Sri Lankan Sinhalese Family Genealogy
SENANAYAKE
Families - Family #3001
The Don Bartholomews
Senanayake Family Tree
1
Don Bartholomews Senanayake
2
[1]
Mudaliyar
Don Spater Senanayake 1848-1907, Enterpreanor, Graphite
Mine Owner, Social Worker.
d:7-Nov-1907 + [2] Dona Catherina Elizabeth Perera
Gunasekera Senanayake b:1848
at Botale (d/o Baron Senanayake of Kehelella, Badalagama in
the Divulapitiya
Electorate and sister of Abraham Perera Gunasekera Senanayake)
– see below for
spouse family tree*
3 [3] Maria
Francess (Mary Jane)
Senanayake
3 [4] Don Charles
Senanayake,
b:2-Jan-1878, d:7-Jul-1931 + [5] Euphemia Grace Millicent
3 [6] Fredrick Richard Senanayake,
b:20-Oct-1882 at Botale,
Hapitigam Korale, d:1-Jan-1926 + [7] Ellen Attygalle (3119)
4 [8] Richard Gotabhaya
Senanayake,
b:4-Nov-1911, d:22-Dec-1970, MP Dambadeniya 1952, 1956 (&
Kelaniya),1960,
1965, Minister Commerce & Trade 1952-56 + [9] Erine
Subasinghe
4 [10] Tissa Senanayake
4 [11] Chandra, Senanayake
5 Dr Ranil Senanayake
5 Rohan Senanayake
4 [12] Upali Senanayake,
b:28-Aug-1918,
d:14-Oct-1983
4 [13] Needra Senanayake
4 [14] Rupavathi Senanayake
4 [15] Neeta Senanayake
4 [16] Swarna Senanayake
4
[25] Girlie Senanayake + Siripala
Samarakkody
(MP-Narammala) (1907-1944) President Ceylon Congress
(3118)
5 Malini Samarakkody +
Rajamandhri
Jayagandhi Ratnagopal
6 Niranjan Tilak Rajkumar
Ratnogopal changed his
name to Gideon Tilak Conrad + Jane Ridgeon
7 Misha Soraya Conrad
(daughter)
7 Tarik Anthony Martin Conrad
(son)
6 Priyani Dharshani Ratnogopal.
6 Rushika Sriyani Ratnagopal +
Martenstyn
7 Yanick Stephen Martenstyn
6 Nilhan Suresh
6 Nilmini Shobhana
5 Rukmani Samarakkody +
Sena Attygalle
6 Nirmala Samarakkody
6 Dhanika Samarakkody
6 son
5 Surangani Samarakkody +
Dr Ranasinghe (UK)
6 Channa Ranasinghe +
Wijewardena
6 Thiruni Ranasinghe +
Indraketiya
6 Ruwani Ranasinghe +
Ellepola
3 [17] Don
Stephen
Senanayake, Rt. Hon., b:20-Oct-1884 at Botale,
d:22-Mar-1952, first
Prime Minister of Ceylon 24-Sep-1947 to 22-Feb-1952 + [18] Molly
Dunuwila
4
[19]
Dudley
Shelton
Senanayake, b:19-Jun-1911, d:13-Apr-1973, Prime Minister
of Ceylon
22:Mar-1952 to 1953, 1960 to 1973
4
[20] Robert Parakrama Senanayake, b:8-Apr-1913,
d:26-Apr-1986
5
[21] Devinda Senanayake
5
[22] Ranjani Senanayake
5 [22a]
Ranjit Senanayake + Suwanitha, granddaughter of D.C. Senanayake
6 Vasantha Senanayake
5
[23] Rukman Senanayake, MP (UNP)
5
[24] Yasmin Senanayake
The
Cornelis Perera Gunasekera Senanayake Family Tree
(Kehelella - Alutkuru
Korale Dunagaha Pattu)*
1
Cornelis Perera Gunasekera
Senanayake + Disanayake Katalangama Appuhamilage Livina
Perera
2 +
[2] Dona Catherina Elizabeth Perera Gunasekera Senanayake
b:1848
at Botale
+ [1]
Mudaliyar Don Spater
Senanayake 1848-1907, Enterpreanor, Graphite Mine Owner,
Social Worker.
d:7-Nov-1907
3 [3] Maria Francess (Mary Jane) Senanayake
3 [4] Don Charles Senanayake,
b:2-Jan-1878, d:7-Jul-1931 +
[5] Euphemia Grace Millicent Dunuwila
4
Ive Senanayake (1911-1984) + Dr.Edmond Asoka Bulankulame
(1900-1978) of
Nuwarawewa Walauwa,Anuradhapura.
5
Visakha Bulankulame (1935-1999) + Tissa
Wijeyeratne
(Wijeyeratne Family # 3147) of Buddenipola Walauwa, Kegalle.
(3147)
6
Kalpana Wijeyeratne + Suraj Perera
7
Ramesh Perera
7
Dinesh Perera
6
Ravana Wijeyeratne + Ayesha Imbuldeniya
7
Anouke Wijeyeratne
3 [6] Fredrick Richard Senanayake,
b:20-Oct-1882 at Botale,
Hapitigam Korale, d:1-Jan-1926 + [7] ] Ellen
Attygalle (3119)
4
[8] Richard Gotabhaya Senanayake, b:4-Nov-1911, d:22-Dec-1970,
MP
Dambadeniya 1952, 1956 (& Kelaniya),1960, 1965, Minister
Commerce &
Trade 1952-56 + [9] Erine Subasinghe
4
[10] Tissa Senanayake
4
[11] Chandra, Senanayake
5 Dr Ranil Senanayake
5 Rohan Senanayake
4
[12] Upali Senanayake, b:28-Aug-1918, d:14-Oct-1983
4
[13] Needra Senanayake
4
[14] Rupavathi Senanayake
4 [15] Neeta Senanayake
4 [16] Swarna Senanayake
4
[25] Girlie Senanayake + Siripala
Samarakkody
(MP-Narammala) (1907-1944) (3118)
4
[25] Girlie Senanayake + Siripala
Samarakkody
(MP-Narammala) (1907-1944) President Ceylon Congress
(3118)
5 Malini Samarakkody +
Rajamandhri
Jayagandhi Ratnagopal
6 Niranjan Tilak Rajkumar
Ratnogopal changed his
name to Gideon Tilak Conrad + Jane Ridgeon
7 Misha Soraya Conrad
(daughter)
7 Tarik Anthony Martin Conrad
(son)
6 Priyani Dharshani Ratnogopal.
6 Rushika Sriyani Ratnagopal +
Martenstyn
7 Yanick Stephen Martenstyn
6 Nilhan Suresh
6 Nilmini Shobhana
5 Rukmani Samarakkody +
Sena Attygalle
6 Nirmala Samarakkody
6 Dhanika Samarakkody
6 son
5 Surangani Samarakkody +
Dr Ranasinghe (UK)
6 Channa Ranasinghe +
Wijewardena
6 Thiruni Ranasinghe +
Indraketiya
6 Ruwani Ranasinghe +
Ellepola
3 [17] Don Stephen Senanayake, Rt. Hon.,
b:20-Oct-1884 at Botale,
d:22-Mar-1952, first Prime Minister of Ceylon 24-Sep-1947 to
22-Feb-1952 + [18]
Molly Dunuwila
4 [19] Dudley Shelton
Senanayake, b:19-Jun-1911,
d:13-Apr-1973, Prime Minister of Ceylon 22:Mar-1952 to 1953,
1960 to 1973
4
[20] Robert Parakrama Senanayake, b:8-Apr-1913, d:26-Apr-1986
5
[21] Devinda Senanayake
5
[22] Ranjani Senanayake
5 [22a]
Ranjit Senanayake + Suwanitha, granddaughter of D.C. Senanayake
6 Vasantha Senanayake
5
[23] Rukman Senanayake, MP
5
[24] Yasmin
Senanayake
2 Fedrick Perera
Gunasekera Senanayake + Henrina Alice Amerasekera
(Ekala)
3
Chiralsa Muriel Senanayake + CMS Mapitigama
3
Celie Eden Senanayake + OW Bogahalanda
3 Arthur
Nilanakirthi Senanayake +
Pearl Alexandria Senaratne
2 John Perera Gunasekera
Senanayake + Cornelia
Elizabeth Ameresekara (Kaleliya)
3 Harriet
Senanayake + PB
Keppitipola (Kundasale)
4 Pearl Keppetipola
4 Frank Keppetipola
4 Stanley Keppetipola
4 Earl Keppetipola
4 Dessie Keppetipola
3 Beatrice
Senanayake + Linden
de Alwis (Rajakadaluwa)
4 Wardy de Alwis
4 Lindsky de Alwis
4 Daphne de Alwis
4 Ronald
de
Alwis + Rani Pathirana
5
Chrishanti de Alwis + Tilak Kalawana
6
Shenali Kalawana
5
Sanjeev de Alwis
5
Shehani de Alwis
3 Dulcie
Senanayake + Willie
Seneviratne (
Welipenna)
4 Colvin Seneviratne
4 Pilis Seneviratne
4 Sydney Seneviratne
4 Vinitha Seneviratne
4 Rukmani Seneviratne
4 Saraswathi,Seneviratne
4 Senaka Seneviratne
3
Piyadasa Senanayake + Lily
Samarakkody
(Colombo)
(3118)
4
Lilani Senanayake
4
Egerton Senanayake
4
Devendra Senanayake
4
Ananda Senanayake
3
Grath Rathnaloka Senanayake + Somawathie
Amerasekera
(Botale)
4
Indra Senanayake
4
Herman Senanayake
5 Pujitha Senanayake
4
Asoka Senanayake
3
Silvi Senanayake + George Seneviratne
(Veyangoda)
4
N Seneviratne + Meegama
5 N Meegama
5 N Meegama
4
Denzil Seneviratne
4
Doyne Seneviratne
5
Surangi Seneviratne
5
Dilini Seneviratne
5
Samanthi Seneviratne
4
Visaka Seneviratne
4
Devinda Seneviratne
4
Adrian Seneviratne
5
Dinen Seneviratne
5
Roshan Seneviratne
5
Erandhi Seneviratne
4
Parakrama Seneviratne
5
Ashani Seneviratne
3
Walter Senanayake + Renie Peries
(Madabavita)
4
Nevandran Senanayake
4
Dilki Senanayake
4
Kukkusa Senanayake
3 Olive Senanayake
+ Sunny de Alwis
(Chilaw)
4 Mignone de Alwis
4 Ranjith de Alwis
3 Wickrema
Senanayake + Gladys
Amerasekera (
Alawwa)
4
Kalinga Senanayake
4
Sepala Senanayake
4
Ravindra Senanayake
3
Iranganie Senanayake + M B Ratnayake (Matale)
4
Sepali Ratnayake
4
Deepthi Ratnayake
4
Sirini Ratnayake
2 William Perera
Gunasekera Senanayake (Unmarried)
2 Mary Jane Perera
Gunasekera Senanayake + Yagabamunu Cornelis Herath
(Madabavita)
2 Abraham Perera
Gunasekera Senanayake + Engalthina Amerasekera (Kaleliya)
3
Henrina Elizabeth Senanayake + Lennie Francis
Herath
(Madabavita)
3
Roslin Meraya Senanayake + H Hercules Wijeratne
(Wellawatte)
3
Johana Cornelia (Adeline) Senanayake + Cyril
Seneviratne
(Heenkenda)
3
Dora Magdalene Senanayake + Given Waldo Senanayake
(Colombo)
4
Rowena Senanayake, d:1984
4
Iris Chitranganee Senanayake + Don Mahendrageeva Seneviratne
(Colombo)
5 Dehan Seneviratne + Eresha
Hattotuwa (
Pitabeddera)
6
Akhila Seneviratne
5
Ranil
Seneviratne
5
Asha Seneviratne
Don
Stephen Dudley The
Senanayake
brothers DSS with
Nehru Don Spater
&
wife
Don Stephen
& Wife
DSS
with
Cabinet
DSS with Lord Soulbury
DSS
& Mollie Duniwille Wedding 1910
Pics sent by:
Manjula de Livera
Email: manjulafamily@yahoo.com.au
28th March 2007
Family Tree for Senanayake
(Kehelella) Reproduced
and
submitted by
prepared by
Herman R
Senanayake Dehan
Seneviratne,
Talawathugoda
Hunumulla Kehelella, Sri
Lanka
Sri
Lanka. 21-Nov-2007
24-Mar-1992 E-Mail:
dehan_sene@yahoo.com
Dudley:
Leader,
guide and philosopher
He
named
others for the office but it was the Government Parliamentary
Group that
demanded his choice. When he retired from politics in 1953 and
absorbed himself
in the Temperance Movement again it was the Party that sought
his leadership.
