[lg policy] Northern politics during Parliamentary Elections of 1950s in SriLanka

Harold Schiffman haroldfs at gmail.com
Wed Mar 27 14:59:18 UTC 2019 

Northern politics during Parliamentary Elections of 1950s
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 - 01:00
Print Edition
Features <http://www.dailynews.lk/category/features>
<http://www.dailynews.lk/sites/default/files/news/2019/03/26/z_p24-Northern-1.jpg>

“As an East Asian looking at America, I find attractive and unattractive
features. I like, for example, the free, easy and open relations between
people regardless of social status, ethnicity or religion”

---Lee Kuan Yew

<http://www.dailynews.lk/sites/default/files/u264/Tag-Contemporary-Politics-2.jpg>S.
Nadesan was a promoter of democratic principles such as regional autonomy,
bilingualism, federalism, and constitutional safeguards for the Tamil
speaking. Regarding the tension caused by the Official Language (Sinhala
Only) Act, he firmly believed that separatist movements only took root in
unitary states, and dismissed the suggestion that federalism leads to
separation.

Somasundaram Nadesan, QC-Senator

Somasundaram Nadesan, QC was a leading Tamil lawyer, civil rights activist
and member of the Senate from end 1940s to early 1970s. He served on the
bar for 55 years and was made a Queen’s Counsel in 1954. A passionate
defender of minority rights though, Nadesan remained detached from Tamil
nationalistic politics of S. J. V. Chelvanaygam (Fedral Party) and G. G.
Ponnambalam of Tamil Congress (TC). He was highly critical of the Tamil
United Liberation Front (TULF)- under the leadership of Chelvanayakam and
its Vaddukoddai Resolution calling for the creation of an independent Tamil
Eelam. However, political violence of the 1980s compelled Nadesan to change
his stance from politics to Human Rights. He was a founding member of the
Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka in 1971.

ITAK (Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi) was founded in late 1949. Commonly
known as the Federal Party in English, the Northern based party was formed
by a group of three Tamil parliamentarians, SJV Chelvanayakam, Vanniasingam
and Senator E. M. V. Naganathan, all members of ACTC (All Ceylon Tamil
Congress), who had policy differences with its leader G. G. Ponnambalam
over the latter’s decision to go into an alliance with D. S. Senanayke and
enter the UNP government and accept a Cabinet Portfolio.

Early splits in Northern based parties

SWRD Bandaranaike’s attitude towards minority rights and success of the
Sinhala nationalist government in 1956, made ITAK the main voice of Tamil
politics. As racial and political tension between the ethnic groups
increased, it forced three Tamil political parties, FP, ACTC and the CWC
based in Plantations led by Thondaman snr., to form the Tamil United Front
(TUF) in early 1970s. The nationalistic alliance had renamed itself as the
Tamil United Liberation Front- (TULF) and began campaigning for an
independent Tamil Eelam. JRJ, the ‘old fox’ manipulated the exit of CWC
from the alliance weakening the unity of Tamil politics.

<http://www.dailynews.lk/sites/default/files/u264/z_p24-Northern-2.jpg>Winning
18 seats in the north and east, the TULF became the first Tamil party to
run on a pro-autonomy platform in the 1977 Parliamentary election and
became the largest opposition party in parliament. The Black July-’83
caused Tamil nationalism’s radicals to turn into a violent movement which
subsequently paved way for a 30-year civil war: while the TULF remained as
a moderate party to face Tamil politics, it became the target of racist and
nationalist forces on both North and South and many of its moderate leaders
like A. Amirthaligam, M. Sivasittamparam were assassinated by young
terrorists led by V. Prabaharan of LTTE.

1956 Parliamentary Election

A. Amirthalingam contesting the Vadukkodai seat at 1956 election,
addressing his constituents referred to S. Nadesan, he said, “none could
beat the record of the learned Senator Nadesan of being all things to all
men, but the Tamil people could not build their future on the shifting
sands of his policies” he further said, Senator Nadesan has told the Jaffna
Lawyers’ Association that he was the author of the Tamilnad resolution,
moved by V. Kumaraswamy and the brain behind the communist party idea of
making Sinhalese the only language for foreign relations. He was also the
advisor to Bandaranaike on various political matters. Referring to Nadesan
he further said, Nadesan once stated that, “Federalism does not mean that
the Tamils will not be able to get employment or do business in South. The
right to get employment throughout the country, the right to engage in
commerce and trade throughout the island is guaranteed under a Federal
Constitution.

Parity of status to both Sinhala and Tamil was the language policy of the
two Marxist parties, LSSP and CP who could boast of a strong base in
Jaffna. Though somewhat disastrous to their popularity, they stuck to it.

The equal status policy which the LSSP and CP cost them a lot. On October
17, 1955, LSSP held a meeting at the Colombo Town Hall, in support of this;
it was broken up and the leaders were escorted by police, (it was repeated
in 1956 when SLFP’s Sinhala only bill was debated in the House. Crowds led
by racist forces assembled opposite old Parliament to physically handle NM,
Colvin and other Marxists).

The chaotic situation compelled UNP to abandon policy of parity status,
causing extensive damage to its popularity in the North/East. Tamil Cabinet
Ministers and MPs demand to reassess its new language policy, which was
ignored by Prime Minister, Sir John Kotalawala because it was suicidal to
the Party at the forthcoming Election. The Tamil members charged Kotalawala
with linguistic inequity and opted to resign. Attempts by this group to
form an alliance of Tamils however, was unsuccessful.

Official Language - the main issue and Muslim factor

There were many differences in political interest between Muslims and
Tamils. Muslim factor was not so dominant during the election time of 1956.
Muslims in 1950s considered that Tamils enjoyed more privileges in
education than the Muslims. An independent contestant for Kalkudah, M. A.
Abdul Majeed openly condemned Federalism. The Kalmunai independent
candidate declared his support to Bandaranaike, while Macan Markar opposed
the Federal Party. However the majority of Muslims was in favour of the
Sinhala Only policy.

The 1956 election result was a surprise; out of the 95 seats, the MEP won
51—LSSP and CP won 14 and 3 respectively—Federal party secured 10 seats and
Tamil Congress could retain only one while UNP managed eight. Independents
won eight too.

Federal Party polled 141,900 votes against 146,500 polled by all its
opponents in Jaffna, but won only six seats in the district.

Ponnambalam and Chelvanaygam

The Federal Party established in 1949 as a breakaway group of Tamil
Congress was not successful at the General Election it faced in 1952,
winning only two Federal Party candidates, but the TC managed to secure
four seats out of seven seats they contested. Later, the FP began to emerge
as a powerful political force in the North when leader G. G. Ponnambalam a
Cabinet minister failed to persuade the government to give up its ‘Sinhala
Only’ Policy.

The FP had a great opportunity to tell Tamils in the North/East that they
would be discriminated and treated as second-class citizens. They argued
that in a Unitary State equality for the people would be an impractical
concept and the only option therefore, would be to fight for both Sinhalese
and Tamil the official languages. If they succeeded Sinhala would become
the official language of the Sinhala State and Tamil the official language
of Tamil State under a single country.

The majority of the daily newspapers in 1950s were sympathetic towards the
UNP except one Sinhala daily.

kksperera1 at gmail.com
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-- 
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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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