{"id":111426,"date":"2021-02-07T17:15:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T00:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111426"},"modified":"2021-02-07T17:21:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T00:21:02","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-5a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/07\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-5a\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 5A"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Don Philip\nRupasinghe Gunawardene (1901-1972) was born at Boralugoda, Avissawella, in\nHevagam korale.  Hewagam Korale, as its\nname indicates, had produced many brave hewayo. Philip\u2019s father, Don Jakolis\nRupasinghe Gunawardene was known as \u2018Boralugoda Ralahamy\u2019. Boralugoda Ralahamy was\na vidane arachchi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nBoralugoda clan was known for their generosity and religious patronage, said\nAnanda Meegama. They had strong connections to the Buddhist clergy and the\ntemples of the area and Philip was brought up in this atmosphere, said Ananda\nMeegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family\nhad deep anti imperialist roots, as well. Philip\u2019s father had been sentenced to\ndeath as a fiery critic of British rule and for fiercely opposing the brutal\nrepression of Buddhists in 1915, but the family managed to get him off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip first\nstudied at Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Kaluaggala, built by his father, then at   Prince of Wales, Moratuwa. When Ananda\nCollege started to flourish under P de S Kularatne, Philip\u2019s father took Philip\nand his brother, Robert out of Prince of Wales and sent them to Ananda. Philip\nGunawardene was \u2018an excellent student\u2019 said Kularatne.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kularatne had\nencouraged T.B. Jayah to leave Ananda and take over Zahira College, Colombo.\nSince Zahira only had about 24 students at the time, Kularatne had sent a few\nAnandians along, to give the new school a good start. Philip Gunawardene was\none of the students sent to Zahira.When he was still a student, he joined the\nYoung Lanka League, started in 1920.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\nentered University College, Colombo in 1921. After one year he left for further\nstudies to USA.  In 1922 Philip enrolled\nat the University of Illinois, a state agricultural school. After two years there, he transferred to the\nmore progressive University of Wisconsin at Madison.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The governor\nin Wisconsin, at the time was Robert M. La Follette. Wisconsin under La Follette pioneered much social\nwelfare legislation. These left a deep impression on Philip and was the\nbackground to his life long commitment to poor rural communities, said Ananda\nMeegama.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Wisconsin\nPhilip met Jayaprakash Narayan, the\nfuture leader of the Congress Party of India. They discussed politics and read\nMarx. They were introduced to members of the Socialist Party of America<\/a> by another\nfriend, Avron Landy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip and Narayan\nhad attended a talk by Scott Nearing, who was on a lecture tour of the American\nMidwestern states,to promote his\nbook \u2018How to be a revolutionary\u2019. During the lecture Nearing was interrupted by\nPhilip and Narayan, who asked many questions. He met them after the lecture,\ntook a liking to the two enthusiastic students and gave them dinner at a nearby\ncaf\u00e9 where till late, they discussed the issues he had spoken about. He had\nthen left them, after giving them more of his books.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Nearing (1883 \u20131983) was a member of the Socialist Party of America<\/a> and a\nprominent figure of the American Left<\/a>  in the 1920s. Nearing had  paid a three month visit to China In 1927.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearing\ntaught economics and sociology at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School\nand at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.  He authored a stream of books on economics and\nsocial problems.  Nearing’s aggressive\nsocial activism in the classroom and his writings brought him into conflict\nwith his employers. He had, for instance, taught a class on the law of social\nrevolution. University of Pennsylvania dismissed him. This caused much public\nconcern. In 1973, the University of Pennsylvania formally reversed the\ndismissal, by making Nearing an Honorary Emeritus Professor of Economics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1956,\nNearing  embarked on a tour which included\nSoutheast Asia. Philip, then Minister of Agriculture used the opportunity, to invite\nScott Nearing to Sri Lanka. I remember Scott Nearing during that visit, giving\na lecture in the Peradeniya campus to an enthralled crowd, describing the\nperils faced by Third World nations, recalled Ananda Meegama.  On that visit Philip acknowledged the deep\nintellectual influence of Nearing on his own thinking. Philip continued to remember Scott Nearing.\nHe quoted extensively from Scott Nearing when he was in the Opposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1925 Philip\ntransferred to Columbia University in New York. He lodged at International\nHouse in New York.  He had worked in a\nbookshop whilst studying. US at that time\nwas enjoying an economic boom. Philip, together with some American friends\nstarted a trading company Ceylon American Trading Company\u201d as the agent for\nDJR Gunawardena and Sons\u201d, back in Ceylon. The company dealt in Sri Lanka\nproduce such as rubber, graphite and desiccated coconut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip also\nthrew himself into a frenzy of intellectual and political activity in the US,\nsaid Meegama.  