An epithet of truthfulness and integrity

This week’s Philip Gunawardena commemoration seminars, meetings and discussions brought out few hitherto unknown facts about the great socialist leader. As a radical revolutionary youth, Philip’s long trek covered London, Spain, France, United States, India, Russia and China.

While his association with Asian socialist youths studying in United Kingdom and United States are legendary, not much details are available about Philip’s close interactions with Zhou Enlai, the Chinese revolutionary who became the first Prime Minister of China after the success of the revolution in China in 1949 and Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese revolutionary leader who gained independence for the country first fighting the French and then the Americans.

In the 1920s Ho Chi Minh was living in exile in Paris under a pseudonym Nguyen Ai Quoc and became a leading member of the French Communist Party. Zhou Enlai was imprisoned by the French rulers in Vietnam in 1919 for holding youth demonstrations and in 1920 he moved to Paris for higher studies. He too became a member of the expatriate Communist activists in Paris.

Young Philip also became a popular member of this group and the three great visionaries formed an anti-colonialism movement and issued a Paris Declaration calling for independence to British, French and Spanish colonies in Asia and Africa.

Author Goebel Michael made a reference to this declaration in his book, ‘Migrants and Anti-colonialism in Interwar Paris’. Exploring the role of interwar Paris as a marketplace for the global spread of anti-colonialism, he examines the social bedrock for the flourishing of ideas, it anchors the early intellectual history of liberation movements in the everyday lives of migrants in the metropole Paris, thus combining urban with global history. “Migrants from across the French Empire who in Paris became the leaders of ethnic community associations receive particular attention. Their politicization owed much to the fact that the global disparities of the imperial order became much more visible from a vantage point such as Paris. On the other hand, cross-community exchange further highlighted these disparities and encouraged a process of mutual learning. Anti-imperialist activists from beyond the empire—for instance, Chinese communists such as Zhou Enlai—therefore also contributed to turning Paris into a production centre of anti-colonialism.”

The movement of Anti-colonialism was a struggle against imperial rule in colonized countries, mostly during the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to agitating for national independence and postcolonial nationalism, anti-colonial thinkers and activists debated the necessity of political solidarity as well as international cooperation – from Afro-Asian Solidarity to the Non-Aligned Movement at the 1955 Afro-Asian Conference at Bandung, Indonesia, where John Kotalawala and Jawaharlal Nehru were reportedly at loggerheads.

The movement led to formation of Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) which represents the contemporary Global South.

The anti-colonial activists have come from across the world from within British, French, and Spanish Empires and it focussed on learning lessons from anti-colonial agitations and philosophies from South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These regions were highly active in anti-colonial political organising in the twentieth century and continue to form the bulk of the theoretical material on the transition from occupation to freedom.

Philip Gunawardena’s role in global socialism as well as for the downtrodden people of Sri Lanka was described by keynote speakers –Vice Chancellor of Uva Wellassa University, Prof. Jayantha Lal Ratnasekera, Film Historian Sinharaja Tammita Delgoda and Philips grandson, Parliamentarian Yadamini Gunawardena at the 51st Commemoration held at BMICH on Wednesday (29).

They explained how Philip as a minister served the masses by introducing Paddy Land Act and expanding the system to Cooperative Banks while serving as a Cabinet Minister in the SWRD, MEP Government 1958-59. His vision culminated in the formation of Cooperative Federal banks and later to the formation of the People’s Bank. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Transport Board, Nationalization of the Harbour and laying the foundation for the formation of the Insurance Corporation. When he became the Industries and Fisheries Minister in a subsequent national Government headed by Dudley Senanayake, he introduced many novel concepts like the Industrial Development Board, State Industrial Corporation as well as the private sector industries.

Prof. Ratnasekera described the imperial land-grab policy and how they annexed peasant lands under the Crown Land Encroachment Ordinance (CLEO) of 1840. This ordinance declared all lands as crown lands, if people could not prove their ownership. Ownership to lands, people were using from generation to generation was not considered by the British rulers. This resulted in the transfer of nearly 90% of total area of land to the Crown, including the forest, waste land, uncultivated or occupied lands, where the ownership could not be proved.

However, due to the pressure of patriots, the Colonial Government moved towards re-evaluating its policy on land and in 1926, it accepted that the “lands are vested in the Crown, not as private property, but as a trustee for the public”. Subsequently, the Land Commission was created in 1927, and its mandate was to review the existing policy on land.

The historical Land Development Ordinance (LDO) was passed in 1935. This Ordinance reflected increasing concern for improving farmers’ lives and domestic food production. It also intended to help small farmers whose livelihood was at risk from the exploitation of rich farmers and urban landowners.

After gaining independence too, the same system continued and it changed only when Philip Gunawardena introduced the Lands Act of 1958. This Act and its subsequent amendments regulated the authority that landlords could exercise over tenants.

“Philip Gunawardena, as the Minister of Agriculture, laid the foundation to a new direction in agrarian reforms,” Prof Ratnasekera said. “He developed a comprehensive set of policies covering land tenure reform, marketing, credit and crop insurance. He developed a comprehensive set of policies covering land tenure reform, marketing, credit and crop insurance. Under his direction, a new Department of Agrarian Services was established to oversee new programmes”.

Prof. Ratnasekera lamented that no further steps were taken to remedy the land issues in Sri Lanka. He pointed out that the main hurdle is the lack of data and information on land, covering the entire country and lack of maps and clear boundaries, especially for most LDO lands. Another problem is the lack of coordination between different organisations and departments, mandated to administer different categories of land and there are a large number of land disputes, due to forged deeds, illegal land sales and encroachments.

He urged President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to solve the land issue as a priority.

The Philip Gunawardena commemorative event on March 29 displayed the respect earned by this great National Hero across the nation as the event was attended by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and two former Presidents, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena as well as senior leaders of major political parties including Nimal Siripala de Silva, Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Lakshman Kiriella, M. A. Sumanthiran, Rauff Hakeem, Dullas Alahapperuma, Dayasiri Jayasekera and Duminda Disanayake in addition to leading intellectuals, academics and political scientists.

There is no surprise about the unreserved respect earned by Philip Gunawardena as the court records revealed that a leading Judge, delivering the verdict on a defamation case against Philip in 1959 said while dismissing the case that Philip was an epithet of truthfulness and integrity.

Philip’s erstwhile colleague Dr. N. M. Perera who later was in the opposing camp, said about his fellow socialist, “In the years to come, when lesser Mortals like us have played their evanescent part and vanished into limbo of forgotten, a grateful socialist of Ceylon will remember Philip Gunawardena with pride and place him on the worthy pedestal due to him. History will no doubt accord him his rightful place in the political life in the country.”