This book was written during the ten months that I was unjustly imprisoned by the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government in 1971. I was determined not to let the enemy get the better of me by demoralising me. Equally, I decided to turn a bad thing into a good thing.
Several times, in our Party, we had taken decisions to write a history of Ceylon, because it is a cardinal condition that revolutionaries should know the history of their country. Comrade Mao Tsetung has said: “No political party can possibly lead a great revolutionary movement to victory unless it possesses revolutionary theory and a knowledge of history and has a profound grasp of the practical movement.”
It was this that inspired me to write this book. I wanted to put into the hands of our comrades and our sympathisers a Marxist interpretation of Ceylon’s history–whatever shortcomings it might contain. Some people might imagine that my qualification to write this book was the fact that I had obtained a degree in History at the University of Ceylon. But, in those days, even though I did Oriental history, out of the ten papers I answered for my final examination, only one had a reference to Ceylon history. That, too, was entitled “South Indian and Ceylon History”. Therefore, all the Ceylon history I know I learned after I left the University. I have subjected this knowledge to a Marxist analysis.
Many of my interpretations are not going to please many, because I have attempted to demolish many myths which have hitherto gone as facts. But this book was not written to please anyone. It was written for the purpose of knowing the past in order to understand the present and to shape the future. If it helps, even in a small way, in this task, I shall be amply rewarded.
1. 5. 1972
The Author