The Sri Lanka freedom movement is a peaceful political movement aimed at achieving independence and self-government for Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, from the United Kingdom. This was primarily as a consequence of the militant independence struggle in India that the less militant Sri Lankans won their independence. It started around the turn of the 20th century and was largely led by an educated middle class. It was successful when, on February 4, 1948, Ceylon was granted independence as the Dominion of Ceylon . The status of dominance in the British Commonwealth was maintained for the next 24 years until 22 May 1972 when it became a republic and renamed the Republic of Sri Lanka .
Video Sri Lankan independence movement
English colonial rule
The British Raj was dominant in Asia after the Battle of Assaye; After the Battle of Waterloo, the British Empire became more influential. Its prestige is only slightly buckled by setbacks in India, Afghanistan and South Africa. It was almost unchallenged until 1914.
The establishment of the Batavian Republic in the Netherlands as an ally and the French Directory, led to the British attack on Ceylon in 1795 as part of the British war against the French Republic. The Kingdom of Kandyan collaborated with British expedition forces against the Dutch, as did the Dutch against the Portuguese.
After the Dutch were evicted, their sovereignty was surrendered by the Amiens Agreement and subsequent uprisings in the lower-pressure countries, England began planning to capture the Kandyan Empire. The invasion of 1803 and 1804 in Kandyan province in the first Kandyan War was defeated bleeding. In 1815, the British waged a rebellion by the Kandyan aristocracy against the last Kandyan king and marched to the plateau to overthrow him in the 2nd Kandyan War.
The struggle against colonial rule began in 1817 with the Uva Rebellion, when the same aristocracy rose up against the British rule in the rebellion in which their villagers participated. They were defeated by the invaders. A rebellion attempt occurred again briefly in 1830. The Kandyan peasants were stripped of their land by the Wastelands Ordinance, a modern incursionist movement and reduced to poverty.
In 1848 the failed Matale Rebellion, led by Hennedige Francisco Fernando (Puran Appu) and Gongalegoda Banda was the first transitional step towards abandoning the feudal form of rebellion, which is essentially a peasant uprising. The masses without the leadership of their original King (overthrown in 1815) or their leaders (either destroyed after the Uva Rebellion or collaborated with colonial rule). Leadership passed for the first time in Kandyan province into the hands of ordinary, non-aristocratic people. Its leaders are craftsmen of yeomen, resembling Levellers in revolution and British mechanics such as Paul Revere and Tom Paine who are at the heart of the American Revolution. However, in the words of Colvin R. de Silva, 'it has a leader but has no leadership. The old feudalism was destroyed and helpless. No new class capable of leading the struggle and heading towards power has not yet emerged. '
Plantation Economy
In the 1830s, coffee was introduced into Sri Lanka, plants that flourished in the plateau, and grew on land taken from farmers. The main thrust for the development of capitalist production in Sri Lanka was the decline in coffee production in the West Indies, after the abolition of slavery there.
However, the conquered peasants were not employed on the estate: the Kandyan villagers refused to abandon their traditional subsistence ownership and became hired workers in the harsh conditions prevailing in this new plantation, despite all the pressure imposed by the colonial state. Therefore, Britain should withdraw its labor reserve forces in India, to a favorable new post man in the south. A well-established contract system was established, which carried hundreds of thousands of Tamil porters from southern India to Sri Lanka for coffee plantations. These Tamil workers died in tens of thousands of trips and on plantations.
The coffee economy collapsed in the 1870s, when the coffee disease damaged the plantation, but the economic system it created survived intactly into the era of its successor, tea, which was introduced on a wide scale from 1880 onwards. Tea is more capital-intensive and requires a higher initial investment volume to be processed, so individual plantation owners are now being replaced by large London-based consolidation companies ('sterling' companies) or Colombo ('rupee companies'). Monocultures are thus increasingly constrained by monopolies in the plantation economy. The pattern created in the 19th century remained until 1972. The only significant modification of the colonial economy was the addition of the rubber sector in the central regions of the country.
