Dudley Senanayake

Dudley Shelton Senanayake (Sinhala: ඩඩ්ලි ශෙල්ටන් සේනානායක: டட்லி சேனநாயக்கா; 19 June 1911 – 13 April 1973), was a Sri Lankan statesman who served as Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1952 to 1953 (first term as the second prime minister of Ceylon), in 1960 (second term), and from 1965 to 1970 (third term) and Leader of the Opposition from 1960 to 1964.

Senanayake's tenures as prime minister were associated with democratic policies focused on agricultural and educational reforms with a pro-western alignment.

Dudley Senanayake was born on 19 June 1911 to the wealthy Senanayake family, which was at the time becoming active in local colonial-era politics.

His paternal grandfather Mudaliyar Don Spater Senanayake established the family wealth through graphite mining, which he later expanded into plantations and investments in the arrack renting franchise.

His parents were Don Stephen Senanayake and Molly Dunuwila.

He was the eldest in the family with a younger brother Robert.

His father D. S. Senanayake, who was engaged in the family business at the time of his birth, along with his brothers (Dudley's uncles) F. R. Senanayake and D.C. Senanayake, were active in the temperance movement.

Following the early death of F. R. Senanayake, D. S. Senanayake took over his role in the local politics, becoming a legislator and eventually leading the island's independence movement and becoming the first prime minister of Ceylon and founder of the United National Party, which is still one of the main political parties in Sri Lanka and of which Dudley would become a lifelong member.

He grew up in the comfortable family home Woodlands, but was greatly affected by the events of the 1915 riots when his father was arrested by Punjabi soldiers.

Imprisoned by the British military, his father and uncles faced the possibility of execution under martial law.

Never married, he remained a lifelong bachelor.

Dudley received his secondary education at the prestigious S. Thomas' College, where he excelled in his studies and sports.

He became the Head Prefect, captained the college team at cricket at the Royal-Thomian and gained colours in hockey, boxing, and athletics.

He won the Victoria Gold Medal for the most outstanding student at S. Thomas'.

Senanayake then went on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge to read for Natural Science Tripos and after graduation gained admission to the Middle Temple as a barrister.

After returning to Ceylon in 1935, Dudley took oaths as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon and briefly embanked on a legal practice under H. V. Perera, KC, before entering politics on his father's urging.

Dudley Senanayake, who was educated at S. Thomas' College and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, qualified as a barrister before entering national politics in 1936 when he was elected to the State Council and succeeded his father as minister of agriculture and lands in 1946.

He was elected from the Dedigama electorate in 1936 to the State Council, while his father was Minister of Agriculture and served as a back-bencher for ten years.

As State Councilor of Dedigama, he undertook much development work in his electorate developing roads, hospitals, schools, and police stations.

During this time, he became active in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC), having been appointed in December 1939 as its joint secretary with J. R. Jayewardene, another young lawyer who had been elected to the Colombo Municipal Council.

The CNC was urging for the independence of Ceylon to the extent that his father D. S. Senanayake resigned from the congress because he disagreed with its revised aim of achieving complete independence from the British Empire, preferring Dominion status and its inclusion of Marxists.

Following his father's resignation, Dudley succeeded his father as Minister of Agriculture and Lands in the second board of ministers of the state council in 1946.

Taking on his father's ministry, he carried forward many of the agricultural projects initiated by him, such as the Minneriya irrigation project.

He served in his father's cabinet as minister of agriculture and lands from 1947 to 1952.

Following the sudden death of D. S. Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake succeeded his father as the second prime minister of Ceylon.

Contesting in the 1947 general elections from the Dedigama electorate, he was elected to the first parliament of independent Ceylon and was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Lands by his father D. S. Senanayake, who became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon in 1947.

He continued many of the agricultural projects he started in his first year and started the ambitious Gal Oya Project, which provided water for the cultivation of over 120,000 acres.

He initiated a guaranteed price scheme for paddy and farmers.

He received the portfolios of Health and Local Government when S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike resigned and crossed over to the opposition.

He was still serving as agriculture minister when his father died unexpectedly.

Born to a political family, he was the eldest son of D. S. Senanayake, who lead the independence movement that gained self-rule for Ceylon in 1948, with D. S. Senanayake becoming the prime minister of Ceylon.

Four days later, on 26 March 1952, to the surprise of many, Dudley was chosen as prime minister by the Governor-General Lord Soulbury over his cousin Sir John Kotelawala.

He called a general election, which the UNP won.

He resigned shortly after the Hartal 1953 on health grounds and was succeeded by his cousin Colonel Sir John Kotelawala.

The government became unpopular a year later, in 1953, when the price of rice was raised and subsidies were cut.

Though the UNP remained in power, the Hartal 1953 greatly affected the administration and Senanayake personally, and he resigned as prime minister on health grounds in October, leaving politics and the public limelight.

He returned to active politics in 1957, and led his party, the United National Party, to a short-lived administration in 1960.

His second term as prime minister lasted four months and he then served as the Leader of the Opposition from 1960 to 1964.

He formed a national government in 1965 and served his third term as prime minister until 1970 during which time he initiated planning for the most ambitious construction projects in Sri Lanka, that of the Mahaweli Development programme.

Following the election defeat in 1970 (a defeat encountered on technicality, which his party did not have to accept given they had the majority votes, however out of gentlemanly spirit he agreed to handover to the left movement when they formed a coalition post election results in 1970), Senanayake remained a member of parliament and the party leader until his death on 13 April 1973.