Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi celebrates 75th birth anniversary

S.J.V. Chelvanayagam

Dr. E.M.V. Naganathan

V. Navaratnam

It was the ITAK which introduced the demand for federalism into Sri Lanka’s post-independence political discourse. The birth and growth of the ITAK and its espousal of power sharing through a federal arrangement introduced a vibrant and colourful phase into the island nation’s politics. Though 75 years have passed since the party was born, the ITAK continues to remain wedded to the federal idea

The recently held Parliamentary elections have resulted in the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led National People’s Power (NPP) winning 159 seats and forming the Government. The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) with 40 seats is the chief Opposition party. The Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi (ITAK) known in English as the Federal Party (FP) with eight seats became the third largest party in Parliament.

The ITAK did remarkably well in the multi-ethnic Eastern Province winning five seats. The party obtained three seats in Batticaloa district and one each in the districts of Trincomalee and Amparai/Digamadulla. The ITAK performance in the Tamil majority Northern Province was poor when compared to the east. The north has two electoral districts namely Jaffna and Wanni. The Jaffna electoral district comprises the administrative districts of Kilinochchi and Jaffna. The Wanni electoral district consists of the administrative districts of Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitheevu. The ITAK won one seat in Jaffna and one in the Wanni.

The party was entitled to a seat on the basis of votes polled. With a national list MP the ITAK tally of parliamentarians was eight. By winning eight seats and becoming the third largest party in Parliament, the ITAK was able to re-assert itself as the premier political party representing the Tamils of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Moreover the ITAK had MPs from the five electoral districts of the north and east namely Jaffna, Wanni, Trinco, B’caloa and Amparai.

The ITAK’s commendable showing in the 2024 poll is of sentimental significance to many of the party members and supporters for a very good reason. The ITAK/FP will be celebrating its 75th birth anniversary this year. It was on 18 December 1949 that the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi was officially launched in Colombo 75 years ago.

The ITAK central working committee or Mathiya Seyal Kuzhu is scheduled to meet on 14 December to finalise arrangements for marking the party’s 75th birth anniversary event. It is very likely that the 75th birthday party will be celebrated in grand style in Batticaloa regarded as the ITAK bastion after the 2024 election.

A Tamil political party completing 75 years of existence in the Sri Lankan political landscape is indeed a milepost achievement. As such the 75th birthday party would indeed be a joyful event for the ITAK/FP. Unfortunately there is an atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty as to who would cut the cake or light up the candles for the festive occasion because the party is currently in the grip of a crisis of its own making. 

ITAK’s internal crisis

The ITAK’s current internal crisis began with its long-delayed party convention and election of new office-bearers in January this year. For the first time in the ITAK’s history, intra-party elections took place for the key post of President. Three contenders were in the fray.

An inner party election to elect a new leader is by itself a welcome feature. However, the ITAK has from its inception never experienced an inner party poll to elect its President. The party adopted the practice of avoiding a direct contest and instead opted to elect the leader unanimously. From the time it was founded in 1949, the ITAK/FP has followed this consensual method of electing the leader.

Many persons concerned about the future of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka including this writer were worried about the impact an intra-party election would have on the premier Tamil party and urged that a polarising poll be avoided. Such entreaties fell on deaf ears.

The inner-party election brought the prevalent fault-lines within the party to the fore. Divisive tendencies were exacerbated and ego-clashes proliferated. Emmanuel Kant’s profound observation “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made” came true again.

As a result the ITAK election matter went to court. An enjoining order issued by courts has debarred the newly elected party president and other key office-bearers from functioning. The ITAK now has a temporary acting president and temporary acting general secretary at the helm. Sadly the ITAK seems incapable of even presenting a united legal defence in court. Since the matter is pending before court, I shall refrain from commenting further on this current legal tangle and focus on the birth of the ITAK 75 years ago. 

