Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Road to Independence
Growing Nationalism
The dawning of the 20th century was an important time for the grassroots Sri Lankan na-
tionalist movement. Towards the end of the 19th century, Buddhist and Hindu campaigns
were established with the dual aim of making the faiths more contemporary in the wake of
European colonialism, and defending traditional Sri Lankan culture against the impact of
Christian missionaries. The logical progression was for these groups to demand greater Sri
Lankan participation in government, and by 1910 they had secured the minor concession
of allowing Sri Lankans to elect one lonely member to the Legislative Council.
By 1919 the nationalist mission was formalised as the Ceylon National Congress. The
Sinhalese-nationalist activist Anagarika Dharmapala was forced to leave the country, and
the mantle for further change was taken up by a variety of youth leagues, some Sinhalese
and some Tamil. In 1927 Mahatma Gandhi visited Tamil youth activists in Jaffna, provid-
ing further momentum to the cause.
Further reform came in 1924, when a revision to the constitution allowed for represent-
ative government, and again in 1931, when a new constitution finally included the island's
leaders in the parliamentary decision-making process and granted universal suffrage.
Under the constitution no one ethnic community could dominate the political process, and
a series of checks and balances ensured all areas of the government were overseen by a
committee drawn from all ethnic groups. However, both Sinhalese and Tamil political
leaders failed to thoroughly support the country's pre-independence constitution, foreshad-
owing the problems that were to characterise the next eight decades.
Not an easy read but an important one,
When Memory Dies,
by A Sivanandan, is a tale of
the ethnic crisis and its impact on one family over three generations.
From Ceylon to Sri Lanka
Following India's independence in 1947, Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then called) became
fully independent on 4 February 1948. Despite featuring members from all of the island's
ethnic groups, the ruling United National Party (UNP) really only represented the interests
of an English-speaking elite. The UNP's decision to try to deny the 'Plantation Tamils' cit-
