View source for Philip Gunawardena

{{Short description|Sri Lankan politician}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Honorable|Hon.]]
| name             = Philip Gunawardena
| honorific-suffix = 
| image            = Philip-Gunawardena.jpg
| caption          = 
| order            = 
| office1           = [[Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development|Minister of Fisheries and Industry]]
| monarch1          = [[Elizabeth II]]
| primeminister1    = [[Dudley Senanayake]]
| term_start1       = 1965
| term_end1         = 1970
| predecessor1      = [[W. J. C. Munasinha]]
| successor1        = [[George Rajapaksa]]
| office2           = [[Ministry of Agriculture (Sri Lanka)|Minister of Agriculture and Food]]
| monarch2          = [[Elizabeth II]]
| primeminister2    = [[S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike]]
| term_start2       = 1956
| term_end2         = 1959
| predecessor2      = [[J. R. Jayewardene]]
| successor2        = [[C. P. de Silva]]
| office3           = 
| constituency_MP3  = [[Avissawella Electoral District|Avissawella]]
| parliament3       = Ceylon 
| term_start3       = 1956
| term_end3         = 1970
| predecessor3      = [[Kusumasiri Gunawardena]]
| successor3        = [[Bonnie Jayasuriya]]
| term_start4       = 1947
| term_end4         = 1947
| predecessor4      = 
| successor4        = [[Kusumasiri Gunawardena]]
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1901|01|11|df=y}}
| birth_place      = Boralugoda, [[Avissawella]], [[British Ceylon]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1972|03|26|1901|01|11|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Colombo]], [[Dominion of Ceylon]]
| nationality      = [[Sri Lanka]]n
| party            = [[Mahajana Eksath Peramuna]]
| otherparty       = [[Lanka Sama Samaja Party]]
| spouse           = [[Kusumasiri Gunawardena]]
| children         = [[Indika Gunawardena]],<br> [[Prasanna Gunawardena]], <br>Lakmali Gunawardena, <br>[[Dinesh Gunawardena]], <br>[[Gitanjana Gunawardena]]
| residence        = 
| alma_mater       = [[Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa]] <br> [[Ananda College]] <br> [[University of Colombo]] <br> [[University of Illinois]]
| occupation       = [[Politician]]
| profession       = 
| religion         = 
| signature        =
| website          = 
| footnotes        =
}}

'''Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dhanapala |first=D.B. |title=Among Those Present |date=1963 |publisher=D.B. Nihalsinghe |isbn=978-955-53462-0-7 |edition=2nd |location=Colombo, Sri Lanka |publication-date=2012 |pages=136–144}}</ref> (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) was a [[Sri Lanka]]n [[Marxist]] politician and leftist. A founder of the [[Lanka Sama Samaja Party]], the first political party in [[Ceylon]] which was known for having introduced [[Trotskyism]], he later founded the [[Mahajana Eksath Peramuna]] (along with [[William de Silva]]) and was called 'the Father of Socialism' and  'the Lion of Boralugoda'. A member of the [[State Council of Ceylon]] and the [[Parliament of Ceylon]], he served as the [[Ministry of Agriculture (Sri Lanka)|Minister of Agriculture and food]] under [[S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike]] from 1956 to 1959 and as [[Minister of Industries and Fisheries (Ceylon)|Minister of Industries and Fisheries]] in the national government under [[Dudley Senanayake]] from 1965 to 1970.

==Early life and family==
Born Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena on 11 January 1901 in the rural village of Boralugoda in the [[Avissawella]] in the Hevagam Korale. His mother was Dona Liyanora Gunasekera from Dompe in the Siyana Korale. His father was Don Jakolis Rupasinghe Gunawardena, known as ''Boralugoda Ralahamy'' was a local landowner who served as the [[village headman]] (Ralahamy) and [[Vidane Arachchi]] until he was imprisoned and sentenced to death under [[martial law]] during the [[1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots]], sentence was later reprieved by the Governor following a petition by his wife. He was the third child of a family of three boys and seven girls, which included [[Robert Gunawardena]] and [[Caroline Anthonypillai]] who became leftist politicians. [[Vivienne Goonewardena]] was his niece.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gunawardena, Don Jacolis Rupasinghe (Boralugoda Appuhamy - The Lion of Boralugoda) 1879-1947 - Family #3069 |url=http://www.worldgenweb.org/lkawgw/gen3069.html |website=worldgenweb.org |publisher=Sri Lanka Genealogy Website - Sinhalese Family Genealogy |access-date=9 June 2021}}</ref>

