United National Party - History

History

The UNP was founded on 6 September 1946 by amalgamating three right-leaning pro-dominion parties from the majority Sinhalese community and minority Tamil and Muslim communities. It was founded by Don Stephen Senanayake, who was in the forefront in the struggle for independence from the United Kingdom, having resigned from the Ceylon National Congress because he disagreed with its revised aim of 'the achieving of freedom' from the British Empire. The UNP represented the business community and the landed gentry. However, Senanayake also adopted populist policies that made the party accepted in the grassroots level.

The UNP campaigned in the 1947 general election on a platform of dominion under the United Kingdom and protecting the traditional way of life and Buddhism, the religion followed by the majority of the people, from alleged communist threats from the left-wing opposition parties (the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of Ceylon). The UNP failed to win a working majority and cobbled together a coalition with Sinhalese and Tamil elements. Ceylon became a dominion in 1948, with D.S. Senanayake as the first prime minister. He followed a pro-West, anti-Communist foreign policy much to the ire of the Soviet Union. The commanders of the armed forces were all British officers and Britain retained military bases in the country.

The new government proceeded to disenfranchise the plantation workers of Indian descent, the Indian Tamils, using the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 and the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act of 1949. These measures were intended primarily to undermine the Left electorally.

In 1952 Prime Minister Senanayake died in a riding accident, and his son Dudley became Prime Minister. This irked long standing UNP stalwart S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, a Buddhist nationalist leader known for his cente-left views. Bandaranaike quit the party to found the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) as a balancing force between the UNP and Marxist parties.

In 1953 the UNP attempted to reduce the rice ration and there was a Hartal, which caused Dudley Senanayake to resign. He was replaced by his cousin, Major John Kotelawala. The UNP was jocularly referred to at this time as the 'Uncle Nephew Party'.

There was growing disaffection with the UNP particularly because of its support of minority religious groups, most notably Catholics, to the consternation of the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese. Bandaranaike was able to take advantage and lead the SLFP to victory in the 1956 elections. Soon afterwards he passed the controversial Sinhala Only Act, which led to communal clashes in 1958. An attempt at a language compromise with the Tamil Federal Party was thwarted when the UNP organised a 'March on Kandy'.

In 1962 the UNP was accused of instigating a failed coup d'état carried out by right-wing elements in the army with civilian collaborators like Douglas Liyanage. The UNP again came to power in 1965 in coalition with the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, the Tamil ethnic Federal Partyunder Dudley Senanayake, but it lost in a 1970 landslide to the SLFP, which had formed an electoral alliance with Marxist parties known as the United Front.

A bitter leadership battle soon developed between the populist Dudley Senanayake and the more conservative J. R. Jayewardene, a strong supporter of free market policies and a pro-American foreign policy. For the latter, he was called “Yankee Dickey.”