Glossary of People and Terms (Work in Progress)

People

Sri Lankan government officials

Don Stephen (D.S.) Senanayake

Don Stephen Senanayake

1st Prime Minister of Ceylon (1947-1952)

The first prime minister of Ceylon/Lanka. He oversaw the Soulbury Commission and the adoption of the Soulbury Constitution thus transitioning Ceylon from a crown colony into a Commonwealth Realm under the British Empire. Lanka would not gain full independence from the British until the 70s under Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s premiership.

Almost immediately after Ceylon became a Commonwealth Realm under the waning British Empire, D.S. Senanayake launched a series of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist settler colonial projects in what was then southern Batticaloa District and Trincomalee Districts in the Eastern province of the island. Due to the massive influx of Sinhalese settlers in southern Batticaloa district spearheaded by D.S., southern Batticaloa was separated to create a new district: Ampara, with its capital Ampara being 99% Sinhalese.

Richard Gotabhaya (R.G.) Senanayake

Richard Gotabhaya Senanayake

Minister of Trade and Commerce (1952-1960)

D.S. Senanayake’s nephew. The only real confidante of D.S. Senanayake; he was extensively aware of D.S. Senanayake’s plans to colonize and occupy the Tamil majority areas of the island, a.k.a. Eelam.

Solomon West Ridgeway Dias (S.W.R.D.) Bandaranaike

Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike

Prime Minister of Ceylon (1956-1959)

The fourth prime minister of Ceylon and the first prime minister to represent the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Passed the Official Languages Act of 1956, also known as the Sinhala Only Act, which replaced English with Sinhala and excluded Tamil as an official language of the island. This along with the continuation of the settler colonies first spearheaded by D.S. Senanayake, led to two anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956 and 1958. The 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom largely occurred around the Sinhala Buddhist settler colonies created for the construction of the Gal Oya dam. The 1956 anti-Tamil pogroms roughly claimed 200 lives.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (1960-1965, 1970-1977, 1994-2000)

S.W.R.D’s wife and the world’s first woman prime minister. Started the Mahaweli colonization program, banned the import of Tamil newspapers and other Tamil language media from Tamil Nadu in India, required Sinhala to be used in legal proceedings thus barring due process to Tamils, and other apartheid like policies against Tamils. Was also responsible for the attack on the World Tamil Conference in Jaffna in 1974, killing 11 Tamils.

Junius Richard (J.R.) Jayewardene

Junius Richard Jayewardene

Prime Minister (1977-1978), President of Sri Lanka (1978-1989)

D.S. Senanayake’s distant relative. Accelerated Sirimavo’s Mahaweli colonization program and was ultimately responsible for the burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the Black July pogroms in July 1983, and oversaw the beginning phases of the war.