==Education==
Having attended the local temple Boralugoda Temple and the village school Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Kaluaggala for his primary education, he attended the [[Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa]] and [[Ananda College]] in [[Colombo]] for his secondary education. When studying at Ananda College, he was boarded at the house of [[T. B. Jayah]]. Having passed his London matriculation, he entered the [[University College, Colombo]] to study economics and soon joined the [[Ceylon National Congress]], but was drawn towards the activities of the Young Lanka League.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2008/03/23/fea02.asp|title=Remembering Philip Gunawardena, a man of the people |date=2008-03-23|website=Sunday Observer|language=en|access-date=2020-10-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archives.dailynews.lk/2009/03/26/fea01.asp|title=Philip Gunawardena, an illustrious son of the soil |date=2009-03-26|website=Daily News|language=en|access-date=2020-10-04}}</ref>

===Studies in the United States===
His father wanted him to study in the United Kingdom and become a [[barrister]]. Instead at the age of 21, he traveled to the United States where he studied economics at the [[University of Illinois]], there he was radicalized and got caught up in the [[Labor_history_of_the_United_States#Weakness_of_organized_labor,_1920–1929|declining labor movement]] during the [[Great Depression]]. Two years later, he moved to the more radical [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], where he met [[Jayaprakash Narayan]]. The two were introduced by [[Avrom Landy]] to the [[Communist Party of the United States]].<ref name=Ervin>Charles Wesley Ervin, ''Tomorrow is Ours:the Trotskyist Movement in India and Ceylon, 1935–48'', Colombo: Social Scientists Association, 2006</ref> Woodward has recorded that Gunawardena received his training in Marxism from Scott Nearing (1883–1983). He completed [[Bachelor of Science]] and [[Master of Science]] degrees in agricultural economics. In 1925, he joined [[Columbia University]] for post-graduate doctoral studies.

==Early political career in the United States and Europe==
In 1927 Gunawardena joined the [[League Against Imperialism]] in New York, where he worked with [[José Vasconcelos]] of Mexico, gaining a working knowledge of Spanish.<ref name="Ervin" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/40829|title="Boralugoda Sinhaya"Philip Gunawardena Tried to Blend Nationalism and Marxism Into "Jathika Samajavadaya"|last=Administrator|date=2015-04-22|website=dbsjeyaraj.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-07|archive-date=17 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817052541/https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/40829|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1929 he went to London, where he participated in mass agitations and anti-colonial movements, excelling as a brilliant orator, trade unionist, and political columnist. [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and [[Krishna Menon]] of India, [[Jomo Kenyatta]] of Kenya, [[Tan Malaka]] of Indonesia, and [[Seewoosagur Ramgoolam]] of Mauritius were some of his contemporary colleagues who later played prominent roles in their respective countries.<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{Cite book|last=Ervin|first=Charles W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IPSAAAAIAAJ|title=Philip Gunawardena: the making of a revolutionary|date=January 2001|publisher=Social Scientists' Association|isbn=978-955-9102-34-2|language=en}}</ref>

He joined the staff of the new ''[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Daily Worker]]'' and took over the [[Shapurji Saklatvala|Workers' Welfare League of India]], an organisation founded by [[Shapurji Saklatvala]]. He later crossed the channel to Europe and worked alongside socialist groups in France and Germany.<ref name="Ervin" />

==='T-Group'===
In the midst of the [[Comintern]]'s 'Left Turn', Gunawardena surreptitiously joined the Marxian Propaganda League of [[FA Ridley]] and Hansraj Aggarwala, who opposed the [[Stalinism|Stalinists']] characterisation of the [[Social Democratic]] parties as [[Social fascism|social fascist]]. When Ridley and Aggarwala broke with [[Leon Trotsky]], Gunawardena sided with the latter. In 1932 he travelled on the Orient Express to meet Trotsky at [[Prinkipo]], but was stopped at [[Sofia]] by police.<ref name="Ervin" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Guṇavardhana|first1=Pilip|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/32862472|title=Philip Gunawardena : the state council years 1936-1942 : speeches made in the Legislature|last2=Meegama|first2=Ananda|last3=Society|first3=Philip Gunawardena Commemoration|date=2006|publisher=Colombo : Godage International Publishers|isbn=978-955-20-9707-2|edition=1st|language=English}}</ref>

