S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike

Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike

On 25 September 1959, Bandaranaike was shot at his town house in Colombo and died of his wounds the day after. A Buddhist monk named Ven Talduwe Somarama was arrested, convicted and hanged for the murder of Bandaranaike. Minister of Education and the acting leader of the house, Wijeyananda Dahanayake was appointed caretaker prime minister by the Governor General and was confirmed by Parliament. Bandaranaike's death led to political turmoil with the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna falling apart under Dahanayake who eventually formed his own party to contest the general elections in March 1960. Although the Freedom Party failed to form a government under the leadership of C. P. de Silva, fresh elections were held four months later after the United National Party government lost the throne speech. Bandaranaike's widow Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike lead the Freedom Party to gain a majority in parliament and was appointed the first female prime minister in the world. She expanded on her husband's left-wing reforms in her two terms as prime minister from 1960 to 1964 and from 1970 to 1977. In 1994, Bandaranaike's daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga headed a coalition led by the Freedom Party to be elected prime minister and thereafter president serving from 1994 to 2005, during which Bandaranaike's widow served as prime minister from 1994 to 2000 and Bandaranaike's son Anura Bandaranaike served as Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 2000 to 2001.

Early life and education

Bandaranaike was born in

Following the implementation of the Donoughmore Constitution, the State Council of Ceylon was established as the first legislature in the island with its members elected through universal suffrage. Bandaranaike contended and was elected unopposed from Veyangoda at the 1931 election to the first State Council and was elected to the executive committee for local administration, chaired by Charles Batuwantudawe. He stated in the council that the committee system introduced in the new constitution was satisfactory at the time.

Minister of Local Administration

In 1936, he was re-elected unopposed from Veyangoda in the 1936 election to the second State Council. In its first meeting, he was elected as Minister of Local Administration. As Minister, he was chairmen of the executive committee on local administration, of which he had been a member in the previous term and was a member of the Board of Ministers.

Sinhala Maha Sabha

In order to promote

With Ceylon heading for self-rule under

He contested for the newly formed

In July 1951, Bandaranaike resigned from his government posts and crossed the floor to the opposition with several of his close associates from the Sinhala Maha Sabha. Thereafter he dissolved the Sinhala Maha Sabha and formed a new party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) having its inaugural meeting at Town Hall on 2 September 1951.^{[8][9][10][11]}

A few months later, on 21 March 1952 D. S. Senanayake fell off his horse, while on his morning ride after suffering a stroke and died the following day. Although Sir John Kotelawala was expected to succeed him, his son Dudley Senanayake, Minister of Agriculture was appointed prime minister on 26 March 1952 by the Governor-General Lord Soulbury. Dudley Senanayake called a general election in 1952, which the UNP won gaining 54 seats in parliament.

Leader of the Opposition

Bandaranaike contested the general election from the SLFP for the

Pancha Maha Balavegaya

Between 1952 and 1956, Bandaranaike spent much of its time consolidating the new party. Although it drew many supporters from the old Sinhala Maha Sabha, it was still relatively new facing a lack of funds and the lack of support from mess media as it could not afford a party newspaper. It drew much of its support from the rural areas that were marginalized or neglected by the incumbent UNP government which was pro-establishment. On the issue of language, the party originally espoused the use of both

The 1956 elections was a landslide victory for the MEP as it gained a two-thirds majority in parliament and Bandaranaike was invited by the Governor General to form a government as the fourth prime minister of Ceylon in April 1956. He formed his cabinet with a collection of senior members of the parties that made up the MEP and several independents.^[13]

Language policy and communal tension

In keeping with one of his primary election polices, Bandaranaike had the

Foreign policy

Main article:

Foreign policy of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike

Bandaranaike made a radical shift of Ceylon's foreign policy to date, by opening diplomatic channels with the

People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc and moved towards the Non-Aligned Movement. He established a close personal friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai. He abrogated the 1947 United Kingdom-Ceylon Defence Agreement, requested for the removal of the British air bases at RAF Negombo, RAF China Bay and the naval base at Trincomalee. This resulted in the loss of jobs for locals employed in those bases and Ceylon becoming dependent on India for its security. In 1957, he signed the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact, but was forced to withdraw in 1958 due to pressure from right wing elements of his party.^[15]

Economic policy

Bandaranaike introduced socialist reforms to the therethrough

Ceylon Transport Board, nationalized the Colombo Port and formed the Ceylon Shipping Corporation. These didn't bring short benefits and he was faced with economic problems. His critics claimed that some or all of these polices were politically motivated and would have long term negative economic effects.^[16]

National policies

Bandaranaike initiated the process to abolish the colonial era

Ceylon Administrative Service which replaced the merit based public administration with an appointment based system that was opened to political influence. Due to the change of the official language, many experienced civil servants opted for early retirement. He suspended all British and native honors

and enacted the Suspension of the Capital Punishment Act No 20 of 1958, which suspended the death penalty from May 1958.

