Dr. Sudath Gunasekara 31.1. 2019.

Did this country get any Independence in 1948?   Are we an Independent country at all, at least after 70 years of so-called Independence? 

Independence in respect of any given country means the power for self-governing without control or authority of another country or an outside party.

 As history records we are supposed to have got independence from British rule in 1948. Now that the much hyped Independence Day celebrations (Jatika Day as the present Government calls it) is again around the corner for the 71st time, I posit this question very seriously to the whole nation. Has this country got any Independence in 1948 in the above self-governing context that is worthy of  such fanfare and wastage of public funds  Are we independent at all, at least now, after 71 years of so-called independence? The BOLD BIG answer, in my opinion, is NO, NOT AT All.

“Actual independence for the dominion of Ceylon came on February 4, 1948, when the constitution of 1947 went into effect. The constitution provided for a bicameral legislature with a popularly elected House of Representatives and a Senate that was partly nominated and partly elected indirectly by members of the House of Representatives. A Prime Minister and his cabinet, chosen from the largest political group in the legislature, held collective responsibility, for executive functions. The Governor-General, as head of state, represented the British monarch. In matters that the constitution failed to address, the conventions of the United Kingdom were observed.”as Wikipedia roecords it”

The Constitution referred to here is the Soulbury Constitution that was made in England by Ivor Jennings, for the Dominion of Ceylon as it was called then. A Dominion is described as a self-governing territory within the British Commonwealth of Nations. This clearly implies that Ceylon continued to be a part of the group of countries defined as the British Commonwealth of Nations that included Great Britain, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and few other Islands that were under the British as their colonies. It also implies that governance of these member countries is subjected to the conditions operative within that family of the Common Wealth headed by Britain, the chief player. Obviously it then imposes restrictions on the member states. There ends self-governing of all ex- colonies for all intent and purposes. Such is the true nature of Independence of all there countries.

Secondly, as stated above the Government of the so-called Independent Ceylon was fashioned under the Westminster model. The Soulbury Constitution provided the structural mechanism of Government and Governance that embodied all the checks and balances Britain needed to control governance of this Island. They retained the power to appoint the Governor General, as the representative of the King of England, thereby retaining executive power in their hands. Though the Prime Minster was appointed by the Governor, legislation was made in the name of the King of England. The appellate power of the Judiciary also was kept with the Privy Council. Katunayaka and Trincommallee air bases were retained under them. The defense and external affairs were kept with the King in terms of section 45 of the Constitution, which says ‘The Executive powers of the Island shall continue vested in His Majesty and may be exercised, on behalf of His Majesty, by the Governor General in accordance with the provisions of the Order and of any other law for the time being in force’. The prerogative powers of declaring war, making peace, sending Ambassadors or entering in to treaties were also kept with the King of England. But this country was called a free and Independent and our leaders accepted it as political independence

Nearly 600,000 acres of tea and rubber owned by Sterling companies were kept in the hands of white masters even after they left our shores. Official language of the country continued to be English. English continued to be the medium instruction above grade six in all schools.  Proceedings in courts also remained to be English where justice was dispensed to the local Sinhale in English and proceedings in Parliament where legislation for a newly independent country where the native language of the people was Sinhala at the time of ceding to the British in 1815. Transaction between the people and the State also continued to be conducted in English.

 Nearly 1.2 Million Indian indentured labourers brought by the British to work on British owned after 1840 were left behind without being either repatriated to India, as they were brought from there, or taking them back to UK as they were British citizens at that time, leaving behind a sad and dangerous legacy of enormous political, demographic, economic, social and cultural  consequences and an eternal cantankerous bone of contention  between Sri Lanka and India, thereby creating a serious headache for both countries that has led to political tension and uneasiness between the two neighboring countries forever and particularly for this country in areas like preserving’s its vital watersheds rights at the center of the country at the highest elevation and creating enormous demographic, political, economic, social, environmental and cultural problems and above all the question of the need to hand over legal vacant possession of the motherland for its original owners.