Maps Sri Lankan independence movement
The rise of Buddhism and the 1915 riots
A new urban capitalist body is growing in a low country, around the transportation, shopping, refining, plantation and timber industries. These entrepreneurs come from many castes and they deeply resent the unprecedented and unrealistic practice of "caste discrimination" adopted by Siam Nikaya in 1764, only 10 years after it was founded by a Thai monk. Around 1800 they organized the Amarapura Nikaya, which became hegemonic in the low country in the mid-19th century.
The British effort to provide Protestant Christian education to the youth of the commercial class backfired, because they changed the Buddhist religion practiced in Sri Lanka into something resembling an unconformist Protestant model. A series of debates against the Methodist minister and the Anglican church were organized, culminating in the final defeat by modern logical arguments. The Buddha's resurrection is aided by Theosophists, led by American Col. Henry Steel Olcott, who helped establish Buddhist schools such as Ananda College, Colombo; Dharmaraja College, Kandy; Higher Education Maliyadeva, Kurunegala; Mahinda College, Galle; and Musaeus College, Colombo; at the same time injecting more secular Western secular ideas into the 'Protestant' Buddhist school of thought.
Dharmapala, 1915 and Ceylon National Congress
Buddhist revivalists such as Anagarika Dharmapala began to associate 'Protestant' Buddhism with Sinhaleseness, creating Sinhala-Buddhist consciousness, associated with the movement of simplicity. It crosses the old caste boundaries, and is the beginning of the pan-Sinhala Buddhist identity. This is especially interesting for small businessmen and yeomen, who are now beginning to take over the stage against the new elite class created by the British rulers. Collaborator comprador elite elements, led by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, F.R. Senanayake and D.S. Senanayake against the populists led by Dharmapala and removed him from the leadership of the simplicity movement.
A jolt was given to an unbeatable English aura by the German explorer Emden, who attacked the port of Penang in Malaya, drowned the Russian explorers, bombarded Madras (now Chennai) and sailed unhindered on the East coast. from Sri Lanka. That is the impact that, in Sri Lanka to this day, 'Emden' is the scourge that mothers frighten their children, and the term is still used to refer to people who are very annoying. Panicked, the authorities imprisoned a Boer wildlife officer, HH Engelbrecht, after accusing him of falsely giving the meat to the cruiser. [1] Britain's refusal at Gallipoli, against the Turkish Turks, also undermined white British sentiment.
In 1915, commercial-ethnic rivalries erupted into riots in Colombo against Muslims, with Christians participating as many as Buddhists. The British reacted loudly, because the unrest was also directed against them. Dharmapala had broken his leg and was confined to Jaffna; his brother died there. Captain D. E. Henry Pedris, a militia commander, was shot for rebellion. Police Inspector General Herbert Dowbiggin became famous for his method. Hundreds of Ceylonese were captured by the British colonial government during the 1915 Riot. Those imprisoned without charge included the future leaders of the independence movement; F.R. Senanayake, D. S. Senanayake, Anagarika Dharmapala, Dr. C A Hewavitarne, Arthur V Dias, H. M. Amarasuriya, Dr. W. A. ​​De Silva, Baron Jayatilaka, Edwin Wijeyeratne, A. E. Goonesinghe, John Silva, Piyadasa Sirisena, and others.
Sir James Peiris started and composed a secret memorandum with the support of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan and EW Perera crashing underwater and underwater seas (and Police) to take him on his shoe soles to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, requesting the removal of martial law and explaining the atrocities committed by the Police led by Dowbiggin. The British government ordered the release of detained leaders. Some high officials were moved. The new governor Sir John Anderson was sent to replace Sir Robert Chalmers with instructions to inquire and report to His Majesty's Government. Newspapers like Morning Leaders play an important role in shaping public opinion.
In 1919, the National Ceylon Congress (CNC) was set up to create greater autonomy. It was not seeking independence, however, representing comprador elite against Dharmapala. This same elite is stubbornly opposed to universal suffrage by the Donoughmore Constitutional Commission.
