The MEP of 1956, S.W.R.D. and Philip

Ananda Meegama

COLONIAL POWER: The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, the movement that turned the world of the elite of Sri Lanka upside down in 1956, was composed of many dissident forces in the country, and the popular slogan has it as a movement of peasants, workers, bhikkhus, ayurvedic physicians and Swabasha teachers. The revolution they created reverberates yet in the Sri Lanka of today half a century later.

They challenged the social groups and forces in the country that had and were bolstering the colonial framework both in the villages and in the towns. These ranged from the old radala class, the landed gentry, the village headmen, the estate owners especially the foreign and Ceylonese owners of tea, rubber and coconut estates, the affluent English speaking elite in trade commerce and the higher circles among the legal and medical professions.

After many years in power, by 1956, the UNP leaders were becoming alienated from the people, and were presiding over an edifice, which was fast decaying in a background where rapid population growth and increasing landlessness were compounded by the educated rural youth seeking better opportunities.

People were challenging not only the economic hegemony of these privileged groups, but also the cultural imperialism exerted by their use of the English language. Most of all the people objected to the 'mahaththaya' complex of the privilege, which treated them as inferior, and to the condescending attitude displayed by the ruling party towards Buddhism.

Ironically the challenge was led by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike the scion of a family that had been most closely allied to the colonial power.

Educated at Oxford, the finest debater in the Oxford of his day, Bandaranaike from the moment he landed in Sri Lanka flouted his father's wishes and was in the forefront working for reform.

During the years of the State Council to which he was elected uncontested in 1931 and 1936, Bandaranaike came to understand the poverty of rural Sri Lanka, and the desperate conditions of the lower strata of village society.

As Minister of Local Administration, he together with the Minister of Health was responsible for establishing a countrywide network of maternity homes, rural hospitals and provided the services of trained midwives.

These measures together with malaria eradication were instrumental in lowering the very high levels of infant and child mortality as well as maternal mortality in the decade 1937-47 to what was a record low for a Third World nation.

He allied himself with the bete noir of the Conservatives C. W. W. Kannangara who was leading the fight for free education for the masses, and also with the LSSP on various economic and social issues including the Bracegirdle case.

These years were also politically important for Bandaranaike for during his journeys through rural Sri Lanka he established a network of contacts with village committee chairmen, bhikkhus of the village temples and the intelligentsia in village society which was an immense support to him in the lonely years of opposition from 1951 to 1956 after he left the UNP.

Years of Opposition

I remember S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, a brilliant orator in Sinhala and English, a few weeks before his victory in '56, visiting the Peradeniya campus, for a meeting organised by a fledgling group of his supporters.

The meeting was held in a small lecture theatre, because Bandaranaike was not expected to attract a large crowd in a red and green dominated campus. Bandaranaike in a scintillating mood fielded the hostile and sarcastic questions of the left with the characteristic repartee that was his trademark.

However, nobody at that stage gave him a ghost of a chance in the coming election, though it was later said of the '56 election that even if Bandaranaike had fielded a polpiththa as a candidate it would have been returned.

Philip Gunawardena

Philip Gunawardena was the man who gave an economic underpinning to the '56 revolution. He brought with him not only the experience of the Samasamaja years in Sri Lanka but also that of many years of revolutionary activity abroad.

A stormy figure, blunt and forceful, he did not move in Colombo society, a family man, a voracious reader, any little spare time from public affairs he used for reading. In contrast to S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike whose political education was influenced by the Oxford and English background, Philip's vision and ideals were shaped by his years among socialists in many countries including the USA.

He studied at the University of Wisconsin a state where the Progressive Party of La Follette was dominant. Wisconsin had a long socialist tradition and pioneered much social welfare legislation, which was to play such an important role in uplifting the farming states of the US. This left a deep impression on Philip, and was the background to his life long commitment to poor rural communities.

Philip studied along with Jayaprakash Narayan the famous Indian socialist and was deeply influenced by Professor Scott Nearing, then a young lecturer at Wisconsin University. In 1956 when Philip became Minister of Agriculture and Food, he invited Scott Nearing to Sri Lanka and Philip then acknowledged the deep intellectual influence of Professor Nearing.

I remember Scott Nearing during that visit more than 30 years after Philip's years in Wisconsin giving a lecture in the Peradeniya campus to an enthraled crowd describing the perils faced by Third World nations.

In New York, Philip was drawn into the US branch of the League Against Imperialism. Since Philip had learnt Spanish, an interesting fact which his countrymen are unaware of, he went with Vasconcelos a Mexican nationalist to Mexico translating league pamphlets into Spanish.