Moving on to the question of Independence, in reality, what Britain should have done was to completely hand over the entire country what they deceitfully annexed on 2nd March 1815 under the Kandyan Convention without any conditions in order to make Sri Lanka fully independent and allow the people of this country to decide as to how it should be run thereafter. The way how it was deceptively done as stated above clearly shows that it never happened. The constraints and limitations imposed were more than the concessions given. As I see it it is a big political fraud committed by Britain keeping all the, vital reins in its own hands to manipulate the destinies of this Island nation the way they want. As i see it it was only a crafty handing over of a colony to a set of  descendants of its former owners well trained by the British in all respects, to run it free of any expense for the British Empire, as thier accredited agents.

In becoming independent from foreign rule the first and foremost condition is getting back the territory the conqueror took over at the time of conquest. In our case the territory they took over in 1815 including the Maldives Islands. They returned only the main Island. Maldives Islands (90,000 sq. km) that were a longtime a protectorate of this country was not returned to us. The Ceylon (Constitution) Order in Council 1946 Part 1 (2) stated ‘Nothing in this Order shall extend to the Maldives Islands. The British kept it as one of their protectorates until they granted Independence to it as a separate Independent State on July 26th. 1965. Again we never regained the 600,000 acres of   old prime forest cover  in the central hill country, the Heartland of the Lankan nation that  provided the source for all its rivers in the Island, that decided the survival of the entire life system and the civilization of this Island nation throughout history.

Instead they left behind a sad legacy of vast stretches of physically degraded, unfirtile and unproductive tea lands with a turbulent foreign labour force of over 1.2 million South Indian workers on this soil, who were not citizens of this country at the time of British leaving the country. None of this 1.2 was there in 1815. All of them were brought by the British after 1840, partly to fight against the native Sinhalese who rose against the invader in the 1848 Matale uprising, but mainly to work in their coffee estates and later in tea plantations.  When left in 1948 our leaders should have demanded to hand over the land without their labour force. It is just like a tenant on rent taking his servants when he leaves the rented out house.  Instead the British left behind this sad legacy of 1.2 million exploited and poverty stricken  South Indian labourers who belonged to an entirely a different culture, speaking a different language and professing a different religion and culture completely different from that of the native Sinhalese. This stateless millions were left behind high and dry, right at the Heartland of the Island Nation, thereby creating a cantankerous demographic, political, social, economic and environmental problems for this country, for which the colonials alone are responsible. Led and manipulated by treacherous and extremist ethnic Tamil politicians, these Indians have become one of the biggest headaches this country faces today with wider ramifications including tense Indo- Sri Lankan relation caused by Indian intervention in all their affairs as if the central hill country of Sri Lanka is already a part of India, with the threat of creating a Malayanadu right at the center of the historical motherland of the Sinhala race for 2500 years. 

Furthermore we never got any of our rights what we lost in 1815for example on our language, religion, political institutions, social system or our heritage and were never restored to date. Sinhala was the official language of the country and Buddhism was the State religion before 1815. Sinhala was official language from 543 BC and Buddhism State religion from 307 BC. But they were never restored. Do we have at least a homemade Constitution even after 71 years of ‘Independence’? India did it within 3 years of Independence by declaring it as a sovereign Democratic Republic. Even as a Dominion India was completely free to shape its own policy, both domestic and foreign, unlike Sri Lanka. They even declared India An Independent Republic. In fact their Constitution making started even long before 1947. Presiding over the first meeting of the Constitution making its Chairman Dr Ambedkar said “No constitution will be workable which is not acceptable to the majority people. The time when you were to choose and India was to accept is gone, never return. Let the consent of the people not the accident of logic be the touchstone of our new Constitution’.

