The writings which contain detailed analyses of settlement development in the drier areas of SL are shown in the attachment in a red font. [Let me also stress that] the ‘plantation-peasant’ dichotomy in agrarian affairs is an archaic concept that had little validity even in ‘colonial’ times mainly because a large part of plantation crop production (especially in rubber, coconut and ‘minor export crops’) was under the ownership of the largely rural, dynamic middle-class.”
2016 Sri Lanka: Land Policy for Sustained Development – to strengthen the struggle for survival, Visidunu Prakashakayo, Colombo, 250p.
1998 ‘Irrigation, Land Distribution and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: An Evaluation of Criticisms, with Special Reference to the Mahaveli Programme’, in Ethnic Studies Report, XII(1): 43-83
1992 ‘Changing Prospects of the Plantation Workers of Sri Lanka’, in Economic Dimensions of Ethnic Conflict, eds. S. W. R. De A. Samarasinghe & Reed Coughlan, Pinter Publishers, London: 156-193.
1987 Irrigation and Water Management in a Peasant Settlement Scheme of Sri Lanka, Research Study No. 78, Colombo: Agrarian Research and Training Institute, 129p.
1979 ‘Land Reform and Agrarian Change in Sri Lanka’, Modern Asian Studies, (a journal published by the University of Cambridge), 12(4): 611-628.
1976 ‘Share Tenancy and Tenurial Reform in Sri Lanka’, in Journal of Historical and Social Studies, new series, IV(1): 24-54‘
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BOOKS/Booklets
2006 Sri Lanka: Challenges of the New Millennium, Kandy Books, Kandy. 499p. Chs. 10, 11 & 12
1994 A Reappraisal of the Proposed Tourist Complex at Victoria and the Carnation Project at Ambewela, (mimeographed consultancy report submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Sri Lanka, November 1994 (co-author: Dr. S. P. R. Weerasinghe)
1985 Planning for Rural Development: A Study of the District Integrated Rural Development Programme of Sri Lanka, International Labour Organisation/ARTEP, Bangkok (co-author: V. M. Rao, Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bangalore) 1985
1982 Basic Needs and the Provision of Government Services in Sri Lanka, Volumes I & II , World Employment Programme Research, International Labour Organisation, Geneva
1965 Economic Geography of Rubber Production in Sri Lanka, unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, University of Cambridge, UK
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2003 ‘Federalism and Resource Management: India’s River Water Disputes’, Proceedings of the Seminar on Indian Federalism, Bandaranaike Institute for International Studies, 25-27 July,2003.
2001 Managing Internal Conflict through Poverty Reduction: Sri Lanka as a Case Study’, Proceedings of Seminar on Managing Group Grievances and Internal Conflict: Poverty Reduction, Clingendael Institute, The Hague, December 2001
2006 Sri Lanka: Challenges of the New Millennium, Kandy Books, Kandy. 499p. Chs. 10, 11 & 12
1994 A Reappraisal of the Proposed Tourist Complex at Victoria and the Carnation Proj of Agriculture, Government of Sri Lanka, November 1994 (co-author: Dr. S. P. R. Weerasinghe)ect at Ambewela, (mimeographed consultancy report submitted to the Ministry
Author or Co-Author (as indicated) of Books and Consultancy Reports
2016 Sri Lanka: Land Policy for Sustained Development – to strengthen the struggle for survival, Visidunu Prakashakayo, Colombo, 250p.
1994 ‘A Reappraisa l of the Proposed Tourist Complex at Victoria and the Carnation Project at Ambewela, (mimeographed consultancy report submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Sri Lanka, November 1994 (co-author: Dr. S. P. R. Weerasinghe)
1987 Irrigation and Water Management in a Peasant Settlement Scheme of Sri Lanka, Research Study No. 78, Colombo: Agrarian Research and Training Institute, 129p.
1985 Planning for Rural Development: A Study of the District Integrated Rural Development Programme of Sri Lanka, International Labour Organisation/ARTEP, Bangkok (co-author: V. M. Rao, Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bangalore)
1982 Basic Needs and the Provision of Government Services in Sri Lanka, Volumes I & II , World Employment Programme Research, International Labour Organisation, Geneva
1965 Economic Geography of Rubber Production in Sri Lanka, unpublished Ph. D. Thesis, University of Cambridge, UK.
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