{"id":96888,"date":"2019-12-25T16:20:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96888"},"modified":"2019-12-25T16:20:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-25T23:20:17","slug":"did-this-country-get-any-independence-from-britain-in-1948-some-new-thoughts-on-independent-sri-lanka-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/25\/did-this-country-get-any-independence-from-britain-in-1948-some-new-thoughts-on-independent-sri-lanka-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Did this country get any Independence from Britain in 1948? Some new thoughts on Independent Sri Lanka?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara 31.1. 2019.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Did this country get any Independence in 1948?   Are we an Independent country at all, at\nleast after 70 years of so-called Independence? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independence in respect of any given country means the power for\nself-governing without control or authority of another country or an outside\nparty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As history records we are\nsupposed to have got independence from British rule in 1948. Now that the much\nhyped Independence Day celebrations (Jatika Day as the present Government calls\nit) is again around the corner for the 71st time, I posit this question very\nseriously to the whole nation. Has this country got any Independence in 1948 in\nthe above self-governing context that is worthy of  such fanfare and wastage of public funds  Are we independent at all, at least now,\nafter 71 years of so-called independence? The BOLD BIG answer, in my opinion,\nis NO, NOT AT All. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Actual independence\nfor the dominion of Ceylon came on February 4, 1948, when the constitution of\n1947 went into effect. The constitution provided for a bicameral legislature\nwith a popularly elected House of Representatives and a Senate that was partly\nnominated and partly elected indirectly by members of the House of\nRepresentatives. A Prime Minister and his cabinet, chosen from the largest\npolitical group in the legislature, held collective responsibility, for\nexecutive functions. The Governor-General, as head of state, represented the\nBritish monarch. In matters that the constitution failed to address, the\nconventions of the United Kingdom were observed.”as Wikipedia roecords\nit”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution referred to here is the Soulbury Constitution that\nwas made in England by Ivor Jennings, for the Dominion of Ceylon as it was\ncalled then. A Dominion is described as a self-governing territory within the\nBritish Commonwealth of Nations. This clearly implies that Ceylon continued to\nbe a part of the group of countries defined as the British Commonwealth of\nNations that included Great Britain, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and\nfew other Islands that were under the British as their colonies. It also\nimplies that governance of these member countries is subjected to the\nconditions operative within that family of the Common Wealth headed by Britain,\nthe chief player. Obviously it then imposes restrictions on the member states.\nThere ends self-governing of all ex- colonies for all intent and purposes. Such\nis the true nature of Independence of all there countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, as stated above the Government of the so-called Independent\nCeylon was fashioned under the Westminster model. The Soulbury Constitution\nprovided the structural mechanism of Government and Governance that embodied\nall the checks and balances Britain needed to control governance of this\nIsland. They retained the power to appoint the Governor General, as the\nrepresentative of the King of England, thereby retaining executive power in\ntheir hands. Though the Prime Minster was appointed by the Governor,\nlegislation was made in the name of the King of England. The appellate power of\nthe Judiciary also was kept with the Privy Council. Katunayaka and\nTrincommallee air bases were retained under them. The defense and external\naffairs were kept with the King in terms of section 45 of the Constitution,\nwhich says ‘The Executive powers of the Island shall continue vested in His\nMajesty and may be exercised, on behalf of His Majesty, by the Governor General\nin accordance with the provisions of the Order and of any other law for the\ntime being in force’. The prerogative powers of declaring war, making peace,\nsending Ambassadors or entering in to treaties were also kept with the King of\nEngland. But this country was called a free and Independent and our leaders\naccepted it as political independence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 600,000 acres of tea and rubber owned by Sterling companies\nwere kept in the hands of white masters even after they left our shores.\nOfficial language of the country continued to be English. English continued to\nbe the medium instruction above grade six in all schools.  Proceedings in courts also remained to be\nEnglish where justice was dispensed to the local Sinhale in English and\nproceedings in Parliament where legislation for a newly independent country\nwhere the native language of the people was Sinhala at the time of ceding to\nthe British in 1815. Transaction between the people and the State also\ncontinued to be conducted in English. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Nearly 1.2 Million Indian\nindentured labourers brought by the British to work on British owned after 1840\nwere left behind without being either repatriated to India, as they were\nbrought from there, or taking them back to UK as they were British citizens at\nthat time, leaving behind a sad and dangerous legacy of enormous political,\ndemographic, economic, social and cultural \nconsequences and an eternal cantankerous bone of contention  between Sri Lanka and India, thereby creating\na serious headache for both countries that has led to political tension and\nuneasiness between the two neighboring countries forever and particularly for\nthis country in areas like preserving\u2019s its vital watersheds rights at the\ncenter of the country at the highest elevation and creating enormous\ndemographic, political, economic, social, environmental and cultural problems\nand above all the question of the need to hand over legal vacant possession of\nthe motherland for its original owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on to the question of Independence, in reality, what Britain\nshould have done was to completely hand over the entire country what they\ndeceitfully annexed on 2nd March 1815 under the Kandyan Convention without any\nconditions in order to make Sri Lanka fully independent and allow the people of\nthis country to decide as to how it should be run thereafter. The way how it\nwas deceptively done as stated above clearly shows that it never happened. The\nconstraints and limitations imposed were more than the concessions given. As I\nsee it it is a big political fraud committed by Britain keeping all the, vital\nreins in its own hands to manipulate the destinies of this Island nation the\nway they want. As i see it it was only a crafty handing over of a colony to a\nset of  descendants of its former owners\nwell trained by the British in all respects, to run it free of any expense for\nthe British Empire, as thier accredited agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In becoming independent from foreign rule the first and foremost\ncondition is getting back the territory the conqueror took over at the time of\nconquest. In our case the territory they took over in 1815 including the\nMaldives Islands. They returned only the main Island. Maldives Islands (90,000\nsq. km) that were a longtime a protectorate of this country was not returned to\nus. The Ceylon (Constitution) Order in\nCouncil 1946 Part 1 (2) stated ‘Nothing in this Order shall extend to the\nMaldives Islands. <\/em>The British kept it as one of their protectorates until\nthey granted Independence to it as a separate Independent State on July 26th.\n1965. Again we never regained the 600,000 acres of   old prime forest cover  in the central hill country, the Heartland of\nthe Lankan nation that  provided the\nsource for all its rivers in the Island, that decided the survival of the\nentire life system and the civilization of this Island nation throughout\nhistory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead they left behind a sad legacy of vast stretches of physically\ndegraded, unfirtile and unproductive tea lands with a turbulent foreign labour force\nof over 1.2 million South Indian workers on this soil, who were not citizens of\nthis country at the time of British leaving the country. None of this 1.2 was\nthere in 1815. All of them were brought by the British after 1840, partly to\nfight against the native Sinhalese who rose against the invader in the 1848\nMatale uprising, but mainly to work in their coffee estates and later in tea\nplantations.  When left in 1948 our\nleaders should have demanded to hand over the land without their labour force.\nIt is just like a tenant on rent taking his servants when he leaves the rented\nout house.  Instead the British left\nbehind this sad legacy of 1.2 million exploited and poverty stricken  South Indian labourers who belonged to an\nentirely a different culture, speaking a different language and professing a\ndifferent religion and culture completely different from that of the native\nSinhalese. This stateless millions were left behind high and dry, right at the\nHeartland of the Island Nation, thereby creating a cantankerous demographic,\npolitical, social, economic and environmental problems for this country, for\nwhich the colonials alone are responsible. Led and manipulated by treacherous\nand extremist ethnic Tamil politicians, these Indians have become one of the biggest\nheadaches this country faces today with wider ramifications including tense\nIndo- Sri Lankan relation caused by Indian intervention in all their affairs as\nif the central hill country of Sri Lanka is already a part of India, with the\nthreat of creating a Malayanadu right at the center of the historical\nmotherland of the Sinhala race for 2500 years. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore we never got any of our rights what we lost in 1815for\nexample on our language, religion, political institutions, social system or our\nheritage and were never restored to date. Sinhala was the official language of\nthe country and Buddhism was the State religion before 1815. Sinhala was\nofficial language from 543 BC and Buddhism State religion from 307 BC. But they\nwere never restored. Do we have at least a homemade Constitution even after 71\nyears of \u2018Independence\u2019? India did it within 3 years of Independence by\ndeclaring it as a sovereign Democratic Republic. Even as a Dominion India was\ncompletely free to shape its own policy, both domestic and foreign, unlike Sri\nLanka. They even declared India An Independent Republic. In fact their\nConstitution making started even long before 1947. Presiding over the first\nmeeting of the Constitution making its Chairman Dr Ambedkar said “No constitution will be workable which\nis not acceptable to the majority people. The time when you were to choose and\nIndia was to accept is gone, never return. Let the consent of the people not\nthe accident of logic be the touchstone of our new Constitution’. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was how India made its Constitution. But here at home our\npoliticians got Ivo Jennings, a British lawyer to write the constitution for a\nfree and Independent Sri Lanka. That is the difference between Indian Leaders\nand our leaders. No wonder Sri Lanka is like this even after 71 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soulbury’s constitutional recommendations were largely those of the\n1944 Board of Ministers’ draft, a document reflecting the influence of\nSenanayake and his main advisor, Sir Ivor Jennings, They were based mainly on\nthe recommendations of the Colonia Secretary. The content was never discussed\nwith the people. Therefore they had no say what so ever in the making of the\nSoulbury Constitution.              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka had to wait till 1972 for Sirimavo to declare it a Republic.\nEven the Republican Constitution 1972 was mainly based on the Westminster\nmodel. As such it was also not a people’s constitution of this country. Even\nafter making it a Republic, Britain continued the game of interfering in our\ninternal matters. Isn\u2019t this country being run by the so-called international\nCommunity of the West and India to suit their agendas. Today we at times need\nto get the consent of India to permit even a foreign ship to enter our harbour\nas it had been demonstrated recently. \nInterference by the Western block is more and serious now than ever\nbefore 1948 as we are tormented by almost all Western nations, whether they are\nin the West or East or North or South, where as we were governed only by the\nBritish at that time.  What is worse is\nall these countries also support the Tamils spread all over the world, whom\nthey call Tamil Diaspora who had staged a brutal and savages 30 year war\nagainst this country to convert this country in to a Tamil Homeland called\nEELAM as they cannot have it in India, with a long term dream of destroying the\nSinhala nation and Buddhism and their civilization in this country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did we have a single Sinhala political leader in the post 1948 period\nthat could stand up against these external harassment and assert as a national\nleader who could lift up this country as a fully Independent, free, prosperous,\nself- sustained and vibrant nation. Look at India, Singapore, Japan, Korea and\neven Bangladesh where they stand today, though they were far behind us in 1948.\nAmbedkar, down to earth Indian intellectual, was the architect of the Indian\nConstitution where as in Sri Lanka it was Ivor Jennin\u2019s a down to earth\nEnglishman. That again is the difference between India and Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in this backdrop repeatedly I ask as to how one can say\nwe are an independent nation. Apart from being an independent nation, have we\nat least restored the name of this country, Sinhale, in 1948 or even after 71\nyears up to date, as it was mentioned in the Kandyan Convention. Have our\npoliticians been able to at least decide as to what our nation is. Restore ‘The\nSinhala Buddhist nation’ they ceded to British in 1815 and able to restore the\nSinhala Language as the State language. Instead the British handed over a\nCeylon in 1948 as a multi-ethnic, multi -national and multi-religious society.\nThey also introduced the concept of minority to Sri Lankan politics for the\nfirst time in the history of this country by introducing it under section 29 to\nthe Constitution. These are all well calculated and well-designed conspiracies\nto divide the Lankan nation on various grounds and destroy it. First it divided\nthe Sinhala people as Kandyans and Low Country and thereafter it divided the\nnation like an scrambled egg, that can never be unscramble thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In short it was a constitution\nmade by a British lawyer Jennings to suit their perpetual interests imposed on\nour people without getting their consent either. It was never a constitution\npeople in this country wanted or they accepted. People were told that they got\nfull independence from British rule by their leaders. That is all what they\nwanted. Nor did the people see the Constitution. As a people who were governed\nonly by customs and traditions for millennia they never bothered about a\nconstitution. They must have thought they are getting the pre 1815 status. So\nthey were happy with that. The leaders on the other hand blindly accepted it as\ndivine right coming from above for them to rule over the down trodden. This is\nexactly how the UNP Colombians led by RW think even today. They don\u2019t\nunderstand the fact that this country is one village or at least a\nconglomeration of a number of villages and Colombo is not Sri Lanka. Like any\nother metropolis, as A.G. Frank and moving it towards the word core centers. On\nthe other hand it also provides the gateway through its harbour and airports\nthe door way that brings in all things harmful to our economy, culture and\nenvironment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn’t it more than clear, from the above account that we have not got\nany independence in1948. I challenge all those constitutional experts who say\nwe have got any independence in 1948. It is true that it has gone on record\nthat on 4th Feb 1948 Britain gave independence to this country. It is also true\nthat they gave a Parliament headed by a local Prime Minister (one of their own\nmaking) to make legislation. But a closer analysis of the Soulbury Constitution\nclearly shows that it was only a fake Independence or a big fraud. True they\ngave a Parliament to make legislation by locally elected legislators. But all\nlegislations made in that Parliament were made in the name of the King and\nQueen of England up to 1972 until Sirimavo Bandarnayaka declared it an\nIndependent Republic, after 24 years since 1948. In my opinion this country was\ngiven independence by the British Colonial Government only to make legislation\nand govern the way they wanted to perpetuate their colonial hegemony. In\nconclusion I say this in short is exactly what British wanted to do under the\nSoulbury Constitution. By retaining the Dominion status they further retained\npower to control the ex- colony as long as they want and the way they\nwished.  