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 A progenitor of a process of political change in Sri Lanka

by Prof. W. A. Wiswa Warnapala

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike

S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who articulated the rural intelligentsia through the Sinhala Maha Sabha for more than a decade, formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 1951 largely in the form of a democratic alternative to both the United National Party and the Marxist parties, and it, therefore, professed democratic socialism while claiming to stand for some measure of evolutionary socialism.

International and local political impulses demanded the adoption of such a political posture. In addition to its commitment to both democracy and evolutionary socialism, it stood for both cultural renaissance and Buddhist revival, and these issues emerged later as powerful forces of nationalist change associated with a new wave of nationalism, and they came to be spearheaded by the alternative political leadership based on the aspirations of the common man who became prominent in the arena of politics with the massive political upsurge in 1956.

In 1952 the Sri Lanka Freedom Party entered the first electoral contest, and the pressure groups such as the All Ceylon Village Committees Conference and the All Ceylon Ayurevdic Physicians Conference were activated to support the new political party which stood to champion their cause.

The All Ceylon Village Committees Conference, which came to be formed as a non-political organisation underwent a change under S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was its President, and it subsequently became an effective pressure group from which most of the 1956 leaders were recruited for political leadership. In other words, it became a source of political recruitment. Yet another fact which needs to be highlighted is the opposition which the Sri Lanka Freedom Party encountered at the very inception of the party.

Bandaranaike openly declared that D. S. Senanayake was hostile to the SLFP from its very inception, and D. S. Senanayake, using his influence, organised the All Ceylon Village Headmen Conference in Colombo with a view to limiting the growing influence of Bandaranaike in the rural areas of the country. It was said that D. S. Senanayake invited the Headmen to Colombo and they were hosted to a dinner at the Grand Orient Hotel (GOH) and they were given a ride in an aeroplane, and all this was done to enlist their support for the UNP in the rural areas.

Three major issues

The political motive was to weaken Bandaranaike's base in the rural area which he built via the Village Committees Conference and the Ayurvedic Physicians Conference which later emerged as two formidable pressure groups. The 1952 general election, which the SLFP fought on three major issues - religion, swabasha and ayurveda -stimulated the emotions of the rural intelligentsia and the rural voters whose subsequent emergence as an arbiter in politics was a political development of fundamental importance.

It was only in 1952 that people, especially those voters in rural areas, demonstrated a visible interest in political party conflict and this could be attributed to the formation of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party as a democratic alternative to the United National Party which was in power, and the fact that the SLFP was able to obtain nine seats in Parliament showed that it has emerged as the largest single party in the Opposition.

This helped Bandaranaike to become the Leader of the Opposition, which in effect, meant that the country's alternative leadership has emerged. He emerged as the most acceptable alternative Prime Minister. The candidates who contested the 1952 general election had strong influence in the rural areas of the country, and this amply demonstrated that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party was getting itself organised on the basis of the support base associated with the traditional elements in the rural society and the emerging rural intelligentsia. It was this base which gave life and blood to the party in the last fifty years.

Social and political history of the last four decades can only be examined in terms of the historic political change of 1956. Though 1956 has been recognised as a vital political demarcation in the modern history of Sri Lanka, no attempt has been made so far to relate its significance to the subsequent developments in the arena of politics.

The view has been expressed that the politics of modern Sri Lanka began with the popular electoral politics of 1931, and the impact of this political development matured into an effective process of political change only in 1956, and its significance lies in the fact that it laid a strong foundation for the emergence of a process of politics based on the varied aspirations of the common man.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, from the beginning, embraced most sections of this vast and variegated stratum of the Sri Lankan society and sought to reflect their aspirations and interests. Their aspirations and interests began to influence even the formation of public policy in a number of areas of government.

As we know, the historic political change of 1956 was brought about by an alliance of political forces which came to be characterised as progressive, the major force of which was the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which, for the first time in Sri Lanka, successfully articulated the rural masses into meaningful political change and action. It gave a message of emancipation to the rural masses whose aspirations and energies remain suppressed due to the politics of the English educated elite.

Burning issues

The electoral platform of the 1956 alliance was a common programme which provided a progressive and democratic lead on many burning issues of the day. It was a comprehensive programme with an element of radicalism, and it, however, represented no much of a departure from the programme announced by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in 1951.

This programme, which the people of this country endorsed in 1956, included such important issues as the modernisation of the Constitution, the recognition of the democratic and economic rights of the people, the establishment of a Republic, the adoption of a realistic foreign policy with no involvement with power blocs, the establishment of friendly relations with the socialist countries, the re-organisation of the economy with a view to achieving planned economic development, the nationalisation of foreign owned enterprises, the introduction of a national system of education, the recognition of the system of indigenous medicine.

