69th Anniversary of United National Party on September 6
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In a surprise move, 74 British Colonial rulers of the ‘Empire on which the sun never sets,’ granted the privilege of universal suffrage to Ceylon, as it was known then, along with other constitutional reforms in 1931, a good 20 years before India, our big neighbour. The first General election for electing the State Council was held in 1931, only two years after Britain held its first General elections under universal suffrage. This was a trial, a vital lead up to the transfer of power, which occurred in 1948 as a result of D S Senanayake’s farsighted approach and the moderate tone used by him in the independence movement, leading to a secular state,not bound by monastic vows or rules.
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Conflict of ideas and personality clashes among the hierarchy in the new ruling party gradually worsened towards the end of the decade. The first sign of a split appeared few years later, which gradually developed into wider cracks causing a major divide in July 1951 when S W R D Bandaranaike, next-in-command and Leader of the House, broke ranks and crossed the floor of the House
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Senanayakes of Botale
Little known Don Bartholomew Senanayake, from Botale, Mirigama in Hapitigam Korale had a son by the name Spater. Don Spater, engaged in highly profitable graphite mining as a teenager and invested profits in plantations and arrack and road renting. He became the owner of thousands of acres. [Arnold 1907:pp 611/614]. However, Spater not only bade good-bye to renting business but became a staunch anti-arrack campaigner at the turn of the century; he also got his three sons DC, FR and DS to join in the temperance movement and they made their mark in politics as well. As dedicated members of the Temperance movement initiated by the father along with many Sinnhala-Buddhist leaders at the very early age of twenties they earned the wrath of Colonial masters. Senanayakes were labelled Ceylonese bourgeoisie of ‘nobodies’ who spent lavishly on the anti-arrack movement. The three brothers studied at St Thomas’s College. During the 1915 Sinhala/Muslim riots, Governor Chalmers ordered the unjust arrest of the 30-year-old Don Stephen, his two brothers and all temperance leaders on trumped up charges of instigating riots and were confined to Welikada for months.
National politics via temperance
The colonial office in UK had negotiations with D. S. Senanayake, the Leader of the State Council, preceded by several delegations from Ceylon meeting the Colonial Secretary in London. The Ceylon Independence Act of 1947 was the outcome of these talks. Though we cannot boast of a vibrant struggle for freedom like our giant neighbour, India; the mature and sophisticated political elite of Senanayakes, whose clever and astute response to the needs of a progressively more literate voting population contributed greatly to the continued existence of a nation’s democratic structure. Don Stephen Senanayake, the most appropriate man took over as its founder leader, who made the nation an economically healthy democratic state faring well in the first few years of independence when it gained dominion status on February 4, 1948. The United National Party (UNP), emerged as an offspring of three powerful political forces of the day, namely, the Ceylon National Congress, a strong political entity formed on the lines of and was similar in many respects to the Indian National Congress, the Sinhala Maha Sabha of Bandaranaike and the Muslim League of T B Jaya.
The Ceylon National Congress and Sinhala Maha Sabha
Prominent nationalists like Don Stephen Senanayake and Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike serving as custodians of traditional forces, led the UNP to victory in the country’s first general Parliamentary elections in 1947. D. S. Senanayake, the leader of the UNP was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon on 4th February, 1948. Conflict of ideas and personality clashes among the hierarchy in the new ruling party gradually worsened towards the end of the decade. The first sign of a split appeared a few years later, which gradually developed into wider cracks causing a major divide in July 1951 when S W R D Bandaranaike, next-in-command and Leader of the House, broke ranks and crossed the floor of the House with a few loyalists to the opposition, leading to the birth of left-of-centre, moderate SLFP with an islandwide support base. The SLFP contested the 1952 elections held after the death of D. S. Senanayake, but failed to capture power winning only nine seats while the UNP led by DS’s son Dudley Shelton Senanayake retained power.