Dharmapala was hunted abroad by a press campaign by the Lake House group from the press baron D. R. Wijewardena. His coat falls on the next generation, exemplified by Colvin R. de Silva, which is radicalized by Dharmapala's words.
Youth League and the struggle for independence
The young people who stepped into Dharmapala shoes organized themselves into the Youth League, seeking independence and justice for Sri Lanka. The first movement did not belong to the Dharmapala ethnic group, but from the Tamil Jaffna youth. In 1924 the Jaffna Student Congress, later renamed the Jaffna Youth Congress (JYC) was founded. Influenced by India's Independence movement, it is secular and committed to Poorana Swaraj (Self-Agreement), national unity and the eradication of inequalities imposed by caste. In 1927, JYC invited Indian independence movement leader Gandhi to visit Jaffna. JYC led a successful boycott of the first State Council elections in Jaffna in 1931, arguing that Donoughmore's reforms did not provide enough self-government. [2]
In the 1930s the Youth League was formed in the South, around the intellectual core who had returned from education in England, influenced by the ideals left. The Ministers of the CNC petitioned the colonial government to increase their power, not demanding independence, or even the status of domination. They were forced to withdraw their 'Memorandum of Ministers' after an intense campaign by the Youth League. [3] [4]
The South Colombo Youth League is involved in a strike at the Wellawatte cutting plant and the Wellawatte affair. It publishes irregular journals in Sinhala, Kamkaruwa (Workers).
Suriya-Mal Movement
In protest against the sale of opium on the Day of Truce (11 November) used for the benefit of former British soldiers to the detriment of former Sri Lankan soldiers, one of the last, Aelian Perera, has started the sale of Suriya rivals ( Tree Portia) flowering on this day, a result devoted to helping former Ceylon warriors in need.
In 1933, an English teacher Doreen Young Wickremasinghe, wrote an article, Battle of the Flowers that appeared on the Ceylon Daily News and criticized the practice of forcing school children in Sri Lanka to buy. poppies to help British veterans at their own expense, which caused him to be defiled by his colleagues.
The South Colombo Youth League is now involved in the Suriya-Mal Movement and reviving it on a new anti-imperialist and anti-war basis. Every year until World War II, young men and women sell Suriya flowers on the street on Armistice Day in competition with Poppy's sellers. The buyers of Suriya Mal generally come from the poor and the funds collected are not large. But the movement provided a point of struggle for anti-imperial youths of that era. An attempt was made by British colonial authorities to limit the effectiveness of the movement through the 'Road Collection Collection Rules'.
Doreen Young was elected the first president of the Suriya Mal movement at a meeting held at the residence of Wilmot Perera in Horana. Terence de Zilva and Robin Ratnam were elected as Joint Secretary, and Treasurer Roy de Mel. Malaria epidemic and flooding
The drought of 1934 caused a rice shortage, estimated at 3 million bushels. From October there was a flood, followed by a malaria epidemic in 1934-35, where 1,000,000 people were affected and at least 125,000 died. The Suriya-Mal movement was honed by volunteer work among the poor during the malaria and flood epidemics. The volunteers found that there is widespread malnutrition, exacerbated by rice shortage, and which reduces resistance to disease. They help fight the epidemic by making yeast extract pills 'Marmite'. Philip Gunawardena and N. M. Perera later became known as Avissawelle Pilippuwa (Philip of Avissawella) & amp; Parippuwa Mahathaya ('Mr. Dhal') because of the lentils he distributed as a dry quota for the affected people of the day.
Like Sybil described in Forward: The Progressive Weekly many years later: 'Working in relation to malaria aids is an eye-opener for many people who are just acquainted with the peasant masses. Poverty is remarkable, even more density, fifteen, twenty or more people crammed into small huts, dying like flies. This is what colonial exploitation means: worse than the worst that prevailed in England when Marx and Engels analyzed working-class conditions. This is what to fight for. '[5]
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is set up
The Marxist Party of Lanka Sama Samaja (LSSP), which grew out of the Youth League in 1935, was the first party to demand independence. [6] The first manifesto of the Sama Samaja Party stated that its goal was the achievement of complete national independence, the nationalization of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the abolition of inequality arising from racial, caste, faith or gender differences.