Dudley
Senanayake,
the second Prime Minister of Sri Lanka died on April 13, 1973,
after a brief illness and was laid to rest on April 21.
|
|
A
MAN OF THE
PEOPLE: Dudley Senanayake was a man for all seasons, even
paying homage to him reminds
us sadly that we ourselves are a Nation only seasonally;
always in the winter
of some personal tragedy.
On
April 12,
1973, we lost a great leader, guide and philosopher. During
the long years I
knew him, I found him a fully integrated personality.
There
was no
conflict in his spiritual and political values. Dudley
Senanayake, by the light
of his own political vision, stood for the unity of this
country, for an open
society and for the economic emancipation.
No
monument
to him can possibly be finer or more enduring than our own
renewed dedication
to these ideals. Those who knew him to be a deeply religious
man. Certainly,
not in the conventional manner. He died without achieving one
purpose in his
life. His desire was to retire from politics and enter the
Sangha.
As
a child he
had his religious training under the great scholar Palane Sir
Vajiragnana
Nayake Thera. He had widely read books on Buddhism and
Buddhist Philosophy.
He
was a
reluctant politician; therefore a most forceful one. He did
not seek office,
fame or popularity. These things pursued him. After the death
of his father,
Right Honourable D. S. Senanayake, the first Prime Minister of
the Democratic
Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, at the age of 41, when he
became Prime
Minister, in fact, it was thrust on him.
He
named
others for the office but it was the Government Parliamentary
Group that
demanded his choice. When he retired from politics in 1953 and
absorbed himself
in the Temperance Movement again it was the Party that sought
his leadership.
He
had no
false airs. There was a simplicity and modesty which endeared
him to us.
Late
in the
evening wearing a sarong and a banian when he lounged in the
small office-room
upstairs at ‘Woodlands’ - that was the greatest moment in his
life. Thence he
was at ease, whether he was discussing a complex, political
problem or just
gossiping.
He
liked
golf, he liked his food, he liked the company of his friends,
all these things
he enjoyed with zest. Perhaps the years he enjoyed most were
the years out of
office. His camera and his car were his fondest worldly goods,
but in office
his leisure loving man worked like a precision machine.
There
was no
day he worked less than 12 hours. Often his schedule extended
to 16 - 18 hours.
Whatever he did he was a dedicated man. There was one thing
that he would not
forgive - not keeping appointments. He timed everything, his
day as well as the
nation’s economic endeavour.
That
is how
within three years he succeeded in raising Sri Lanka’s
self-sufficiency in rice
from 40 to 75 per cent. In 1961 after the landslide victory by
the ‘Mahajana
Eksath Peramuna’ the Kandy Municipal Council Elections were
held and I was
nominated by him to contest the ‘Deiyannewela Ward’ against an
M.E.P. stalwart
in late Mr. T. B. Tennekoon, who was the Minister of Social
Services, and the
sitting Member for well over 20 years.
He
was an
intimate friend of mine and a person who was respected by the
rural masses as
he moved freely with them. There were five candidates but
Tennekoon won comfortably.
Soon
after
Elections I wrote to Mr. Senanayake and pointed out the
difficulties I faced
due to the misdeeds of some of the candidates and he replied
by letter dated
3rd March, 1961, stating - “I am sorry to hear about some of
the misdeeds of
some of the candidates and about the difficulties you
suffered, but I am
however, encouraged by the fact that you have not lost your
faith in the Party.
Please
remember
that we deal with human beings, and as such, they have their
weaknesses. In all Parties we find individuals with these
human weaknesses.
Whilst trying our utmost to correct these we have in certain
circumstances in
the greater interests to try to put up with some of these
weaknesses. I thank
you for bringing these matters to my notice.”
He
possessed
these human and straightforward qualities which present day
politicians do not
possess. The lasting monument to him would be the Gal Oya
Scheme. I have heard
from Mr. Senanayake that when the blueprints were presented to
him the American
Engineers had told him that there was a thousand and one risk
regarding the
height of the dam.
“Do
not take
the risk, raise the dam”, he said. It did not take a thousand
years. But for
his foresight, in the unprecedented floods of 1958, the dam
would have been
washed away bringing disaster to a greater part of the Eastern
Province.
If
Gal Oya
Valley today produces a quarter of Sri Lanka’s rice his dream
was to, in the
great tradition of Mahasen, Parakramabahu and other great
Sinhala Kings, to
make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in food.
He
was denied
this opportunity by his defeat in 1970. But he lived to see
his polices
vindicated. His very opponents were forced to accept his
policies. The Mahaweli
Project, World Bank Aid - these things, decried a few years
ago, are acclaimed
today.
If
I was a
devoted follower of him, it was not blind faith that made me
tread his trail.
In politics he was a pragmatist. While he abhorred the
concentration of wealth
in a few individuals he equally refused to contribute to
theories of regimentation.
With
his
associates and friends he discussed matters. He listened to
them, he debated,
and therefore, at the end the convictions were our own. He was
shy, sensitive
but a proud man. The whole nation knows how he carried himself
with dignity and
majesty. Most of us are still benumbed by the shock of his
death.
He
passed
away bothering none. The nation was on holiday. The greater
part of the nation
had with his free measure of rice, the Sinhalese New Year’s
first meal - on
April 12, 1973, the day this patriot passed away.
Senanayake’s
death,
coinciding as it did with the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and
with
Easter, saw a vast mass of our people dressed in a common
colour, in the
simple, immaculate and neutral white.
Not
all the
tears which were shed when he died nor all the hymns and
hosannas that were
recited are of much use to him and to us unless we pluck from
his own life,
from the nettle of things said, done and half-done, of
achievements and
failures, some meaning, something which can endure.
Island Features Oct 22 2000
(This
is
an extract from the book Don Stephen Senanayake,
the first Prime Minister of
Sri Lanka by H. A. J. Hulugalle, the second
edition of which was launched on
the 20th of October, the birth anniversary of D. S
Senanayake. The first
edition was published quarter century ago.)
Don
Stephen
Senanayake was born on 20th October 1884, at Botale, a
village in the
Hapitigame Korale of the Negombo district in the
Western Province. The name of
the village has nothing to do with the colloquial
Sinhalese word, with the same
spelling and pronunciation, meaning ‘bottle’ derived
from the Dutch ‘bottel’.
The village was named after ‘Bodhi-tale’—the place of
the Bodhi or Bo tree.
One
of
Senanayake’s ancestors may have been in the party of
Buddhists who in ancient
times brought a sapling of the old Bo tree at
Mahaiyangana to be planted at the
shrine of the good King Sri Sangabo at Attanagalla. On
their last stop before
reaching Attanagalla, they remained for the night at
Botale. In the morning they
found that the sapling had taken root in the soil
where they had left it. There
is of course no evidence to prove that the venerable
Bo tree one now sees at
Botale was the direct descendant of the tree at
Mahaiyangana—traditionally one
of the places in Sri Lanka visited by the Buddha.
There are many, however, who
believe that it was.
Only
a few
miles from the much larger village of Ambepussa, on
the Colombo-Kandy road,
Botale, stood on the frontier between the Sinhalese
kingdom ruled from Kandy
and the maritime districts held by the Portuguese. It
was often an outpost of
the Portuguese during their battles with the
Sinhalese. The Portuguese
historian, De Queyroz, in his ‘Conquest of Ceylon’,
published in 1688, says
that the Portuguese under Captain Francesco Pimental
at Attanagalla made
themselves dreaded in such a manner that, not having
more to do, they went to
encamp at Botale, a league further. The Sinhalese, for
their part, erected a
stronghold at Dedigama. In 1598 the quarters were
shifted to "the pagoda
at Botale, a place suited for assaults, with great
loss to the enemy".
Peasants
The
village
of Botale seems to have been known for a sturdy breed
of peasants. It was said
that men from the area had constructed the tunnel
through which the Sinhalese
Prince Vidiya Bandara, who was a prisoner of the
Portuguese, escaped with the
help of the Franciscan friars who had their monastery
at a spot near Queen’s
House in Colombo where the President of the Republic
of Sri Lanka now resides.
Stephen
Senanayake’s
father, Don Spater Senanayake, came of a land-owning
family. The
prefix ‘Don! had been used, since Portuguese times, by
the low country gentry,
as it had been in the Iberian Peninsula, where it
originated Don Spater’s
father, Don Bartholomew, was born in Botale in 1847
where the ancestral house
still stands. It was for Don Stephen a hideaway to
rest from the burdens of
office or think out a solution to some knotty problem.
It was here that he
mixed freely with the country folk and shared his
thoughts and aspirations with
them. They brought their problems as well as their
disputes to him and it is
said that an aggrieved party in the village rarely
resorted to a court of law,
for Senanayake was judge and arbitrator in all causes
which they referred to
him.
Don
Spater
finished his schooling at St Thomas’ College, Matale.
He married a Miss
Senanayake (no relation) from Kehelella which was in
the same district as
Botale. They had three sons, of whom Stephen was the
youngest, and a daughter.
After the father’s death the four children remained
close to their mother who
was a deeply religious woman.
The
Senanayakes
of Botale were rooted to the land but Don Spater saw
possibilities
in mining plumbago (graphite) for which there was a
growing demand in Europe,
the United States and Japan. Ceylon plumbago was
regarded by experts as
"so much superior to any other turned out". It was
mined in many
parts of the island but chiefly in the Kurunegala
district, where the
Dodangaslande, Ragedera and Maduragoda mines were
situated, and in the Kelani
Valley where the Bogala mine was the largest. Don
Spater’s contemporaries and
rivals in the plumbago business included such well
known merchants as Jacob de
Mel. Mudaliyar D. C. Attygalle, N. D. P. Silva, D. D.
Pedris, H. J. Peiris, M.
A. Fernando, John Clovin de Silva, U. D. S. Gunasekera
and H. Bastian Fernando,
all of whom left considerable fortunes. Stephen grew
to manhood when the
plumbago trade was booming and even as a school boy he
knew a great deal about
the ‘black gold’ and the men who dug it from his
father’s mines.
The
massive
volume entitled Twentieth Century Impressions of
Ceylon, published in 1907 by
Arnold Wright for Lloyds’ Greater Publishing Company
of London, has the
following reference to Don Spater Senanayake: "After
being educated at
various schools in Ceylon, he started business on his
own account in the
plumbago-mining line at the early age of eighteen
years. He now carries on
business as a plumbagominer, merchant, estate
proprietor and general planter.
His offices are situated at Siri Medura, Castle
Street, Cinnamon Gardens, and
his stores are located at Kitulwatte, Kanatte,
Colombo."
The
article
refers to the modern machinery installed in Don
Spater’s mines and estates and
states that the graphite extracted the refrom is
collected at Ambepussa and
forwarded to Colombo. It also lists the names of his
mines and coconut estates.
