S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike

Bandaranaike was born in Colombo, Ceylon, to the wealthy Sinhalese Anglican Christian Bandaranaike family, which had become one of the more elite native families under the British administration. His father was Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, the Maha Mudaliyar of Ceylon at the time[note 1], while his mother, Daisy Ezline Obeyesekere, was a daughter of Sir Solomon Christoffel Obeyesekere, a member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon. Sir Solomon named his only son after Sir Joseph West Ridgeway, the Governor of Ceylon at the time, who was his godfather.[1] He had two sisters, Alexandra Camelia, and Anna Florentina. Sir Forester Obeysekera was his maternal uncle.[2]

He was tutored at his home, Horagolla Walauwa, by Henry Young, an English tutor from Nuwaraeliya, and thereafter by A. C. Radford, a Cambridge graduate. The young Bandaranaike had a difficult childhood with his father and tutors, who imposed their ideals on him. With the outbreak of the Great War, Radford returned to Britain and young Bandaranaike attended St Thomas' College, Mutwal, where he boarded with the warden, Rev. Arthur William Stone. He found Rev. Stone less imposing his ideals on him and encouraging of forming his own opinion. At St Thomas' College, Bandaranaike played tennis and took part in debating. He passed his Senior Cambridge examinations with distinctions in English, Latin, Greek and French, and gained the second Order of Merit in the British Empire that year. Delayed by the Great War, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he read philosophy, politics and economics, and graduated with honours in 1923. At Oxford, he was President of the Majlis Society; his contemporaries at Oxford included Anthony Eden. A keen debater and orator, took an active role in the Oxford Union, where he was elected junior treasurer. He contested the presidency of the Oxford Union, and came third to Lord Scrymgeour. In 1924, he became a barrister and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple; on his return to Ceylon, he took oaths as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon.[3][4]

After his return from Britain, Bandaranaike became active in local politics. He got elected as the Chairman of the Nittambuwa Village Committee in his family seat. He became Secretary of the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) in 1926, and in December the same year was elected from the Maradana Ward to the Colombo Municipal Council, defeating the trade unionist A. E. Goonesinha.[5]

Second Board of Ministers of Ceylon. Bandaranaike is in the left corner standing.

Following the implementation of the Donoughmore Constitution, the State Council of Ceylon was established as the first legislature in the island with its members elected through universal suffrage. Bandaranaike contended and was elected unopposed from Veyangoda at the 1931 election to the first State Council and was elected to the executive committee for local administration, chaired by Charles Batuwantudawe. He stated in the council that the committee system introduced in the new constitution was satisfactory at the time.

In order to promote Sinhalese culture and community interests, Bandaranaike founded the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1936. He introduced the Free Lanka Bill in the State Council in 1945[6] In 1947, when Leader of the House, D. S. Senanayake presented the Soulbury Constitution to the State Council, Bandaranaike seconded the motion stating that he does so as the Sinhala Maha Sabha was the largest party in the State Council.

With Ceylon heading for self-rule under dominion status, D. S. Senanayake invited Bandaranaike to combine his Sinhala Maha Sabha with other smaller parties into the United National Party (UNP) which Senanayake was forming to contest for the 1947 election under the new Soulbury Constitution.[7] Bandaranaike accepted the invitation, formally dissolving the Sinhala Maha Sabha and merging with the UNP.

The first Cabinet of Ministers of Ceylon. Bandaranaike is in the first row-second from the left

Bandaranaike in Kandy as Minister of Health and Local Government

He contested for the newly formed House of Representatives in the 1947 election from the UNP from Attanagalla, winning with a good majority. In September 1947, D. S. Senanayake appointed him to his cabinet as the first Minister of Health and Local Government of Ceylon and he was elected as the Leader of the House. Effectively this made Bandaranaike the most senior member of the cabinet, after the Prime Minister. In fact, Senanayake had Sir Oliver Goonetilleke discuss with Bandaranaike as leader of the Sinhala Maha Sabha, the draft agreements for independence; which Bandaranaike received with mixed feelings. However, he did not object and the agreements signed with the Britain government making way for Ceylon to gain self-rule. As leader of the house, he delivered the address of thanks at the ceremonial opening of parliament on 4 February 1948, which marked Ceylon's independence from Britain.

During the next few years, he supported legislation proposed by the government as leader of the house. This included the Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948 and the Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act No.3 of 1949 which deprived citizenship to Indian Tamils. He initiated several projects for the improvement of health as minister of health, including the expansion of hospitals and uplifting ayurveda medicine. He attended the Third World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 1950 as Chief delegate of Ceylon. However, he found himself at odds with Senanayake administration on policy. By 1951, it also appeared that Senanayake did not intend to make an early retirement that would have allowed Bandaranaike to succeed him as prime minister.

In July 1951, Bandaranaike resigned from his government posts and crossed the floor to the opposition with several of his close associates from the Sinhala Maha Sabha. Thereafter he dissolved the Sinhala Maha Sabha and formed a new party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) having its inaugural meeting at Town Hall on 2 September 1951.[8][9][10][11]

A few months later, on 21 March 1952 D. S. Senanayake fell off his horse, while on his morning ride after suffering a stroke and died the following day. Although Sir John Kotelawala was expected to succeed him, his son Dudley Senanayake, Minister of Agriculture was appointed Prime Minister on 26 March 1952 by the Governor-General Lord Soulbury. Dudley Senanayake called a general election in 1952, which the UNP won gaining 54 seats in parliament.

