 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(April 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena[1] (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) was aSri LankanMarxist politician and leftist. A founder of theLanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party inCeylon which was known for having introducedTrotskyism, he later founded theMahajana Eksath Peramuna (along withWilliam de Silva) and was called 'the Father of Socialism' and 'the Lion of Boralugoda'. A member of theState Council of Ceylon and theParliament of Ceylon, he served as theMinister of Agriculture and food underS. W. R. D. Bandaranaike from 1956 to 1959 and asMinister of Industries and Fisheries in the national government underDudley Senanayake from 1965 to 1970.
Born Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena on 11 January 1901 in the rural village of Boralugoda in theAvissawella in the Hevagam Korale. His mother was Dona Liyanora Gunasekera from Dompe in the Siyana Korale. His father was Don Jakolis Rupasinghe Gunawardena, known asBoralugoda Ralahamy was a local landowner who served as thevillage headman (Ralahamy) andVidane Arachchi until he was imprisoned and sentenced to death undermartial law during the1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots, sentence was later reprieved by the Governor following a petition by his wife. He was the third child of a family of three boys and seven girls, which includedRobert Gunawardena andCaroline Anthonypillai who became leftist politicians.Vivienne Goonewardena was his niece.[2]
Having attended the local temple Boralugoda Temple and the village school Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Kaluaggala for his primary education, he attended thePrince of Wales' College, Moratuwa andAnanda College inColombo for his secondary education. When studying at Ananda College, he was boarded at the house ofT. B. Jayah. Having passed his London matriculation, he entered theUniversity College, Colombo to study economics and soon joined theCeylon National Congress, but was drawn towards the activities of the Young Lanka League.[3][4]
His father wanted him to study in the United Kingdom and become abarrister. Instead at the age of 21, he traveled to the United States where he studied economics at theUniversity of Illinois, there he was radicalized and got caught up in thedeclining labor movement during theGreat Depression. Two years later, he moved to the more radicalUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, where he metJayaprakash Narayan. The two were introduced byAvrom Landy to theCommunist Party of the United States.[5] Woodward has recorded that Gunawardena received his training in Marxism from Scott Nearing (1883–1983). He completedBachelor of Science andMaster of Science degrees in agricultural economics. In 1925, he joinedColumbia University for post-graduate doctoral studies.
In 1927 Gunawardena joined theLeague Against Imperialism in New York, where he worked withJosé Vasconcelos of Mexico, gaining a working knowledge of Spanish.[5][6]
In 1929 he went to London, where he participated in mass agitations and anti-colonial movements, excelling as a brilliant orator, trade unionist, and political columnist.Jawaharlal Nehru andKrishna Menon of India,Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya,Tan Malaka of Indonesia, andSeewoosagur Ramgoolam of Mauritius were some of his contemporary colleagues who later played prominent roles in their respective countries.[7]
He joined the staff of the newDaily Worker and took over theWorkers' Welfare League of India, an organisation founded byShapurji Saklatvala. He later crossed the channel to Europe and worked alongside socialist groups in France and Germany.[5]
In the midst of theComintern's 'Left Turn', Gunawardena surreptitiously joined the Marxian Propaganda League ofFA Ridley and Hansraj Aggarwala, who opposed theStalinists' characterisation of theSocial Democratic parties associal fascist. When Ridley and Aggarwala broke withLeon Trotsky, Gunawardena sided with the latter. In 1932 he travelled on the Orient Express to meet Trotsky atPrinkipo, but was stopped atSofia by police.[5][8]
At the British conference of the League Against Imperialism, in May 1932, Gunawardena introduced a counter-resolution on India against those moved byHarry Pollitt.[9] As a result, theCommunist Party of Great Britain expelled him for Trotskyism.[5][10]
However, he had gathered around him several like-minded Ceylonese, includingN. M. Perera,Colvin R de Silva andLeslie Goonewardene. They came to be known as the 'T-Group' – later forming the nucleus of the Trotskyist faction of theLanka Sama Samaja Party.[5][11]
Scotland Yard, under orders from theIndia Office, thwarted him from his aim of going to India to build a new Communist Party there.[12] He set out for the continent, meeting members of theLeft Opposition in Paris. He then hiked over thePyrenees toBarcelona, where he had a rare opportunity to meet theTrotskyists of Spain – who were soon to undergo acivil war.[5] His passport was impounded by the British authorities and on the urging ofD. B. Jayatilaka at the request of his father he was allowed to return to Ceylon.
