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Solomon Bandaranaike
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Solomon Bandaranaike | |
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| In office 1956 – 1959 |
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| Preceded by | John Lionel Kotalawela |
| Succeeded by | Wijeyananda Dahanayake |
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| Born | January 8, 1899 , Sri Lanka |
| Died | September 26, 1959 Colombo, Sri Lanka (assassinated) |
| Political party | Sri Lanka Freedom Party |
| Religion | Buddhist |
Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (January 8, 1899 – September 26, 1959) was the fourth Prime Minister (1956-1959) of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka).
He was the husband of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who became the first female prime minister in the world following his assassination. He was father of Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was subsequently Prime Minister and President of Sri Lanka; Sunethra Bandaranaike and Anura Bandaranaike.
Bandaranaike was born in Colombo, Ceylon to an elite Sinhalese Anglican Christian family and was the son of the powerful Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranike the Maha Mudaliyar (the chief native interpreter and advisor to the Governor) during British colonial rule. In later life he converted to Buddhism. He was educated at Oxford University, England, where he was Secretary of the famous Oxford Union. He later qualified as a Barrister in England.
He entered politics as a member of the United National Party and rose to hold a cabinet position. As a young lawyer he became active in the United National Party (UNP) and from 1931 to 1951 served the party in legislative and ministerial posts. In 1951, Bandaranaike led his faction, the Sinhala Maha Sabha, out of the UNP and established the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
In order to promote Sinhalese culture and community interests, Bandaranaike had organized the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1937. He became prime minister after winning the 1956 elections at the head of a four-party coalition. As such, Bandaranaike made Sinhalese the official language of the country and downgraded the official status of English and Tamil and promoted socialist, non-Western policies that profoundly changed the course of Ceylonese politics in the following decades. Since the 1950s, SLFP platforms have reflected the earlier organization's emphasis on appealing to the sentiments of the Sinhalese masses in rural areas. To this basis has been added the antiestablishment appeal of nonrevolutionary socialism.
On the sensitive issue of language, the party originally espoused the use of both Sinhala and Tamil as national languages, but in the mid-1950s it adopted a "Sinhala only" policy, a change that gave the party a landslide victory in the 1956 election. As a party that says it is a champion of the Buddhist religion, which had been attacked by local Christians and Tamils alike during the colonial era. The SLFP has customarily relied upon the socially and politically influential Buddhist clergy, the sangha, to carry its message to the Sinhalese villages.
As prime minister, he took a neutralist stance in foreign affairs; domestically, he was faced by economic problems and disputes over languages. He is also remembered by the minority Sri Lankan Tamils for his inaction to use the states resources to control the 1958 riots leading to countless deaths and rapes by the Sinhalese mobs. Decades later, the continuing ethnic tension resulted in the Sri Lankan Civil War .
He was assassinated by Talduwe Somarama, a Buddhist monk, in 1959, and his wife, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, assumed leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. She became the world's first woman Prime Minister and held the post three times.
This page incorporates text from the Library of Congress's Country Studies series.
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by John Lionel Kotalawela |
Prime Minister of Ceylon 1956–1959 |
Succeeded by Wijeyananda Dahanayake |