Philip Gunawardena - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) introduced Trotskyism

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, where he is a national hero, known as 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'.

Early life & education

Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena popularly known as Philip was born on 11 January 1901, to a well-to-do family in Boralugoda, Avissawella

Avissawella

Avissawella, also known as Seethawakapura or Seethawaka, is a town along the A4 route from Colombo on the Western Coast to Kalmunai in the Eastern Coast of Sri Lanka via Ratnapura, Pelmadulla, Balangoda and Wellawaya.- Overview :...

, in Sri Lanka.
He attended the local village school for his primary education and went on to the Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa

Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa

'Prince of Wales College is a School in Sri Lanka.The school is situated in Moratuwa, a suburb of Colombo. Prince of Wales' College was founded in 1876 by Sir Charles Henry de Soysa who was a famous 19th Century Sri Lankan philanthropist...

. He attended Ananda College

Ananda College

Ananda College , Colombo which is considered as the leading National school in Sri Lanka, was established on November 1, 1886, by the Buddhist Theosophical Society led by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott...

in Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

and then University College, Colombo. At the age of 21, he moved to the United States where he studied economics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He became radical minded and associated himself actively in the mass struggles which stormed the United States at the time.

Two years later, he moved to the more radical University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. where he met Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan , widely known as JP Narayan, Jayaprakash, or Loknayak, was an Indian independence activist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution...

. The two were introduced by Avrom Landy to the Communist Party of the United States. Woodward has recorded that Gunawardena received his training in Marxism from Scott Nearing (1883–1983). In 1925, he joined Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

for post-graduate work.

Early Political career in the US and Europe

In 1927 Gunawardena joined the League Against Imperialism

League against Imperialism

The League against Imperialism was founded in the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Belgium, on February 10, 1927, in presence of 175 delegates, among which 107 came from 37 countries under colonial rule. The Congress aimed at creating a "mass anti-imperialist movement" at a world scale, and was...

in New York, where he worked with José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos

José Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...

of Mexico, gaining a working knowledge of Spanish.

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. Shri Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

and Krishna Menon

Krishna Menon

Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon , commonly referred to as Krishna Menon, was an Indian nationalist, diplomat and statesman, described as the second most powerful man in India by Time Magazine and others, after his ally and intimate friend, Jawaharlal Nehru.Described as "vitriolic,...

of India, Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyattapron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation....

of Kenya, Tan Malaka

Tan Malaka

Tan Malaka was an Indonesian nationalist activist and communist leader. A staunch critic of both the colonial Dutch East Indies government and the republican Sukarno administration that governed the country after the Indonesian National Revolution, he was also frequently in conflict with the...

of Malaya, and Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam

Seewoosagur Ramgoolam

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam KT,GCMG,KCMG,LRCP, MRCS is the first Chief Minister, Prime Minister and sixth Governor General of Mauritius....

of Mauritius were some of his contemporary colleagues who later played prominent roles in their motherlands.

He joined the staff of the new Daily Worker
The Morning Star
The Morning Star is a left wing British daily tabloid newspaper with a focus on social and trade union issues. Articles and comment columns are contributed by writers from socialist, social democratic, green and religious perspectives....

and took over the Workers' Welfare League of India, an organisation founded by Shapurji Saklatvala

Shapurji Saklatvala

Shapurji Saklatvala was a British politician of Indian Parsi heritage. He was the third Indian Member of Parliament in the Parliament of the United Kingdom after fellow Parsis Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Bhownagree....

. He crossed the channel to Europe and worked with socialist groups in France and Germany.

'T-Group'

In the midst of the Comintern

Comintern

The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...

's 'Left Turn', Gunawardena surreptitiously joined the Marxian Propaganda League of FA Ridley and Hansraj Aggarwala, who opposed the Stalinists'

Stalinism

Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

characterisation of the Social Democratic parties as social fascist

Social fascism

Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International during the early 1930s, which believed that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism...

. When Ridley and Aggarwala broke with Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, Gunawardena sided with the latter. In 1932 he travelled on the Orient Express to meet Trotsky at Prinkipo, but was stopped at Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

by police.

