Seventy-two years have passed since the historic uprising of workers against a government that broke its election promises and cut essential concessions. The special significance of what is commonly known as the ’53 hartal lies in the fact that it marked the first time the left and the working class demonstrated their militancy against a capitalist government. This occurred just five years after independence granted by British imperialists.

The 72nd anniversary of the hartal, which took place on August 12, 1953 holds particular importance today as it is being commemorated under a “leftist” NPP government – one that now faces criticism for failing to fulfill its own election promises.

Following the sudden death of Prime Minister and UNP leader D.S. Senanayake in March 1951, his son Dudley was appointed prime minister in line with a pre-arranged plan. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, then leader of the house and a contender for both party leadership and the premiership, resigned from the government in protest and went on to form a new political party. Dudley became prime minister after the UNP won the May 1952 general election while Bandaranaike, who contested under the newly formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party, emerged as the leader of the opposition.

Broken election promises

One of the key promises in the UNP’s election campaign was to provide rice rations at 25 cents throughout its term in office. However, this and other assurances including pledges not to cut subsidies began to unravel just months after the new government was formed.

Ahead of the 1953 budget, the government secured a loan of Rs. 80 million from the World Bank for hydropower projects. It was announced in the State Council that in order to prioritize development and increase national income, the government had decided to eliminate the heavy burden of food subsidies.

In line with the conditions imposed by the international financial institutions from which the government borrowed, prices for essential goods and services including rice, sugar, flour rations, railway fares and postal charges were increased. Even the free bun distributed as lunch to schoolchildren was discontinued. The cost of providing free lunches to 750,000 students amounted to Rs. 18 million annually, which the government redirected toward development initiatives.

The most severe and widely felt cut was the increase in the price of the rice ration, which rose from 25 cents to 70 cents.

As Finance Minister J.R. Jayewardene prepared to present the budget containing these subsidy cuts to the State Council the Lanka Sama Samaja Party launched a public petition in protest. Several local authorities including the Galle and Jaffna Municipal Councils, the Moratuwa, Panadura, and Beruwala Urban Councils and the Andiambalama Village Council passed resolutions opposing the measures and took part in early rounds of protest.

A massive rally was held at Galle Face Green against the government’s austerity measures chaired by Bandaranaike, who was widely expected to form the next government. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam’s Federal Party also joined the movement. Public rallies and protests soon spread across the country.

With a token  strike launched by a force of 12,000 workers at the Colombo Port, the women of Randombe also took to the streets, blocking traffic and cooking on the roads. The police were unable to disperse them through threats or intimidation. The protests soon spread to nearby towns including Madampe, Akurala, Thotagamuwa, Balapitiya, Karandeniya, Uragaha and Ahungalla. Workers at the Wellawatte Textile Mill also staged a symbolic strike on the evening of July 23.

The government believed that growing public opposition could be suppressed through police action. Accordingly, it deployed state repression tactics to control the situation in Ambalangoda, Balapitiya and Colombo.  Police used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

A notable feature of the uprising was the collective resistance of the people in the face of police violence. Rather than retreating under attack, the protesters responded with determination, fighting back against the armed forces using whatever they could find.

Bandaranaike’s game

Although SLFP did not oppose the idea of a strike or hartal in principle, it refrained from participating in practice, revealing a highly opportunistic stance. The Ceylon-Indian Congress (now the Ceylon Workers’ Congress) also chose not to engage in strike action on that day, opting instead to organize as many public rallies as possible.

In contrast, the left-wing parties – the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the Lanka Communist Party and the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party led by Philip Gunawardena – along with major labor organizations such as the Ceylon Workers’ Union Federation, the Ceylon Trade Union Federation, the Ceylon Workers’ Union ( led by A.E. Gunasinghe), the Ceylon Mercantile Workers  Union (led by Bala Tampoe) and the Port and Dock Workers’ Union jointly called for a general strike and hartal on August 12.

The government’s attempt to pacify growing opposition and intimidate the public received strong backing from the Lake Houseand Times newspapers. A clear warning was issued: those who participated in the strike would be dismissed from their jobs and shopkeepers who closed their businesses on the day of the hartal would have their licenses revoked.

Armed forces were deployed to intimidate the general public and were seen patrolling the streets in groups. These tactics had some limited success; several branches of the Government Clerical Services Union and the Ceylon Mercantile Workers Union decided not to participate in the strike.

However, despite internal divisions within these unions, the majority of members still expressed solidarity with the hartal by wearing black armbands.

Hartal in the up country

The presence of military units patrolling near the lecture halls of Peradeniya University stirred unrest among the student body. The discontent quickly escalated and by the evening of August 11, students organized demonstrations throughout Kandy.

More than 50% of the university’s students boarded a train from Sarasavi Uyana to Kandy and marched in procession along Ward Street, Trincomalee Street and Colombo Road. As they turned onto Peradeniya Road to return to the university, the police responded with baton charges to disperse them.

Students were forced to return to campus by bus but the conflict continued. Police jeeps pursued the students back to the university where fresh clashes erupted after nightfall. The students retaliated using whatever objects they could find such as stones, bottles, broken concrete slabs and clubs.

During the confrontation, a police sergeant was seriously injured while chasing a student up a narrow staircase in Jayathilaka Hall, struck in the head with a broken concrete slab, the only weapon the fleeing student had in hand. The attack left the sergeant severely wounded.

On August 12, all students at Peradeniya University went on a class strike to protest the police intrusion into campus. Their bold intervention played a pivotal role in the success of the hartal in Kandy, awakening the previously quiet upcountry peasantry. Shops and workplaces in Kandy, Peradeniya and the surrounding areas remained closed throughout the day.