It stated that it would expand the social services with a view to extending social welfare statism in Sri Lanka. The programme also stated that it would take steps to improve agriculture and diversity steps would be taken to eliminate landlessness in the country. In respect of industry and industrial development, the programme envisaged the progressive nationalisation of all essential industries in such fields as transport, plantations, banking and insurance.

The issue of language, religion and culture assumed importance in the course of the election campaign in 1956, and such issues were used to articulate and mobilise the masses; those issues, which symbolised bases of support in the traditional rural society, were very appealing to the rural peasantry and the traditional village elite of the country, and they provided the necessary stimulus for the popular upsurge in 1956. In addition, the report of the Buddhist Commission, and its findings became the leading campaign document.

The recognition accorded to these issues generated a great deal of popular enthusiasm among the people, and the entire process of political change came to be manifested as a mass upsurge. The rural voter, who hitherto remained apathetic to politics despite the introduction of adult suffrage in 1931, came to forefront, and it was the emergence of the common man which, in the end, inaugurated the era of the common man. It came to be interpreted as the period of transition, and the most remarkable thing was the needs, grievances and the aspirations of the common man came to be reflected in the area of public policy in the post-1956 period.

Historic electoral victory

The historic electoral victory of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike at the 1956 general election, though signalled a process of change which was unprecedented in the history of Sri Lanka, derived inspiration from the forces of nationalism which were at work during the colonial period. The nationalist revival movement of Anagarika Dharmapala had an integral relationship to those forces which surfaced in 1956.

It was this movement associated with the Buddhist revival led by some Buddhist prelates of the period which provided the ideology for the emerging forces of Sinhala nationalism, from which the leaders of the 1956 political change derived inspiration. The traditional rural intelligentsia derived inspiration from those forces of nationalism and, through the political change of 1956, they were able to enter the portals of political power in the country.

Language, religion and culture came to be used as symbols of political mobilisation and Bandaranaike began to make use of them from the time he forced the Sinhala Maha Sabha which attracted such men as Munidasa Kumaratunga and Hemapala Munidasa. Munidasa Cumaratunga became a member of the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1934; nationalists of the calibre of Cumaratunga were initially associated with the political organisation of Bandaranaike, and the reason was the absence of a political party that is capable of articulating the nationalist issues.

It was on the basis of this nationalist upsurge that the demand for the resurgence of the Sinhala language surfaced and made a direct assault on the dominance of English and the English speaking elite in the Sri Lankan society and politics.

The key element in the process of change was the restoration of the Sinhalese glory that the foreign rulers had destroyed, and the whole process of change was seen as an attempt to resurrect a new wave of nationalism through which it was intended to realise the aspirations of a new independent state. Yet another important phenomenon associated with this process of change was the emergence of an aggressive Buddhist movement, which brought the entire dispensation of the Maha Sangha in the country to the forefront as an active, social and political force.

The members of the Maha Sangha, utilising their traditional social and religious leadership role in villages, played a significant role in mobilising people for the historic electoral victory of 1956, and this again was seen as an attempt to restore the political power of the Sinhalese people. The anti-imperialist content in the political change of 1956 was overlooked. It was the need to overthrow all vestiges of colonialism which demanded the recognition of the Sinhalese language as the official language of the country. It became an integral aspect of the struggle against imperialism.

Political change

The 1956 political change, therefore, came to be treated as a major landmark in the political history of Sri Lanka and its impact on the political, economic, social and cultural life of the people need to be assessed from the point of view of the changes that took place in the last four decades. Its major impact was in the area of rural masses who, thereafter became the major arbiters in the political conflict of Sri Lanka.

It was with this political awakening that the ordinary man in the village was able to reach the political stage, and this became possible cause the identities and symbols that were close to the hearts of the rural masses were regenerated and they, for the first time in post-independent Sri Lanka, felt that their needs and grievances are addressed seriously by the policy makers.

Yet another development was that the new set of legislators could identify themselves with the people. It was this enthusiasm of the masses which gave Bandaranaike and his associates such a massive fund of popular good will which, in the end, came to dubbed as the concept of 'Ape Aanduwa' - Our Government - which, in fact, meant the government of the common man.

This was a remarkable display of popular acceptance of the Government of 1956. The political change of 1956 emancipated the common man; the impoverishment of the rural peasant and his alienation from the forces of western cultural influences isolated him from the mainstream of political and economic life of the country.

The political change of 1956 brought about a transformation in the political system which still retained certain features of the colonial period.

The political power remained with the English educated elite. The changes that took place during the period 1931-46 did not touch the totality of the masses in articulating them to achieve major political changes.

(To be continued)

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