At the British conference of the League Against Imperialism, in May 1932, Gunawardena introduced a counter-resolution on India against those moved by [[Harry Pollitt]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2020/01/15/local/208480/parliamentary-speeches-philip-gunawardena-released|title=Parliamentary speeches of Philip Gunawardena released|website=Daily News|language=en|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref> As a result, the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] expelled him for Trotskyism.<ref name="Ervin" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Alexander|first=Robert Jackson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eUtQjseKaIC&q=Philip+Gunawardena&pg=PA188|title=International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement|date=1991|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-1066-2|language=en}}</ref>

However, he had gathered around him several like-minded Ceylonese, including [[N. M. Perera]], [[Colvin R de Silva]] and [[Leslie Goonewardena|Leslie Goonewardene]]. They came to be known as the 'T-Group' – later forming the nucleus of the Trotskyist faction of the [[Lanka Sama Samaja Party]].<ref name="Ervin" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archives1.sundayobserver.lk/2017/03/26/news/philip-gunawardena-commemoration|title=Philip Gunawardena commemoration|date=2017-03-25|website=Sunday Observer|language=en|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref>

[[Scotland Yard]], under orders from the [[India Office]], thwarted him from his aim of going to India to build a new Communist Party there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v15/d190|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, South and Southeast Asia, Volume XV - Office of the Historian|website=history.state.gov|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref> He set out for the continent, meeting members of the [[Left Opposition]] in Paris. He then hiked over the [[Pyrenees]] to [[Barcelona]], where he had a rare opportunity to meet the [[Communist Left of Spain|Trotskyists]] of Spain{{spaced ndash}}who were soon to undergo a [[Spanish Civil War|civil war]].<ref name="Ervin" /> His passport was impounded by the British authorities and on the urging of [[Don Baron Jayatilaka|D. B. Jayatilaka]] at the request of his father he was allowed to return to Ceylon.

==Pre-war political career==
===Ceylonese colonial political===
Soon after his return to Ceylon in November 1932, he plunged into active politics organising rural peasants, plantation workers and urban workers. He pioneered the founding of [[Lanka Sama Samaja Party]] (LSSP) in 1935. In 1936 he was elected to the [[State Council of Ceylon]] from his home town of [[Avissawella]], defeating [[Forester Augustus Obeysekera|F. A. Obeysekera]] where he continued his struggle for the betterment of workers and peasants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/g/u.htm|title=Glossary of People: Gu|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Llc|first=Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbDIbwAACAAJ|title=Sri Lankan Communists: Tissa Wijeyeratne, Philip Gunawardena, N. Shanmugathasan, Hedi Stadlen, Rohana Wijeweera, Saman Piyasiri Fernando|date=September 2010|publisher=General Books LLC|isbn=978-1-157-34347-9|language=en}}</ref>

===Opposition to the war effort and imprisonment===
When [[World War II]] brock out in the far east in 1941, the LSSP openly opposed to the British war effort and its members had to go underground. Philip Gunawardena was arrested and imprisoned due to his open opposition to the British war effort on the Governor's orders. On 5 April 1942, during the [[Easter Sunday Raid|Japanese air raid on Colombo]], LSSP leaders including Gunawardena were able to escape from prison. Going by the name  Gurusamy, in July 1942 he escaped to India and participated in the independence struggle there. As a result his seat in the State Council made vacant in July 1942 and was filled by [[Bernard Jayasuriya]] in the by election that followed. In 1943 he was rearrested and detained in [[Mumbai]], and after many months deported to Ceylon to where he was given a six month sentence for escaping and was imprisoned till the end of war.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/47th-Death-Anniversary-of-Philip-Gunawardena---March-26-The-Fiery-Marxist-who-Valued--Local-Culture/172-164507|title=47th Death Anniversary of Philip Gunawardena - March 26 The Fiery Marxist who Valued Local Culture|website=www.dailymirror.lk|language=English|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref>