The M. E. P. Government

The M.E.P. government lasted for a short three years but during that period it set its stamp on Sri Lankan society, an some of the ideals it espoused are taken as a matter of course today by all political parties.

Its vision of development, centred on uplifting the condition of the poorer classes and that of rural Sri Lanka, deeply influenced President Premadasa so much so that he modeled his strategy of development on that of the 56 programme. President Rajapakse's election campaign too focused on these issues.

The nationalization of bus transport and the establishment of the C.T.B. provided for the first time cheap transport to many hitherto inaccessible areas where many farming communities lived. Labour legislation provided some security for the worker whilst the provident fund scheme provided some relief on retirement, May Day was declared a public holiday.

The M.E.P. government established diplomatic relations with the socialist countries, swung to a non-aligned position in foreign affairs and arranged for the removal of foreign bases from the country.

The 'White' only social clubs gave up their exclusion of Ceylonese due to government pressure. The banning of Sinhala film production in Madras in 1957 led to the establishment of Ceylon studios at Kirula Rd with machines for automatic processing giving a fillip to the local film industry.

A boost was given to university education, which had been restricted to a small number by the establishment of the Vidyalankara and Vidyodhaya Universities.

The language policy of the 56 government has been criticized, but it was one of the measures taken to uplift the majority of the Sinhala and Tamil speaking people who up to then had to deal with an administration and law courts using not their mother tongue but the English language understood by less than ten percent of the people.

It is little realised that under the Tamil Language (special provisions) bill passed in 1958 Tamil has been the language of instruction in all Tamil speaking areas of the North and East and also the language of Administration and of the Law Courts therefore the last 50 years.

The mistake made in the switch over to the mother tongue in schools was the neglect of English teaching.

However, consequent to the switch to swabasha the last half century has seen a massive cultural renaissance in literature, the cinema, drama and in the media.

Philip Gunawardena one of the ablest Ministers seen in independent Sri Lanka moved quickly in developing agriculture. Paddy cultivation was in a crippled condition and even the owner cultivator heavily in debt had no capital to improve the land.

The plight of the tenant farmer was worse, his share of produce in some areas was very small, and without security of tenure, he had no incentive to improve the land.

The Paddy Lands Bill of the M.E.P. gave security to the tenant farmer, and the multi-purpose Coops and the proposed Cooperative Banks were to provide, the farmer with the much-needed services and credit.

He tried not only to liberate the 'ande goviyas' and the small cultivator in paddy cultivation but at the same time to increase overall agricultural production. Philip's Agricultural Plan published in 1958 with the support of a group of dedicated public servants encompassed food and plantation crops, animal husbandry, distribution, credit, crop insurance, multi-purpose cooperatives, it covered all the problem areas and stands as good a blueprint as any for planning even today where agriculture remains neglected.

He pressed for the nationalization of foreign owned plantations but had no illusions about nationalization for its own sake.

He realised that a movement based only on social reforms was doomed, and that production and incomes had to be increased. His old comrade of the V.L.L.S.P. William Silva who was Minister of Industries and Fisheries set out a white paper on industrial policy to encourage local industry and took steps to create an industrial base by setting up the Steel, Rubber and Hardware Corporations with assistance from the socialist countries. These years also saw the beginnings of private industry with government encouragement.

The progressive measures of the Government alarmed the Conservatives who mounted an attack on Philip Gunawardena who was the driving force behind the government and the mainstay behind the reformist programme.

The break with Philip was engineered by the rightwing of the cabinet who insisted on the removal of the functions relating to cooperatives from Philip's Agricultural Ministry, and which were an essential part of the package to improve the condition of the small farmer.

Bandaranaike resisted this attack on Philip on whom he depended and on the reforms in agriculture but in the end gave in when some Ministers threatened to leave the Government. Even after taking this decision, Bandaranaike phoned the Government Printer ordering him to stop the publication of the Gazette notifying this removal.

The right-wingers hearing this went to the P.M. and insisted on his countermanding this direction with the threat otherwise of leaving the government.

After they left, the P.M. again phoned the printer not to publish it. For the third time the right-wingers came and threatened the P.M. to order the printer to publish the gazette and this time they stayed with him until the gazette was officially out.

Philip had no choice but to resign and he was followed not only by members of his party but also by several S.L.F.P. members of Parliament.

From the day of his departure, reactionaries mustered their forces and S.W.R.D. was isolated and doomed. Philip left the Cabinet on June 8 and S.W.R.D. was assassinated on September 26th.