Strikes and cabinet crisis

In early 1959, a cabinet crisis resulted in the resignation of the leftist

Colombo Harbour went on strike crippling imports and exports. Bandaranaike requested that the police intervene against trade union action, the order was declined by IGP Osmund de Silva on the grounds that he believed it to be unlawful. In April 1959, de Silva was compulsorily retired from the police force and M. Walter F. Abeykoon, a civil servant and Bandaranaike's bridge partner at the Orient Club, was appointed in his place.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Assassination

Main article: Assassination of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike

Bandaranaike died four years into his term, aged 60 on 26 September 1959, at the Merchant's Ward of the

Colombo General Hospital due to wounds sustained after being shot by Talduwe Somarama, a Buddhist monk.^[21][22][23]

On 25 September, Somarama had visited Bandaranaike at his private residence,

Mapitigama Buddharakkitha

, H.P. Jayewardena guilty and pronounced on all three of them the death sentence (death by hanging). Although Bandaranaike's administration had suspended capital punishment, Talduwe Somarama was hanged on 6 July 1962. It was claimed by the court that the reason for the murder of the Bandaranaike, was due to Bandaranaike's refusal to entertain Buddharakitha Thero's requests following his support for Buddharakitha in the election.

After Bandaranaike's death, Wijeyananda Dahanayake, minister of education and the acting leader of the house, was appointed caretaker prime minister by the Governor General and was confirmed by Parliament. C. P. de Silva, the minister of lands, land development and agriculture, and the leader of the house had taken ill at a cabinet meeting on 25 August 1959 and was flown to the United Kingdom for treatment, making Dahanayake the acting leader of the house and had been put up by Bandaranaike as acting prime minister, during his planned visit to the UN.^[25]

However, he fell out of favor with the members of the government, resulting in the removal of all ministers of the Bandaranaike's cabinet in less than a year. Eventually, the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party fell to Bandaranaike's widow Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike who held the SLFP to an election victory in July 1960 becoming the world's first female prime minister and was soon appointed a senator.

Family life

Main article: Bandaranaike family

In 1940, he married Sirima Ratwatte, daughter of Barnes Ratwatte, Rate Mahatmaya of Balangoda. Ratwattes were an old Radala family hailing from the Kingdom of Kandy and the Bandaranaike's were an old and wealthy family from the low-country which had been in service of the colonial rulers for centuries. The wedding was dubbed "the wedding of the century" and linked Bandaranaike with the Kandyan elite through marriage.^[26]

The newly married couple moved into Wentworth in Guilford Crescent, Colombo which was taken on rent from

home constituency

for the future elections and remained the home constituency of his wife, daughter and son.

Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, as she was known after her marriage, became the first female prime minister in the world following Bandaranaike's assassination. His daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga subsequently became Prime Minister (1994) and then first female Executive president in the country; his only son Anura Bandaranaike went on to become Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka (2000–2001) and a Minister (2004–08); and his eldest Sunethra Bandaranaike, who followed her father's footsteps attending Oxford, became a prominent socialite.

Legacy

Both a highly respected and controversial figure, he has been accused of initiating the racial discords in the island nation with his pro-Sinhalese nationalist policies.^[27] His wife continued many of his socialist policies in later years of her administration.

On 17 July 1976, a bronze statue of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was unveiled on

People's Republic of China in his memory in 1970 and houses the S W R D Bandaranaike Museum.^[29] The Bandaranaike International Airport

, the first international airport in Ceylon was named in his honor when it was opened in 1970.

Honours

• LLD (honorary) - University of Ceylon

Electoral history

Electoral history of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike

Election	Constituency	Party		Votes	Result
1931 state council	Veyangoda		Independent	Unopposed	Elected
1936 state council	Veyangoda		Independent	Unopposed	Elected
1947 parliamentary	Attanagalla		United National Party	31,463	Elected
1952 parliamentary	Attanagalla		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	38,478	Elected
1956 parliamentary	Attanagalla		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	45,016	Elected

See also

• S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike cabinet
• Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact
• List of political families in Sri Lanka

Notes

1. ^ The native aide-de-camp, chief native interpreter and adviser to the Governor of Ceylon

References

1. ^ Sinhala: සොලොමන් වෙස්ට් රිජ්වේ ඩයස් බණ්ඩාරනායක; Tamil: சாலமன் வெஸ்ட் ரிட்ஜ்வே டயஸ் பண்டாரநாயக்கா

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.

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• The Bandaranaike Museum
• The Bandaranaike Ancestry
• The Ratwatte Ancestry
• Golden Memories of a Political Prodigy
• Commemorating the Bandaranaikes: The Emergence of the Political Middle-Class
• The Pensive Premier
• 49 Years after S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike
• Trail-Blazing Leader
• The Great Son of Sri Lanka
• Website of the Parliament of Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka Freedom Party's official Website

This page incorporates text from the

Country Studies

series.

Political offices
Preceded by John Kotelawala	Prime Minister of Ceylon 1956–1959	Succeeded by Wijeyananda Dahanayake
Preceded by	Leader of Sri Lanka Freedom Party 1951–1959	Succeeded by C. P. de Silva