This was how India made its Constitution. But here at home our politicians got Ivo Jennings, a British lawyer to write the constitution for a free and Independent Sri Lanka. That is the difference between Indian Leaders and our leaders. No wonder Sri Lanka is like this even after 71 years.

Soulbury’s constitutional recommendations were largely those of the 1944 Board of Ministers’ draft, a document reflecting the influence of Senanayake and his main advisor, Sir Ivor Jennings, They were based mainly on the recommendations of the Colonia Secretary. The content was never discussed with the people. Therefore they had no say what so ever in the making of the Soulbury Constitution.             

Sri Lanka had to wait till 1972 for Sirimavo to declare it a Republic. Even the Republican Constitution 1972 was mainly based on the Westminster model. As such it was also not a people’s constitution of this country. Even after making it a Republic, Britain continued the game of interfering in our internal matters. Isn’t this country being run by the so-called international Community of the West and India to suit their agendas. Today we at times need to get the consent of India to permit even a foreign ship to enter our harbour as it had been demonstrated recently.  Interference by the Western block is more and serious now than ever before 1948 as we are tormented by almost all Western nations, whether they are in the West or East or North or South, where as we were governed only by the British at that time.  What is worse is all these countries also support the Tamils spread all over the world, whom they call Tamil Diaspora who had staged a brutal and savages 30 year war against this country to convert this country in to a Tamil Homeland called EELAM as they cannot have it in India, with a long term dream of destroying the Sinhala nation and Buddhism and their civilization in this country.

Did we have a single Sinhala political leader in the post 1948 period that could stand up against these external harassment and assert as a national leader who could lift up this country as a fully Independent, free, prosperous, self- sustained and vibrant nation. Look at India, Singapore, Japan, Korea and even Bangladesh where they stand today, though they were far behind us in 1948. Ambedkar, down to earth Indian intellectual, was the architect of the Indian Constitution where as in Sri Lanka it was Ivor Jennin’s a down to earth Englishman. That again is the difference between India and Sri Lanka.

So in this backdrop repeatedly I ask as to how one can say we are an independent nation. Apart from being an independent nation, have we at least restored the name of this country, Sinhale, in 1948 or even after 71 years up to date, as it was mentioned in the Kandyan Convention. Have our politicians been able to at least decide as to what our nation is. Restore ‘The Sinhala Buddhist nation’ they ceded to British in 1815 and able to restore the Sinhala Language as the State language. Instead the British handed over a Ceylon in 1948 as a multi-ethnic, multi -national and multi-religious society. They also introduced the concept of minority to Sri Lankan politics for the first time in the history of this country by introducing it under section 29 to the Constitution. These are all well calculated and well-designed conspiracies to divide the Lankan nation on various grounds and destroy it. First it divided the Sinhala people as Kandyans and Low Country and thereafter it divided the nation like an scrambled egg, that can never be unscramble thereafter.

 In short it was a constitution made by a British lawyer Jennings to suit their perpetual interests imposed on our people without getting their consent either. It was never a constitution people in this country wanted or they accepted. People were told that they got full independence from British rule by their leaders. That is all what they wanted. Nor did the people see the Constitution. As a people who were governed only by customs and traditions for millennia they never bothered about a constitution. They must have thought they are getting the pre 1815 status. So they were happy with that. The leaders on the other hand blindly accepted it as divine right coming from above for them to rule over the down trodden. This is exactly how the UNP Colombians led by RW think even today. They don’t understand the fact that this country is one village or at least a conglomeration of a number of villages and Colombo is not Sri Lanka. Like any other metropolis, as A.G. Frank and moving it towards the word core centers. On the other hand it also provides the gateway through its harbour and airports the door way that brings in all things harmful to our economy, culture and environment.

