JR at 120, an inescapable legacy

17 September marked the 120th birth anniversary of J. R. Jayewardene, one of the most consequential figures in post-independence Sri Lankan history. More than three decades after his departure from office, the imprint of his presidency from 1978 to 1988 remains visible in almost every aspect of the country’s political and economic spheres. Few Sri Lankan leaders have left behind a legacy so substantial, so contested and so difficult to reduce to a single verdict.

JR’s most enduring achievement was arguably his transformation of the economic direction of the country. The Government elected in 1977 dismantled much of the highly controlled economic system that had prevailed for the previous two decades and introduced an outward-looking, market-oriented model. The reforms brought greater foreign investment, expanded trade and a significant acceleration in economic growth. World Bank research found that per-capita economic growth more than doubled during 1977–84, while consumption among poorer households generally increased.

It would be an exaggeration to attribute every subsequent improvement in Sri Lankan living standards to JR alone. But it is equally difficult to deny that 1977 represented a fundamental economic turning point, which other countries in the region and elsewhere took decades to realise. The liberalisation of trade, encouragement of private investment and creation of export-oriented industries helped establish the foundations of the more open economy that Sri Lanka has operated with, in varying forms, ever since.

The Mahaweli development program was the other great symbol of the Jayewardene era. His Government dramatically accelerated a project that had previously been expected to take decades, bringing together irrigation, agricultural settlement and hydropower on an unprecedented scale. The program transformed large parts of the dry zone, provided land for thousands of families and created major additions to the country’s electricity-generating capacity.

Yet the Jayewardene legacy cannot be separated from the tragedies of his years in power. When he left office, Sri Lanka was confronting two violent conflicts. The ethnic crisis had erupted into full-scale war following the violence of July 1983. His Government’s handling of Black July remains one of the most painful chapters of the period. The JVP, meanwhile, had been proscribed in 1983, and its subsequent underground mobilisation contributed to the violent southern insurgency of the late 1980s.

His handling of relations with India was another defining failure. In June 1987, India carried out the controversial air drop of supplies over Jaffna. Weeks later, Jayewardene signed the Indo-Lanka Accord with Rajiv Gandhi. The agreement brought Indian forces into Sri Lanka, eventually numbering close to 100,000 at their peak, and created the Provincial Council system through the 13th Amendment. What was intended as a diplomatic settlement instead became another chapter in the country’s conflict, with Indian forces eventually fighting the LTTE.

Another part of JR’s legacy is his stewardship of the United National Party. He inherited a party weakened by years in opposition, which he rebuilt and led it to the extraordinary 1977 electoral victory. He also managed to keep the UNP politically cohesive through eleven years at the summit of power.

That achievement makes the UNP’s subsequent decline particularly poignant. The party that JR nurtured and brought to the pinnacle of power has since been reduced to a minuscule shadow of its former strength. Perhaps that is the most painful irony of Jayewardene’s legacy. The economic philosophy he introduced remains relevant to Sri Lanka’s search for growth and prosperity, yet the political organisation that once embodied that philosophy has been politically decimated.

At 120, J. R. Jayewardene deserves neither uncritical celebration nor convenient condemnation. He was a transformative leader whose reforms reshaped Sri Lanka, but whose political decisions also coincided with some of the country’s darkest years. His legacy is precisely that contradiction, and Sri Lanka still lives with both sides of it.