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

Harry Pollitt

Harry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :...

. As a result, the Communist Party of Great Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

expelled him for Trotskyism.

However, he had gathered around him several like-minded Sri Lankans, including NM Perera, Colvin R de Silva and Leslie Goonewardena. They came to be known as the 'T-Group' - later forming the nucleus of the Trotskyist faction of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party

Lanka Sama Samaja Party

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka....

.

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

, under orders from the India Office

India Office

The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the colonial administration of India, i.e. the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as territories in South-east and Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of the east coast of Africa...

, thwarted him from his aim of going to India to build a new Communist Party there. He set out for the continent, meeting members of the Left Opposition

Left Opposition

The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...

in Paris. He then hiked over the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

to Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, where he had a rare opportunity to meet the Trotskyists

Communist Left of Spain

Communist Left of Spain was a Trotskyist political party during the Second Spanish Republic. Its central leader was Andres Nin, who had been a supporter of the Left Opposition while living in Russia...

of Spainwho were soon to undergo a civil war

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

Early political career in Sri Lanka and India

Soon after his return to Sri Lanka 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

Lanka Sama Samaja Party

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka....

(LSSP) in 1935. In 1936 he was elected to the State Council where he continued his struggle for the betterment of workers and peasants.

When World War II broke out Philip Gunawardena was detained on Governor's orders. However, he escaped to India and participated in the independence struggle there. In 1943 he was rearrested and detained in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, and after many months deported to Sri Lanka to be imprisoned till the end of war.

Post-war political career

On his release in 1945 he again started political and trade union activities. At the General Election in 1947 he was elected to the first Parliament to represent Avissawella seat, but soon he was unseated on his involvement in the General Strike in 1947, and lost his civic rights for seven years.

He led the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party

Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party

Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party was a group that broke away from the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, since Philip Gunawardena refused to reconcile with the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party...

(VLSSP) since 1951 and as constituent party formed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna

Mahajana Eksath Peramuna

The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna is a left-wing political party in Sri Lanka. Today the party is led by Dinesh Gunawardena, son of Philip Gunawardena....

(MEP, Peoples’ United Front) in 1956 under the leadership of Mr.SWRD Bandaranaike to form the first people's government in 1956 General Election. At that election, in 1956, he won the Avissawella seat with a large majority and served as a key member of the Cabinet of SWRD Bandaranaike as the Minister of Agriculture, Food, & Co-operatives. He is remembered as the architect of the Paddy Lands Bills which brought relief to the tenant cultivator and spearheaded the Port & Bus nationalization, introduction of Multipurpose Co-operatives movement and establishing of the People's Bank, those brought tremendous change to society in Sri Lanka.

Subsequently, Gunawardena served in the National Government of Mr.Dudley Senanayake

Dudley Senanayake

Dudley Shelton Senanayake was a Ceylonese politician, who became the second Prime Minister of Ceylon and went on to become prime minister on 2 more times during the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life:Dudley was born on 19 June, 1911 as the eldest son to Molly Dunuwila and Don Stephen Senanayake, who...

, 1965–1970, as the Cabinet Minister of Industries and Fisheries. He established the Industrial Development Board, strengthened & expanded state industrial corporations and national private sector industries, and planned the development of the Fisheries sector.

Philip Gunawardena married Kusuma (Amarasinha), in 1939, who later served as Member of Parliament from 1948–1960. They are parents to Indika (Ex-Cabinet Minister), Prasanna (Ex-Mayor of Colombo), Lakmali (State Award Winner of literature), Dinesh

Dinesh

Dinesh is a common Hindu male given name. It mainly means Din=Day + esh=God i.e. Sun. Dinesh is also referred as one of the name of Lord Ram in Lord Rama's Prayer done by Saint Tulsidasji - which is common aarti of Lord Rama done world-wide sung by famous Singers like Anuradha Podwal available in...

(Cabinet Minister & Chief Government Whip), & Gitanjana (Minister).

Philip Gunawardena died on 26 March 1972.

External links

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