Two pages of pictures go with the article, including
the family group with the
striking figure of Don Spater, in Mudaliyar’s dress,
with the three sons
standing behind their seated parents and sister, Mrs.
F. H. Dias Bandaranaike.
Don Spater Senanayake was given the rank of Mudaliyar,
not as a Government
official but as "a worthy citizen", by Governor Sir
Joseph West
Ridgeway.
At
the end of
the nineteenth century, many Sinhalese families
interested themselves in the
public life of the country. Seats in the Legislative
Council were filled by
nomination by the Governor. In 1839, the only
Sinhalese member was G. Phillipse
Panditaratna. He was succeeded by his kinsman J. G.
Dias, the eldest brother of
Sir Harry Dias who succeeded him in his turn. On Sir
Harry’s retirement, James
Dehigama, a Kandyan lawyer, was nominated. The seat
went back to the family
circle with the nomination of James D’Alwis, whose
daughters married
Christoffel Obeyesekere and Felix R. Dias. He was
followed by J. P. Obeyesekere
and Albert de Alwis, in turn. The succession was
broken by the nomination of A.
de A. Seneviratne, but restored by the entry of
Christoffel Obeyesekere in
1889. In that year an additional seat was provided to
represent the Kandyan
Sinhalese and T. B. Panabokke, who had been
Obeyesekere’s classmate in the
Colombo Academy (later the Royal College), was
nominated. It was not uncommon
for a Kandyan in Government service or one who had
retired as a Ratemahatmaya
(chief headman) to be selected, as was the case with
Hulugalle Adigar, who was
succeeded by his kinsman, T. B. L. Moonemalle. When
the pattern was about to be
broken, Mr. (later Sir) Christoffel Obeyesekere, no
doubt irked by the new
spirit of nationalism, said on a well known occasion
that much of the trouble
in the country was due to "nobodies" trying to become
"somebodies".
D.
S.
Senanayake was the first member of the Senanayake
family of Botale to enter the
Legislative Council though his older brother, ‘F. R.’,
could have at any time
won a seat by election and was always a powerful
influence behind the scenes
until his premature death.
Family
influence
was also an important factor in the choice of Tamil
members. The
first Tamil to be nominated to the Legislative Council
was A. Coomaraswamy
Pulle. He was followed by Simon Casie Chitty. Governor
Stuart Mackenzie spoke
of "his extra-ordinary, perfect attainment by a
foreigner of the English language
so difficult to all foreigners". The nomination of
Edirimanasinghe
Mudaliyar in 1850 gave a long run to a single family
with its roots in Manipay.
His brother-in-law Ponnambalam Mudaliyar was the
father of P. Coomaraswamy, P.
Ramanathan and P. Arunachalam, all three of whom were
nominated members of the
Legislative Council at various times. Edirimanasinghe
Mudaliyar had been
succeeded by Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy, another uncle of
the three Ponnambalam
brothers, J. R. Weinman, the witty chronicler of this
period said that
"the major aim of every Councillor is to keep the
thing going in the
family".
With
the
introduction of the electoral system of
representation, many descendants of the
above-named found their way into the legislature
through the front door. This
is, of course, not surprising. As a recent writer has
said, "a democratic
political system cannot make elites superfluous,
though it may ensure their
rapid and regular circulation".
D. S. Senanayake and ‘the
most untroubled nation in
Asia’
by
Arjuna
Hulugalle
The biography of Don
Stephen Senanayake, the first
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka by H. A. J. Hulugalle,
(second edition). Published
by Arjuna Hulugalle Dictionaries, 42, Ananda
Coomaraswamy Mw, Colombo 3.
E-mail: hajh@sri.lanka.net
A
biography
serves generally as an assessment of an eminent
person. An assessment of D. S.
Senanayake has to start by examining authenticity in
the words of O. M. Green,
one of the best known British writers on international
affairs in the nineteen
forties and nineteen fifties that "under Senanayake
Ceylon was the most untroubled
country in Asia".
At
that time,
this country enjoyed one of the highest levels of
literacy in Asia, compulsory
and free education, low infant mortality and a
relatively efficient, largely
free national health service, a University which was
recognised and accepted as
having standards comparable with the best in Asia and
the world, a model
Parliamentary democracy with universal adult
franchise, a well run civil
administration and a competent judiciary. During this
period "there was
tranquility in the land".
How
much of
this was because of the wise leadership of D. S.
Senanayake? This is the
question which I think my father H. A. J. Hulugalle
was trying to look at in
his book "Don Stephen Senanayake, the first Prime
Minister of Sri
Lanka" (first published in 1975).
The
author
had observed Senanayake for 30 years from a very close
perspective. He wrote
his book twenty three
years after Senanayake’s death,
as such he had the distance to look at his subject
also in the context of the
events that unrolled subsequently.
What
was it
that took Senanayake into politics? Senanayake was a
natural leader. He came
from a village which the author says had "a breed of
sturdy
peasants". The family would have thrown up leaders
from the time of the Portuguese.
Though deeply steeped in tradition and religion, which
the village of Botale
had nurtured among its people, the Senanayake family
would have maintained a
working relationship with the foreigners, which would
have given an exposure to
the wider world. That could explain adopting the "Don"
as one of
their names. Leadership qualities would have led to
money and money to the
establishment of Mudliyar Don Spater’s Serugollawa
Walauwa, from which the
future leader came.
At
school
Senanayake did not excel at his studies. The education
which Senanayake had
with Warden Buck and subsequently, with Warden Stone
would have nurtured his
inherent qualities which were reflected in later life.
He was witness to Buck’s
famous farewell speech "You have learned the best
lessons from STC (St.
Thomas’s College)... true manliness and truth,
courage, purity and all those
things that make a man a gentleman..." The college had
inculcated a self
confidence to this sturdy villager from Botale, which
enabled him to deal with
statesmen of the highest intellectual levels and to be
admired by them for his
intrinsic noble and decent character traits.
What
was the
hallmark of his success? He was trusted. This is what
Soulbury wrote
"...It was also clear to me that he was a man filled
with that sense of
intense patriotism and love of his homeland which is
characteristic of the
members of long settled and ancient families. From the
very first I felt that I
could trust him implicitly — so that as the saying
goes — "I could put my
shirt on him". The trust in him was also shared by the
hundreds of
thousands of simple folk who paid their respects at
his funeral. They felt, to
use the words — of the Mahanayake’s of Malwatte and
Asgiriya, that "the
nation was orphaned".
Even
one of
his most formidable opponents Dr. N. M. Perera had
this to say about
Senanayake’s management of the Cabinet: "...It is a
tribute to his
personal character that he held together with such
adroitness a team so long
and in such trying circumstances. Only his unrivalled
knowledge could have
enabled him to steer so certainly and so steadily and
maintain such an even
keel".
Senanayake’s
unrivalled
knowledge was what he had acquired on his own.
Senanayake had a deep
love for the country and faith in its people. This
obviously was a strong
motivating force. However, he realized as a practical
man that mere zeal to
serve the people without knowledge would get one
nowhere. His sparse academic
attainments and his sole reliance on his intelligence
and common sense made him
seek the best advice which he could access on every
subject he tackled.
It
is amazing
how he commanded such respect from a team of
ministers, advisors and officials
of such enormous talent and ability and inspire them
to work for the good of
the country. There were definite attributes in his
personality, which enabled
this outcome. They were his exceptional intelligence
and dedication to hard
work, his humility and his great personal charm.
As
Agriculture
was his special commitment he studied the subject from
every
aspect. In 1934, he formulated a blueprint under the
heading Agriculture and
Patriotism. Here he set out his ideas for immediate
action and defined a course
for a long term plan. The success of his vision was
the achievements of the
schemes to harness to the full resources of Minneriya,
Kalawewa, Topawewa,
Giritale and other tanks such as Kahagama colony of
17,000 acres, which came
under the Balalu Wewa irrigation system and the Minipe
colony. Minneriya with
its colonies Hingurakgoda and Hathamune were designed
and constructed to bring
50,000 acres of virgin wild under cultivation. Of
course, he would be
remembered for Gal Oya, with its reservoir capacity of
770,000 acre feet and
designed for the better utilisation of a quarter of a
million acres of
irrigable and high land, which has been posthumously
named after him as the
Senanayake Samudra. When full the Senanayake Samudra
contains thirty times as
much water as is held within the breakwater of the
Colombo Harbour.
Gal
Oya was
financed almost entirely with national funds. Of the
total investment of 67.2
million dollars, less than 1.6 million dollars came
from foreign aid. Apart
from Agriculture and particularly Gal Oya, Senanayake
is remembered as the
Father of the Nation for the manner in which he
achieved independence.
Senanayake was always realistic enough to know his
limitations. He was not
negotiating from a position of strength.
On
the
subject of the approach to achieving independence,
there were alternatives
which Senanayake could have selected. A colony could
attain this by resorting
to an armed struggle or by persuasion. Non-cooperation
as in India could have
been another alternative. Senanayake realized that
unless such non-cooperation
was highly disciplined it would have led to violence,
as Gandhi discovered. If
that were to be the case achieving one’s objectives
peacefully would have
ceased. Senanayake opted for the course of persuasion
and that was his secret
for leading the country to independence without
bloodshed. His personality naturally,
was an asset. It was invaluable at this juncture.
The
author
does say that independence came as a culmination of a
long drawn out process
and as a result of the efforts of several national
leaders. He also commends
the goodwill of enlightened British statesmen for
their contribution. However,
there is no doubt that the catalyst that gelled it all
was D.S.
Senanayake’s
ideas
on education, parity in the use of the national
languages, on the
cooperative movement, Indo-Ceylon relations,
citizenship for persons of Indian
origin, foreign policy, the importance of a quality
public service all
contributed to creating the correct environment for a
peaceful nation. He came
to realize that a correct balance in politics was the
statecraft needed for a
well run society. The highest priority he gave to the
unity of the country and
its people and economic development which he
considered the cornerstones for
the survival of the nation. For this he spared no
effort.
The
public
service at every level including the armed forces had
a happy mix of the
communities. In the commercial fields the minorities
played a significant role.
Senanayake’s
contribution
to confirm O. M. Green’s assertion comes out
pregnantly in the
facts that are presented by the author. One could
quibble on non-issues but
overall the fact remained that the country was a model
for the developing
world.
Reading
of
this book should however, not seduce one to a
nostalgia of the past. The
political dynamics have changed. We have to understand
them as D.S. understood
and mastered the dynamics of his day, and was proven
correct by "the
tranquility in the land" in his time. Then a Prime
Minister could go on
horseback through the streets of Colombo without any
danger to his life. Today
the only exercise a Minister can take is walking on a
treadmill at home
Don Stephen Senanayake
By
Ranee
Mohamed – Sunday Leader Mar 17 2002
Minister
of
Environmental Affairs Rukman Senanayake remembers him.
But anecdotes and
incidents, he can barely remember. For he was a
toddler when the Rt. Hon. D.S.
Senanayake, his grandfather, was making history in the
then Ceylon. But his
older brother Ranjit remembers a few visits he made to
his grandfather's, the
broad-shouldered and tall D.S. He remembers as a child
being taken to the farm
at Ambewela and being made to drink fresh milk, which
he did not like very
much.
The
Senanayakes
of today - Devinda, Ranjini, Ranjit, Rukman and Yasmin
Nilmini are
children of Robert Parakrama Senanayake, one of the
two sons of D.S. The other
son was Dudley Shelton Senanayake who was twice prime
minister of Ceylon.
Ranjit
Senanayake
married Suwanitha, the granddaughter of D.C.
Senanayake and they
have one child, 28 year old Vasantha Senanayake.
Vasantha, who cherishes his
ancestry, is however very down to earth and humane in
his approach to life.
