Soulbury Constitutional Commission is established to examine a constitutional draft prepared by the Ceylonese ministers of government and, on the basis of it, to make recommendations for a new constitution.
Quotations
“On behalf of the Congress and on my own behalf I give the minority communities the sincere assurance that no harm need they fear at our hands in a free Lanka. Do you want to be governed from London or do you want, as Ceylonese, to help govern Ceylon?” D.S. Senanayake, State Council debate on the Soulbury Constitution, Hansard, 8 November 1945.
“Our fundamental mistake was not to ask for independence when the British left.” S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, interview with Walter Schwarz, published in The Tamils of Sri Lanka, Minority Rights Group, London, September 1983, first published in September 1975.
Related events
G.G. Ponnambalam asks for ‘50:50’ representation
The first Constitution of Sri Lanka, 1972
Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka, 1978
prashan said,
This is the last of a few different pre-independence constitution making attempts that included Sri Lankan political representation on the basis of race. Like the Belgians in Rwanda playing the Hutus and Tutsis off against each other in the run up to independence, the political significance of race in Sri Lanka was established early by colonial powers with violent consequences.