Probably they must have thought\nSri Lanka is far more important from a strategic point of view in future global\npolitics than even India in view of its strategic location in the middle of the\nIndian Ocean forming a pivotal position between the East and the West open to\nthe vast expanses of the Indian Ocean extending up to the South Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soulbury Constitution the Pandora’s Box of Sri Lankan politics in post\n1948 Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the plethora of unmanageable problems like political\ninstability, social confusion, ethnic tensions, the rise of the tyranny of\nminority politics,  serious and\nfrustrating erosion of Sinhala Buddhist birth rights of the natives and the\ndisintegrating tendencies of the Sri Lankan political map, splitting on\nminority issues brought about by the Soulbury Constitution,  I am compelled to conclude that the  Soulbury Constitution has become a veritable\nPandora’s Box in post independent politics in Sri Lanka. Sec 29 (2) of the\nConstitution killed the millennia old privileges of the Sinhala Buddhist\nmajority in this country by conferring undue and disproportional privileges on\nminority ethnic and religious groups, who were only intruders from time to time\nin history. This section that introduced a minority concept for the first time\nin the history of this country’s politics had completely ruined peaceful\ncoexistence between Sinhala Buddhists majority and other ethnic groups. As such\ngiving legal recognition to separate minority groups opened the doors for\nethnic and religious tensions never existed before in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pity the rootless, brainless and visionless native leaders who\nembraced this so-called Independence package with open arms in 1948 (which I\ncall “a veritable political Pandora’s Box” rather than a Constitution\nmade in good faith and good intention for a country meant and designed for\nnation building) with pomp and glamour without realizing the inconsistencies\u2019\nand dangers hidden beneath this English trap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this country and its people have not got any independence in 1948\n(in spite of some people including the fathers, sons and the nephews of the UNP\ndenying it), then who has really got it. Obviously the happy recipients of\n‘this birth day gift of somebody’ are the lucky pack of unscrupulous rogue\npoliticians created by the Soulbury Constitution and party politics introduced\nby it who have destroyed this ‘Wonder in Asia’ to a level almost beyond\nrecognition. Just like a gang of hungry jackals from the jungle that have\ninvaded a poultry pen, they have destroyed this country with impunity, while\nthe true owners of this country are in deep slumber, engrossed in Midsummer\nnight dreams of freedom, prosperity and happiness of independence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this backdrop what is there to celebrate annually in such high pomp\nand glamour at such enormous cost to the nation’s coffers. Isn\u2019t it only a part\nand parcel of the mega fraud and deception of the masses by the rogue politicians\nannually staged to exhibit their naked vanity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 My final question is why try to\ncommemorate a non-existing independence at such cost, causing enormous\ninconvenience to the people. This is nothing but shear madness on the part of\npoliticians to exhibit their vanity and emptiness just to deceive the voters as\nthey have been successful doing ever since 1948. Isn\u2019t it better that we  as a nation either commemorate May 22 the\nJanraja Day or the 29th of May 2009 on which the Rapaksa Government liberated\nthe motherland from the LTTE terrorists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for me I shall not raise a flag at my house to mark this fraudulent\npolitical freedom deceptively imposed on us by the accredited black-white\nagents in 1948. I will raise it only on the day this country gain full independence\nas the Sinhala Buddhist nation that was there on my motherland for 2358 years\nbefore 1815. I call upon all patriotic Sinhala sons and daughters of this\ncountry to join with me in this patriotic and noble resolve so that one day at\nleast you will realize this dream in my name, as I want be living by the time\nthis dream come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara 31.1. 2019. Did this country get any Independence in 1948?   Are we an Independent country at all, at least after 70 years of so-called Independence?  Independence in respect of any given country means the power for self-governing without control or authority of another country or an outside party.  As history records we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sudath-gunasekara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96888","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=96888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}