by Prof. Tissa Vitarana
May 22nd should be one of the most important days to be commemorated in the history of Sri Lanka. It is the day in 1972 on which we became a Republic, a completely independent sovereign nation. But why is it, that unlike India which has done so since 1951, we do not celebrate Republic Day? Like Sri Lanka, India also celebrates Independence Day, but on a separate day each year with equal pomp and splendour. After nearly 450 years of being a colony under the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally the British, (roughly 150 years each), formal independence was received from the British in 1948. But this was only a sham, being Dominian Status within which we remained a semi-colony.
by Rajan Hoole
Sharing with Senthan birth at the time when Gandhi was assassinated and Ceylon received independence, political controversies and liberation struggles of the era have chequered our lives. Reflecting on the 1971 JVP rebellion, Lionel Bopage has written, “… all alternative left groups strongly believed in the seizure of power through armed struggle for social transformation.”
Coevally, there were two other related upheavals whose roots were constitutional. Both the government and the Opposition clamoured for the absolute supremacy of Parliament. This was reflected in the debate in August 1968, where Dr. Colvin R. de Silva assailed the 1964 Privy Council ruling by Lord Pearce that Article 29 of the Soulbury Constitution, dealt with ‘further entrenched religious and racial matters, which shall not be the subject of legislation.’
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