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by Sam Wijesinha,
(Retired Secretary General of Parliament)

Ponnambalam Arunachalam, on whom I am privileged to collate a life sketch, was born on 14th September, 1853 - the youngest of three brothers - sons of Gate Mudaliyar Ponnambalam. His eldest son Coomaraswamy, who died in 1906, had a distinguished career as a Proctor and as Nominated Tamil Member of the Ceylon Legislative Council from 1893.

The next brother, Ramanathan, an Advocate, was the Nominated Tamil representative in succession to his uncle, Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy, from 1879 to 1893 and from 1921 to 1924. He was elected to the Educated Ceylonese seat in 1912 and re-elected in 1917 to 1921.

He was also the elected member to the Legislature for the Northern Province (Northern Division) seat from 1924 till his death in 1930. He was a member for almost 33 years. Besides, he was a Law Officer of the Crown (Solicitor General) from 1893 to 1906 for 13 years.

These two brothers were sent in 1864 to Presidency College to be educated in Madras. They did their law studies in Colombo. Ramanathan accepted the post of Solicitor General in 1892 and acted on several occasions as the Attorney General. He retired on a pension in 1906.

The third brother Arunachalam, the subject of this article, like his brothers also had his early eduction at the Colombo Academy, now Royal College, where the panels in the college hall display his name as the recipient of many prestigious prizes.

They belonged to a highly respected family from Manipay. Gate Mudaliyar Arumuganathapillai Coomaraswamy, their maternal grandfather, was the Tamil representative of the first Legislative Council established in 1834 following the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Report of 1832.

Colbrooke, coming from England which was agitating for reform of the electoral system, was surprised at the autocratic powers exercised by the Governor of Ceylon since 1802. He effected a reduction of those powers by setting up an Executive and Legislative Council.

The Legislative Council was to consist of fifteen members (nine officials and six non-officials) nominated by the Governor. Six of the officials would constitute the Executive Council. The Governor nominated three Europeans, one burgher, one Sinhalese and one Tamil as non-official members.

The nomination of non-officials on a communal basis created an unfortunate precedent. When a government officially recognises such differences, it only intensified them and prevents the growth of a sense of unity. This system of communal representation was bound to create serious differences between the different communities in the future.

Winning the Scholarship, Arunachalam went to Christ's College, Cambridge, with the reputation of being an Eastern student of exceptional merit. Within a short time he made his mark winning the Foundation Scholarship, distinguishing himself in Classics and Mathematics.

He observed changes in England after the general elections of 1868 following the second Reform Bill of 1867 whereby Disraeli extended the ballot of 1 in 24 to 1 in 12 citizens in 1867. Disraeli believed that the new voters enfranchised by him would show their gratitude by voting for his party.

Gratitude, however, does not seem to exist in politics. Instead, Gladstone was returned to office as the next Prime Minister with the support of the new working class votes. He began his social reforms with the Education Act of 1870, creating School Boards.

University education was also improved. A new Ballot Act made voting for Parliament secret. Provisions were introduced to protect funds to trade unions. The old system of nominating officials was drastically changed. Entrance to the Civil Service was made an open competitive examination.

Arunachalam diligently followed these changes in the United Kingdom. By 1875, he had graduated from Cambridge and qualified as a Barrister. He had ambitions of a legal career but was persuaded by his maternal uncle, Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy, also a Member of the Legislative Council, to sit the newly created Civil Service Examination.

He was the first Ceylonese to enter the prestigious Civil Service through open competition. On his return to Ceylon, he was attached to the office of the Government Agent, Colombo.

He was later appointed to judicial office in various parts of the island. His personal qualities and his judicial competence attracted the favourable attention of acting Chief Justice, Sir John Budd Phear, who specially commended his work to the Governor, Sir James Longdon, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London.

Arunachalam showed an interest in politics from his Cambridge days. From his talks and discussions with an Englishman, William Ditby, Editor of the "Ceylon Observer" emanated the historic pamphlet "An oriental colony ripe for self-government", demanding representative government for Ceylon. It did not evoke the expected response from either the people or the Government of Ceylon.

Earlier during his career as a Civil Servant at the turn of the century he delivered a series of lectures on Ceylon's history and attempted to revive interest in the subject and emphasised the study of Sinhala and Tamil. In a sense he was the father of Swabasha in the country. He pointed out that the fundamental defect in the system of education in Ceylon was the use of English as the medium of instruction.

Arunachalam, in his self-effacing manner, continued to forge ahead in agitating for reform. The Government took note of Arunachalam's efforts behind the scenes. He was soon transferred from the post of Registrar General in Colombo to Kurunegala as District Judge.

However, the Secretary of State promoted him to the first class of the Ceylon Civil Service but government policy then could not appoint him to the prestigious post of Government Agent.

A Judge of the Supreme Court, F. C. Moncreiff, who came to Ceylon in 1900 expected Arunachalam to be appointed to the Supreme Court Bench in recognition of his legal knowledge and judicial experience.

But the powers that be opposed such recognition on the ground that he belonged to the Civil and not the Judicial Service, although many of the most eminent judges of the Supreme Court of India were from the Civil Service.

