Abstract

Ceylon: The Bitter Harvest

The article focuses on the island of Ceylon. In South Asia, the island is envied for its relative calm, but recent occurrences have brought it to the brink of civil war. For two weeks in early April 1971 young radicals, controlled most of the island's rural areas and caused the government to resort to heavy military action against its own people. The pangs of modernization in this microcosmic island society reflect something of what is taking place in much of Asia, as the population balance shifts toward higher percentages of young, nationalistic-or at least non Western-oriented-and economically frustrated people. The need for foreign technology is crucial in Ceylon, which is attempting to become self-sufficient in food by growing more of its own crops.