General Sir John Lionel Kotelawala (; 4 April 1897 – 2 October 1980) was a Sri Lankan statesman, who served as the third Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from 1953 to 1956.
Born to a wealthy landholding and mining family, Kotelawala had a difficult childhood with the suicide of his father and the financial difficulties that followed. He was educated at Royal College, Colombo, and Christ's College, Cambridge, before returning to become a planter and run the family estates and mines. Kotelawala joined the Ceylon Defense Force as a volunteer officer in 1922. Being from a politically active family, he entered mainstream politics in 1931 having been elected to the State Council of Ceylon. He went on to serve as Minister of Communications and Works in the Second Board of Ministers of Ceylon. Having served as the commanding officer of the Ceylon Light Infantry, he transferred to the reserve with the rank of colonel in 1942.
With Ceylon gaining independence in 1948, he was elected to Parliament and became a member of the first Cabinet as Minister of Transport and Works. He was overlooked for the post of prime minister when his uncle, the first prime minister of Ceylon, D. S. Senanayake, died suddenly. A year later he succeeded his cousin, Dudley Senanayake, as the third Prime Minister of Ceylon, serving until his party lost the general election in 1956.
Kotelawala played a prominent role in the development of Ceylon's foreign policy during the early years of the Cold War. He convened the Colombo Conference in 1954, which brought together the leaders of Ceylon, India, Pakistan, Burma and Indonesia and helped lay the groundwork for the Asian-African Conference at Bandung the following year. At Bandung, Kotelawala advocated a conception of anti-colonialism that included opposition to what he regarded as Soviet expansionism and international communism, placing him at times in disagreement with Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of the emerging non-aligned movement. His outspoken approach attracted international attention and established him as one of the most distinctive voices in early Afro-Asian diplomacy.
Domestically, Kotelawala's administration presided over a period of economic recovery following the political and economic disruption of the 1953 Hartal. The improvement was accompanied by stronger export performance and a substantial trade surplus, the largest ever recorded in the country's history at the time, supported in part by favourable international prices for Ceylon's principal exports.
Housing became a particular focus of the administration, with the establishment of a national housing framework and the promotion of what Housing Minister Kanthiah Vaithianathan described as a “house-owning democracy”. His government also pursued a strongly anti-communist policy, opposing the influence of communist organisations and movements in Ceylon and taking measures to restrict their activities.
Kotelawala retired from politics in 1956, going to self-imposed exile in Kent. Having donated his home, Kandawala, to the state to form a defense university, he was awarded the rank of general on his deathbed.
Early life and education
Kotelawala was born on 4 April 1897 to John Kotelawala Snr, a police inspector, who later turned businessman and Alice Elisabeth Kotelawala (née Attygalle), daughter of Mudaliyar Don Charles Gemoris Attygalle, a wealthy land and mine owner. He had a younger brother Justin Kotelawala and a sister Freda, who later married C. V. S. Corea.
The Kotelawalas lived in considerable comfort owing to the considerable land and mine holdings of his grandfather Mudaliyar Attygalle, which his father managed following the death of his grandfather. After he was forced out of the management of the Attygalle estates by the family, Kotelawala Snr started his own business ventures including the Ceylon-Japan Trading Company. In 1907, he was arrested and found guilty of conspiring to murder his brother-in-law, Francis Attygalle. While the murder trial was underway, Kotelawala Snr committed suicide by poisoning himself.
Kotelawala was eleven years old when his father died and with this, the family fortunes declined after much funds were spent in the legal defence of his father. Alice Kotelawala who had converted to Christianity slowly built up the family wealth through careful management of their remaining land holdings and the share of the Kahatagaha graphite mine, which she received from her younger sister Ellen and brother-in-law, Fredrick Richard Senanayake. She was reputed for her social work and was later awarded an MBE in the 1939 Birthday Honours and a CBE in the 1951 Birthday Honours.Ceylon :
Young Kotelawala attended Royal College, Colombo, representing the school in cricket, tennis, boxing and football. He played in the Royal–Thomian. He had to leave owing to involvements in the riots in 1915, embarking on a tour of Europe, with World War I raging. He remained in Europe for five years, spending most of that time in England and France, and attended Christ's College, Cambridge to study agriculture. Kotelawala was known as an aggressive and outspoken man who loved sports, horseback riding and cricket and, particularly as a young man, got into physical fights when he was insulted. He was fluent in Sinhala, English and French. After returning to Ceylon, he became a planter, running his family plantation estates and mines, which included the Kahatagaha Graphite Mine in Dodangaslanda. He served as a Justice of the Peace.