It
was fifty
years ago this week in March, when The Observer
reported "Up to 3.30 p.m.
today over 500,000 persons had filed past the remains
of the late Mr. D.S.
Senanayake at the assembly hall of the house of
representatives. At 10. p.m
yesterday the queue stretched over three miles. It
wound past along Lower Lake
Road, Elephant House and through Ingham Street in
Slave Island to Parsons Road.
The end of the queue was opposite the Regal Theatre.
There are tentative
arrangements for the funeral procession of the late
leader which is due to
start from Parliament House for Independence Square at
3.p.m. tomorrow.
Policemen
from
all parts of the island
will be on duty
at various points on the route.
The
story
speaks of a pace setting party of twelve army, navy
and air force personnel, a
gap for women and children and British service
commanders and detachments of
the British navy, army and air force in Ceylon and
also Ceylonese military
service commanders.
The
story in
The Observer of March 1952 describes the funeral
arrangements of Don Stephen
Senanayake, the great statesman of his day, whose
death moved the nation then,
as its memory moves the nation today, exactly 50 years
later. He died following
a riding accident on March 22, 1952 at the age of 67.
During
his
lifetime, through the giant strides he made, he gave
this country the pride of nationhood
- he gave it independence.
D.
S., a
leader of men, born on October 30, 1884, was educated
at S. Thomas' and
excelled in cricket and other sports. H.A.J. Hulugalle
in his Life of D.S.
Senanayake however states thus:
The
three
Senanayake brothers DC. FR and DS were all educated at
STC, which was then in
Mutuwal and their father Don Spater Senanayake had
always been concerned about
the education of DS, the youngest of them. DS's
school report showed in a
certain class, he had always held the 4th place, and
the father was naturally
pleased at this, and was lavish with pocket money for
the boy. Later, he
discovered from FR (who later entered Cambridge
University) that there were
only four boys in that class and DS was 4th.
When
his
father died D.S. was compelled to give up studies at
the age of 18 in order
to take charge of his family estate. Thrown among the
peasants he was quick to
understand their plight at first hand and was
determined to improve their lot.
D.S.
was
Ceylon's first minister of agriculture and lands. It
gave him this
gentleman-farmer the authority to implement his plans.
Never since the days of
the Sinhala kingdom was there so much irrigation and
agricultural activity in
the dry zone. Soon, Minneriya, Minipe, Polonnaruwa and
several other schemes
had begun to yield the bounty of the earth.
D.S.
Senanayake
entered public life when Ceylon was a crown colony
ruled by a
foreign power that was not concerned with the
aspirations of the people. The
masses had no political rights, poverty and disease
were widespread, literacy
was low and life expectancy was short. Ruthlessly
exploited for centuries by
three foreign powers, the country's economy had ceased
to have any 'blood'
Under
his
leadership however, it was possible for the country to
cast away all these
adversities and achieve independence. Though he
entered the legislature at the
age of 40, his climb to become the dominant political
figure of his time and
the architect of great changes in politics and
agriculture was itself
remarkable.
He
had little
education and few academic qualifications. He was no
great orator. Yet, at a
time when the political stage was adorned by men of
great talent and ability,
D.S. rose outstripping his elders and peers. Though
said to be full of common
sense and disarming reasonableness, he was governed by
deliberate, sometimes
ruthless purpose to direct and shape events.
D.S.
had the
gift of making friends and influencing people and Lord
Attlee, who was the
Labour Prime Minister of Britain at the time Ceylon
gained her independence
spoke of 'his great personal charm," while Sir Robert
Menzies, the
Australian prime minister of "his singular personal
attraction."
Sir
John Kotelawala,
one of D.S.'s cabinet colleagues, is reported to have
made a forthright comment
when he said, "No one was too small for his attention
if he had the time,
and somehow, he would find the time. No man who went
to see him can ever forget
the sincerity with which he promised to look into his
grievance."
Despite
his
commanding presence and Stalin moustache, D.S. had
been the kindliest of men,
and a great lover of children and poor folk. He made
the same impression on
foreigners and fellow-countrymen.
It
is 50
years since he died, but D.S. has lived in the memory
of every Sri Lanka and
has cast a indelible
impression that can never erase
itself from the history of Sri Lanka.
His
vision
and his endeavours are for all times. They are true
today, as they were 50
years ago. For him life was about people, about
freedom and about a better life
for all.
For
peace and
freedom he strove hard. Then, after the dusty and
sometimes bitter conflicts
over communal representation and the balance of power
in the legislature had
ended, Senanayake led a united people to the goal of
independence.
He
was able
to persuade the State Council to accept the Soulbury
Constitution, by a near
unanimous vote. He succeeded in winning over the
minorities to his way of
thinking and all these were mere steps to his final
destination of peace and
freedom.
Fifty
years
ago, today, leaders with a vision for a better and
peaceful Sri Lanka strove
thus, winning over minorities and being architects of
great changes.
Sri
Lankan
was fortunate to have had such a leader in the final
phase of her agitation for
freedom. The wisdom of Don Stephen Senanayake and the
political philosophy of
the UNP have ushered in the freedom we enjoy today.
The Senanayakes of today
Suwanitha
Senanayake's
home down Pahalawela road, Sri Jayawardenepura sprawls
quietly to
merge with its unspoiled surroundings. Strangely, it
seems to be set in an
environment that could easily be mistaken for one of a
bygone era. Greenery,
gravel and grass and an uninhabited immediate
neighbourhood provide
the ideal setting to this Senanayake
home.
As
one enters
the house there is a black and white photograph of the
late D.S. Senanayake
standing majestically. It says it is from Briggs
studio dated around 1951.
In
this
building lives Ranjit and Suwanitha Senanayake and
their son Vasantha. But the
memory of D.S. Senanayake is strong and vivid here.
Photographs and documents,
books and cuttings, are all reminders of Ranjit's
grandfather - the late Rt.
Hon. D.S. Senanayake.
Suwanitha,
is
no stranger here. She is the granddaughter of D.C. Senanayake,
brother of D.S.
"My
parents
used to visit the Rt. Hon. D.S. Senanayake and I
remember driving up to
Temple Trees with my parents. I remember our arrival
being announced. But what
I remember most is the Madati tree in the garden to
which I ran the moment I
arrived there," she tells me.
Though
Suwanitha
was a child at that time, she still remembers the late
D.S. "He
loved the children and I remember the small cowgirl
suit he bought for me when
he came from overseas. He bought similar suits for the
all the little girls in
the family. He appeared tough and rough, but to us he
was so kind.
Remembering DS – Sunday
Times Mar 16 1997
Father
of the
Nation and first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon
D.S. Senanayake died on
March 22,1952 after a riding accident
. Sir John Kotelawala
rightly observed at that time that his death was a
national calamity. Today 45
years later, we take a peek at the pages of a
collector's note book and publish
extracts from the British press which ran the story of
the premier's fall and
Radio Ceylon's SOS for a British surgeon
Flight by Sir
Hugh
Cairns cancelled
Last-minute Drama at
Abingdon
Don
Stephen
Senananayake, first Prime Minister of Ceylon, died in
Colombo today from head
injuries received when he fell from his horse
yesterday.
News
of his
death came just as one of the world's leading brain
surgeons, Sir Hugh Cairns,
of Oxford, was preparing to leave Abingdon R. A. F.
Station in a special plane
for Colombo.
Sir
Hugh had
first planned to leave at 4.30 a.m. but the flight was
cancelled on Ceylon
reports that the Prime Minister's condition was "now
such as to make it
not worth while."
Then
came
news of an improvement in his condition, and it was
decided that Sir Hugh
should after all undertake the flight. The plane was
due to take off at 11 a.m.
The
cancellation
of the flight came when Sir Hugh, with Mr. Walpole S.
Lewin,
assistant neurological surgeon at the Radcliffe
Infirmary, were ready to step
aboard the plane.A Hastings aircraft had arrived from
Topcliffe (Yorkshire) at
10.15 a. m. and the station staff at once began
filling the seven tanks of the
plane, which carries 3,000 gallons of petrol.
Twenty-two parachutes and 22
"Mae Wests" were taken aboard.
The
High
Commissioner for Ceylon (Mr. Wijeyaratne) arrived with
his two sons, Cuda, aged
29, a medical student in London, and Tissa, aged 18 a
law student at the Inner
Temple who had come to see their father off. Then,
just before 11 o'clock,
Group-Capt. C. A. Watts, the station O.C., told
waiting pressmen and
photographers that a report had been received that the
Prime Minister was dead.
Ten
minutes
later the station orderly officer, Flt.-Lieut S. G.
Brown, announced that the
death was confirmed. Sir Hugh and his party later
returned to Oxford.
Abingdon Hustle
The
cancellation
of the flight planned for 4.30 a.m. was made on Mr.
Churchill's
personal orders from 10, Downing Street, after a
message from Colombo that
there was "no hope" for Mr. Senanayeke.
It
was
shortly before midnight when a telephone rang in the
office of the Senior Duty
Officer at Abingdon R.A.F. Station, and an Air
Ministry official at the other
end told Flt.-Lieut. Imray that a Hastings transport
plane was flying from
Topcliffe R.A.F. Station, in Yorkshire, to pick up Sir
Hugh and his party at
4.30. Immediately the sleeping station, woke to life
as members of the
emergency crew for the control tower as well as
refuelling crew were roused
from sleep and told to take up their stations. One
airman just going on leave,
was called back and another, clad only in his shirt
and boots, ran to rouse
others, and in a short time arrangements were
complete. However, at 2.30 a.m.
the telephone rang again and another Air Ministry
message was received
cancelling the arrangements on the instructions of the
High Commissioner.
The
ages of
the Ceylon High Commissioner's sons were erroneously
reported. Tissa was 29 and
Cuda 18.
Senanayake,
friend of Britain
Farmer who was once a
wrestler
A
wrestler
who became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon, Don
Stephen Senanayake -
"Jungle John" - led his country in its campaign for
Dominion status.
But
it was not
until he was 42-25 years ago - that Senanayake took an
interest in politics
says the British United Press.
A
giant of a
man, he spent the biggest part of his life farming.
Apart from being a
wrestler, he was also a good boxer and a hard hitter
on the cricket field. He
was educated at St. Thomas' Church of England College
and although a devout
Buddhist later became a director of the school.
He
first took
part in public life as a temperance reformer but his
brother Frederick the
first leader of the Ceylon Independence Party, was
then the politician of the
family.
In
1925
Frederick died and Don Stephen was called from his
farm to take his brother's
place. He entered the Legislative Assembly and, as a
farmer, became Minister of
Agriculture, a post he held for 16 years.
Ousted Corruption
As
head of
the Independence Party, he worked to give his country
Dominion status. In 1946
came success. The British Government framed the new
Constitution.
Senanayake,
who
had become leader of the State Council had the biggest
say in Ceylon in the
drafting - and in the following year he became the
first Prime Minister of the
country.
But
the
struggle was not over. He sought to rid public life of
corruption and a
judicial inquiry he set up in 1949 recommended the
dismissal of six high
officials.He set up new hydro-electric stations,
developed new mineral
resources and strengthened the country's trading
position.
Many
have
been the tributes paid to this friend of Britain, but
none more accurate than
that once paid by Lord Soulbury Governor-General of
Ceylon who said:"He is
a man of unfailing courtesy, kindness, tolerance and
moderation and a statesman
of judgment: sagacity and foresight."
'Life-or-death'
Radio call to save
injured Premier
Daily Mirror Reporter
At
ninety-second
intervals, a life-or-death call for help for an
injured Premier
was broadcast 6,500 miles to London last night.
Radio
Ceylon
said: "Urgent message ....Will
B.B.C. contact Sir
Hugh Cairns at Oxford 58136 and ask him to phone Dr.
