100 YEARS AFTER SWRD BANDARANAIKE'S CLARION CALL FOR FEDERALISM

Dr. Rohan Edrisingha in his illuminating essay 'Federalism: myths and realities' makes the following observation -"It is significant to note that long before Tamil political leaders advocated federalism, the young S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike in the mid 1920's and the Kandyan Sinhalese representatives before the Donoughmore Commission in the late 1920's were advocates of a federal Sri Lanka.

- By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The agreement signed by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike and S.J.V. Chelvanayagam on 26 July 1957 was a significant event in the political history of post-independence Sri Lanka

The Kandyan Sinhalese proposed a federal Ceylon with three provinces including a province for the North-East. In fact it is possible to argue that it was the Kandyan Sinhalese and not the Ceylon Tamils who were not only the champions of a federal Ceylon but also the merger of the North and the East. The Kandyan Sinhalese in fact viewed themselves as a nation and many of the documents of the organisations they established to advance their cause used language and arguments similar to Tamil nationalists and Tamil political groups in the more recent past. They were concerned about the influx of low-country Sinhalese into the Kandyan region".

It could be seen therefore that federalism was first proposed by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike the greatest intellectual among Sinhala political leaders of that era who advocated some form of federalism as the only solution as far back as 1926. Kandyan Sinhala leaders recommended a federal arrangement of two units for low and up-country Sinhalese and one unit comprising the North-East for Tamils in 1927.

Ironically the Sri Lankan Tamils rejected federalism when recommended by the Sinhalese. If Sri Lankan Tamil political leaders had availed themselves of the opportunity and demanded that the British grant federalism for the Tamils of the North and East there was every chance that the request might have been acceded to. The Kandyan Sinhala and Sri Lankan Tamil political leaders could have pressurised the low-country Sinhala leaders in a political pincer. Yet this did not happen.

The Sri Lankan Tamil political leaders did not demand federalism or even a separate state while the British were ruling. Instead these demands were raised by Tamil leaders only after the British left our shores.