The scope of this book is the evolution of Sri Lankan costumes spanning from around 6th century B.C. with the first available records of the island's dress form, to the post-independence era. This broad time span begins with hints of a pre-Vijayan culture of costumes and textiles and ends in the post independence politics and its relationship to dress both in prescription and practice. Sculptures, graffiti, paintings, literature and photographs in the book provide an engrossing glimpse of the traditions of clothing in this multi-cultural island.

Since the late 1970s civil war has left Sri Lanka in an almost permanent state of crisis; conventional histories of the country by liberal and Marxist scholars in the last two decades have thus tended to focus on the state’s failure to accommodate the needs and demands of the minorities. The entire history of the twentieth century has been tied to this one key issue. Sri Lanka in the Modern Age offers a fresh perspective based on new research. Above all, the author has written a history of the peoples of Sri Lanka rather than a history of the nation-state.

This series of books introduces readers to the intricate relationship between a people's clothing and their ideas, traditions, and beliefs. Readers will learn about cultures throughout history through the costumes that they wore.

Explores how labour struggles in the post-1977 period in Sri Lanka provided important resistance to capitalist processes.