Peiris, Colombo 9351?
"It
concerns
the health and life and death of our Prime Minister.
If he cannot
telephone, ask him to cable or use some other means of
communication."
The
Premier,
Don Stephen Senanayake, had been thrown by a bolting
horse, and still was
unconscious.
B.B.C.
monitors
at Caversham picked the call up. An official passed it
to Sir Hugh,
who is a leading brain specialist. The G.P.O. at once
opened a radio-telephone
link between Oxford and Colombo.
And
late last
night a spokesman for Mr. Churchill said: "Every
effort is being made to
fly Sir Hugh out as soon as possible - in the fastest
plane available."
By
telephone
from the hospital where Mr. Senanayake lay, Dr. Peiris
told the Daily Mirror:
"I understand that Mr. Churchill is providing a jet
plane so that Sir Hugh
can fly here straight-away to operate.
High
British
Government officials meanwhile worked on arrangements
for sending an assistant,
two nurses, and the High Commissioner for Ceylon - Sir
Cecil Syers - with him.
Minutes
after
the call was monitored, short-wave enthusiasts all
over England who had heard
it, were telephoning the B.B.C. And a cable telling of
the SOS came from Sierra
Leone, West Africa.
One
of the
first short-wave men to ring up Broadcasting House was
Mr. A. Hare of Lyndhurst
avenue, Twickenham.
Sir
Hugh, 55,
returned to Oxford a few days ago, after convalescing
- he had undergone an
operation.
Sixty-seven-year-old
Mr.
Senanayake, an expert horseman, somersaulted twice
after he was thrown.
Sagacious
Senanayakes
of Sri Lankan politics –
Sunday
Times Sep 17 2000
By P.M.
Senaratne
In
the sphere
of Sri Lankan politics, the Senanayakes from Botale
Walauwa, Mirigama, have
continued to be a significant factor. They have
represented the Sri Lankan
legislature for three generations.
The
advent of
this family into the socio-political arena dates as
far back as the 1920s. A
significant contribution was made by F.R. Senanayake
in propelling
organizations such as the Y.M.B.A and the Temperance
Movement, the latter which
was introduced to him by his father, Mudaliyar Don
Spater Senanayake.
Despite
the
hard work pertaining to much needed social reforms of
the time by the three
Senanayake brothers (D.C, F.R. and D.S), whether it be
through the Lanka
Mahajana Sabha where D.S. and D.C. were prominent
members or through the
Y.M.B.A. which F.R. and brother D.C. heavily financed
and tirelessly worked
for, the direct involvement in politics and affairs of
the state fell upon
D.S's shoulders. There were two reasons for this.
Firstly F.R. (Frederick
Richard) expired while on a pilgrimage to Buddha Gaya
in 1925, and D.C. (Don Charles)
who was known to be the man behind the scenes shunned
the limelight. The
youngest brother D.S. therefore became the natural
choice.
1931
proved
to be a significant year in the history of Ceylon and
that of the Senanayake
family. It was the year that the country gained
universal franchise and the
elections to the State Council were held. Don Stephen
Senanayake was returned
as the uncontested representative of the Minuwangoda
electorate. He had the
distinction of being the first Minister of Agriculture
in the post-independence
era. During this period D.S. achieved phenomenal
success. The numerous
irrigational schemes completed by him and the many
colonization settlements
established with a view to securing Sri Lanka's
agro-industry and self-sufficiency
in essential foods, is largely if not wholly the
brainchild of D.S. The
Senanayake Samudra, the Parakrama Samudra,
Nachchaduwa, Padaviya, Minipe,
Minneriya, are just a few of the projects undertaken
by him.
When
in 1936,
Sir D.B. Jayatilleke decided to accept the post as
Ceylon's representative in
India, his position as Leader of the House, in the
State Council fell vacant
and the natural choice for leadership fell on D.S. In
the very same year Dudley
Shelton Senanayake had returned from England, when he
had not only obtained a
natural science tripos at the University of Cambridge,
which was followed by an
M.A,. but had also qualified as a Barrister-at-Law.
Immediately after his
return, he had been coaxed by friends, family and
constituents to contest the
Dedigama electorate, in which constituency, the
Senanayakes owned considerable
estates. Dudley only 24 at the time was elected with a
majority of 8,299 votes.
The Dedigama result was as follows.
Mr.
Dudley
Senanayake 17,045
Mr. N.H.Keertiratne 8,746
Mr. Richard Nugawela 737
Mr. T.B. Dedigama 560
Mr. T.B. Udalagama 179
Following
his
victory, he stated "I saw that those who sought
election were all
new-comers to politics. As I had decided to devote my
whole life to politics, I
saw here an opportunity to start early. I saw no
reason why my youth should be
a hindrance to an early beginning."
1948
proved a
momentous year for Sri Lanka and the Senanayake
family. The country was
metamorphising from colony to sovereign state, and the
Senanayakes, father and
son were to contest their respective seats Mirigama
and Dedigama. D.S. who lead
the U.N.P to victory defeated his opponent with over
16,000 votes, polling in
excess of 26,000 votes. Dudley too met with
success.
After
the
formation of the first Parliament in 1948, under the
premiership of the grand
old Senanayake, Dudley assumed the office of Minister
of Agriculture. In 1952,
D.S expired after suffering a stroke while riding on
the Galle Face Green. Lord
Soulbury in his capacity as Governor-General appointed
Dudley as the new Prime
Minister. This lead to some controversy amongst senior
U.N.P members,
especially Sir John Kotalawela. In order to quell the
various accusations
hurled by certain factions, Dudley acted both
honourably and democratically by
immediately dissolving Parliament and calling for
fresh elections. The outcome
was an overwhelming victory for the U.N.P, which
gained 54 seats and a personal
one for Dudley securing Dedigama with a massive
majority of 16,000.
Following
the
Hartal of 1953, instigated by the opposition Dudley
resigned allowing Sir John
to realize his long awaited ambition of becoming
Ceylon's Prime Minister. Sir
John himself was married to D.S's sister's daughter
and Dudley's first cousin
Euphemia. Quite apart from this connection he was also
the son of Mrs. F.R.
Senanayake's sister.
Dudley
re-entered
politics subsequently, and his final period as Prime
Minister from
1965-1970 was by far the most significant. A unique
achievement during these
years was the strong co-operation he received from
several parties such as the
M.E.P., The Federal Party, and other independent
groups. Unlike most coalitions
the 1965-1970 Government functioned smoothly without
dissension and this is
generally known to be one of the most peaceful periods
in Sri Lankan
politics.
When
speaking
of the Senanayakes and politics one tends to forget
Richard Gotabhaya (R.G).
This razor-sharp politician was the eldest son of
D.S's older brother
F.R.
His
impact on
Sri Lankan politics was enormous. R.G. contested the
1947 election and was
returned as the member for the constituency of
Dambadeniya. He served Ceylon's
first Parliament as Deputy Minister of Defence and
Foreign Affairs and in 1952
as Minister for Trade and Commerce. In 1956, on the
eve of elections, he was
banished from the UNP on the grounds of criticizing
the party. It was at this
point that R.G. posed his challenge to his arch enemy
J.R. Jayawardene. R.G.
contested two seats as an independent, his own
constituency of Dambadeniya, and
that of J.R's Kelaniya. R.G. was victorious in both
and still holds the
distinction of winning two constituencies at an
election. In fact the main
election slogan adopted by the opposition in 1956 was
"The UNP that R.G.
rejected, the nation shall also reject."
R.G.
continued
to serve his Mother Lanka, in the SLFP Government
headed by S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike, as the Minister of Trade. He is still
referred to by the
political nickname of 'China Dicky', a reference to
his successful negotiations
with China of the bi-lateral rubber-rice pact.
The
third
generation Senanayake, Rukman first entered Parliament
in 1973 at the Dedigama
by-election, the seat being left vacant after the
demise of his illustrious uncle
Dudley. His stint in Parliament was however brief.
Today after much wandering
in the political wilderness, he finds himself one of
the UNP's senior most
members representing the Polonnaruwa District where he
polled nearly 50,000
votes.
It
may be of
incidental interest to note that former minister,
General Ranjan Wijeyratne was
a close relative of the Senanayake family. His mother
Rosalind Senanayake was
the first cousin of D.S.
Freedom
Fighters and
Reformists
By: Joe
Segera
The
Island - 1st February 1998
While
we
prepare to celebrate half a century of Independence,
the question could be
asked whether we really fought for our Independence or
whether we had no
freedom fighters as such. What this country had were
really reformists.
These
most
admirable gentlemen wanted only political reforms. And
these reforms culminated
with the State Council and the Executive Committee
system which was given to us
by the British on the basis of the Donoughmore
Commission report. This report
brought in its wake Universal Adult Franchise which
came into effect in 1931.
E.
W. Perera,
Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Sir Ponnambalam
Arunachalam, F. R. Senanayake, D.
S. Senanayake, E. W. Jayewardene, H. J. C. Perera, D.
R. Wijewardene and others
were men who fought for a greater measure of freedom
and political reforms
wider than what prevailed then under the old
Legislative Council. It was the
riots of 1915 which stirred our leaders to campaign
for political reforms.
These riots which began in Gampola over an incident in
which Muslims and
Sinhalese figured spread all over the country. They
assumed such proportions
that the then Governor, Sir Robert Chalmers and his
Colonial Secretary, Edward
Stubbs mistook it to be a rebellion against the
British.
The
fist
World War was on and the Governor proclaimed Martial
Law and imprisoned many
influential Sinhalese and Sinhalese political leaders
such as F. R. And D. S.
Senanayake, A. E. Goonesinha, Boralugoda Ralahamy, the
farther of Philip and
Robert Gunawardena, Capt. D. D. Pedris of the Colombo
Town Guard who was later
executed at Welikada Prison and a host of others.
Punjabi
soldiers
were brought down from India and many innocent
Sinhalese were shot at
sight. It was in those dark days that E. W. Perera, an
Advocate from Kotte who
gave up his practice to campaign for a greater measure
of political freedom,
braved the German mine-infested seas and submarines to
carry a secret Memorial
in the soles of his shoes to the Secretary of State to
the Colonies, pleading
for the repeal of Martial Law and describing the
atrocities committed by the
Punjabis, the local Police led by the then IGP, Sir
Herbert Dowbiggin and
British troops on his Sinhala brethren.
E.
W. Perera
canvassed his case with influential members of the
British Government in
Whitehall and the British Parliament winning success
for his case. Soon after
Governor Chalmers was recalled, Martial Law was
repealed and a new Governor was
sent here. He was Sir John Anderson who endeavoured to
undo the evils committed
by his predecessor and win the hearts and minds of the
people.
Some
of the
leaders behind E. W. Perera's mission to London were
Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan
and his brother Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, F. R.
Senanayake, D. R.
Wijewardene, A. A. Wickremasinghe of Kegalle and quite
a number of other
patriots.
In
these days
of communal strife, it is well to remember the heroic
manner in which
Ponnambalam Ramanathan and his brother Ponnambalam
Arunachalam braved the might
of the British government and boldly addressed public
meetings and gatherings
on behalf of the persecuted Sinhalese people. In those
days they appeared as
brethren of the Sinhalese.
The
movement
for a greater measure of political freedom gathered
momentum with the Ceylon
National Congress and its leading lights like Sir
James Peiris, E. W.
Jayewardene, D. S. Senanayake and others participating
in the agitation.
Leaders of the calibre of D. R. Wijewardene and E. J.
Samarawickrema who was
considered the country's greatest chamber lawyer.
It
was
Wijewardene and Samarawickrema who operated behind the
scenes freely giving
their opinions and drafted many of these letters and
memorials to Whitehall
presenting the case for political reforms and a more
responsible share of the
government with the people's participation.
