Philip Gunawardena
| Philip Gunawardena | |
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| Member of the Ceylon Parliament for Avissawella |
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In office 1936–1970 |
Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) introduced Trotskyism to Sri Lanka, where he is a National Hero, known as 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'.
Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena popularly known as Philip was born on 11 January 1901, to a well-to-do family in Boralugoda, Avissawella, in Sri Lanka. He attended the local village school 'Boralugoga Siddhartha Primary School' for his primary education and went on to the Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa. He attended Ananda College in Colombo and then University College, Colombo. At the age of 21, he moved to the United States where he studied Economics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He became radical minded and associated himself actively in the mass struggles which stormed the United States at the time.
Two years later, he moved to the more radical University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he met Jayaprakash Narayan. The two were introduced by Avrom Landy to the Communist Party of the United States. Woodward has recorded that Gunawardena received his training in Marxism from Scott Nearing (1883–1983). He completed bachelor of science & master of science degrees in Agricultural Economics. In 1925, he joined Columbia University for post-graduate (doctoral) work.
In 1927 Gunawardena joined the League Against Imperialism in New York, where he worked with José Vasconcelos of Mexico, gaining a working knowledge of Spanish.
In 1929 he went to London, where he participated in mass agitations and anti-colonial movements, excelling as a brilliant orator, trade unionist, and political columnist. Shri Jawaharlal Nehru and Krishna Menon of India, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Tan Malaka of Indonesia, and Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam of Mauritius were some of his contemporary colleagues who later played prominent roles in their motherlands.
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