Bandaranaike contested the general election from the SLFP for the Attanagalla seat and was re-elected. With the SLFP gaining nine seats and the LSSP gaining nine. Bandaranaike was elected Leader of the Opposition. The leftist agitated Hartal 1953 affected Senanayake, who shortly stepped down. Kotelawala succeeded him as prime minister.

The 1956 elections was a landslide victory for the MEP as it gained a two-thirds majority in parliament and Bandaranaike was invited by the Governor General to form a government as the fourth prime minister of Ceylon in April 1956. He formed his cabinet with a collection of senior members of the parties that made up the MEP and several independents.[13]

Bandaranaike with Srimavo and E. L. Senanayake on 23 September 1959 in Kandy, two days before his assassination.

Bandaranaike died four years into his term, aged 60 on 26 September 1959, at the Merchant's Ward of the Colombo General Hospital due to wounds sustained after being shot by Talduwe Somarama, a Buddhist monk.[21][22][23]

On 25 September, Somarama had visited Bandaranaike at his private residence, Tintagel, in Rosmead Place, Colombo. Since Somarama appeared to be a member of the Buddhist clergy, he was not searched for weapons and given free access to the prime minister as he began his routine meetings with the public. The monk then fired a revolver at Bandaranaike as the latter stood to greet him; he was rushed to hospital but died the following day despite six hours of surgery by Ceylon's most skilled surgeons.[24] A Supreme court trial found Somarama, Mapitigama Buddharakkitha, H.P. Jayewardena guilty and pronounced on all three of them the death sentence (death by hanging). Although Bandaranaike's administration had suspended capital punishment, Talduwe Somarama was hanged on 6 July 1962. It was claimed by the court that the reason for the murder of the Bandaranaike, was due to Bandaranaike's refusal to entertain Buddharakitha Thero's requests following his support for Buddharakitha in the election.

After Bandaranaike's death, Wijeyananda Dahanayake, minister of education and the acting leader of the house, was appointed caretaker prime minister by the Governor General and was confirmed by Parliament. C. P. de Silva, the minister of lands, land development and agriculture, and the leader of the house had taken ill at a cabinet meeting on 25 August 1959 and was flown to the United Kingdom for treatment, making Dahanayake the acting leader of the house and had been put up by Bandaranaike as acting prime minister, during his planned visit to the UN.[25]

However, he fell out of favor with the members of the government, resulting in the removal of all ministers of the Bandaranaike's cabinet in less than a year. Eventually, the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party fell to Bandaranaike's widow Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike who held the SLFP to an election victory in July 1960 becoming the world's first female Prime Minister and was soon appointed a Senator.

Bandaranaike Samadhi- S.W.R.D.'s tomb at Horagolla, Sri Lanka

In 1940, he married Sirima Ratwatte, daughter of Barnes Ratwatte, Rate Mahatmaya of Balangoda. Ratwattes were an old Radala family hailing from the Kingdom of Kandy and the Bandaranaike's were an old and wealthy family from the low-country which had been in service of the colonial rulers for centuries. The wedding was dubbed "the wedding of the century" and linked Bandaranaike with the Kandyan elite through marriage.[26]

The newly married couple moved into Wentworth in Guilford Crescent, Colombo which was taken on rent from Lionel Wendt. Their first two children, Sunethra and Chandrika were born and the family stayed at Wentworth till 1946, when Sir Solomon bought a mansion at Rosmead Place, Colombo and the family settled into it. Here their only son Anura was born. Following the death of his father Sir Solomon, Bandaranaike inherited the family seat of Horagolla Walauwa in Atthanagalla. Atthanagalla became his home constituency for the future elections and remained the home constituency of his wife, daughter and son.

Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, as she was known after her marriage, became the first female prime minister in the world following Bandaranaike's assassination. His daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga subsequently became Prime Minister (1994) and then first female Executive president in the country; his only son Anura Bandaranaike went on to become Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka (2000–2001) and a Minister (2004–08); and his eldest Sunethra Bandaranaike, who followed her father's footsteps attending Oxford, became a prominent socialite.

Both a highly respected and controversial figure, he has been accused of initiating the racial discords in the island nation with his pro-Sinhalese nationalist policies.[27] His wife continued many of his socialist policies in later years of her administration.

On 17 July 1976, a bronze statue of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was unveiled on Galle Face Green, it was sculpted by Lev Kerbel and gifted from the Soviet Union.[28] The Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall was gifted from the People's Republic of China in his memory in 1970 and houses the S W R D Bandaranaike Museum.[29] The Bandaranaike International Airport, the first international airport in Ceylon was named in his honor when it was opened in 1970.

• LLD (honorary) - University of Ceylon

• S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike cabinet
• Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact
• List of political families in Sri Lanka

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• Website of the Parliament of Sri Lanka
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This page incorporates text from the Library of Congress's Country Studies series.