Many
people
today, especially the youth might not know that the
"Daily News" of
those early days was the organ with which its owner D.
R. Wijewardene fought
and campaigned for reforms in the political sphere.
It
could be
also recalled that the "Daily News" which came out
with its first
copy on January 3, 1918 carried on its first page a
message from the great
Tamil Leader of the day, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam
exit extolling the virtues
of freedom.
Times
have
changed and today, the once free "Daily News" has
become the faithful
mouthpiece of whoever is in office.
To
come back
to the celebration of 50 years of freedom, a gift
which we received without
shedding a drop of blood, it must be mentioned that
those who actually fought
for freedom were the political leaders of Indian
leaders such as Mahatma
Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad,
Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari, Subhas
Chandra Bose, Sardar Wallabhai Patel, Mrs. Sarojini
Naidu and members of the
Indian National Congress languished ties without
number in jail and suffered
the lathi blows of the British-controlled Indian
Police.
The
name of
V. K. Krishna Menon, Nehru's brilliant Minister of
Defence and Foreign Affairs
who in those days when Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and
others fought for Independence
through the weapon of "Satyagraha" or non-violence, he
as leader of
the India League did the spade work for India's
Freedom through his lectures,
speeches and contacts with liberal-minded British
parliamentarians and those
with influence with Whitehall, the seat of Britain's
government.
Menon
and his
India League in London attracted many socialist-minded
young men who were
students in London at Harold Laski's celebrated London
School of Economics.
Among them were Dr. N. M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena,
Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta,
Ghana's Nkrumah and a host of other talented men who
later either became
leaders or prominent political leaders in their own
countries.
When
England's
Labour Government came into power and Mr. Clement
Attlee was Prime Minister Sri
Lanka, then Ceylon was member of the Package, not Dr.
G. L. Peiris much -
touted package, through which the Labour Government
granted Independence or
compete "Swaraj" as Mahatma Gandhi wanted without any
restrictions
whatsoever.
So
Ceylon
also just had to follow suit or be part of the
package. And after partition
Pakistan was also there.
About
our own
story of winning freedom, the Soulbury Commission has
to be mentioned because
it was this Commission that laid the framework for our
first Constitution based
on complete political freedom called the Soulbury
Constitution. It was Sir Ivor
Jennings, that world renowned constitutional lawyer
who was in a big way
responsible for drafting this Constitution.
Our
first
Prime Minister, Don Stephen Senanayake leaned heavily
on Sir Ivor for his
advice on constitutional matters and matters of
governance.
In
fact,
Prime Minister Senanayake admired Jennings so much
that he offered him the post
of first governor-general of Ceylon which was politely
turned down by Sir Ivor,
apparently he opted more for the more congenial
surroundings of Cambridge from
where he could continue with his writing and research
than Queen's House.
There
was also
an interesting story doing the rounds of the early
days of the Galle Face
Parliament that our Independence Day also happens to
be the Birthday of Sir
Ivor Jennings. D. S. Senanayake who was determined to
honour the man is said to
have fixed February Fourth on that score.
The
knight in shining armour of
Lankan politics
~
10th Dudley Senanayake Memorial Lecture - Sunday Times
Dec 2 2007
British
High
Commissioner Dominick Chilcott will deliver the 10th
Dudley Senanayake
Memorial Oration at Committee Room A of the BMICH on
Monday, December 10 at 6
p.m. This lecture is organized by the Dudley
Senanayake Foundation in
co-ordination with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, Sri
Lanka.
The
late
Dudley Senanayake was educated at S. Thomas College,
Mount Lavinia, and
later at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was
first elected to the State
Council to represent the Dedigama constituency in
1936; was Minister of
Agriculture in Ceylon's first cabinet after
Independence and Prime Minister
three times. He was a cricketer at school and
University, and loved music and
photography.
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He
was
known as the knight in shining armour of Sri Lankan
politics, a reluctant
politician, who nevertheless strode the political
arena like a colossus till
his death. He was an excellent speaker with a powerful
voice and famed for his
wit and repartee in Parliament. This was in a
Parliament that had the crème a
la crème of Sri Lankan politicians, many of them
educated at British
universities.
He
was
respected for his loyalty to his party even when he
was temporarily out of
politics and refused office when offered to him by
another party which was in
power. In these days of political crossovers for high
office, his example is a
good one for young aspiring politicians to emulate.
British
High
Commissioner Dominick Chilcott who delivers the
oration on this occasion
was born in Hong Kong in 1959, and is the son of a
regular Army officer. He was
educated at St. Joseph's College, Ipswich and at
Greyfriars Hall, Oxford, where
he got a 2nd class Honours degree in Philosophy and
Theology. He first served
the Royal Navy as a Midshipman for one year and joined
the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office in 1982 where he served as
Director Europe, and Director of
Iraqi Planning. He has served abroad in Brussels,
Lisbon and Ankara and in
several other important posts in the Foreign and
Commonwealth office. His
posting to Colombo was his first in South East Asia
and his first as Head of
Mission.
Something
which
has endeared him to people in every posting is that he
has learned the
language of the country and spoken in it too. He
leaves Colombo in January for
Washington where he will serve as No. 2 in the British
Embassy. His subject for
the oration is 'The New Diplomacy in the New Century'.
Previous
speakers
at this annual event have been David Steel, MP, former
Leader of the
British Liberal Party, Sir Russell Johnston MP, Deputy
Leader of the British
Liberal Democrats, Dr. Zach de Beer MP, Leader of the
Democratic Party South
Africa, Steingrimur Hermannsonn, MP, Prime Minister of
Iceland, Earl Russell,
spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, House of Lords,
Otto Count Lamsdorff, MP,
Chairman Friedrich Naumann Stiftung Foundation and
former leader, Free
Democratic Party, Germany and Past President, Liberal
International, Bradman
Weerakoon, former secretary to 8 Prime Ministers,
Ranil Wickremesinghe, Leader
of the Opposition and Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama.
(IMK)
Flight to destiny
Sunday
Times
Feb 4 2007
We
reproduce
an article that appeared in The Sunday Times
Millennium Supplement,
Past Times
It
was
1945 and young Gamini Corea like many others was
preparing for the arduous
sea voyage to Cambridge University in England where he
had secured a place for
higher studies.
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That
was
the time local students made their way by sea to
England for advanced
studies, in the absence of commercial flights. Little
did Corea realize then,
that this trip to England would create history and
pave the way for Sri Lanka’s
Independence from British colonial rule!
Corea,
an
excellent student who had passed the London
Inter-Science Economics Exam and
would later become one of Sri Lanka’s most
distinguished personalities, had
applied for a passage on the convoy of ships that made
the journey to England.
His university term was beginning in October 1945.
He
had
obtained a place in Corpus Christi College in
Cambridge but delayed his
departure for two years due to the war. Ships, in
which passengers were housed
in cabins that had several but rather uncomfortable
bunkers, went in convoys,
as a precaution since the Japanese war was on, though
the German war was over.
However, one evening around June, Corea’s grandmother,
Mrs. Alice Kotelawala,
returned home after a meeting with Don Stephen
Senanayake, then Minister of
Agriculture and Lands and Leader of the House, with
some interesting news.
Corea
was
staying with his grandmother at her Horton Place
residence, where the
world-renowned economist continues to live today.
Senanayake
had
told Mrs. Kotelawala that he was flying to England on
a mission in July,
and on learning that Corea was also going there -
though much later - had
invited Corea to join him (Senanayake).
“I
was
elated,” recalled Corea. “I went to meet Mr.
Senanayake after that and
asked whether it was okay to come along. He said it
was perfectly in order but
that I had to pay for my ticket.”
Senanayake,
subsequently
the first Prime Minister of Ceylon, had been invited
by the
British Government to discuss the Soulbury Commission
report, which paved the
way for the British to grant Independence to Ceylon in
1948. The minister was
to be accompanied by Arthur Ranasinghe, former head of
treasury and now working
under Senanayake, his personal physician Dr. David
Silva and personal valet,
Carolis.
British
authorities
had offered an entire plane for Senanayake and his
delegation to
fly to England and the minister, in view of the space
available, had offered a
seat to Corea and Ernie Goonetilleke, son of Oliver
Goonetilleke, who was also
going to Cambridge for studies. The elder
Goonetilleke, the first Sri Lankan
Governor General, was then the Civil Defence
Commissioner.
“I
was
excited to be flying for the first time and all of a
sudden I had to
advance my arrangements since I was going to England
at least three months
ahead of schedule,” said Corea. The youngster was
planning to stay with a Sri
Lankan doctor and his wife, Alfred and Carmel
Gunasekera. The doctor was
practising and residing in West Hampstead.
All
hell
broke loose after the newspapers ran a story saying
Mr. Senanayake was
going to London with an official delegation. The names
of the delegates,
including that of Corea and Goonetilleke, were also
listed.
“There
was
a big furore in the State Council. Mr. W. Dahanayake,
a vociferous critic of
the government, denounced this move saying it is
family bandyism, nepotism and
so on and said MSC does not stand for members of the
State Council but for
‘Members of the Senanayake Caucus,” laughed Corea.
Matters
were
not helped by the chief secretary. He defended the
move, saying these two
young men were qualified and competent enough to
assist Senanayake.
More
embarrassment
followed. "Mr. Senanayake's schoolboy secretaries"
screamed a headline in a newspaper editorial,
criticizing the appointment of the
two youngsters on the delegation. What ran through
Corea’s mind at that time?
“Well, I was young and was embarrassed that I was
receiving so much publicity.
On the other hand, I wasn’t worried because I knew
nothing wrong was done. As a
result of it I received a lot of visibility in the
press.”
Corea
vividly
remembers the day he landed in England the 13th of
July 1945. But the
trip, in a RAF York bomber transport plane that still
had camouflage paint,
took three days, as night flying was not permitted
then. There were only six
passengers on board. They took off from Ratmalana
airport and reached Karachi
for the night. Corea - feeling cold since it was his
first flight - continued
to wear the pullover knitted by his grandmother in the
hot mid-summer evening
in Karachi, drawing curious stares from people.
The
next
night was spent in Cairo, before the group flew via
Malta to an RAF
military airfield in Bristol in England. Senanayake’s
delegation was put up at
the Grosvenor House hotel in London.
The
next
morning, Senanayake took the two youngest members of
the delegation to Dr.
Gunasekera’s house where they stayed thereafter. But
Corea, keen to find out
what was happening with regard to the negotiations,
daily took the under-ground
train from West Hampstead to London to meet up with
Senanayake who, unlike
other somewhat taciturn members of the delegation,
chatted freely about the
goings-on.
“I
was
interested in the events,” said Corea, noting that
Senanayake’s discussions
were delayed in London as their arrival occurred at a
time when a change of
government was taking place. The Sri Lankan delegation
had to stay longer than
anticipated.
The
elections,
under the government of Winston Churchill, were over
when the
delegation arrived in England. When the results were
announced a few days
later, the Labour Party had surprisingly clinched
victory.
It
was
Senanayake who gave Corea his first glimpse of
Cambridge. Senanayake had
been invited by Sir Ivor Jennings, a former head of
the University College in
Colombo, to visit Cambridge. After his meetings with
Jennings, Senanayake took
Corea along to Corpus Christi College to meet Corea’s
future tutor, Mr. H.D.P.
Lee.
It
turned
out that Senanayake’s two sons, Dudley and Robert, had
also studied at
Corpus Christi College before the war. The
conversation turned personal with
Lee, initially polite and courteous, becoming quite
animated and warm, on
realizing Senanayake’s links with the college.
