From Botale comes the ‘Father of the Nation’

By D.C. Ranatunga

Social activist. Politician. Member – Legislative Council 1924/31. State Council Member/Executive Committee Chairman 1931/47. Freedom fighter. Member of Parliament/Prime Minister 1947/52. This sums up the political career of the ‘Father of the Nation’, Rt. Hon. Don Stephen Senanayake. 

The political party he formed celebrates 70 years next week.  

On 6 September 1946 a meeting initiated by him was held to form a new political movement. He was then the leader of the State Council. Attending the meeting were a number of members of the State Council representing the Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Moor, Malay and Burgher communities. On a proposal made by S. Natesan (Member for Kankesanthurai) and seconded by T.B. Jayah (leader of All-Ceylon Muslim League) the name ‘United National Party’ (UNP) was adopted as the name of the party. Among the participants was S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, leader of the Sinhala Maha Sabha. He threw his weight behind the new party.

There was a sense of urgency in forming the party. Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) was still a colony in the British Empire at the time. The last of the Commissions sent by the British Government prior to granting Dominion Status to recommend constitutional changes, the Soulbury Commission (July 1944) had recommended a bicameral legislature – the Senate as the Upper House and the House of Representatives as the Lower House. 

Members to the latter were to be elected by the people from different political parties and not as individuals. The party with the most number of Members of Parliament was to form the government. It was in this backdrop that Senanayake took the initiative in forming a political party.

Historian, Professor K.M. de Silva states that the formation of the UNP was designed to make a fresh start in politics in the direction of the consensus of moderate opinion in national politics. 

“It was to be a political party necessarily representative of the majority community, but at the same time acceptable to the minorities. His own standing in the country was sufficient guarantee of it being acceptable to the majority community, but its position among the Sinhalese was strengthened by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s decision to bring in the Sinhala Maha Sabha. From the beginning it had the enthusiastic approval of the small but influential Christian minority, and the Muslims who in the past had given substantial support to the Tamils in their political campaigns at last broke away and sought association with the new party. When the Tamil Congress (led by G.G. Ponnambalam) crossed over to the government in 1948, the equilibrium of political forces which D.S. Senanayake sought to establish was established at a level which he found acceptable, even though the Tamil Congress did not lose its separate identity and despite the fact that a section broke away from a stubborn but, at that time seemingly futile opposition.” (‘A History of Sri Lanka’ 1981)

Temperance

By the time the first general election was to be held in August/September1947, local leaders had gained sufficient experience in the political arena having taken up issues related to the wellbeing of the community. 

In the last quarter of the 18th century the temperance movement was directed mainly against the promotion of alcohol and the opening of liquor taverns throughout the country by the colonial administration. Those who played a lead role in the movement who were mainly Buddhists, were soon to become the leaders of the nationalist movement. Among them were three brothers – FR, DS and DC Senanayake – sons of Don Spater Senanayake, active businessman in the plumbago industry from Botale, Mirigama. The three young men were taken into custody along with other Buddhist leaders indiscriminately following the Sinhalese-Muslim riots of 1915.

The formation of the Ceylon National Congress in 1919 marked the birth of a nationalist political organisation for the first time. A close cooperation of the Sinhalese and Tamil leaders was clearly visible with the election of Sir Ponnabmbalam Arunachalam as its first President.

Commenting on this cooperation, de Silva says that what distinguished the politics in Ceylon in the first two decades of the 20th century from succeeding decades was the harmony that prevailed between the Sinhalese and Tamil leadership. 

“In the political jargon of the day there were two majority communities, the Sinhalese and Tamils, and the minorities were the smaller racial groups. The situation changed fundamentally after 1922 when instead of two majority communities and the minorities there was one majority community – the Sinhalese – the Tamils now regarding themselves increasingly as a minority community. It has remained so ever since.”

Although the Congress was considered as a symbol of national unity and racial harmony, the involvement of the masses was not visible. Differences of opinion became evident within a few years when the proportion of Tamil to Sinhalese representation among the unofficial members of the Legislative Council became an issue. Arunachalam left the Congress in 1921. Meanwhile, rifts between the low-country and Kandyan Sinhalese began to appear. The Congress, however continued as a political movement electing D.B. (later Sir Baron) Jayatilaka as President in 1923.

In 1924 Jayatilaka and D.S. Senanayake were elected uncontested to the Legislative Council – the former from the Kelaniya seat and the latter from the Minuwangoda seat. 

Both of them had no problem in getting elected to the State Council in 1931. Jayatilaka was chosen as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Home Affairs which handled Provincial Administration, Police, Prisons and Customs. Being the most senior member he was also elected as Leader of the Council and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Ministers comprising the seven chairmen of the Executive Committees.

As Head of the Committee of Agriculture and Lands, Senanayake was in charge of Government lands, Agriculture, Irrigation and Cooperatives. His dominant nature soon made him a very active member of the constitutional movement to free the country from British rule. With Jayatilaka retiring from politics in 1942, he became the Leader of the Council while retaining his ministerial portfolio. As Minister he was keen to bring back the prosperity of the dry zone to what it was in the days of the Sinhalese kings. 

Two huge irrigation schemes to provide water for food crops coupled with the colonisation of areas with vast amounts of lands remain symbolic of the success of the efforts of the ‘Maha Kalu Sinhalaya’, as the people fondly identified him. They were the Minneriya tank and the multi-purpose Gal-oya scheme. These were the largest irrigation schemes undertaken since the Polonnaruwa era (12th century). The ‘Senanayake Samudra’ was named after him in Gal-oya. 

Meanwhile, Senanayake continued discussions with the Colonial Office in London pressing for Dominion Status. At the same time the grant of independence to India in February 1947 and the setting up of the two countries, India and Pakistan followed by Burma receiving independence, the path was clear for Sri Lanka. In June 1947, the British Government formally announced that the country would receive full responsible status within the British Commonwealth of Nations’. 

The first general election was held in August/September 1947 and the UNP gained 42 seats in the 101-seat House of Representatives – the highest among nine parties and a host of independent candidates. As leader of the party with the highest number of seats D.S. Senanayake was invited by the Governor-General to form the government. He was able to form the government with the support of a few independent members.

On 14 September 1947 Senanayake became the first Prime Minister under the Soulbury Constitution heading a 14-member Cabinet.