18 December 1949

The premier political party of the Sri Lankan Tamil people known as “Ilankai Thamizhar” in their mother tongue was born on 18 December 1949. On that Sunday, a group of 60 Tamils including two parliamentarians and two senators convened at the Government Clerical Service Union (GCSU) hall in Colombo. The two parliamentarians were the then Kankesanthurai MP SJV Chelvanayagam and Kopay MP C. Vanniyasingham. Both were lawyers. The two senators were EMV Naganathan and S. Paramanayagam. Both were medical doctors.

That historic conclave resulted in the launching of a new political party with the avowed goal of establishing an autonomous State for the Tamil-speaking people of Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) within a united island. The new party was named in Tamil as “Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchi” meaning Ceylon Tamil State or Tamil Government Party. 

However the party’s founders described it as Federal Party in English. According to the renowned political scientist Prof. A.J. Wilson the new party’s name was not Federal Party but merely an explanation of what the party stood for. “Its leaders insisted that the word ‘state’ denoted a unit within a federal set-up and not a sovereign state, as some of its detractors alleged” wrote Wilson in his book “Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism”. 

Officially the new party was named in English as the “Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi” and became known by the acronym ITAK. In popular parlance it was called the Federal Party or FP. SJV Chelvanayagam was elected as the first president of the fledgling party while Dr. EMV Naganathan and V. Navaratnam were the Joint General Secretaries.

Demand for federalism

It was the ITAK which introduced the demand for federalism into Sri Lanka’s post-independence political discourse. The birth and growth of the ITAK and its espousal of power sharing through a federal arrangement introduced a vibrant and colourful phase into the island nation’s politics. Though 75 years have passed since the party was born, the ITAK continues to remain wedded to the federal idea.

The advent of the ITAK/FP was a watershed in Ceylon/Sri Lanka politics as it was the first Tamil political party to incorporate the Federal idea as its main ideology and goal. The new party wanted an autonomous Tamil state comprising the Tamil dominated Northern and the Tamil – majority Eastern Provinces within a united Ceylon. The ITAK wanted a federal union between the autonomous Tamil state and the residual Sinhala state. 

This column intends to provide some historical background details – with the aid of earlier writings – in this two-part article about how the Ilankai Thamizh Arasuk Katchi was formed and why it raised the federal demand.

Soulbury Commission

With world war two nearing its end, the prospects of freedom from British colonial bondage loomed large on the political horizon for the Indian sub-continent and its island neighbour known as Ceylon then. A commission of inquiry headed by Viscount Soulbury was sent in 1944 by Whitehall to engage in consultations with all sections of the population and compile constitutional reform proposals. This was known as the Soulbury Commission.

All Ceylon Tamil Congress

The political party system was slowly taking root in the island during the pre-independence years. The advent of the Soulbury Commission saw the Sri Lankan Tamils forming the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC). GG Ponnambalam became the ACTC President while S. Sivasubramaniam was the party General-Secretary. SJV Chelvanayagam was a vice-president and chief deputy to Ponnambalam. The primary objective of the ACTC at that point of time was to argue the case for its “fifty-fifty” demand before the Soulbury Commission.

The Tamil Congress wanted a scheme of balanced representation popularly called “fifty-fifty”. According to this proposal, 50% of seats were to be allocated for the Sinhala majority and 50% for all the other minority ethnicities including Tamils. They wanted a scheme where the minority community representation was to be given weightage so that the non-Sinhala communities together could counter-balance perceived Sinhala domination. This was rejected by the Soulbury Commission which refused to create an “artificial majority out of a minority.”

The Soulbury Commission report was incorporated as a “White Paper” and made public in October 1945. The Soulbury Commission report formulated a scheme awarding Dominion status for Ceylon and envisaged full independence to follow thereafter. The Ceylonese board of ministers accepted it with reservations. 

Subsequently it was submitted in the form of a motion in November 1945 for approval of the prevailing legislature known as the State Council. If the motion was defeated then the State council set up under the Donoughmore Constitution would continue and self-government leading to full independence under a Dominion Constitution would be a distant dream.

The All Ceylon Tamil Congress held a special meeting where it was decided to reject the Soulbury report. It also resolved that all minority community members in the State council should vote against the white paper motion. The Tamil Congress leader GG Ponnambalam went to London in a desperate last minute effort to thwart the “Soulbury Constitution” being adopted.