His deputy at the State Council after the 1936 election, Perera and Philip Gunawardena and other leaders Leslie Goonewardene and Colvin R. de Silva were assisted in this struggle by less radical members such as Don Alwin Rajapaksa of Ruhuna and K. Natesa Iyer of Tamil Indians. Other people who support them from time to time are George E. de Silva from Kandy, B. H. Aluwihare from Matale, D. P. Jayasuriya from Gampaha, A. Ratnayake from Dumbara and Susantha de Fonseka, Vice Chairman. They also demanded the replacement of English as the official language by Sinhala and Tamil. In November 1936, a movement 'at the Township and Island Police Courts, the process should be in colloquial' and that 'entries in police stations should be recorded in the language in which they were originally declared' endorsed by the State. Council and referred to the Secretary of Law, but nothing was done about these things and English continued to be the language of government until 1956.
A fraternal relationship was established between the LSSP and the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) of India and the LSSP delegation attended the Faizpur Session of the Indian National Congress in 1936. In April 1937 Kamaladevi Chattopadyaya, a CSP leader discussed a large number of meetings in various parts of the country on a national tour organized by LSSP. This helped build the incompatibility of the struggle for the independence of Sri Lanka and India. In Jaffna, where Kamaladevi also speaks, the leftist movement finds consistent and faithful supporters from among the one-time members of JYC.
Bracegirdle
On November 28, 1936, at a meeting in Colombo, the president of LSSP, Dr. Inusha de Silva, introduced Mark Anthony Bracegirdle, a former British/Australian grower who said: 'This is the first time a white comrade ever attended a corner party meeting. 'He made his first public address in Sri Lanka, warning that the capitalists are trying to separate the Sri Lankan workers and put one against the other. He took an active part in organizing a public meeting called by LSSP at Galle Face Green in Colombo on January 10, 1937 to celebrate Sir Herbert Dowbiggin's departure from the island and to protest atrocities during his tenure as Inspector General of the Police. In March, he was co-opted to serve on the executive committee.
He was employed by Natesa Iyer, State Councilor for the Hatton constituency, to 'organize the Estate Workers' Federation in Nawalapitiya or Hatton, with the idea that he might be the right candidate to become the future Secretary of the Labor Federation.' [7]
On April 3, at a meeting in Nawalapitiya attended by two thousand plantation workers, where Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya spoke, Dr. N. M. Perera says: 'Folks, I have an announcement to make. You know we have a white friend (applause).... He has generously agreed to call you. I call Comrade Bracegirdle to talk to you. 'Bracegirdle gets up to speak amid the loud applause and screams' Samy, Samy' (master, master).
Authorities on hand to record his speech:
'The most important feature of this encounter... is the presence of Bracegirdle and its attack on the planters. He claims unparalleled knowledge about the planters' bad behavior and promises a scandalous exposure. Labor, facial appearance, posture is very threatening... Each sentence interspersed with samy cry, samy from the workers. The workers sounded commenting that Mr. Bracegirdle had correctly said that they should not allow the planters to violate labor laws and they should in the future not take the goods. '(T. Perera, Saga Bracegirdle: 60 Years After ,' What Next ', No 5 1997.) [8]
The planters in Britain are angry because their prestige is harmed by their fellow white men. They won over British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs to deport him. Bracegirdle served with deportation orders on April 22 and was given 48 hours to depart at SS Mooltan, where a section had been ordered for him by the Government.
The LSSP with the Bracegirdle agreement decided that the order should be challenged. Bracegirdle was hiding and the Colonial Government started a manhunt that did not work. LSSP started a campaign to defend it. At the Workers' Day rally that year at Price Park, the placards stating 'We want Bracegirdle - Deport Stubbs' to be shown, and a resolution passed to condemn Stubbs, demanding his dismissal and the withdrawal of deportation orders.