==Post-war political career==
On his release in 1945, he resumed his political and trade union activities. The LSSP had split during the war and Gunawardena and N. M. Perera had formed the ''Workers' Opposition''. The reformed LSSP contested the [[1947 Ceylonese parliamentary election|1947 general election]] and emerged as the main opposition party with 10 seats in the [[1st Parliament of Ceylon|first Parliament]]. Gunawardena who contested from the [[Avissawella Electoral District|Avissawella electorate]] defeating Bernard Jayasuriya was elected to Parliament. His brother [[Robert Gunawardena]] was also elected to parliament from the LSSP from [[Kotte Electoral District|Kotte]]. However, he soon lost his seat when he was convicted by the district court and sentenced to three months rigorous imprisonment for leading employees of the South Western Transport Company owned by [[Cyril de Zoysa|Sir Cyril de Zoysa]] in a general strike in 1947. As a result of the conviction he lost his [[civic rights]] for seven years. In the by-election that followed, his wife [[Kusumasiri Gunawardena]] won the Avissawella seat.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.island.lk/2001/01/11/featur02.html|title=featur02|website=www.island.lk|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref> 

===Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party===
A process of reunification was initiated between the LSSP and the [[Bolshevik Samasamaja Party]] (BSP) in 1950, which was opposed by Gunawardena<ref>{{Cite book|last=Alexander|first=Robert Jackson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eUtQjseKaIC&q=LSSP+became+fourth+international+1950&pg=PA186|title=International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement|date=1991|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-1066-2|language=en}}</ref> as a result he left the LSSP and formed a new party, [[Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party]] (VLSSP) in 1951.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scalapino|first=Robert A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9hKCAAAAIAAJ&q=Viplavakari+Lanka+Sama+Samaja+Party+foundation|title=The Communist Revolution in Asia: Tactics, Goals, and Achievements|date=1965|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=9780131530492|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Kearney 1983 17–33">{{Cite journal|last=Kearney|first=Robert N.|date=1983|title=The Political Party System in Sri Lanka|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2150202|journal=Political Science Quarterly|volume=98|issue=1|pages=17–33|doi=10.2307/2150202|jstor=2150202|issn=0032-3195|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Fall of the Leftist Movement|url=https://archive.ceylontoday.lk/features-more/2878 |website=CeylonToday |language=en |access-date=2020-07-08}}</ref> The VLSSP entered into an electoral alliance with the [[Communist Party of Sri Lanka|Communist Party]] and contested the [[1952 Ceylonese parliamentary election|1952 general election]], in which his wife Kusumasiri Gunawardena was returned to parliament from Avissawella as the only candidate from the VLSSP to be elected.

===Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Co-operatives===
He led the [[Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party]] (VLSSP) since 1951 and as a constituent party formed the [[Mahajana Eksath Peramuna]] (MEP, Peoples' United Front) in 1956 under the leadership of [[S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike]] to form what it call the "first people's government" in [[1956 Ceylonese parliamentary election|1956 general election]]. At that election, in 1956, he won the Avissawella seat with a large majority and was appointed as a key member of the Bandaranaike's cabinet as the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Co-operatives.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=A. Jeyaratnam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj22Puk37IUC&q=Philip+Gunawardena&pg=PA125|title=Electoral Politics in an Emergent State: The Ceylon General Election of May 1970|date=2010-06-10|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-15311-9|language=en}}</ref> He is remembered as the architect of the ''Paddy Lands Act'' which brought relief to the tenant cultivator and spearheaded the Port and Bus nationalization, introduction of Multipurpose Co-operatives movement and establishing of the [[People's Bank (Sri Lanka)|Co-operative Bank]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsfirst.lk/tag/47th-commemoration-of-the-late-philip-gunawardena/|title=47th commemoration of the late Philip Gunawardena Archives|website=Sri Lanka News - Newsfirst|language=en|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref> At the 1959 [[May Day]] rally, Gunawardena claimed that the government was threatened by a conspiracy within and on 18 May 1959, Gunawardena resigned from his ministerial position with other VLSSP members citing differences with right wing factions of the Bandaranaike's cabinet. [[Assassination of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike|Bandaranaike was assassinated]] on 26 September 1959. 

