Sri Lanka: Political Parties Material
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- Creator
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
TitleSri Lanka: Political Parties Material
Reference codePP.CE
Date1944-
Scope and ContentConstitutions, speeches, manifestos, pamphlets, conference reports and instructions, histories, programmes, newspaper cuttings and letters issued by the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, Eksat Jatika Paksaya (Sri Lanka) or United National Party, Janata Vimukti Peramuna, Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary), Nava Samasamaja Paksaya, Nava Samasamaja Paksaya (UK Branch), Sri Lanka Nidahas Paksaya or Sri Lankan Freedom Party, the United Front (Sri Lanka), the United Left Front (Sri Lanka) and other miscellaneous groups.
NotesThe political history of the country that achieved independence in 1948 as the Dominion of Ceylon, became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972 and then the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in 1978 has to a certain degree been that of the oscillation of power between two parties. The Ekshat Jathika Pakshaya (United National Party, UNP) ruled the country in 1948-56, 1959-60, 1965-1970, 1977-1994 and from 2001-2004, while its rival, the Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya (Sri Lanka Freedom Party SLFP), has been in government for the remainder of the period. Traditionally the SLFP has been the more left-wing of the two, as indicated by the United Front it formed in 1970 with the Communist Party of Sri Lanka and the trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, but its strong pro-Sinhalese rhetoric and legislation (most particularly the 1972 constitution favouring Buddhism and relegating the Tamil language to a secondary status) served to antagonise the country's large Tamil minority as well as driving the UNP to take up a similar position. The Tamil community increasingly turned to their own political organisations, represented here by the likes of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, and following the communalist riots of 1981 and 1983 there began the conflict between the Sri Lankan authorities and the rebel Tamil Tigers which has dogged the island ever since.
Conditions governing accessAccess to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment of the library.
Extent2 boxes
System of ArrangementAlphabetically by party, and then in rough chronological order.
Finding aidsItem-level descriptions are available on the library catalogue: http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/search~S17/
Related files
See also Sri Lanka: Trades Unions Material (TU.CE) and Sri Lanka: Pressure Groups Material (PG.CE), as well as Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and material in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies library's main classified sequence.
Level of descriptionfonds