On May 5, at the State Council, NM Perera and Philip Gunawardena transferred a voice of condemnation to the Governor for ordering the deportation of Bracegirdle without advice from the Minister of Internal Affairs acting. Even the Council of Ministers began to feel the heat of public opinion and the vote was passed by 34 votes to 7.
On the same day, there was a 50,000 rally in Galle Face Green, led by Colvin R de Silva and handled by Dr NM Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Leslie Goonewardena, AE Goonesinha, George E. de Silva, DM Rajapakse, Siripala Samarakkody, Vernon Gunasekera, Handy Perimbanayagam, Mrs. K. Natesa Iyer and SWRD Bandaranaike. Bracegirdle made a dramatic appearance on the stage on this rally, but the police were helpless to catch him.
However, the police arrested him a few days later at the residence of Hulftsdorp Vernon Gunasekera, LSSP Secretary. However, the necessary legal preparations have been made. A habeas corpus warrant was served and the case was called in front of a bench of three Supreme Court judges presided over by Supreme Court Justice Sir Sidney Abrahams. H.V. the brilliant Perera, the county's leading civil lawyer, volunteered his service on behalf of Bracegirdle; he was made the Queen of Advisers (QC) on the day Bracegirdle appeared in court. On May 18 it was made that he could not be deported for exercising his right to free speech, and Bracegirdle was a free man.
Second World War
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the independence agitators turned into opposition to the Ministers' support for the British war effort. The Ministers brought the Sri Lankan taxpayers' money movement to the British war machine, which was opposed by pro-independence members of the state council. There was considerable opposition to the war in Sri Lanka, especially among the workers and the nationalists, many of whom expected German victory. Among Buddhists, there is a sense of disgust that the German Buddhist monk was interned as a 'foreign enemy' while the Roman Catholic priests of Italy and Germany did not.
Two members of the Leadership Party, Junius Richard Jayawardene and Dudley Senanayake, held discussions with Japan with a view to collaborating to oust England.
Strike wave property
Beginning in November 1939 and during the first half of 1940 there was a wave of spontaneous strikes on British plantations, essentially aimed at winning the right of the organization. There are two main labor unions, Ieyer Ceylon Indian Congress and All-Ceylon Estate Workers Union (later Sri Lankan Housing Union, LEWU) led by Samasamajists.
In Central Province, a wave of strikes reached its peak in the Mool Oya Estate attack, led by Samasamajists including Veluchamy, Secretary of the Garden Workers Union. In this strike, on 19 January 1940, Govindan workers were shot and killed by police. As a result of agitation both within the State Council and outside, the Government was forced to appoint the Commission of Inquiry. Colvin R. de Silva appeared for Govindan's widow and revealed the combined role of police and employers in white raj plantations.
After Mool Oya, a wave of strikes spread south towards Uva, and the strike became longer and workers began increasingly searching for militant leaders from Sama Samajists. In Uva, Samasamajists include Willie Jayatilleke, Edmund Samarakkody, and V. Sittampalam in leadership. The plantation-raj got Badulla Hakim to issue a ban on the meeting. Nr. Perera broke the ban and delivered a big meeting at Badulla on May 12, and the police were powerless to act. At Wewessa Estate workers form an elected council and the Inspector agrees to act in consultation with the Labor Council. An armed police party that went to restore 'law and order' was disarmed by the workers.
A wave of strikes was eventually repulsed by a wave of violence by police, helped by floods that cut Uva from the rest of the country for more than a week. But the colonial authorities realized that the struggle for independence had become too strong to be ignored.
Underground struggle
After Dunkirk, the British colonial government reacted frantically (as revealed in secret files released several decades later) and N. M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena and Colvin R. de Silva were arrested on June 18, 1940 and Edmund Samarakkody on June 19. The LSSP press was raided and sealed. Enacted rules that make open party work practically impossible.