Military service In a time when serving in the volunteer forces was prestigious and a gentlemanly pursuit, Kotelawala gained a commission as a second lieutenant in the Ceylon Light Infantry on 15 September 1922. That year the regiment received colours from the Prince of Wales. He progressed with promotions to lieutenant on 27 October 1924, captain on 23 August 1929 and major on 1 October 1933. On 1 July 1939, he was appointed second in command of the Ceylon Light Infantry and served till 1 September 1940. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on 1 October 1940 and was posted to the reserve of the regiment.
With the outbreak of World War II in the Far East, the Ceylon Defence Force including the Ceylon Light Infantry was mobilized and expanded for wartime service with the British Army. Kotelawala as the Minister of Communications and Works, became a member of the Ceylon's War Council and served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Essential Services Labor Corp. He provided his home, Kandawala to function as the officers mess for the wartime RAF station at Rathmalana. He was promoted to honorary rank of colonel on 2 July 1942, the highest rank that a Ceylonese could achieve at the time in the Ceylon Defence Force.
Early political career
As early as 1915 Kotelawala had become involved with political leaders such as Don Stephen Senanayake and his brother F.R. Senanayake, who was married to Kotelawala's mother's sister. They criticized many of the actions of the British colonial officials following the riots in 1915.
State Council Captain John Kotelawala contested the Kurunegala seat in the 1931 election for the State Council of Ceylon. He gained 17159 votes, a majority of 9045 over his opponent from the Ceylon National Congress. Elected to the State Council, he served as a backbencher in its first term. He was re-elected unopposed in the 1936 state council election from Kurunegala and was elected as Minister of Communications and Works, the chair Communications and Works Committee in the Second Board of Ministers of Ceylon. As the Minister, he oversaw the initiation of several major public works projects in the island.
In Cabinet
Just before Ceylon received independence and dominion status in 1948, Colonel Kotelawala had contested the 1947 general elections for the United National Party (UNP), founded by D. S. Senanayake, from the Dodangaslanda electorate and was elected to the newly formed House of Representatives, which was the elected lower house of parliament established under the Soulbury Constitution. Kotelawala was an important member of the UNP and was appointed by Senanayake as Minister of Transport and Works, retaining the portfolio of public works which he had held on the second board of ministers.
During his tenure major projects such as the Laxapana power project, expansion of the Colombo harbour, expansion of the Ratmalana Airport, construction of the University of Peradeniya and the expansion of road in the island took place. With S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike leaving the UNP and crossing over to the opposition, Kotelawala was appointed Leader of the House in the House of Representatives on 12 July 1951.
When Senanayake suddenly died on 22 March 1952, Kotelawala expected to succeed him as prime minister, given he was the leader of the house and the most senior member of the UNP. However, to his great anger, Lord Soulbury, the Governor-General, appointed Senanayake's son and Kotelawala's younger cousin, Dudley Senanayake, as prime minister on 26 March 1952. An angry Kotelawala threatened resignation and a possible split in the party appeared. After mediation between Kotelawala and Senanayake by senior UNP members including Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, Kotelawala agreed to serve in Dudley Senanayake's cabinet, retaining his existing portfolio. Soon after Senanayake called for fresh elections and in the 1952 general elections, Kotelawala was re-elected and retained his ministry and the post of leader of the house as the UNP won a majority to form a government.
The following year, the Senanayake government faced major civil unrest with left-wing parties launching the 1953 Hartal in August. On 12 August 1953 civil disobedience, strikes and demonstrations started throughout the island by trade unions against the proposed elimination of the subsidy on rice by the government. The country came to a stand still with transport and communication stopping due to acts of sabotage. The government implemented emergency regulations and deployed the army to suppress the Hartal and restore order. Badly shaken by the events of the Hartal, Senanayake, who was gravely ill, resigned as prime minister on 12 October 1953. Kotelawala succeeded Senanayake as prime minister, Minister of Defense, Minister of External Affairs, and as leader of the UNP.
Prime minister Domestic policy Anti-communism
Kotelawala was a committed opponent of communism and made combating its influence in Ceylon a prominent part of his domestic policy. In his first broadcast as prime minister, he stated that one of his foremost duties would be to combat communism in the country. His government subsequently took measures against communist political activity, including restricting the entry of foreign communists and seeking greater control over communist influence at the University of Ceylon.
His anti-communism was also prominent in his political rhetoric. In a speech to the House of Representatives on 21 June 1955, Kotelawala described the Soviet Union as Ceylon's “enemy No. 1” and warned that Communist Party leaders could become instruments of Soviet influence. His government and the United National Party frequently portrayed the local communist movement as a threat to Ceylon's democratic political system.
He took a hardline stand against trade unions and left-wing parties. He formed the Ceylon Railway Engineer Corps and Post and Telegraph Signals to minimise the effects on transport and communication in the event of trade union action.
Economic Policy