Soon after his return to Ceylon in November 1932, he plunged into active politics organising rural peasants, plantation workers and urban workers. He pioneered the founding ofLanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in 1935. In 1936 he was elected to theState Council of Ceylon from his home town ofAvissawella, defeatingF. A. Obeysekera where he continued his struggle for the betterment of workers and peasants.[13][14]
WhenWorld War II brock out in the far east in 1941, the LSSP openly opposed to the British war effort and its members had to go underground. Philip Gunawardena was arrested and imprisoned due to his open opposition to the British war effort on the Governor's orders. On 5 April 1942, during theJapanese air raid on Colombo, LSSP leaders including Gunawardena were able to escape from prison. Going by the name Gurusamy, in July 1942 he escaped to India and participated in the independence struggle there. As a result his seat in the State Council made vacant in July 1942 and was filled byBernard Jayasuriya in the by election that followed. In 1943 he was rearrested and detained inMumbai, and after many months deported to Ceylon to where he was given a six month sentence for escaping and was imprisoned till the end of war.[15]
On his release in 1945, he resumed his political and trade union activities. The LSSP had split during the war and Gunawardena and N. M. Perera had formed theWorkers' Opposition. The reformed LSSP contested the1947 general election and emerged as the main opposition party with 10 seats in thefirst Parliament. Gunawardena who contested from theAvissawella electorate defeating Bernard Jayasuriya was elected to Parliament. His brotherRobert Gunawardena was also elected to parliament from the LSSP fromKotte. However, he soon lost his seat when he was convicted by the district court and sentenced to three months rigorous imprisonment for leading employees of the South Western Transport Company owned bySir Cyril de Zoysa in a general strike in 1947. As a result of the conviction he lost hiscivic rights for seven years. In the by-election that followed, his wifeKusumasiri Gunawardena won the Avissawella seat.[16]
A process of reunification was initiated between the LSSP and theBolshevik Samasamaja Party (BSP) in 1950, which was opposed by Gunawardena[17] as a result he left the LSSP and formed a new party,Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP) in 1951.[18][19][20] The VLSSP entered into an electoral alliance with theCommunist Party and contested the1952 general election, in which his wife Kusumasiri Gunawardena was returned to parliament from Avissawella as the only candidate from the VLSSP to be elected.
He led theViplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP) since 1951 and as a constituent party formed theMahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP, Peoples' United Front) in 1956 under the leadership ofS.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to form what it call the "first people's government" in1956 general election. At that election, in 1956, he won the Avissawella seat with a large majority and was appointed as a key member of the Bandaranaike's cabinet as the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Co-operatives.[21] He is remembered as the architect of thePaddy Lands Act which brought relief to the tenant cultivator and spearheaded the Port and Bus nationalization, introduction of Multipurpose Co-operatives movement and establishing of theCo-operative Bank.[22] At the 1959May Day rally, Gunawardena claimed that the government was threatened by a conspiracy within and on 18 May 1959, Gunawardena resigned from his ministerial position with other VLSSP members citing differences with right wing factions of the Bandaranaike's cabinet.Bandaranaike was assassinated on 26 September 1959.
In 1959, he reformed the VLSSP into theMahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) which was a leftist in ideology, but was not Trotskyist. MEP contested theMarch 1960 general election winning ten parliamentary seats, however this number was reduced to threein the July 1960 general election. Gunawardena retained his seat in parliament on both occasions and later the MEP joined in with the LSSP and the Communist Party to form the United Left Front.[23]
In 1964, theSri Lanka Freedom Party government ofSirima Bandaranaike lost its majority in parliament after over its move to nationalizeLakehouse Newspapers and the defection ofC. P. de Silva. In the election that followed in 1965, only Gunawardena was elected parliament from the MEP and he joined the national government led byDudley Senanayake and was appointed as the Cabinet Minister of Industries and Fisheries and served till 1970. He established the Industrial Development Board, strengthened and expanded state industrial corporations and national private sector industries, and planned the development of the fisheries sector with the formation of the Fisheries Corporation. Soviet aid he developed the Tyre Corporations and Steel Corporation.[24]
He lost his parliamentary seat in the1970 general election to Bonnie Jayasuriya of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He started on a process of reorganizing the MEP before he fell ill, he died on 26 March 1972 at the age of 72 after a long illness.[25] His seat was contested by his sonDinesh Gunawardena in the1977 general election and lost to M. D. Premaratne from the United National Party. He finally entered parliament in 1983 from a by-election inMaharagama.
Philip Gunawardena marriedKusuma Amarasinha, in 1939, who later served as member of parliament from 1948 to 1960. They are parents toIndika Gunawardena former cabinet minister,Prasanna Gunawardena former mayor of Colombo, Lakmali Gunawardena state award winner of literature,Dinesh Gunawardena currentPrime Minister of Sri Lanka, andGitanjana Gunawardena former minister.[26][27] His niece wasVivienne Goonewardene, who marriedLeslie Goonewardene, another founder of theLSSP.[7] His grandsonYadamini Gunawardena was appointed to parliament from thenational list of theSri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)Personal profile of Philip Gunawardena in theEuropean Parliament's database of members
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