However, the experience gained in hiding Bracegirdle now pays off. The LSSP closing organization, where Doric de Souza and Reggie Senanayake are in charge, have been active for several months. A detention order has been issued on Leslie Goonewardene but she avoids arrest and goes underground. The LSSP was involved in a wave of strikes beginning in May 1941 affecting the workers of Colombo Harbor, Lumbung, Wellawatta Plant, Gas Company, Colombo City and Fort Mt-Lavinia bus route.
With Japan entering into war, and especially after the fall of Singapore, Sri Lanka became the frontline of England's front against Japan. On April 5, 1942, the Japanese Navy bombed Colombo. That night, in confusion following the attack, LSSP leaders were able to escape, with the help of one of their guards. Some of them fled to India, where they participated in the independence movement there. However, a sizeable contingent, led by Robert Gunawardena, Philip's brother. In 1942 and 1944 the LSSP provided leadership to several other strikes and in the process was able to capture the leadership of the Government union in Colombo.
Cocos Islands rebelled
The fall of Singapore and the sinking of the next battleship of Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser of Repulse stabbed Britain's unbeaten image. British prestige was further damaged by the sinking of the Hermes aircraft carrier and the Cornwall and Dorsetshire cruisers in Sri Lanka in early April 1942; accompanied at the same time by the island bombings and the bombing of Madras (Chennai). Such was the panic among the British in Sri Lanka that the large tortoises that came ashore were reported by the Australian unit as a number of Japanese-prone vehicles. The Ceylon Garrison Artillery at Horsburgh Island in Cocos Islands rebelled on the night of 8/9 May, intending to surrender the islands to Japan. The rebellion came partly due to agitation by the LSSP. The insurgency was suppressed and three of the rebels were the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for rebellion during the Second World War. [9] Gratien Fernando, leader of the uprising, defies to the end.
There is no Sri Lankan combat regiment deployed by the British in combat situations after Cocos Mutiny Islands. The Sri Lankan defense was upgraded to three British army divisions because the island was strategically important, holding almost all of Britain's rubber resources. Allotment is instituted for Sri Lanka to be better fed than their Indian neighbors, to prevent discontent among indigenous people.
Likely regiment and Hikari Kikan
Sri Lanka in Singapore and Malaysia formed the 'Lanka Regiment' of the Indian National Army, directly under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. A plan was made to transport them to Sri Lanka by submarine, to start an independence rebellion, but this failed.
Hikari Kikan, Japan's liaison office for South Asia, recruited Sri Lankans, Indians and other South Asian nations residing in Malaya and Singapore for spying missions against the Allies. Four of them will land on a submarine at Kirinda, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, to operate secret radio transmitters to report on Southeast Asian Command activities. However, they were imposed on the coast of Tamil Nadu, where they were arrested and executed. [10]
Free Lanka Bill
Public opposition to British colonial rule continued to grow. Among the elite there are irritations in the bar-colors that are practiced by prominent clubs. Sir Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke, the Civil Defense Commander complained that the British commander Ceylon, Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton called him a 'black bastard'.
The CNC agreed to accept the Communists, who had been expelled by Trotskyists in the Sama Samaja Party but who now supported the war effort. At the 25th annual conference, the CNC decided to demand 'full freedom after the war'. Home leader and Minister of Agriculture and Land Don Stephen Senanayake left CNC on the issue of independence, disagreeing with the revised goal of 'achievement of freedom'. [11].
In November 1944, Sir Susantha de Fonseka, a member of the Senate for Panadura, mobilized a movement in the Senate calling for a dominion-type law for a Free Lanka. Furthermore, "Free Lanka Bill" was introduced in the State Council on January 19, 1945.
At the annual session of the Ceylon National Congress held on January 27-28, 1945, its president, George E. de Silva, said, "Today we stand promising to fight for freedom, no less acceptable."
