General Sir John Lionel Kotelawala, KBE, CH (April 4, 1897 - October 2, 1980) was a Sri Lankan soldier and politician, most notable for serving as the 3rd Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from 1953 to 1956.
Family and early life
John Kotelawala's father, a police inspector also named John, committed suicide when he was 11. His mother Alice Attygalle, who was originally a Buddhist converted to Christianity after this. The family was very poor after John Sr's death, but eventually became prosperous. Young Kotelawala attended the prestigious Royal College, Colombo, but had to leave after he became involved in pro-independence activities during the riots in 1915.
There after he embarked on a trip to Europe after leaving school, which was very dangerous because World War I was being fought there. He remained in Europe for five years, spending most of that time in England and France and attended Christ's College, Cambridge Universityto study agriculture.
Kotelawala was known as an aggressive and outspoken man who loved sports, particularly horseback riding and cricket and, particularly as a young man, often got into physical fights when he was insulted. He was fluent in Sinhala, English and French. After returning to Ceylon, he took up managing his family estates.
Military career
Kotelawala first served with the mounted section of the Colombo Town Guard without enlisting, since he was underage at the time. However after returning from Europe he was commissioned in to the Ceylon Light Infantry as a Second Lieutenant in 1922. He went on to serve 23 years mostly as a reservist. Before retiring as a Colonel, the highest rank that a Ceylonese could achieve, he was the commanding officer of the Ceylon Light Infantry. During World War II, he served in the Ceylon's War Cabinet . A strong supporter of the military, he was promoted to the rank of general on his deathbed, the night before his death by President J. R. Jayawardene in recognition for his service of the country's military when he gifted his home Kandawala to the government to establish a Military academy.
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.
He entered mainstream politics by being elected to the Legislative Council as the member of Kurunegala. There after he entered the State Council as backbencher and reelected in 1936. In his second term he was appointed Minister of Communications and Works. There after he was made Minister of Agriculture.
When Ceylon received independence and dominion status in 1948, Kotelawala, was appointed to the Senate, had become an important member of D. S. Senanayake's United National Party and he served in several important positions in the cabinet during Senanayake's tenure as prime minister (1948-1952) including as minister of communication, minister of public works and minister of transport. When the prime minister died in 1952, many expected Kotelawala to succeed him, but D. S. Senanayake's son and Kotelawala's younger cousin, Dudley Senanayake was appointed instead by the Governor-general. By the following year, Kotelawala was then the leaders of the house in parliament, and was chosen as prime minister when Dudley resigned after the Hartal 1953.
As prime minister, Kotelawala led Sri Lanka into the United Nations and contributed to Sri Lanka's expanding foreign relations, particularly with other Asian countries. In 1955 he led his country's delegation to the Bandung conference in Indonesia, where his performance earned him the epithet Bandung Booruwa (Bandung Donkey) in Sri Lanka. At the conference he stated his belief that fashionably Marxist anti-colonialist rhetoric ignored Communist atrocities. In a private conversation with the prime ministers of Pakistan, India, Burma, and China, he asked Chinese premier Zhou Enlai if he wanted to bring Communism to Tibet. Zhou replied that that was impractical and undesirable, and that the PRC had gone to Tibet because it was "an integral part of the Chinese state" and because it had been threatened by "imperialist intrigues" from the British and Russian empires.
His government had to deal with economic problems and ethnic conflicts, and he and his party were defeated in the 1956 elections by a group of more radically chauvinistic Sinhalese parties under the leadership of Solomon Bandaranaike. Kotelawala retired from politics shortly after his electoral defeat and lived for several years in Kent, United Kingdom. He eventually returned to Sri Lanka and suffered a stroke at his home Kandawala September 29, 1980. Sir John Kotelawala died in a hospital on October 2, 1980, and his remains were cremated at Independence Square on October 5 with full military honours.
Legacy
In 1985 a national defence academy for training of Officers for all three Defence services in Sri Lankan was established in his estate Kandawala, which he gifted. It has been named General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) is a defence university offering undergraduate and post graduate study courses to officers of Defence services in Sri Lanka in various disciplines.
Though he strongly criticized the racist attitudes of many westerners, particularly British colonial officials, he did support the continued military presence of the British in Ceylon. He advocated the adoption of some western customs in Sri Lanka. He was knighted and received several other honors from the Ceylonese/British monarch.
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