{"id":112625,"date":"2021-03-14T17:05:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=112625"},"modified":"2021-03-14T17:05:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T00:05:58","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-3a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/03\/14\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-3a\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 3A"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The MEP government of 1956-1959 made many excellent, praiseworthy changes, some of which are well known and others which are not so well known. This essay and the one that follows it do not list all the improvements made by the 1956 Government.\u00a0 They contain only the most visible and best known changes. Other changes made by Bandaranaike and also changes contemplated by Bandaranaike are given elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SINHALA AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1956 government is     mainly remembered today, for the elevation of\nSinhala to the sole national language of the country. This was dubbed \u2018Sinhala Only\u2019 when it was nothing of the sort, observed critics. Sinhala\nOnly continues to be bashed in the media today and the issue is kept fresh in\nthe minds of the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliament passed the Official Language Act no 33 of\n1956 on June 15.  1956, It was passed after a marathon debate, with 66 \u2018for\u2019 and 20\n\u2018against.\u2019 The Act said that the\nSinhala language \u2018shall be the one official language of Ceylon.\u2019 The Act came\ninto effect on 1st<\/sup>\nJanuary 1964.  All government\ntransactions throughout the country had to be in Sinhala from 31.10 1964.  Therefore it was not \u2018Sinhala in 24 hours\u2019. That statement is\nincorrect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sinhala only\u2019\nwas never \u2018Sinhala only\u2019. Critics observed that the Act had failed to limit the use of Tamil\nand English, \u2018as it should have done\u2019. Nor did it make\nSinhala compulsory in schools. No subsidiary legislation was\npassed under the Act either. Implementation was based solely on administrative\norders and Cabinet directions. As a result, state administration was conducted\nin English above a certain level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many positive\nresults from Sinhala Only.  It brought a\nhitherto submerged class onto center stage and upward mobility,   said Meegama. TIME said until now, citizens\ncould not send telegrams, make long distance calls, make out a bill of lading\nor hold a government job unless they spoke English.  The law courts had worked in English until\nSinhala only came along. This meant that the litigants had no idea what was\ngoing on. When Sinhala was used in courts they could understand what\nwas said.    The declaration of Sinhala as the official\nlanguage released the hitherto subdued creative genius of the people, added\nanalysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PADDY\nLANDS BILL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip Gunawardena is best remembered for\nthe Paddy Lands Act of 1958. The main objective of this Act was to provide\nsecurity of tenure and regulate the rents paid by tenant farmers. However its\nimplementation was flawed owing to administrative deficiencies. The Paddy Lands\nBill is discussed at length   in my essay titled The general election of 1956 pt 4F\u201d available\non Lankaweb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MILITARY BASES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The naval port of Trincomalee, the Air base at\nKatunayake and military camps at Diyatalawa were retained by Britain, when\nBritain withdrew from Ceylon. DS Senanayake as Prime Minister readily agreed to\nthis when the terms of independence were negotiated. SWRD Bandaranaike took\nback Trincomalee and Katunayake, when he became Prime Minister. Trincomalee was\nreturned on October 15. 1957 and Katunayake on November 1 1957. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Britain wanted the transfer subject to their\nterms and conditions. SWRD did not agree. \nHe said that the return of the bases was something that Ceylon had the\nright to demand without any qualifications. Britain accepted that Ceylon could\ngive them notice to quit.  Britain had no\ngrounds on which to refuse.   \u2018In the\nlast resort we have depend on the good will of Ceylon\u2019, admitted Britain. However,\nGovernment of Ceylon was to pay 22 million rupees in five equal installments\nfrom 1957-1962, for the cost of transferring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nnegotiations for the closure of British naval and air force facilities in Ceylon\nwere done very diplomatically. The transfer was\naffected without causing any strain in the relationship with UK due to the\ndiplomatic skill of Bandaranaike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain was\ngiven a period of five years to complete the act of handing over. During the\nrundown period, UK forces continued to enjoy all immunities and privileges\nenjoyed so far. Aircraft of UK armed forces\ncould use Ceylon airspace till then. Britain retained some facilities.UK naval\nvessels would continue to refuel at Colombo. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH COMMUNIST BLOC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The UNP under D.S.Senanayake and Kotelawala\nhad signed trade treaties with China, (1952) Poland, (1955) Yugoslavia (1953)\nand Czechoslovakia. (1955) but they did not establish diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike\nestablished diplomatic relations with six communist bloc countries, while maintaining\ncordial relation with the western bloc. The communist countries were China,\nRussia, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Poland and Yugoslavia.  Viliam\n\u0160irok\u00fd Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia<\/a>  and President Josip Broz Tito, President of\nYugoslavia visited in 1958. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These links\nbrought benefits. Before 1956,\nscholarships and experts came only from Colombo Plan countries.  From 1956 onwards Sri Lanka received experts\nand scholarships from communist bloc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/em>Sri Lanka was\none of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba soon\nafter Fidel Castro took power in 1959. \u2018Che\u2019 Guevara visited Ceylon as Castro\u2019s\nspecial emissary in August 1959. Guevara visited Yahala Kele rubber estate in\nHorana and planted a Mahogany tree there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1957, the MEP\ngovernment established diplomatic relations with   Russia. Gunapala Malalasekera was the first\nambassador to Russia.  In 1958, an\nagreement on cooperation in economic and technical spheres between the Soviet\nUnion and Ceylon was signed. Sri Lanka was able to gain Russian assistance in\nmany fields\u2019, projects including Oruwala Steel Mill, Modera Flour Mill,\nKelaniya Tyre Factory, Samanala Weva hydro-energy project, Russian aid and\ntechnology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka also\nreceived heavy machinery such as tractors, tippers, cranes. Russia helped some\nhousing projects, too.  Russia gave\nscholarships to Sri Lankan students, to study medicine and engineering at\nprestigious Russian universities. Sri\nLanka exported tea, rubber, coconut oil and coir products to Russia. Tea was\nthe major export item to Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SWRD\nestablished diplomatic relations with China in 1957.  Prime\nMinister Chou en Lai visited in 1957 during his tour of Asian countries. He was invited to participate at the ninth\ncelebrations of Sri Lanka\u2019s Independence. He came with Vice Premier He\nLong.  Chou climbed Sigiriya and also\nvisited a colonization scheme and met colonists. Sometime later, China sent the\nBeijing Opera to Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNIVERSITY STATUS FOR\nVIDYODAYA AND VIDYALANKARA PIRIVENAS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vidyodaya Pirivena, (Maligakanda), and\nVidyalankara Pirivena (Kelaniya) were the leading pirivenas of the time. They\nhad played a historical role during British rule in preserving Buddhist\nlearning and in projecting the image of a strong Maha Sangha.  SWRD recognized this and took action to\nelevate these two Pirivenas to University status. This was sneered at. The\nwestern oriented University of Ceylon was quite sufficient said the opponents\nof SWRD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vidyodaya University<\/strong> and Vidyalankara University Act No 45 of 1958\nconverted these two pirivenas to universities. The two universities were duly\nestablished at Maligakanda and Kelaniya respectively. Ven. Welivitiye\nSoratha <\/strong>who was the Principal of the Vidyodaya Pirivena was\nappointed as the first Vice-Chancellor of the Vidyodaya University, and the\nuniversity was ceremonially opened on 16th February 1959. Today, this has\nbecome University of Sri Jayawardenepura. Vidyalankara Pirivena became the\nVidyalankara University in 1959. It is today University of Kelaniya. (continued)\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The MEP government of 1956-1959 made many excellent, praiseworthy changes, some of which are well known and others which are not so well known. This essay and the one that follows it do not list all the improvements made by the 1956 Government.\u00a0 They contain only the most visible and best known changes. […]<\/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-112625","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\/112625","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=112625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}