He spent three years in\nNew York actively involved in the socialist movement there. He worked together\nwith two Indian socialists, Seyed Hussain and JC Kumarappa, said Vernon Boteju.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In New York, he\nalso met the Mexican nationalist Jose Vasconcelos. Jos\u00e9 Vasconcelos Calder\u00f3n (1882 \u20131959) is considered one of the\nmost influential personalities in the development of modern Mexico.  Vasconcelos was in the US because he had joined\nthe law firm of Warner, John and Galston in Washington,\nDC<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vasconcelos\nintroduced Philip to the US Branch of the League against Imperialism. Vasconcelos\nthen decided to return to Mexico City to participate in the ousting of Porfirio\nDiaz, President of Mexico<\/a>. Philip knew\nSpanish and he went along with Vasconcelos to Mexico, translating league\npamphlets into Spanish, the language in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip had\nwritten to his brother that he had come to US \u2018for a purpose\u2019, to learn\nsomething of western science, economic power, business organization.  Not like those who\nwent to UK to learn the proper way to match ties and socks. Ceylon will benefit\nfrom my meager knowledge, he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\u2019s\nbiographer, Ananda Meegama says that the US experience made a tremendous impact\non Philip. He had been very receptive to all the new things he saw there. Back\nin Sri Lanka, Philip would on many occasions refer to something he had seen in\nthe US, whether it be new way of handling malaria control, increasing paddy\nproduction or adopting Henry Ford methods of mass manufacture, said Meegama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American\nproduction potential impressed him and he knew that Sri Lanka had to change\nattitudes and adopt new techniques of production and methods of organization\nfor the country to go forward. Most of all he appreciated American initiative\nand enterprise, which he thought was an essential ingredient for Sri Lanka to\nprosper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1928\nPhilip went to London. He first joined the India Freedom League. Then he joined\nthe Communist Party of   Great Britain\n(CPGB) where he came under the influence of its leaders, S.D. Saklatvala and\nthe brothers, Palme Dutt and Clemens Dutt. Saklatvala\n(1874-1936) was a Parsi from India. He was MP for Battersea North In 1924, one\nof the very few members of Communist Party of  \nGreat Britain to enter Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip rose\nquickly in the Party.  Sakvatvala and the\nother leaders co-opted Philip into the \nColonial Commission of the CPGB. Philip became a trusted courier making\nfrequent trips to Paris, Brussels and Berlin to deliver party documents to high\ncommunist officials. Philip worked\nclosely with Saklatvala  He took over the Workers Welfare League of\nIndia started by Saklatvala.  He was on\nthe staff of their magazine Daily Worker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were\nfrequent breakups of meetings and Philip\u2019s karate training in his American\nstudent days came in handy, said Meegama. He\nbecame part of a squad of hotheads who were sent to disrupt meetings of\nopponents, which meant everyone who disagreed with the Communist line. One more\nthan one occasion his outbursts led to fist fights, recorded C.W.Ervin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip had\nmet Narayan again in London in 1929. Narayan had advised Philip, build a\nsocialist party in Ceylon, but make sure that you educate the young men and\nwomen in the necessity for building a new social order.  In London Philip had also   worked with the Burmese communities who would\nlater form the Communist Party in Burma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was interested\nin the anti-imperialist struggle as well. He went to Dublin and wrote for the\nWorkers Voice, an Irish revolutionary paper. \nIn London Philip had associated with Jomo Kenyatta, (Kenya) Krishna\nMenon, (India) and Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, (Mauritius) later leaders in their\ncountries. Philip   used\nto speak at Hyde Park Corner, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EW Adikaram\nwho was then a post graduate student in London attended a meeting at Albert\nHall on self rule to the British colonies. There were three young Asians trying\nto force themselves onto the platform. One of them succeeded and made a speech\nexposing the evils of the colonial system which extracted the resources of the\ncolony, the rise of the freedom movement, the imminent downfall of the empire.\nAdikaram found word going round that this speaker was a Sri Lankan, Philip\nGunawardena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Philip  \nwas closely associated with Indian political activity in London. He was\na pioneer member of the India League, founded by Krishna Menon in London. He was sent on missions to Berlin and Paris on behalf of\nthe Communist Party of India. He was in communication with the Indian\nrevolutionaries in those cities. He\ncriticized the Indian moderates of the time, for compromising with Britain. He\nincluded in this category, Gandhi, Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, said Ananda\nMeegama.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was\ngiven important assignments in the \u2018League against Imperialism\u2019 and in the\n\u2018Indian Bureau\u2019, a subcommittee that worked with Indian students in the various\nuniversities. Such were his organizing\ncapabilities that he was sent in 1931 to the London docks to organize Indian\nseamen for the Communist Party, observed Meegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was so\nbold that when the Indian Communist Party was suppressed he held a meeting in\nhis room in London to form a new Communist Party of India, commented Meegama.    Philip\nhad wanted to go to India himself and a build a new Communist Party in\nIndia.  