More
than
50 years after the event, Corea - now a top UN retiree
whose last UN job
was Secretary-General of UNCTAD - still remembers many
of the things that
happened on that historical trip with Senanayake. “I
particularly remember the
flight over Cairo. Unlike today, planes didn’t fly at
great heights then and we
could see everything the Persian Gulf, desert sands
and oil pipelines. It was a
beautiful sight. I also remember bomb-damaged London
with all its austerity.”
Sunday
Times Mar 20 2011
Imprisonment
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One
of the famous names associated with Sri
Lanka’s freedom struggle, was F.R.
Senanayake. The book ‘Deshabandhu
F.R.Senanayake’ by Jayasena Dahanayaka,
translated into English by W.G. Dharmasiri
is a meticulous retelling of the life and
times of one of the country’s national
heroes who was in the vanguard of the
national resurgence in an era of repressive
colonial rule. Published here is an extracts
from the chapter titled ‘Imprisonment’ which
relates the happenings in the aftermath of
the riots of 1915. A Vijitha Yapa
publication, the biography will be launched
on March 22 |
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The
British rulers who did not pay any heed to the
rights, responsibilities and necessities of
Buddhists, executed every scheme possible to
undermine Buddhist power and suspected the
Sinhala-Muslim Riots from its beginning as a
movement to oppose the government. These
rulers who suspected Sinhala leaders and
Buddhist societies and organizations without
any basis, charged them unjustifiably, without
making inquiries. On 8th June 1915 at about 12
noon these rulers sent a Town Guard, a Police
Inspector and two Punjabi soldiers to the
house of Mr. F. R. Senanayake and made a
search in every nook and corner.
They
searched for secret anti-government documents
and weapons, but none of these was found
there. In short, not only was there nothing to
charge Mr. Senanayake with, but there was
nothing to suspect him, and therefore those
officers went away empty handed. On this day,
simultaneously, the houses of Mr. D.C.
Senanayake, Mr. D.S. Senanayake and Mr. D.B.
Jayatilake were searched in a similar manner. The
rulers who were not satisfied with this,
detailed Punjabi soldiers who could not speak
a word of the Sinhala language to search the
houses of Sinhala Buddhists. Those soldiers
who followed the Sikh religion acted in a
cruel manner against the Buddhists. Under
suspicion Even
the coconut scrapers found in their houses
were considered weapons. On this occasion, all
anti-liquor heroes who were associated with
the Anti-liquor movement, and the members of
those societies along with their officials
were subject to suspicion by the British. In
the Secret Report submitted to the government
on 6th August 1915 by the Inspector General of
Police at that time, Mr. H. L. Dowbiggin, it
is seen that charges were brought against the
Buddhist Theosophical Society, Young Men’s
Buddhist Association and the Anti-liquor
Society and their officials. In his
Secret Report he had mentioned that these
societies were bent on political more than
religious activities and that the two
societies Buddhist Theosophical Society and
Young Men’s Buddhist Association were
political organizations masquerading in the
form of religious organizations. The IGP aimed
direct charges against the Anti-liquor Society
formed by the three Senanayake brothers D.C.,
F.R., and D.S. together with the people of
Mirigama and Attanagalla. Mr. Dowbiggin who
stated that the other Anti-liquor branch
societies in the island too were connected
with the riots, had reported that charges
could not be brought against a minority of
citizens who were associated with the Anti-liquor Society.
In a
letter sent to the G.A. Central Province dated
5th June 1915, by the A.G.A. Matale it is
stated that during this riot, the Sinhalese
had complained against the Sinhalese due to
personal enmities and were making use of the
available opportunity. The rulers were enraged
to the point where they would arrest any
Sinhala person accused by a Muslim even
falsely, but no one charged Mr. Senanayake. F.R.
who won the hearts of all and treated all as
equals did not have enemies but friends. On
30th October 1915 he made a statement saying
that the Government had tried all means to
name him an accused, and that among the
Sinhalese, Muslims or any other nationality he
had no enemies. He was pleased on account of
this, and living as a free individual, would
work for the betterment of the country. F.R.
taken in At
this time when the soldiers started capturing
the Sinhala people and killing them, all those
people who took the lead in religious and
social activities were arrested without any
inquiry. Accordingly, on 21st June at about
5.30 in the morning a Town Guard came and
stopped his motor vehicle in front of Kewstoke
house, and declared that he had come to arrest
Mr. Senanayake. Having heard the officer’s
words, Mr. Senanayake went into his bedroom
close to the verandah and asked him to wait
till he changed his clothes, but the officer
refused his request and ordered him to “come
in those clothes”. As it was not judicious to
ignore the Town Guard’s order, he got into the
motor vehicle and set out for Welikada prison. At the
entrance to the prison Mr. Senanayake was
handed over to the Superintendent of Police,
Daniel, by the Town Guard. He examined this
gentleman in custody. Subsequently, he handed
over Mr. Senanayake to the prison authorities
saying that the latter was a captive who
should be imprisoned. Then Mr. A.C. Olnet, the
Army Special Commissioner, asked a number of
questions from the suspect who was to be put
in prison. F.R.
answered all of his questions without
hesitation. The Army Special Commissioner who
was not satisfied with this, put him inside a
designated “penal cell” and locked him up.
There were about 150 such cells. All of them
were very unclean. In the cell Mr. Senanayake
was put, there was a toilet and the foul smell
emanating from it was awful. He had to stay as
mentioned, in this cell for about 20 hours
daily. He had never stayed in a dirty place
like this in his life, and refused the lunch
given to him in a tin dish as it was unclean.
F. R. who was without food for two days was
given permission on 23rd June to get down food
from his home. Rounding
up Buddhist leaders On the
day F.R.was taken in to custody, Messrs Arthur
V. Dias, D. B. Jayatilake, doctors W. A. de
Silva and C. A. Hewavitarne too were arrested
and put in prison. As recorded in a secret
government document on 17th August 1915, these
Buddhist leaders were taken into custody
without any inquiry. This is stated in several
government documents dated 28th March, 3rd May
and 22nd August 1916. The A. G. A. of Matale
at that time has recorded these arrests in his
official diary as follows: “Army soldiers had
taken into custody innocent villagers who have
not committed any offence. They had accused
some suspects without any criminal involvement
and shot them under Martial Law. The rulers
who suspected the Sinhalese strongly, took
innocent persons into custody at their will
and lodged false charges against all of them.”
The following statement made by Mr.
D.S.Senanayake on 30th October 1915 clarifies
how far the rulers strived to level charges at
people. In
DS’s words “I am
a proprietary planter and a graphite
businessman. When I was at home on the 8th
June, at about 12 noon a Town Guard, Police
Inspector and two armed Punjabi soldiers came
in a motor vehicle to my house and informed me
that they wanted to search my house. They
called all of us in the house to the dining
hall and sent out the servants and asked us to
stay there. The two Punjab soldiers were
guarding us. The Town Guard and the Police
Inspector searched the house minutely. But no
secret documents or weapons suspected by the
Government were found in my house. Therefore
they went away. On 21st June, a Town Guard
came to my house at about 5.30 early in the
morning along with two armed Punjab soldiers,
woke me up and without allowing me to go to
the toilet as usual, took me to the Welikada
prison and there I saw a number of notables
had been taken into custody. There
they examined me and put me in a cell. There
was no place for me to sit. There was no bench
or chair. I had to wait for a number of hours
until I got something to sit on. A prison
attendant took me to the Special Army
Commissioner. Informing me that I had to make
a statement, he asked me several questions
that could incriminate me and others. I have
not committed any offence. As far as I know,
the other leaders too have done no wrong.
After
he asked questions to his heart's content, he
made me enter the cell which had no
facilities. Other leaders were taken away and
were put into cells. As we were in solitary
imprisonment there was no one to talk to or
dispel our solitude. At noon on that day a
servant who was there, pushed some food under
the door in an unclean tin plate. Having seen
it I got thoroughly disgusted. Naturally,
I could not eat such dirty food. Therefore I
stayed hungry. After two days I got permission
to get down food from outside. We prisoners
were taken to the Police Headquarters and
questioned about our public service work. On
the occasion we went there, I sent a message
to Advocate C. Batuwantudawe to meet me on
behalf of Mr. P. Ramanathan. I had been
charged for instigating the public in the riot
as a leader of the Anti-liquor Movement. But
the government did not have sufficient
evidence to present against me to prove
charges ..........” By
21st June, 86 persons including Messrs
Piyadasa Sirisena, Proctor John de Silva,
Richard Salgado, Walter Salgado, P.C.H. Dias
and Harry Dias had been imprisoned. By this
time, along with Mr. P. S. Tissera who was a
friend of Mr. Senanayake arrested at Hanwella
on 2nd June as mentioned earlier, Boralugoda
Ralahamy (father of Phillip Gunawardene) who
was over 60 years old and Romanis Perera were
in prison. According
to the charges levelled against the school
teacher, the Court Marshal had decided to hang
him at Welikada prison on 18th July 1915. This
was a great mental agony for Mr. Senanayake.
The school teacher stated, clearing tears in
his eyes, remembering the past events in
respect of that noble leader of men. He could
not bear up the intense sorrow, recollecting
that his friend who went to Hanwella at his
request did not have a chance to go home, was
imprisoned, and above all condemned to capital
punishment. The school teacher had added that
he came to know that this leader of men had
told Mr. Piyadasa Sirisena that he would agree
to offer his own life in place of the school
teacher. The
leaders who were taken into custody and those
condemned to capital punishment were
imprisoned in the hall named “L Hall”. During
his imprisonment Mr. Senanayake was allowed to
come out of the cell and was free to move
about for three or four hours in the prison.
During this time he advised the other
prisoners and consoled them. The school
teacher said, the Welikada prison was the
“centre for training” where “ F.R.” stayed to
acquire knowledge and learn about distress in
life. That
special day was 7th July 1915. This is how the
school master who was a prisoner condemned to
death in Welikada prison described that
occasion, “A prison attendant who came to us
at about 7.00 in the morning on that day told
us ‘ in a short time Mr. Edward Henry Pedris
will be shot’. At about 7.30 in the morning,
an officer of the prison called all of us
including other notables, out from the
individual cells we were put in up to that
time, and ordered us to stand in a line in the
verandah of L Hall. Edward
Henry Pedris’s last hours “We
stood in line. Two soldiers carrying rifles
fitted with bayonets walked on both sides of a
slim good looking handsome young man escorting
him in front of us and led him out. The young
man walking in Town Guard’s uniform was
handcuffed. The Army Special Commissioner Mr.
A.C. Olnet walked behind him. Mr. Pedris
without any fear or hesitation, in his usual
manner, walked with body erect in such a way
that the Sinhala race would be honoured. He
went on that last journey proudly and
courageously. We were eagerly looking at him
till he disappeared. The sorrow, grief and
regret that overcame us was so deep that it
could not be described. At that time, I who
was condemned to death was quivering with
fear. I cannot explain in words the fear that
arose in me. It came to my mind that Alas! in
another 11 days I too will have to go on this
fearful journey. I felt my whole body
trembling.” My
good friend F. R. consoled me in sorrow and
advised me always saying that ‘if you are
fortunate enough to be born into this world,
you will be freed from capital punishment on
account of the strategies adopted by me’. I
was given a lease of life. I saw Mr.
Senanayake who was advising and encouraging me
grieving, crying and shedding tears. An
eyewitness account of an officer states that
when they were getting ready to cover Mr.
Pedris’ face with a handkerchief when he was
led out and made to sit in a chair he had
fearlessly refused it and he had put forward
his chest without an iota of fear.
Sharp
at 8.00 o’clock in the morning the sound of a
gunshot was heard. We heard that four soldiers
who lined up a few fathoms in front of him had
fired at the scheduled time. On that occasion
the whole prison turned out to be one funeral
house. About
20 minutes passed after the sound of gunshots.
