The book is in two parts. In the first part he describes how different sectors of the people in Sri Lanka found themselves defined in the course of the nineteenth century, and the responses they made to the changes they had to contend with. In the second part he engages in a critical study of colonialism, the devaluing of primordial institutions and the imposing of different social structures, leaving individuals to fight their way through a society to which they were tenuously connected. At one level the second part was also a narrative but it was a narrative which involves comparison and analysis. It is a description of the social changes that began in the nineteenth century and continued till the mid twentieth century.

This is a posthumously published book. The Author died in July 2004. He had collected a lot of information from the Sri Lankan National Archives, the British National Archives in London, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris,…. and left a tentative plan for the book…”. After his death his wife, Monica was determined to have the book published on his behalf and undertook to fulfil her husband’s aspirations. This, she has done.

winner - Stare Literary Award for the best Non Fiction of the year 2011