Managing the Colonial Economy 1948-1956 Study Guide

Lesson Objectives

v  To survey the economic, social and political landscape of Ceylon in 1948.

v  To surface comparable data for 1956.

v  To identify and analyse the factors which contributed to changing the situation between 1948 and 1956.

Lesson Structure

v  Why Colonial Economy?

v  1948 – 1956 Landmarks:

Ø  General Election of September 1947.

Ø  Birth of Independent Ceylon on the 4^th of February 1948.

Ø  1949 – Introduction of the Rice Subsidy.

Ø  1950 – Admission of Denominational of Schools into the   Free Education Scheme.

Ø  1950 - Introduction of the GPS Scheme for Paddy.

Ø  1951 – Resignation of Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike from the U N P and the formation of the S L F P

Ø  1952  - 21^st March  - Death of Prime Minister  D.S. Senanayake

Ø  1952 - 26^th March – Appointment of Dudley Senanayake as Prime Minister.

Ø  1952 - June – First General Election of Independent Ceylon

Ø  1951 - Commissioning of the first Hydro-power project and the commencement of  the rural Electrification Scheme.

Ø  1952 - Commencement of the Base Hospitals Programme.

Ø  1953 - S W  R D Bandaranaike changes “Sinhala and Tamil in 24 hours” to “Sinhala  only in 24 hours.”

Ø  1953 - 12^th August  - Hartal

Ø  1954 - 11^th October – Resignation of Dudley Senanayake as Prime Minister.

Ø  1955 - 4^th February – Release of the Buddhist Commission Report.

Ø  1956 - February – U N P adopts Sinhala only Policy.

Ø  1956 – General Elections.

Ø  Dissolution of Parliament (due to end in June  1957 only)

1948 – Salient Features

v  Economy

Ø  Duality

Ø  Continuity of the features of a colonial economy.

Ø  Non national dominance over the Plantation Sector.

Ø  Trading Partners

Ø  Trading Basket.

Ø  Fiscal Policy used only as a means of revenue.

Ø  Predominance of Agriculture in the GDP.

v  Society

Ø  Was there a duality?

Ø  Social mobility resulting from the spread of Education.

Ø  Social impact of the growth of an urban working class

Ø  Lack of attempts at diversifying the economy.

v  Political Scene

Ø  Demise of the Ceylon National Congress – Birth  of  UNP - Birth of Sinhala Mahajana Sabha and its amalgamation with the UNP.

Ø  The Political significance of the 1953 Hartal.

Ø  The Language Issue.

Ø  What caused the UNP rout and the MEP landslide win  at the 1956 General Elections?

v  Conclusion

Ø  The Political Leadership of Ceylon, no sooner it received political authority, opted for Free Education. It was to be foreseen that Free Education would throw up an educated young population. The reluctance of educated youth to participate in traditional Agriculture should have been foreseen.

Ø  The leaders  chose to keep Sri Lanka a predominantly agricultural country.  1952 World Bank Report. How do you explain the lukewarm attitude of the leadership to industrialization when the country had sufficient  resources to move into a major industrialization programme as India did ?

Ø  What, in hindsight, are the consequences of the failure to industrialize? Economic ? Socio-political ?