The uncle-nephew party - birth of family concept
The long standing unity as well as enmity among the three families of Senanayake, Kotalawala and Jayewardene, which formed the higher echelons of the UNP for five decades could be attributed to Don Charles Gemoris Artygalle of Madapatha and his colossal wealth. Mudliyar Artygalle’s three daughters, Alice, Ellen and Lena each possessed an average of some 2500 acres of cultivated land; both rubber and coconut (Ref. Kumari Jayawardena-2007 pp 288) plus a share of Graphite mines, who were married by three young men from prominent political families. They were, F. R. Senanayake (Dudley’ paternal uncle), John Kotelawala Snr. (Sir John’s father), and Col T G Jayewardene (JRJ’s uncle). However, the troubles started with the murder of Francis Artygalle, the only brother of the three Artygalle sisters and heir apparent to the fortune. Senanayake’s efforts to bring suspects to book resulted in John Kotelawala (snr) being arrested and prosecuted for the alleged murder of his brother-in-law. The ex-policeman John Kotalawala of Nainage Suuduwa fame committed suicide in jail triggering a family grudge.
Dissolution of Ceylon National Congress - CNC
The ‘hostility’ between DS and SWRD, and the former’s grooming of his son Dudley and reasons for SWRD leaving the party, we discussed on Wednesday under, ‘Birth of SLFP’ hence will not be repeated. DS the man with foresight wanted to retain the Tamil and Muslim support under one flag hence decided to sever his relations with the National Congress. SWRD’s Sinhala Maha Sabha the main Sinhalese support base, T B Jaya’s Muslim League and a few Tamil politicians agreed to join hands with DS under the banner of the United National Party on September 6, 1946.
With the retirement of Sir D B Jayatillake, a former chairman of CNC and Vice President of the Legislative Council, Leader of House during WWII in 1942, DS was the obvious choice, who would defend interests with greater conviction and political skill than the scholarly Sir DB, who was an ardent Indian follower. In contrast DS was suspicious of Indian politicians; he viewed India as potentially the gravest threat to the independence of the Island in the post-war era. At CNC sessions in 1942, when young JRJ and Dudley proposed a freedom struggle on the lines of the Indian model, DS opposed the move; DS lost, but stuck to his theory that Ceylon’s freedom could be attained through association with Britain rather than in opposition to her and professed a process of friendly negotiation, and he believed that there was little to be gained by appeals to the UN. DS announced that he wished to retire from the executive committee of Congress insisting that
‘…they should speak for the whole country rather than a party working for political power of a section…’. [Excerpt from letter of resignation]
Senanaikism in national politics
DS was more sensitive to the political presumptions that flowed from the plural nature of our society and demonstrated a greater concern for recognition to minorities to win their support for independence. He accepted the point that the country held no particular privileges for any single racial or ethnic group. He never encouraged SWRD and his adherence in SMS who advocated the rejection of religious impartiality and concept of Ceylon as a secular state. He opposed every move of SMS which saw it as essentially Sinhalese and Buddhist in character and wanted the procedures for transfer of power and post-independent national development based on this perception.
In early 1946 DS was thinking over the problem of a national party that would represent a national consensus of moderate views; a party necessarily of Sinhalese, but acceptable to the minorities. He thought the Congress had lost the support of the minorities and seemed most unlikely to regain it. Most members of CNC and all in State Council accepted Senanayake’s invitation to form the UNP on the eve of Parliamentary elections in 1947. While DS’s popularity and strength helped in drawing mass support, SWRD’s decision to bring SMS considerably strengthened the idea. Various religious and ethnic groups like Christians and Muslims rallied round the new party. However some veteran members of CNC wanted to continue with Congress, when JRJ opposing the effort made a resolution at 1949 sessions of CNC calling for its dissolution.
1947 victory and the Cabinet: parallels with 2015
Even 68 years ago, the UNP faced a complex exercise, a difficult one because of the need to win as wide a range of support among non-UNP MP’s as possible, to give the government a solid working majority. Of the 95 elected seats, the UNP won only 42, DS was asked to form a government; he had the powers to have six appointed at his disposal making a total of 48 out of 101, and most of the independents agreed to support DS. It was necessary to give portfolios to minority members, two of them from Jaffna were accommodated too. Unlike in 2015, all disputes were settled; Election results were out on September 21st , the Cabinet was sworn in and the House met on the 25th, within just four days—perhaps DS was not burdened with a group of ‘rejects’ who agitated for positions!
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