The Congress ruled, "While the decision of the State Council" to frame a Dominion-type Constitution for a Free Lanka, failed to fulfill the full national right to liberty, nevertheless, it instructed its members in the State Council to support a bill that provides a 'new constitution for a Lanka Free 'as progress in our struggle for freedom... "
The second reading of Free Lanka Bill was moved and circulated without distribution in February. Bill grew up for a third reading, by amendment, on March 22. G A Wille, a member of the British nominee, moved that 'The Bill was read the third time six months later', which was defeated by 40 to 7.
Post-war riots
With the end of the war against Germany, public pressure for the release of detenus increased. On May 30, 1945 A.P. Jayasuriya transferred a resolution in the State Council that freed independence agitators were released unconditionally. This was passed, opposed by only two British nomination members. However, detenus was only released on June 24, after a two-day hunger strike. The freed prisoners were hailed as heroes and given reception throughout the country. Left has emerged stronger than before the war, after gaining tremendous prestige.
The oppression during the war years has made the unrest under control but, with the relaxation of wartime restrictions, there is an outburst of popular anger. From September onwards, there are waves of strikes in Colombo, on the tram line and at the harbor. In November the United Trade Union Workers Union of Ceylon led by LSSP launched a bus strike across the island, successfully escaping the arrest of N. M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena and other leaders.
The All-Ceylon Farmers Congress took action against a mandatory collection of rice by the government at 8 rupees per bushel. In some areas, farmers refused to provide their rice to the Government and hundreds were charged in court. In 1946, the Congress held a parade in the State Council, which forced the Ministers to drop a compulsory collection system.
In October 1946 strikes of Government workers, including those on trains, extended to ports, gas companies, and became general strikes. The authorities initially refused to negotiate, but eventually the Provisional Governor agreed to meet the representatives of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Government. Deputy advisor, N. M. Perera was arrested by police, but the workers refused to come to the settlement because of his absence. In the end Perera was released and the settlement was reached.
However, some of the promises made by the Provisional Governor were not respected, and the second general strike took place from May to June 1947. The Ceylon Defense Force was withdrawn from the leave to assist the police in destroying this revival. V. Kandasamy from the Government Clerical Service Union was shot dead in Dematagoda, en route to Kolonnawa after a strike meeting in Hyde Park, Colombo, when police repeatedly fired on the crowd. Bullying succeeded in breaking the strike. However, it became a stone for the British government that their position in the country was untenable. The Bombay rebellion and other signs of unrest in the Indian armed forces have caused the British to begin their retreat from the country.
1947 General Election
D.S. Senanayake formed the United National Party (UNP) in 1946 [12], when a new constitution was approved. In the 1947 election, the UNP won a small seat in Parliament but united a coalition with Sinhala Maha Sabha from S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and the Tamil Congress G. G. Ponnambalam. It was to this government that England prepared to surrender power.
See also
- Sri Lankan National Hero
- Sri Lankan independence activist
- Independence Warning Hall (Sri Lanka)
References
- Arsecularatne, SN, Sinhala immigrants in Malaysia & amp; Singapore, 1860-1990: History through recollection , KVG de Silva & amp; Children, Colombo, 1991
- Brohier, RL, Golden Age of Military Adventure at Ceylon: report on Uva Rebellion 1817-1818 . Colombo: 1933
- Crusz, Noel, The Cocos Islands Mutiny , Fremantle Arts Center Press, Fremantle, WA, 2001
- Muthiah, Wesley and Wanasinghe, Sydney, England, World War 2 and Sama Samajists , Socialization of Young Socialists, Colombo, 1996
- Colvin R. de Silva, Hartal! accessed November 4, 2005.
- Does Japan contribute to Sri Lanka and India to gain independence?
- Sri Lanka won freedom from Britain in 1948 largely due to the blood sacrifice of Japanese soldiers in World War II, Time to rewrite our history books
- The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor sparked Asia's liberation from Western domination
- Sri Lankan independence - the beneficiaries of the entry of Japan into the Second World War that sealed the fate of European colonialism in Asia
- Sri Lanka and Yellow Races
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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