www.tamilarangam.net Year Date Photo Event AD The local people set up the Low Country Producers‟ 1908 Association (LCPA), as a counter to the European- controlled Chamber of Commerce. AD The Legislative Council is enlarged to include 1911 “unofficial” Ceylonese members and with it a new platform emerges for the articulation of demands for further participation. With this political advance, the Sinhalese and Tamil elite come together as equal partners on a vague platform of proto-nationalism engendered by class interest and not on the basis of anti-colonialism or a desire for political liberation. Their separate ethnic loyalties and identities are nevertheless held intact but are temporarily subsumed by the desire for political consolidation. The high rising inter-Sinhalese class rivalry contributes to leadership roles falling into the hands of Tamils. As the Karava caste Sinhalese remain economically and politically dominant, the Goygama caste Sinhalese are hell-bent on ending such Karava dominance, at least politically. In the election to the Legislative Council, the Goygama elite support Sir P Ramanathan, against Sir Marcus Fernando, a Karava Sinhalese, and Ramanathan is elected. AD Rioting Sinhalese attack Muslims in the Kandyan areas. 1916 The colonial government, mistaking the Sinhalese- Muslim riots for an insurrection, declares martial law, resorting to repression and imprison Sinhalese political leaders including Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka, Don Stephen Senanayake and W A de Silva. Sir Pon Ramanathan, as a member of the Legislative Council blames the government for over-reacting and successfully obtains their release and lifting of martial law. This strengthens their unity leading to the founding of the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) in 1919. AD Pon Ramanathan‟s brother, Sir P Arunachalam, is elected 1919 as the first president of the Ceylon National Congress (CNC). CNC dominates Sri Lanka‟s politics as a conservative political organisation until independence. With political advance and economic consolidation, the interests of the local businessmen come into conflict with their European counterparts. Their spokesmen allege that they are denied equal facilities in commerce, banking and business. The Tamil politician K Balasingham advocates protectionist tariff policies. jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; www.tamilarangam.net AD The British colonial government‟s constitutional reform 1920 introduces territorially-elected representation and enlarges the Legislative Council to 23 members, with an unofficial majority, for the Sinhalese. The Sinhalese leadership is accused of going back on an earlier pledge given to the Tamils “to actively support a provision for the reservation of a seat to the Tamils in the Western province”, and denying nomination to Tamil leader P Arunachalam for the Colombo Town seat in the 1920 election. In consequence, the Tamil leadership, viewing their counterpart as unworthy and dishonourable political allies, leaves the Ceylon National Congress and forms a segregated political pressure group – The Tamil Mahajana Sabha. The Kandyan Sinhalese, suspicious of the low-country Sinhalese and the Congress, form the Kandyan Association and assert the distinctiveness of “the Kandyan nationality”. The prestigious civil service, the apex of the colonial administrative structure hitherto the preserve of foreigners and the privileged, opens up to local people. AD Munidasa Cumaratunga, referred to as Guru Devi (The 1922 Teacher-God) and reverently called Cumaratunga Muni (Cumaratunga the Sage) attacks the de-nationalised character of the Sinhalese leaders and presses the need to use Sinhalese in the affairs of state and declares: “If people whom we send to the legislature cannot come into our midst and speak to us in our language about what is needed for the development of our own country, we will never be able to enjoy the benefits of self-government. At the next general election let us adopt a new policy; let us say beforehand that we shall not vote for a person who will not pledge himself to speak exclusively in Sinhalese in the Council.” On account of these attacks, some Sinhalese politicians hasten to discover their forgotten past. They begin to learn the Sinhala language, abondon Christianity, re- embrace Buddhism, discard Western attaire and don local attaire, calling it the “Aryan-Sinhalese” dress. Muththu Thambipillai publishes “Ealamandalap Pulavar Saritham”, the first history book of Ealam Tamil poets. AD Ceylon National Congress elects C E Corea, a Sinhalese 1924 moderate politician, as a proof of Congress‟s desire to secure unity and co-operation with the Tamils and jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; www.tamilarangam.net Kandyan Sinhalese. AD The Kandyan Association