Fortunately in 1905 he was brought back from Kurunegala and returned to Colombo as Registrar General and was nominated to the Legislative Council at the time his brother, Ramanathan, in 1906 retired from the post of Solicitor General. He refused offers of a place in the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Meanwhile in response to growing demands, constitutional reforms were granted in 1912 during the governorship of Sir Henry MacCallum. The right to elect representatives was given, but the elections were to be conducted on a communal and not on territorial basis as demanded.

The membership of the Council was increased to 21 of which eleven were to be officials and the others were to be two low country Sinhalese, two Tamils, 1 Kandyan and 1 Muslim who were to be nominated and 2 Europeans, 1 Burgher and 1 Educated Ceylonese who were to be communally elected.

The Educated Ceylonese seat was won by P. Ramanathan in 1912. Meanwhile Arunachalam on his retirement from the Civil Service in 1913 was conferred a Knighthood.

It was around this time that D. R. Wijewardene, who had recently returned from Cambridge with a Degree in Law and as a Barrister, persuaded Sir Ponnambalan Arunachalam to resume his political activities. As a result he delivered a memorable address on 2nd April, 1917 at the Masonic Hall in Colombo presided over by E. J. Samerawickrema, President of the Ceylon Reform League, on "Our political needs."

It was a historic occasion at which, with remarkable lucidity and precision and in an orderly and methodical manner, he crystallised the arguments for self-government.

The address bore the hallmarks of mathematical precision and of classical education. Sir James Pieris, President of the Ceylon National Association, said "Although there were several advocates for political reform in Ceylon, people awoke to the necessity of persistent and organised agitation only after Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam delivered his address."

Sir James asked young men who were studying politics to read this lecture and other cognate publications by Arunachalam and see for themselves his deep and sincere convictions.

Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam's words of exhortation on that occasion were coupled with words of caution. To a generation which was repudiating all spiritual values and sinking deeper in the mire of materialism, he proclaimed the contrary gospel that life finds fulfilment in service and that governance is essentially a spiritual and moral activity. Transgressing that creed brings grief.

In his "Message to the Country" published by his friend D. R. Wijewardene in the very first issue of the "Ceylon Daily News" of 3rd January, 1918, he declared:

"In our zeal for political reform, we must be on our guard against making it an end. We seek it not to win rights but to fulfil duties to ourselves and our country. People have a distinct task to perform. Our youth will seek their own well-being.

They will work in unity so that all the intellectual forces diffused among men may obtain the highest development in thought and action. With our youth inspired by such ideals, I look to see our country rise with renewed splendour to be a beacon light to fall lands."

It was Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam who advised various political organisations like the Ceylon National Association, the Ceylon Reform League, the Chilaw Association, the Jaffna Youth Association to unite into one body and make a joint appeal for political reform. The Jaffna League alone joined the resultant Ceylon National Congress on a condition, namely, that in a reformed Legislative Council there should be a special seat for the Tamils in the Western Province.

However the reformed Legislative Council of 1921 did not have a seat for a Tamil. The Legislative Council was to consist of thirty-seven members of whom fourteen were officials and twenty-three non-officials.

Thus for the first time the officials were, in theory at least, a minority while representatives of various interests constituted a majority. The bureaucratic form of government which had been in force from 1832 gave way in 1921 to representative government.

The officials, however, still controlled the Executive although three non-officials were given places in it. Of the twenty-three non-official seats, eleven were elected on a territorial basis. The Western Province was given three seats, (Western Province Division A, Western Province Division B and the Town of Colombo) and each of the other provinces one.

Communal election was retained and Europeans were allowed to elect two representatives and Burghers one. To vote at these elections, as well as at the territorial elections, two qualifications were necessary - viz. literacy in English, Sinhalese or Tamil and an income of at least Rs. 50 per month.

The Low Country Products Association (Largely a Ceylonese body) and the Chamber of Commerce (a European organisation) were to have one elected representative each. Four members were nominated to represent communities that could not elect their representatives, and the Governor was to nominate three members to represent special interests.

At first sight these reforms will reveal that the non-official majority was more apparent than real. In an emergency the Governor could count on the votes of the Burghers, Europeans and nominated non-officials.

In addition to the fourteen officials, the Government could depend on the support of the two European representatives, the Burgher members, the representative of the Chamber of Commerce and the seven nominated members.

Thus the Government could muster twenty-five votes in the Council, leaving the Ceylonese a small minority of twelve. The officials still dominated the Council and representative government was more apparent than real.

The Low Country Products Association, with 11 voters, elected Sir Henry de Mel in 1921 whilst the Town of Colombo with an electorate of 4,325 elected Sir Henry de Mel's brother-in-law Sir James Pieris, unopposed.

A vast number of people felt this to be the cause of Sir Ponnambalam's untimely resignation from being the first President of the newly formed Ceylon National Congress, to form which he had exerted so much effort, persuasion and energy for quite some time.

They all expected Sir Ponnambalam to be elected the Member for Colombo Town and Sir James Pieris, who was a prominent member of the Low Country Products Association, to be elected by that body.

After he resigned from the Presidency of the Ceylon National Congress he formed the Ceylon Tamil League mainly as a cultural organisation for Tamil speaking people. By then he was an exhausted and tired genius, perhaps very disillusioned, yet one who understood human nature and became more forgiving and gracious.

Towards the end of 1923, he undertook a pilgrimage to visit the sacred shrines in India. In the midst of his devotions at Madurai in South India, he passed away on 9th January 1924 leaving behind him memories of a noble life well spent in the service of his country and its people.

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