D.S. Senanayake’s appeal

The state council motion was moved by D.S. Senanayake and seconded by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. Understanding the anxiety, doubts and fears of the minority communities particularly the Sri Lankan Tamils of being dominated and suppressed by the Sinhala majority in an “independent” Ceylon, D.S. Senanayake who was later described as the “father of the nation” made an eloquent appeal. 

DS stated thus – “I do not normally speak as a Sinhalese, and I do not think that the leader of the council ought to think of himself as a Sinhalese representative; but for once, I should like to speak as a Sinhalese and to assert with all the force at my command that the interests of one community are the interests of all. We are one of another, whatever our race or creed.” 

Urging Tamils and other minority communities to accept the Soulbury Constitution, D.S. Senanayake reached out to them in this manner: “Do you want to be governed from London or do you want, as Ceylonese, to help govern Ceylon? On behalf of the Congress and on my own behalf, I give the minority communities the sincere assurance that no harm need you fear at our hands in a free Lanka.”

Fifty-one votes to three

While GG Ponnambalam was in the UK, the State council motion was put to the vote. It was passed by 51 votes to three. The trio which voted against the motion comprised one Sinhalese and two Indian Tamils. They were Wijayananda Dahanayake who later became a prime minister and the up country Tamil Trade unionists Natesa Iyer and I.X. Pereira. All the Sri Lankan Tamil, Muslim, Malay, Burgher and European State councillors had voted for the Soulbury Commission report. 

The minorities including the Sri Lankan Tamils had trusted the Sinhala leader DS Senanayake and acceded to his appeal. This was a huge blow to the Tamil Congress in general and its leader GG Ponnambalam in particular.

General Elections

The State Council was dissolved on 4 June 1947 and the general elections for the envisaged House of Representatives (Parliament) was scheduled for 23 August and continued until 20 September 1947. There were to be 95 elected and six appointed MPs. There would be 89 electorates. Of these electorates a few like Colombo Central were multi-member constituencies electing more than a single MP. There was also to be an upper house consisting of 30 Senators. Parliamentary elections were duly held and results announced. 

The newly formed United National Party (UNP) led by DS Senanayake won 42. The Lanka Samasamaja Party (LSSP) led by Dr. NM Perera won 10. The Tamil Congress led by GG Ponnambalam won 7. The Ceylon Indian Congress (as the Ceylon Workers Congress was known then) led by Saumiyamoorthy Thondaman got 6. The Bolshevik Leninist Party of Dr. Colvin R de Silva got 5. The Communist Party led by Dr. S.A. Wickramasinghe won 3 seats. The Labour party got one with its founder-leader A.E. Goonesinghe being elected from Colombo Central. There were also 21 MPs who had contested as Independent candidates and won.

The Tamil Congress was jubilant at the results. Prior to the elections, GG Ponnambalam had entered into an agreement with the Indian Tamil leaders and assured them of unconditional support in safeguarding their citizenship rights in independent Ceylon. This was due to a campaign in the Sinhala areas against citizenship and voting rights to the pre-dominantly Tamil speaking Indian immigrant people working in the tea and rubber plantations.

GG Ponnambalam smarting from the Soulbury Constitution debacle had cleverly utilised the elections to take revenge on the Tamil state councillors who had voted for the Soulbury Constitution. Ponnambalam told Tamils that voting for the Tamil Congress would demonstrate to the UK that the Tamils had rejected the Soulbury Constitution arrangements and instead required an electoral system based on the balanced representation principle. He called upon the Tamil people to reject those who voted for the Soulbury Constitution as Tamil traitors and also all Tamil candidates of the UNP at the polls.

The Tamil Congress contested eight of the nine electorates in the Northern Province and one out of the seven electorates in the Eastern Province. The party also supported some independent candidates in the electorates it did not contest. The following were elected as MPs from the Tamil Congress. GG Ponnambalam – Jaffna; SJV Chelvanayagam – Kankesanthurai; C. Vanniyasingham – Kopay; V. Kumarasamy – Chavakachcheri; T. Ramalingam – Point Pedro; K. Kanagaratnam – Vaddukkodda1 and S. Sivabalan – Trincomalee.