He had discussed this with his\nIndian colleagues in London. Scotland Yard and the British government in India\ngot wind of his plans, and stopped him entering India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is amazing\nthat a Sri Lankan could have exerted so much influence on the Indian national\nand political movement in London, said Meegama. This aspect of\nPhilip is hardly known in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip also\ncame under the influence of two Trotskyites, F. Ridley and H Aggarwala, who had\nformed the Marxian Propaganda League. Philip attended their meetings and talks\nin 1930. Philip was a featured speaker on several occasions as well. Ridley\nremembered Philip as a \u2018small, active fellow who was a good talker\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was\ntaking a risk in associating with this League as they were against the CPGB. Therefore\nPhilip kept his interest in Trotsky private and started to read Trotsky\u2019s books\nin the British Museum library. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1931,\nPhilip went to meet Trotsky, then living in Prinkipo, an island off Turkey, but\nwas stopped in Bulgaria on the order of the Colonial office.  He was taken off the train at Sofia by the\nBritish police.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undeterred, he   then\ncontacted the French Left in Paris and headed for Spain. He left France from\nPerpignan, where he had to abandon the books he had collected for many years.  He spent the night at a hotel there. The next\nday he went by train to the Pyrenees. He got down before the train reached the\nSpanish frontier, probably at Portbau. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Then with map of the frontier in my hands, I\nstarted to climb the mountains, I walked through the vineyards and finally\ncrossed over to Spain and reached Polia, where the town people fed me,\u201d Philip\nwrote to his daughter Lakmali. Philip Gunawardene\u2019s adventurous climb up the\nPyrenees, with neither guide, companion nor preparation has not received sufficient\nattention or admiration   in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip then\nwent on to Barcelona. There he contacted the Spanish Trotskyite group.  The main street in Barcelona was quite broad\nand had many book stores, Philip recalled to his daughter.  After a week in Barcelona, he traveled around\nsouthern Europe  and  \nmet Anais Nin, a fixture on\nthe literary scenes of Paris and a flamboyant personality. The last person\nPhilip Gunawardene would wish to meet, in my opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In 1932, back in London, Philip countered a\nmotion brought by Saklatvala   in the\nLeague Against Imperialism with an alternate resolution which the members did\nnot like. they said Philip was a secret Trotskyite and broke with him. He was expelled from party in 1932. They\nthen tried to discredit him but failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip had\nalready cultivated his own following outside the CPGB. His circle included the Indians\nwho were active in the League Against Imperialism\u201d. Philip was also in touch\nwith Ceylonese students who were at Cambridge, LSE and University of London. He\nhad already pulled together a study group which included the very bright\nstudents who would later help him form the LSSP. They included Colvin R de\nSilva, at Kings College, Leslie Goonewardene, N.M.Perera and Vernon Gunasekera\nat LSE.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NM recalled\nthat they would meet \u2018in dingy digs\u2019 and discuss politics. Philip was their\nguru. He introduced them to Trotskyism. V. Karalasingham said that were it not\nfor Philip these Ceylonese students would never have joined the revolutionary\nmovement.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British\ngovernment had watched Philip closely. It had established the Indian Political\nIntelligence in 1921, and this maintained a dossier on Philip. They even recorded what he was reading in the British Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in\nLondon, Philip considered the need for a socialist party for Ceylon.  In November 1931 he had drafted a document on\nthe need for a Communist Party in Ceylon. In the same year Philip had   written to SA Wickremasinghe in Ceylon,\nsaying that he hoped to form Marxist study circles (forum) in Ceylon, by\ncorrespondence, from London.  He would\ntake control of them on his return to Ceylon. He also thought that the existing\nYouth League could be transformed into a revolutionary organization with an\niron discipline and crystal clear ideology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip now\nwanted to return to Sri Lanka where he felt that he had a much more important\nrole to play. But there was a problem. In London the British government had\nimpounded his passport for his anti imperialist and socialist activities.  Colombo had declared Philip a dangerous\nagitator   and he was   banned from returning to Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, D.B.\nJayatilaka when he became Minister of Home Affairs  readily\u201d granted him a passport which\npermitted him to return.  The British\nauthorities made sure that Philip did not return in\ntime for 1931 State Council election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip left\nLondon In 1932, with the Police watching him. He arrived in Ceylon on\nNovember 1 1932. Philip Gunawardene claimed that he was the first informed\nsocialist to land in Sri Lanka, Wiswa Warnapala said. (continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardene (1901-1972) was born at Boralugoda, Avissawella, in Hevagam korale.  Hewagam Korale, as its name indicates, had produced many brave hewayo. Philip\u2019s father, Don Jakolis Rupasinghe Gunawardene was known as \u2018Boralugoda Ralahamy\u2019. Boralugoda Ralahamy was a vidane arachchi. The Boralugoda clan was known for their generosity and religious patronage, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}