Isn’t it more than clear, from the above account that we have not got any independence in1948. I challenge all those constitutional experts who say we have got any independence in 1948. It is true that it has gone on record that on 4th Feb 1948 Britain gave independence to this country. It is also true that they gave a Parliament headed by a local Prime Minister (one of their own making) to make legislation. But a closer analysis of the Soulbury Constitution clearly shows that it was only a fake Independence or a big fraud. True they gave a Parliament to make legislation by locally elected legislators. But all legislations made in that Parliament were made in the name of the King and Queen of England up to 1972 until Sirimavo Bandarnayaka declared it an Independent Republic, after 24 years since 1948. In my opinion this country was given independence by the British Colonial Government only to make legislation and govern the way they wanted to perpetuate their colonial hegemony. In conclusion I say this in short is exactly what British wanted to do under the Soulbury Constitution. By retaining the Dominion status they further retained power to control the ex- colony as long as they want and the way they wished.  Probably they must have thought Sri Lanka is far more important from a strategic point of view in future global politics than even India in view of its strategic location in the middle of the Indian Ocean forming a pivotal position between the East and the West open to the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean extending up to the South Pole.

Soulbury Constitution the Pandora’s Box of Sri Lankan politics in post 1948 Sri Lanka.

Looking at the plethora of unmanageable problems like political instability, social confusion, ethnic tensions, the rise of the tyranny of minority politics,  serious and frustrating erosion of Sinhala Buddhist birth rights of the natives and the disintegrating tendencies of the Sri Lankan political map, splitting on minority issues brought about by the Soulbury Constitution,  I am compelled to conclude that the  Soulbury Constitution has become a veritable Pandora’s Box in post independent politics in Sri Lanka. Sec 29 (2) of the Constitution killed the millennia old privileges of the Sinhala Buddhist majority in this country by conferring undue and disproportional privileges on minority ethnic and religious groups, who were only intruders from time to time in history. This section that introduced a minority concept for the first time in the history of this country’s politics had completely ruined peaceful coexistence between Sinhala Buddhists majority and other ethnic groups. As such giving legal recognition to separate minority groups opened the doors for ethnic and religious tensions never existed before in this country.

I pity the rootless, brainless and visionless native leaders who embraced this so-called Independence package with open arms in 1948 (which I call “a veritable political Pandora’s Box” rather than a Constitution made in good faith and good intention for a country meant and designed for nation building) with pomp and glamour without realizing the inconsistencies’ and dangers hidden beneath this English trap.

If this country and its people have not got any independence in 1948 (in spite of some people including the fathers, sons and the nephews of the UNP denying it), then who has really got it. Obviously the happy recipients of ‘this birth day gift of somebody’ are the lucky pack of unscrupulous rogue politicians created by the Soulbury Constitution and party politics introduced by it who have destroyed this ‘Wonder in Asia’ to a level almost beyond recognition. Just like a gang of hungry jackals from the jungle that have invaded a poultry pen, they have destroyed this country with impunity, while the true owners of this country are in deep slumber, engrossed in Midsummer night dreams of freedom, prosperity and happiness of independence

In this backdrop what is there to celebrate annually in such high pomp and glamour at such enormous cost to the nation’s coffers. Isn’t it only a part and parcel of the mega fraud and deception of the masses by the rogue politicians annually staged to exhibit their naked vanity

 My final question is why try to commemorate a non-existing independence at such cost, causing enormous inconvenience to the people. This is nothing but shear madness on the part of politicians to exhibit their vanity and emptiness just to deceive the voters as they have been successful doing ever since 1948. Isn’t it better that we  as a nation either commemorate May 22 the Janraja Day or the 29th of May 2009 on which the Rapaksa Government liberated the motherland from the LTTE terrorists.

As for me I shall not raise a flag at my house to mark this fraudulent political freedom deceptively imposed on us by the accredited black-white agents in 1948. I will raise it only on the day this country gain full independence as the Sinhala Buddhist nation that was there on my motherland for 2358 years before 1815. I call upon all patriotic Sinhala sons and daughters of this country to join with me in this patriotic and noble resolve so that one day at least you will realize this dream in my name, as I want be living by the time this dream come true.