Sri Lanka has been of special interest to many social scientists occupied with the less-developed countries of the world. While this may be attributed to certain distinctive features of Sri Lankas post-colonial experiences of development and change, its manifestations in the recent past could also be explained with reference to political instability that has plagued the country. The intense scholarly interest which Sri Lanka has continued to attract has generated a large mass of research writings most of which, however, has tended to remain within the confines of one or another social science discipline. Hence, the main objective of the present volume is that of synthesising the research findings drawn from diverse sources as they pertain to problems and issues of current importance to Sri Lanka.