Donoughmore Commission
The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in effect between 1931 and 1947 in Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). In 1931 there were approximately 12% Ceylonese Tamils, 12% Indian Tamils (migrant and immigrant workers employed in the Tea plantations established in the late 19th century), 65% Sinhalese, and ~3% Ceylon Moors.[1] The British government had introduced a form of communal representation which a strong Tamil representation, out of proportion to the population of the Tamil community. The Sinhalese had been divided into up-country and low-country Sinhalese.
Commissioners
The commissioners were four British
Two of the Commissioners,
Consultation
The Donoughmore Commission arrived in Sri Lanka in 1927 and spent four months interviewing islanders. They held 34 sittings and interviewed 140 people. The Commissioners listened to a plea for
System developed
Having noted that the island was riven by power struggles between competing
Reception of the Constitution
The greatest misgiving of many of the Ceylonese leaders, both Sinhalese and Tamil, was the recommendation of
The All-Ceylon Tamil league first opposed the DC on the grounds that the abolition of the communal (representation) principle when coupled with the universal franchise proposal would mean "death to the minorities", as the Sinhalese would now receive over 50% of the seats. Then in 1929 there was a tactical change, the Tamils opposing it as the Donougmore Constitution did not grant full self-government (p 20,[1][2]).
The leaders of the Jaffna Youth congress, a radical group, also opposed the DC, but for reasons entirely different from those of the conservative Tamils. They were followers of
Thus the first State Council of Ceylon opened on 7 July 1931 with much pomp and ceremony, but without any of the established and experienced Ceylon Tamil political leaders. The leaders of the Youth Congress maintained up to 1934 that the boycott was justified,[3] but later admitted that it was a grave mistake. Tamil leaders who did not take part in the boycott were Dr. Saravanamuttu (Colombo North), M. Subramanium (Trincomalee-Batticaloa), S. M. Ananthan (Mannar), Peri Sundaram (Hatton), S. P. Vytilingam (Talawakelle). G. G. Ponnambalam, an ambitious catholic lawyer from Colombo who did not belong to the elit group of the earlier Tamil leaders, also rejected the boycott. He eventually took control of the leadership of the Tamils. The Indian Tamils (Tea plantation workers who were annual immigrants or immigrants since the late 19th century) were not granted the franchise by the first State Council.
The majority Sinhalese MPs also worked hard to replace the DC by a cabinet model. They finally managed to get rid of it in 1947 when the Soulbury constitution came into being with independence in 1948.
Sri Lanka remained virtually independent under the Donoughmore constitution, with full control over domestic affairs, using the mechanism of universal suffrage to elect a national government at a time when only white countries in the European empires had that privilege, and continue its passage to relative prosperity without any major ethnic clashes for 16 years. Under the island's several subsequent constitutions, Sri Lanka has suffered communal violence.
Donoughmore Commission in Fiction
Author Shyam Selvadurai offers a fictionalized account of the Donoughmore Commission in his novel Cinnamon Gardens.[4]