A prison attendant came before us carrying a
chair wet with blood. That chair brought by
him brushed against the bodies of several
persons who were there. It was the chair in
which the young Pedris sat. It was bathed with
his blood. The Army Special Commissioner
quickly followed the attendant who brought the
chair. He
showed the chair to Mr. F. R. Senanayake and
said ‘F.R.! Any person who commits an act of
treason against the government by forming
organizations like the so-called Anti-liquor
Movement will have to die facing such a fate
as this.” Our
hero asked him, “ What
did you say? ‘facing such a fate as this……’
Are you such a cowardly and timid nation to
shoot one of our young men and bring the chair
splashed with his blood? “Aren’t
you ashamed to parade the results of your
foolish and stupid act to us when we are
sorrowing at the demise of one of our people?
Each drop of blood of this young man Pedris
whom I treat as one of my own should be
considered as sacrificed in the name of the
nation. If the stream of blood wetting that
chair is counted in drops of blood, the
British will definitely have to pay
compensation.” When these words were expressed
by Mr. Senanayake, Mr. Olnet looked on
motionless........ There
was one occasion which afforded Mr. Senanayake
some happiness when he was in prison. That was
on 18th July 1915. It was revoking the capital
punishment passed on his friend Mr. Tissera,
the School Master who accompanied him to
Hanwella at his request and was subsequently
arrested. In the afternoon of 17th July, a
telegram sent from Britain to the Governor
ordering him to give a lease of life to all
those condemned to death, was received. The
sentence of capital punishment in respect of
the School Master was withdrawn accordingly.
This telegram was the result of Mr.
Senanayake’s far-seeing wisdom that had sent
Mr. E.W. Perera to England. The basis for
pronouncing the sentence of capital punishment
on the School Master was an incident where the
Sinhala people were said to have harassed the
Muslims living in the Hanwella and Atigala
area and damaged their shops, and houses. By
then, several persons arrested at Hanwella on
2nd June were hanged in this manner. Another
group was sentenced to life imprisonment19. The
crimes, corruption, loss and damage carried
out by the rulers of this country over three
months from 2nd June 1915 to 30th August
without any justifiable reason, as a result of
paying heed to slander and suspecting people
unjustly, cannot be enumerated. If Governor
Chalmers and IGP Dowbiggin acted like persons
with discerning intellect, this terrible
calamity could have been stopped at the
beginning. It was
Mr. Senanayake who prominently steered this
battle. He became the symbol of the national
struggle, that was the objective, hope and
aspiration of all people. One cannot state
accurately how many Sinhala people were killed
in this riot. The statistics presented by the
Government authorities are different from one
another. The Governor, in reply to a question
in the State Council has stated that 412 were
arrested under Martial Law and 358 were
punished. Another
Government document states that 39 Sinhalese
were killed. According to Army statistics, the
death toll was 66. Police reports state that
4,855 were arrested and 3,573 were brought
before the civil courts. The book Hundred days
in Ceylon under Martial Law records that 8,428
persons were arrested and cases were filed in
civil courts against 8,016 out of them and
that 5% and 95 % of the accused were brought
before Court Martial and Civil Courts
respectively. A record of the Registrar
General at that time dated 14th October 1915
states that 63 rioters may have been killed to
suppress the riot. According
to another secret document of the Government,
412 persons were arrested, 54 out of them were
freed later, 83 were sentenced to death and
the rest were imprisoned. Only 26 out of those
who were sentenced to death were punished by
Court Martial27. The above-mentioned
statistics and documents clearly show that no
count was correctly taken of the number of
Sinhala Buddhists who were killed. It is
suspect whether they were careless or whether
they did not give correct statistics in order
to cover their guilt. However,
when one ponders over the incidents that had
taken place at that time, it is felt that
these officers had treated the Sinhalese as
they would flies and mosquitoes. Mr.
Senanayake who was without food and drink from
the dawn of 21st June until noon of the 23rd,
got down his lunch from home and took it after
sharing it with a few who were there. Mrs.
Ellen Senanayake consoled herself a little by
fondling tiny tots Gothabhaya, Nedra and
Tissa, their three children and stayed at
home, grief-stricken due to the imprisonment
of her beloved husband. He sent a messenger
from the prison requesting meals to be sent to
the jail sufficient for ten to fifteen persons
for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Accordingly,
she accepted her husband’s request with
devotion and affection, sent food and drinks
prepared by herself, for forty-four days. The
young man John Lionel Kotelawala, who became
the third Prime Minister of Ceylon, stayed
with his aunt (Mrs. Senanayake) as she was
alone. It was this playful young man who
carried meals to the jail on many occasions. Sir
Ponnambalam Ramanathan who witnessed the
numerous forms of harassment the Sinhala
community underwent due to the proclamation of
Martial Law, made the following speech in the
State Council on 11th August 1915: “That there
was only one Police Superintendent in Colombo
at the time of the start of the riot and out
of the 674 police constables who were detailed
to protect the town and look after the peace,
180 were sent to Kandy town which was peaceful
at that time and this was a foolish act of the
authorities. Not only that, the IGP who was specially responsible
for the protection of the capital city had
gone to Kandy with a group of soldiers. If the
IGP stayed in Colombo, it was clear that such
a big loss would not have occurred. The
three ASPs stayed in their positions but did
not act intelligently”. If the Police officers
had acted wisely, there would not have been so
much damage. He added that the Police officers
were just watching the offenders and did not
take appropriate steps, and if punishments
were meted out under Martial Law, it was not
the people but the Police who should be
punished. Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan made a
long fiery speech for a few hours adducing
reasons for the innocence of the Sinhala
public and the indifferent attitude of the
Government. The British MP Harry Creasy while
agreeing with Sir Ramanthan’s speech, censured
the inefficiency of the Police. (The
book Deshabandhu FR Senanayake priced at Rs.
1000 will be available at Vijitha Yapa book
shops)
From
a long line of Senanayake family: Vasantha
Senanayake - today’s face in the political
arena
In Sri Lanka
certain names need no introductions, such as
of the Senanayake, the pioneers in politics
and independence. Coming from the Senanayake
family, the fourth generation young politician
Vasantha Senanyake has become the new face of
an old family in this arena. Sri Lanka’s first
Prime Minister and the father of Independence
Don Stephen Senanyake (DS) was his great-
grandfather and Rukman Senanayake, his uncle.
Vasantha’s late
father Ranjith Senanayake was one of the few
in this family that was the least interested
in politics or fame. He would rather
concentrate on his business and preferred to
live a quiet life with wife Suwanitha
Senanayake, while doing so he did everything
he could to discourage his only son from
entering the world that his family was so
famous for. But during the time Rukman
Senanyake’s split from Jayewardene’s
Government and was organizing a party of his
own for a brief period, young Vasantha went to
help his uncle with small tasks like putting
up posters and helping with the ad campaigns. Ranjith
Senanayake did not object to his son helping
his brother but never dreamt that would be the
beginning of his son’s political interest. Today, in his
early thirties, Vasantha Naresh Senanayake, is
one of the youngest Member’s of the
Parliament, following on his great
grandfather’s footsteps. One afternoon I met
the young politician, who did not look much
like one, but more like a University student.
I encouraged him to start from the beginning. ‘Although I am
originally from Meerigama and my mother was
from Kandy, I grew up mostly in Colombo and
went to S Thomas College and I think I was a
normal child during school days. I of course
did some extra curricular activities; I was in
both in Sinhala and English debate teams. Did
swimming and played chess. For my Advanced
Level I did Art subjects such as Buddhist
Civilization, English, Greek and Roman
Civilization and Political Science then I went
to England and did LLB degree.’ After coming back?
‘Once I briefly
worked with Lanka Bell too. Got involved with
some social and charity work in my village but
later I got involved with political activities
during the time of President Chandrika
Bandaranaike and became a supporter of Mahinda
Rajapaksa who then was the Opposition Leader
during the General election to make him the
PM’. Were you a supporter of
President Chandrika Kumaratunga?
Yes I was, she
made me an advisor and also put me in charge
of the Lotteries Board too. I was also the
Chairman of two Government Boards, Water
Resource Board and Janatha Fertilizers. Prior
to that the whole time I was with the UNP, as
you know my whole family was. I had a great
uncle, RG Senanayake who also crossed over to
Bandaranaike side at that time. And later my
Uncle Rukman who was also a long-term member
of the UNP came to this side, so I am not
actually the first Senanayake to join the
SLFP. But I diverted
away from it only after Ranil Wickremesinge
became the UNP leader. I did not like the
stance he took on the terrorist issue, almost
handing over our country to them and his
unclear stance on the status of the state, to
make it a unitary or a federal state, most of
the times he made contradicting statements.
His readiness all the time to accept foreign
suggestions did not impress me either. The
other main reason I left UNP was because of
his attitude towards the paddy farming and
ignorance of agricultural future of our
country. Compared to these I think our
President is such a charismatic man with a lot
of personal appeal. Unfortunately,
Wickremesinghe does not have those. ‘ Is that your view at the
moment too?
‘Actually,
after leaving UNP I now wish Ranil
Wickremesinghe a long life in the UNP. I
honestly do. I don’t know who will take over
after him. Sajith and Rosy looks like bright
people with the potential to take over and
there is a few younger ones too.. but you never
know with this kind of situations, do you?
Remember what happened with Anura
Bandaranaike, after his father’s death
everyone thought he would be the next leader
but it never happened.’ While you were
in England as a student, you got a very rare
opportunity to meet the Queen too. ‘Of course, I
had that privilege twice. Once I met her as
part of a commonwealth gathering, as one of
the people from the Commonwealth countries at
a tea party. Second time was when she came to
my University. People said that she talked for
a (comparatively) lengthy time with me. She
remembered DS and Dudley well and mostly about
Dudley Senanayake. ‘That was
because as the PM of Sri Lanka at that time he
was a Minister of hers during her reign while
DS was a Minister of her father King George
VI’s reign. She remembered everything about
her Sri Lankan visits so well I was amazed by
her memory. She said she stayed at ‘Kalawewa
Rest House’ and climbed ‘Sigiriya’. Completely
forgetting the political side, tell me what
you do at your free times? I like Jazz
music, I also like watching movies. I watched
‘The Tourist’ recently but I prefer movies
based on true stories like the ‘Last King of
Scotland, The Queen, Hotel Ruwanda’ .. I think they are
far more interesting because they were real
characters. I like Art and Architecture, I can
paint and draw too.’ Your mother has that
talent too I believe?
Yes she does,
she still paints but I’d rather enjoy other
people’s work nowadays. Going a little further to
your activities as a young person?
Oh yes, I do
like R& B music, dancing and clubbing. I
don’t want to lie to you. I really do
like going clubbing and dancing. I take a few
drinks when having fun, I am not one of those
politicians who pretends they do not. I hate
dressing formally, like a Parliamentarian for
meetings and all. I really do love fashion and
I would prefer to dress in a T-shirt with a
rude or fun message on it. Tight T-shirts
and different fashions. I like people around
my age, at least people who are older but who
can truly think young. I have pet fish at
home, I used to have dogs but they died and I
am now reluctant to have more because it would
be very sad when they die’. As your father
discouraged you to become a politician, when
you were very small, have you ever had any
ambitions on a particular field? ‘I can’t
remember myself thinking ‘someday I would be a
doctor, an engineer or an academic’ or so. But
I think I had a vague idea I would be going
further in the field of law. Although I did my
degree in it, I never practiced law. If I had
not become a politician, I would be designing
houses or hotels, because I like Art and
Architecture and I do have a business
background too. Currently,
apart from my political career, I am involved
with my family businesses, my mother looked
after most of them even when my father was
alive, as a politician all I can say is that
now I am concentrating on becoming a good
politician, doing the best I can for people
and my country.. yes, I will try my absolute
best.’ |
