1953 Ceylonese Hartal

In the General Elections held in May later that year, Dudley Senanayake's United National Party (UNP) secured a majority in Parliament giving him the premiership.

In July 1952, the food subsidies were running at the rate of 300 million rupees, which was a third of the estimated revenue in the planned budget for the coming year.

The pact came into effect despite the opposition of the Finance Minister J. R. Jayewardene who was pro-United States which was engaged in bitter fighting with the People's Republic of China in the Korean War.

From 10 July onwards, the free mid-day meal for school children was withdrawn, postal fee and railway fares were also increased.

[5] The proposed cuts to social welfare measures, especially the increase in rice prices were met with strong public outcry.

A segment of supporters and workers, who attended the meeting, marched towards the Parliament screaming and gesticulating, in an attempt to storm the House.

Small groups left a trail of hooliganism: damaged public property, stoned buses, an indication of the nastiest to come, as the leaders called a hartal on 12 August.

[6] The Sri Lankan leftist parties led by the LSSP called for the hartal, mobilizing the masses to resist the direct attack on their standard of living.

[8] 12 August 1953 saw the start of planned civil disobedience, strikes and demonstrations held throughout Ceylon, launched by the main non-communal trade unions, 90% of which were controlled by the leftist parties.

[9] On 12 August many civil disobedience acts took place in certain localities along the western and south-western coast, e.g. Maharagama, Boralesgamuwa, Gangodawila, Kirillapone, Egoda Uyana, Katukurunda, Koralawella, Waskaduwa, Karandeniya, Dompe, Akurala, Totagamuwa, Hikkaduwa, and Ragama, where there were widespread riots and extensive damage to communications and transportation facilities.

The hartal was primarily a protest of the labouring class, and as such there were no exclusions based upon caste, ethnicity or religion, even the Roman Catholics participated, notably in the Negombo, Wennappuwa and Ragama areas.

With major civil unrest throughout the island and appearance of breakdown of law and order, the police struggled to bring the situation under control due to the sheer numbers of the crowds and rioters.

The government panicked, and the Cabinet of Ministers boarded HMS Newfoundland, a light cruiser of the Royal Navy that was in the Colombo harbour.

Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, Governor General in consultation with Prime Minister Senanayake placed the country under provincial emergency regulations.

The rice subsidy was partially restored, and various foreign policy initiatives were undertaken to brighten Ceylon's image abroad, including entry into the United Nations in 1955.

[4] The hartal would eventually shake the apparent invincibility of the UNP government which would go on to lose the 1956 elections to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) under S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who contested under the "Sinhala only" slogan.

But still nursing gradualist illusions of ultimately seeking parliamentary power the LSSP leaders primarily did not envisage anything like such a scenario.

In retrospect it has become the traditional wisdom to say that it was not the Old Left but the SLFP which benefited from the hartal in the form of the popular upsurge of 1956 which felled the UNP and brought S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike to power as prime minister.