describing the constitutional 1925 reforms proposed by Ceylon National Congress as one that “threatens to destroy the position of the Kandyans” urges Kandyans to leave the Congress and found their own political organisation – the Kandyan National Assembly. Solomon West Ridgeway (named after British Governor Sir Joseph West Ridgeway) Dias Bandaranaike, returns to Ceylon from Oxford. He apologises to a delegation of his Walauwa (manor) for not being able to speak to them in Sinhalese and being a member of a Westernised family which had converted to Christianity, soon begins to learn Sinhalese, re-embrace Buddhism and adopt the local dress. AD The 1920-24 constitutional reforms, cumulatively 1926 referred to as the Manning Constitution, create a Sri Lankan majority in the legislative council and bring about confrontation between the legislature and the executive. Pressure mounts on British civil servants and attack on government policies increase resulting in a deadlock, paralysing the administration. The Governor Sir Hugh Clifford openly announces that “it is impossible for the government to carry on its administrative duties” and requests the Colonial Office to send a special commission to recommend changes to the constitutional structure. The Tamil politician A Mahadeva calls to promote and protect the Ceylonese interest and attacks the European economic domination. Mahadeva says in the State Council: “something should be done to develop and promote our interests, and also to adopt some system of protection for the Ceylonese. “… How much of the enormous profits do we share? What proportion of it goes out of the island…. The profits are mostly distributed among absentee landlords and absentee shareholders. We are unable, in the face of local monopoly that is actually in the hands of the European merchants and the European mercantile community, to contest or wrest from them any share in the commercial development of the island, or any share in the profits. The profits of accumulating capital are jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; www.tamilarangam.net entirely and jealously guarded by the European ring.” AD A special commission, under the chairmanship of the 1927 Earl of Donoughmore, arrives in Ceylon in November with terms of reference to: “visit Ceylon and report on the working of the existing constitution and on any difficulties of administration which may have arisen in connection with it; to consider any proposals for the revision of the constitution that may be put forward, and to report what, if any, amendments of the Order-in-Council now in force should be made.” Many organisations and public figures send memoranda and make representations before the commission. The Ceylon National Congress urges the extension of territorial representation and asks for full responsible government, but opposes the introduction of adult franchise, which the commission proposes. The Tamil leadership, on the other hand, press for the continuation of communal representation, introduced in 1923, which brought Sinhalese and Tamil representations in the legislative council to 2:1. The Kandyan National Assembly requests a federal system of government. Its memorandum states: “Ours is….. a claim of a nation to live its own life and realise its own destiny…. We suggest the creation of a Federal State as in the United states of America…. A Federal system….. will enable the respective territories to build up their own nationality.” Many public figures, both Sinhalese and Tamils, go before the Commission and declare that their respective castes, creeds and communities would perish if their rights are not safeguarded by special representation in the legislature. The Kandyans and the Tamils in particular, want British rule as a necessary safeguard against any possible low-country Sinhalese domination. AD Donoughmore Commission Report: The Donoughmore 1928 Commission makes many recommendations of far- reaching significance. It recommends the abolition of representation on ethnic and communal lines and an extension of territorial representation. In doing so the commission reports: “Territorial electorates, drawn with no eye to the jkpo;j; Njrpa Mtzr; Rtbfs; www.tamilarangam.net distribution of communities, mean rule by the majority community with no safeguard for the minorities, while safeguards for the minorities inevitably deepen the division of the nation on communal lines. “In surveying the situation in Ceylon, we have come unhesitatingly to the conclusion that communal representation is, as it were, a canker in the body politic, eating deeper and deeper into the vital energies of the people, breeding self-interest, suspicion and animosity, poisoning the new growth of political consciousness and effectively preventing the development of a nation or corporate spirit… There can be no