S. D. Bandaranayake

Samuel Dias Bandaranayake (1 December 1917 – 3 June 2014) was a Sri Lankan socialist politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from the Gampaha.

Born to a wealthy family, his father was Conrad Peter Dias Bandaranayake, Muhandiram of the Guard and Siyane Korale and his mother was the daughter of Mudaliyar Ekanayake from Matara, his grandfather was Conrad (Peter) Petrus Dias Wijewardena Bandaranaike, Maha Mudaliyar. He was a cousin of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. He was educated at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, St. Thomas' College, Matara and studied agriculture at the University of Travancore. While in India he met figures such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore. On his return he joined the newly formed Ceylon Agricultural Corps as a Commandant during World War II.

After the war he entered politics, campaigning for his cousin S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and joined his newly formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was elected to parliament in 1952 and was re-elected in 1956 however he did not accept the office due to disagreements with S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike on the Sinhala Only Act.

Having been re-elected in the March 1960 general election as an independent contestant, but contested from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and was re-elected in the July 1960 general election.

Having been re-elected in the 1965 general election, from 1965 to 1970,Bandaranayake was representing Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist) views in the parliament. During the struggles in the North against caste oppression and untouchability, he spoke in support of the struggles in parliament as well as visited the North with N. Shanmugathasan and K.A. Subramaniamto personally express solidarity with the struggling masses.

In 1966 he questioned in the parliament regarding the mass uprising procession held from Chunnakam on 21st October 1966 to protest the caste oppression. Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist) took the decision to carry forward the struggle and to conduct the procession in defiance of the ban by the Police, this gave revolutionary enthusiasm to all the fronts of the Party. The blow struck on the procession opposing casteism in Chunnakam on 21st October 1966, many cadres were brutally assaulted by the Police and received bleeding injuries.

Another the time, during a parliamentary debate S. D. Bandaranayake dared to quote Lenin that “the parliament was a den of thieves” and declare that the Parliament of Ceylon too was a den of thieves. As a result he was forcefully removed from the House of Representatives and suspended from parliament for a week. He always supported the people and their just struggles.

S. D. Bandaranayake,D. K. D. Jinendrapala, and Watson Fernando were arrested on 1st May 1969 in Colombo when the UNP Government banned the May Day rally. The Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist) key leaders were brutally assaulted and arrested by the Police inJaffna. Among them K.A. Subramaniambed ridden for months at the residence ofN. Sanmugathasan for treatment. S. D. Bandaranayake questioned in the parliament regarding these atrocities against the mass rally held in Jaffna on 1st May 1969 to protest the ban.

S. D. Bandaranayake spoke firmly in support of granting the Tamil people their just rights and campaigned for the rights of workers, peasants and plantation workers. As a result of his above political stand, he was a long standing friend of the Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist) and continued to maintain his bond with theCommunist Party of Sri Lanka (Left) .

He was involved in the 1971 JVP Insurrection against the SLFP led government under Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The Criminal Justice Commission which was set up to prosecute insurgents found him guilty of two counts of being a member of the JVP and attending the five lectures. He was given a suspended sentence of two years. In 1977, he was re-elected to parliament.