{"id":117929,"date":"2021-09-08T15:50:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T22:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117929"},"modified":"2021-09-08T15:51:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T22:51:15","slug":"the-donoughmore-commission-in-ceylon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/08\/the-donoughmore-commission-in-ceylon\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DONOUGHMORE COMMISSION IN CEYLON"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr.Tilak S. Fernando<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In 1927 the Secretary of State for the Colonies announced a special Commission under the Chairmanship of the Earl of Donoughmore to visit Ceylon and submit an account of the Constitution with any difficulties of administration that needed to be surmounted at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secretary wanted the Earl of Donoughmore to\nconsider any proposals for revising the Ceylonese Constitution and to report, if any amendments of the\nOrders in Council were necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission\u2019s primary function was to draft a\nnew Constitution for Ceylon that would satisfy the aspirations of the British\nplantation owners so that it would enable all Ceylonese to work in partnership\nwith the British Empire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most significant apprehension of many of the\nCeylonese leaders, both Sinhalese and Tamil, was the recommendation of\nUniversal Franchise, the right to vote for all adult citizens, regardless of\nwealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, political stance, or\nany other restriction. The four Commissioners arrived in Sri Lanka in 1927 and\nspent four months and forty days interviewing one hundred and forty Ceylonese\nin thirty-four separate sessions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commissioners paid heed to Ceylonese women\u2019s\nsuffrage and their right to vote in Elections. From the beginning of the\nmid-19th century, women intended to participate in the society & getting their\nvoice heard for their work broad-based on economic and political equality and\nsocial reforms. They planned to seek change in the voting system that allowed\nthem to vote at elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Commissioners listened to their requests\nand appeals and granted educated women over the age of twenty-one suffrage.\nTherefore, all citizens of Ceylon, who were over twenty-one years of age, were\ngranted the Universal Franchise in 1931, unless they were subjected to any\nspecial disqualification. The right to cast a vote was lowered from twenty-one\nto eighteen years of age by the Elections Amendment Act No.11 of 1959. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission\u2019s revelations <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four Commissioners noted, Ceylon, even at that\ntime, was driven by power struggles amongst ethnic groups. Therefore, they\ndevised a system of Executive Committees to control all Government Departments\nand rejected the principle of communal representation to ensure that no ethnic\ngroup could control all power and financial gain. The most significant apprehension\nabout the outcome came from both Sinhala and Tamil leaders against the\nrecommendation and implementation of Universal Franchise by the Donoughmore\nCommission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan was a Tamil lawyer,\npolitician, and SolicitorGeneral of Ceylon. He and most of the \u2018conservatives<\/em>\u2019\nbelieved and argued that allowing the vote to the nonvellala<\/em> castes and women<\/em>\nwas a grave mistake, and it might lead to disturbances. Ramanathan explicitly\nsuggested that it was anathema to the Hindu way of life<\/em>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Jane Russel\u2019s study, the political\nleadership of the Ceylon Tamils became dumbfounded by the complete\nbouleversement of the policies they had pursued for the previous decade (page\n16 & 18). Jane Russel of DC also stated that the Sinhala leaders were\nalso very dubious about the new franchise, but they were willing to support it\nin a quid pro quo for the abolition of communal electorates<\/em> (page 17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The All-Ceylon Tamil league first opposed the\nDonoughmore Commission\u2019s suggestions because the abolition of the communal (representation)<\/em>\nprinciple, coupled with the proposed universal franchise would mean \u2018death\nto the minorities\u2019<\/em>, as the Sinhalese would receive over 50 per cent of the\nseats. Then in 1929, there was a tactical change when the Tamils opposed it and the\nDonoughmore Commission did not grant full self-government to any\ncommunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report of the Donoughmore Commission was\npresented to the British Parliament in July 1928, soon after it was received\nand studied at home (Ceylon)<\/em>. One of the most critical issues was the\nConstitutional reforms in Ceylon by introducing the Universal Franchise with\nthe right to participate in the administration of the country by electing their\nrepresentatives. Universal Franchise, at that time, was enjoyed by only a\nprivileged few according to their literal and communal basis. Ceylonese finally\nmanaged to get rid of it in 1947 when the Soulbury Constitution came into being\nwith the declaration of Independence to Ceylon in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Oral Evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The recordings were obtained at the public\nsittings of the Donoughmore Commission in 1928 and did not \u2018record\u2019, but\nwere confined to oral evidence only. It contained some solid and rare evidence\nbased on the Constitution of Ceylon and consisted of four volumes, which were\nin cyclostyled typescripts in duplicated form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These typescripts were neatly bound with buckram\nbinding and carried the word \u2018Library House of Lords\u2019<\/em>, on its upper\ncovers, with morocco gilt labels on covers and spines. This valuable oral\nevidence was auctioned at the world-renowned auctioneers in London, Sotheby\u2019s\non Thursday, 27 June 1996 for a reserved price of eight hundred pound sterling\n(\u00a3800). A Japanese collector of valuable literary property purchased the whole\nrecords and took those to Japan in June 1996. His name remained\nanonymous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expatriate Sri Lankan Community <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceylon became a Republic within the Commonwealth,\nand its name was changed to Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972 under Sirimavo\nBandaranaike\u2019s premiership. When the Donoughmore Commission Records on Ceylon\nwere auctioned by Sotheby\u2019s there was a strong Sri Lankan expatriate community\nin London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 They became interested in the auction knowing\nto what extent those were invaluable pieces of documentary evidence from the\nColonials. They were also aware that it contained four volumes and how\nimportant those were\nlegally, its validity and beneficial to the Sri Lanka Government at a time when\nthe Sri Lanka Government was concentrating on making amendments to the existed\nConstitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Kumaratunga was very keen to acquire\nthose records from the Sotheby\u2019s auction for a reserved price<\/em>. The\narchaeological authorities in the UK advised the President that copies of the\nsame documents were available in the Sri Lankan archives. A letter signed by\nLord Donoughmore accompanied the four volumes of the typed script version of\nthe Ceylon Report of Special Commission on the Constitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Records were bound in half Morocco, 8Vo, and\nrecorded on a Downing Street headed paper (British Prime Minister\u2019s official\nresidence)<\/em> stating that the set of four volumes in cyclostyled typescripts\nshould be made available at the Library of The House of Lords for public\nreference to the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter by Lord Donoughmore stated thus: We\nhad hoped to present to you in companion volumes to this report a verbatim\nrecord of our proceedings in public sessions<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019 We regret that the\nhigh cost of printing has precluded the adoption of this course. We are,\nhowever, forwarding duplicated copies of this material with the recommendation\nthat a complete record, which the public may be free to consult, should be made\navailable both in London and Ceylon<\/em>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong>tilakfernando@gmail.com <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr.Tilak S. Fernando In 1927 the Secretary of State for the Colonies announced a special Commission under the Chairmanship of the Earl of Donoughmore to visit Ceylon and submit an account of the Constitution with any difficulties of administration that needed to be surmounted at that time. The Secretary wanted the Earl of Donoughmore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-drtilak-s-fernando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117929","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=117929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}