The prominent three among the former state councillors who voted for the Soulbury Constitution and contested parliamentary polls lost. Sir Arunachalam Mahadeva and S. Natesan were defeated by GG Ponnambalam and SJV Chelvanayagam in Jaffna and Kankesanthurai respectively. J. Thiyagarajah lost to a Tamil Congress backed independent C. Sittampalam in Mannar. 

An elated Ponnambalam cabled the Colonial Office, in Britain stating that that the election results had vindicated the Tamil Congress stance on balanced representation. The Tamil Congress leader made an unreasonable demand that the Soulbury Constitution should be rejected outright and fresh elections under a different electoral system should be held.

Hung Parliament

The prevailing political climate was uncertain as the first Ceylonese Parliamentary election had resulted in a hung parliament. The DS Senanayake led UNP had only obtained 42 of the 95 elected MP seats. Along with six appointed MPs DS could only form a minority Government with 48 out of a 101-member House. Meanwhile several different moves were afoot to form a non-UNP Government consisting of the left parties, the Tamil parties and the Independents.

It was against the backdrop of such a volatile political situation that DS Senanayake aided by Sir Oliver Goonetilleke engaged in a rare display of political state craft to form the first Parliamentary Government of Ceylon/Sri Lanka.

Independent MPs

The DS-Oliver duo first wooed and won over 12 of the 21 independent MPs. Some were made ministers and deputy ministers. Among the ministers appointed were the independent MP from Vavuniya C. Suntharalingam and the Mannar independent MP C. Sittampalam. Suntharalingam was made Trade and Commerce Minister while Sittampalam was appointed Posts and Telecommunication Minister. Thus DS Senanayake now had a stable government with a viable parliamentary majority.

AE Goonesinghe

The shrewd DS Senanayake also managed to get Labour party leader and Colombo Central MP AE Goonesinghe to join his Government. He was first appointed as a minister without portfolio and later as Minister of State. Inducting AE Goonesinghe into his cabinet was a master stroke by DS as the powerful trade unionist was a source of strength to the Government in combating strikes and other trade union action by the LSSP and CP controlled trade unions.

GG Ponnambalam

Prime Minister DS Senanayake then set his sights on Tamil Congress leader GG Ponnambalam. GG as he was popularly known had been a formidable political rival to DS during the Soulbury Commission period. The GG Ponnambalam led Tamil Congress had also defeated the DS led UNP in the Tamil majority electorates at the 1947 poll.

Despite the prevailing tension and rivalry the pragmatic Ponnambalam realised that sticking to the fifty-fifty demand and proceeding on a confrontational course of politics in post-independence Ceylon was a futile, impractical exercise. Therefore he promoted the concept of “responsive cooperation.” 

DS seized on this and quietly initiated discussions on a confidential basis with GG through Sir Oliver Goonetilleka. Chelvanayagam was kept in the dark as both DS and GG knew the principled MP for KKS would not be amenable to political deal making. This was also the time when DS Senanayake was targeting the Tamils of Indian origin in the Island. DS knew that Chelva would oppose his plans to de-citizenise and disenfranchise the Indian Tamils. Ponnambalam on the other hand was somewhat ambiguous on this issue despite having pledged unconditional support to Indian Tamil leaders earlier.

As a result of these political manoeuvres, GG Ponnambalam threw in his lot with the DS Senanayake Government. He along with K. Kanagaratnam, T. Ramalingam and V. Kumaraswamy joined the DS Senanayake Government. Chelvanayagam, Vanniasingham and Sivapalan remained in the Opposition. Ponnambalam was sworn in as the Minister of Industries, Industrial Research and Fisheries. 

S.J.V. Chelvanayagam

The Tamil Congress was divided into the Ponnambalam wing and Chelvanayagam wing for a while. Finally the dissidents led by SJV Chelvanayagam formed the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi (ITAK). The details of what happened then and what followed thereafter would be related in the second part of this article.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected].)