Philip Gunawardena

Woodward has recorded that Gunawardena received his training in Marxism from Scott Nearing (1883–1983).

He completed Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in agricultural economics.

Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and leftist.

A founder of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party in Ceylon which was known for having introduced Trotskyism, he later formed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and was called 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'.

Born Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena on 11 January 1901 in the rural village of Boralugoda in the Avissawella in the Hevagam Korale.

His mother was Dona Liyanora Gunasekera from Dompe in the Siyana Korale.

His father was Don Jakolis Rupasinghe Gunawardena, known as Boralugoda Ralahamy was a local landowner who served as the village headman (Ralahamy) and Vidane Arachchi until he was imprisoned and sentenced to death under martial law during the 1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots, sentence was later reprieved by the Governor following a petition by his wife.

He was the third child of a family of three boys and seven girls, which included Robert Gunawardena and Caroline Anthonypillai who became leftist politicians.

Vivienne Goonewardena was his niece.

Having attended the local temple Boralugoda Temple and the village school Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Kaluaggala for his primary education, he attended the Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa and Ananda College in Colombo for his secondary education.

When studying at Ananda College, he was boarded at the house of T. B. Jayah.

Having passed his London matriculation, he entered the University College, Colombo to study economics and soon joined the Ceylon National Congress, but was drawn towards the activities of the Young Lanka League.

His father wanted him to study in the United Kingdom and become a barrister.

Instead at the age of 21, he traveled to the United States where he studied economics at the University of Illinois, there he was radicalized and got caught up in the declining labor movement during the Great Depression.

Two years later, he moved to the more radical University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he met Jayaprakash Narayan.

The two were introduced by Avrom Landy to the Communist Party of the United States.

In 1925, he joined Columbia University for post-graduate doctoral studies.

In 1927 Gunawardena joined the League Against Imperialism in New York, where he worked with José Vasconcelos of Mexico, gaining a working knowledge of Spanish.

In 1929 he went to London, where he participated in mass agitations and anti-colonial movements, excelling as a brilliant orator, trade unionist, and political columnist.

Jawaharlal Nehru and Krishna Menon of India, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Tan Malaka of Indonesia, and Seewoosagur Ramgoolam of Mauritius were some of his contemporary colleagues who later played prominent roles in their respective countries.

He joined the staff of the new Daily Worker and took over the Workers' Welfare League of India, an organisation founded by Shapurji Saklatvala.

He later crossed the channel to Europe and worked alongside socialist groups in France and Germany.

In the midst of the Comintern's 'Left Turn', Gunawardena surreptitiously joined the Marxian Propaganda League of FA Ridley and Hansraj Aggarwala, who opposed the Stalinists' characterisation of the Social Democratic parties as social fascist.

When Ridley and Aggarwala broke with Leon Trotsky, Gunawardena sided with the latter.

In 1932 he travelled on the Orient Express to meet Trotsky at Prinkipo, but was stopped at Sofia by police.

At the British conference of the League Against Imperialism, in May 1932, Gunawardena introduced a counter-resolution on India against those moved by Harry Pollitt.

As a result, the Communist Party of Great Britain expelled him for Trotskyism.

However, he had gathered around him several like-minded Ceylonese, including N. M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva and Leslie Goonewardene.

They came to be known as the 'T-Group' – later forming the nucleus of the Trotskyist faction of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

Scotland Yard, under orders from the India Office, thwarted him from his aim of going to India to build a new Communist Party there.

He set out for the continent, meeting members of the Left Opposition in Paris.

He then hiked over the Pyrenees to Barcelona, where he had a rare opportunity to meet the Trotskyists of Spain – who were soon to undergo a civil war.

His passport was impounded by the British authorities and on the urging of D. B. Jayatilaka at the request of his father he was allowed to return to Ceylon.

Soon after his return to Ceylon in November 1932, he plunged into active politics organising rural peasants, plantation workers and urban workers.

He pioneered the founding of Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in 1935.

In 1936 he was elected to the State Council of Ceylon from his home town of Avissawella, defeating F. A. Obeysekera where he continued his struggle for the betterment of workers and peasants.

When World War II brock out in the far east in 1941, the LSSP openly opposed to the British war effort and its members had to go underground.

Philip Gunawardena was arrested and imprisoned due to his open opposition to the British war effort on the Governor's orders.

On 5 April 1942, during the Japanese air raid on Colombo, LSSP leaders including Gunawardena were able to escape from prison.

A member of the State Council of Ceylon and the Parliament of Ceylon, he served as the Minister of Agriculture and food under S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike from 1956 to 1959 and as Minister of Industries and Fisheries in the national government under Dudley Senanayake from 1965 to 1970.