===Mahajana Eksath Peramuna===
In 1959, he reformed the VLSSP into the [[Mahajana Eksath Peramuna]] (MEP) which was a leftist in ideology, but was not Trotskyist. MEP contested the [[March 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election|March 1960 general election]] winning ten parliamentary seats, however this number was reduced to three [[July 1960 Ceylonese parliamentary election|in the July 1960 general election]]. Gunawardena retained his seat in parliament on both occasions and later the MEP joined in with the LSSP and the Communist Party to form the United Left Front.<ref>{{cite news |title=Philip Gunawardena an illustrious son of the soil |url=http://archives.dailynews.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2009/03/26/fea01.asp |access-date=9 June 2021 |work=Daily News}}</ref>   

===Minister of Industries and Fisheries===
In 1964, the [[Sri Lanka Freedom Party]] government of [[Sirima Bandaranaike]] lost its majority in parliament after over its move to nationalize [[Lakehouse Newspapers]] and the defection of [[C. P. de Silva]]. In the election that followed in 1965, only Gunawardena was elected parliament from the MEP and he joined the national government led by [[Dudley Senanayake]] and was appointed as the Cabinet Minister of Industries and Fisheries and served till 1970. He established the Industrial Development Board, strengthened and expanded state industrial corporations and national private sector industries, and planned the development of the fisheries sector with the formation of the Fisheries Corporation. Soviet aid he developed the Tyre Corporations and Steel Corporation. <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ft.lk/opinion/Philip-Gunawardena--Highly-intelligent--well-read-and-acutely-observant-master-of-trade/14-695299|title=Philip Gunawardena: Highly intelligent, well-read and acutely observant master of trade {{!}} Daily FT|website=www.ft.lk|language=English|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref> 

==Last years==
He lost his parliamentary seat in the [[1970 Ceylonese parliamentary election|1970 general election]] to Bonnie Jayasuriya of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He started on a process of reorganizing the MEP before he fell ill, he died on 26 March 1972 at the age of 72 after a long illness.<ref>{{cite news |title=GUNAWARDENA DIES; CEYLONESE MARXIST |work=The New York Times |date=28 March 1972 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/28/archives/gunawa-ardena-dies-ceylons-marxist.html |access-date=9 June 2021 }}</ref> His seat was contested by his son [[Dinesh Gunawardena]] in the [[1977 Sri Lankan parliamentary election|1977 general election]] and lost to M. D. Premaratne from the United National Party. He finally entered parliament in 1983 from a by-election in [[Maharagama]].

==Personal life==
Philip Gunawardena married [[Kusumasiri Gunawardena|Kusuma Amarasinha]], in 1939, who later served as member of parliament from 1948 to 1960. They are parents to [[Indika Gunawardena]] former cabinet minister, [[Prasanna Gunawardena]] former mayor of Colombo, Lakmali Gunawardena state award winner of literature, [[Dinesh Gunawardena]] current [[Prime Minister of Sri Lanka]], and [[Gitanjana Gunawardena]] former minister.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gunawardena|first=Charles A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hWLQSMPddikC&q=Philip+Gunawardena&pg=PA172|title=Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka|date=2005|publisher=Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd|isbn=978-1-932705-48-5|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.colombotelegraph.com/|title=Colombo Telegraph|website=Colombo Telegraph|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref> His niece was [[Vivienne Goonewardene]], who married [[Leslie Goonewardene]], another founder of the [[Lanka Sama Samaja Party|LSSP]].<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/> His grandson [[Yadamini Gunawardena]] was appointed to parliament from the [[National List (Sri Lanka)|national list]] of the [[Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance]].

== See also ==
*[[List of political families in Sri Lanka]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.infolanka.com/org/diary/241.html Philip Gunawardena was a Great Politician]
*[http://www.island.lk/2008/08/22/features3.html   Fifty years of the Paddy Lands Act of 1958] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227153938/http://www.island.lk/2008/08/22/features3.html|date=27 December 2017}}

{{LSSP}}
{{MEP}}

{{Members of 1st Parliament of Ceylon}}
{{Members of 3rd Parliament of Ceylon}}
{{Members of 4th Parliament of Ceylon}}
{{Members of 5th Parliament of Ceylon}}
{{Members of 6th Parliament of Ceylon}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunawardena, Philip}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
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[[Category:Agriculture ministers of Sri Lanka]]
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