Meanwhile, bus workers and Maradana railway workers joined the strike on the night of August 11, causing widespread disruption to transportation. The wave of strikes quickly spread across the country, affecting key workplaces such as the Colombo Port, Ratmalana Railway Workshops, Kolonnawa Government Factory, Wellawatte Weaving  Mill, Walker & Co., Maxbox Company, Tucker & Co. and many others.

All retail shops in areas such as Pettah, Ratmalana, Grandpass, Borella and Pamankada were shuttered. By 10 am the roads were completely deserted with not a single bus, cart or rickshaw in sight.

Worker dies

What began as a peaceful protest in the morning turned violent by the afternoon when police baton charged demonstrators at the Pettah Gas Junction. In response protesters hurled stones at the police, who retaliated with gunfire killing a young worker named Edwin. Enraged by the shooting, the protesters chased and beat the police, forcing them to retreat to their barracks.

Edwin’s death triggered further unrest. In the chaos that followed, the Volkert Brothers Company, Manning Market and the engineering department of Walker & Co. were set on fire. The telecommunications system was brought to a standstill, completely disrupting communication networks.

The hartal was a resounding success across the western and southern coastal belt, along the Kelani Valley Road from Colombo through Avissawella to Ratnapura and in the Northern Province. The UNP government suffered a staggering political blow.

Gripped by fear and uncertainty, the government convened its cabinet meeting that day not on land but aboard the British warship HMS Newfoundland anchored in Colombo Harbor, an act that would become symbolic of the government’s retreat in the face of mass uprising.

Police opened fire on protesters in several locations killing nine people in total. The shootings occurred in Dompe, Modara, Kirulapone, Pettah, Uragaha and Ratmalana. In Moratuwa, women halted a train at Egoda Uyana in a symbolic act of resistance while two carriages were set ablaze at the Panadura railway station. A bus was torched in Boralesgamuwa and a police van was completely destroyed in Dompe. Protesters took control of several key areas including Maharagama, Homagama, Kirulapone, Waskaduwa and Bokundara.

In response to the widespread unrest, the government declared a state of emergency on the evening of August 12 under the Public Safety Act. A curfew was imposed from dusk till dawn. Under these emergency regulations, those who had participated in or supported the hartal were aggressively hunted down. UNP supporters actively assisted the police in identifying and arresting protestors.

The presses of the LSSP and the Communist Party of Ceylon were sealed. Police fired upon the homes of suspected activists and vandalized their property. The Colombo and Moratuwa Municipal Councils, both of which had openly supported the hartal, were dissolved and replaced by government appointed special commissioners.

Public gatherings were banned, movement was tightly restricted and the offices of leftist parties and trade unions were subjected to repeated inspections. Over 970 legal cases arising from the hartal were filed across various regions. A team of lawyers led by Colvin R. de Silva stepped in to provide legal defense for those arrested.

Nine workers  killed

In addition to the nine protesters who were killed and remembered as fighters who gave their lives during the hartal, 61 others were injured.

The SLFP, positioning itself as an alternative to the ruling government, ultimately capitalized on the political gains made by the people through the hartal. This was possible, in part, due to the LSSP  leadership’s reluctance to take a revolutionary path, showing a tendency toward class collaboration with the bourgeoisie.

Bandaranaike chaired the opposition rally at Galle Face Green on July 23. While this may have seemed coincidental, it clearly reflected his opportunistic politics and exposed the middle class weaknesses within the leadership of both the LSSP and the Communist Party.

Explaining this moment, Reggie Mendis recalled, “Bandaranaike and his MP Iyzed Siriwardena were watching the crowd gather for the Galle Face meeting from the steps leading to Parliament. He had come to the meeting with a group of around 500 port workers. Among them was a worker named ‘Chandy’, about six and a half feet tall. Bandaranaike called him up to the stage. N.M., who was presiding over the meeting, suddenly gave up the chair to Bandaranaike.”

This symbolic gesture marked a turning point in the politics of the left, highlighting internal divisions and the growing influence of opportunist figures in mainstream opposition politics.

For Bandaranaike, who had kept his distance and jumped the gun as the hartal movement gained momentum, this was a golden opportunity to reap political rewards.

LSSP leaders give up the fight

The LSSP leadership instructed the hartal to be called off around 1.30 pm on August 12, even before the 24 hour protest period they had initially announced had ended. By that time, a large crowd had gathered and was moving toward the Lake House. According to Mendis, given the high level of militancy at the time not only the Lake House but also nearby centers like the main post office could have fallen into the hands of the protesters.

When Mendis spoke on the phone with Osmond Jayaratne, a Sama Samaja leader, he was ordered to “inform everyone to go home following the party’s decision.” The crowd, however, refused to disperse. Leslie and Robert Gunawardana who had arrived at the scene relayed the party’s decision to call off the hartal. Consequently, the militant crowd had to disperse gradually.

Although the people were ready to counter attack in response to the government’s terror campaign through the police and security forces, the hartal, which was initially planned to last 24 hours, was called off after only 12 hours by the LSSP leadership. Pieter Keuneman, a Communist leader, tried to calm government fears about further protests, saying, “There is no proposal to renew the hartal on August 21 or any other date. We have no idea…”

Despite the government surviving a no confidence motion brought by the opposition, Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake resigned in September 1953, citing health reasons.

The reduction of the rice ration price from the raised 70 cents down to 55 cents was also seen as a victory for the people.

The task of creating a new social system – one that breaks free from the existing order trapped in “globalization” under the control of American imperialism, IMF and the World Bank – remains the responsibility of the people who endure despite all hardships. For this reason, the 1953 Hartal continues to hold great significance today as a historical lesson in the struggle of the common people led by the working class.