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Kothandarama Natesa Iyer or S. K. Natesa Iyer [1] (1887 - 7 November 1947) was a Sri Lankan journalist, trade union leader and politician of Indian Tamil origin, had pioneered the labour movement in the plantations in the early 1930s.
Natesa Iyer was a Tamil Brahmin from Thanjavur who spent his early life as a clerk in Madras city. In 1920, moved to Ceylon in order to edit a Ceylonese Tamil newspaper Desanesan owned by Arunachalam and E. V. Rathnam of the Ceylonese National Congress.
Natesa Iyer joined the Ceylon Labour Union and soon became its Vice-President. He was elected to the Ceylonese Legislative Council and served as its member. However, soon afterwards, disputes broke out between the Tamil and Ceylonese members of the Ceylon Labour Union and A. E. Goonesinha, the President of the Union accused Indian Tamils for all the country's ills. Natesa Iyer quit the party in protest against Goonesinghe's attitude.
After quitting the Ceylon Labour Union, Natesa Iyer founded the All Ceylon Estate Labour Federation and started an English-language journal called "The Indian Estate Labourer".
In 1936, Natesa Iyer was elected to the State Council of Ceylon from the Hatton assembly constituency and served as a member of the council from 1936 to 1947. He was the first member of the Indian Tamil community to be appointed to the council.
Don Stephen Senanayake was a Ceylonese statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of Ceylon having emerged as the leader of the Sri Lankan independence movement that led to the establishment of self-rule in Ceylon. He is considered as the "Father of the Nation".
Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI) was a revolutionary Trotskyist party which campaigned for independence and socialism in South Asia. The party was formed in 1942 as a unification of two Indian groups, with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Ceylon. It was recognised as the Indian section of the Fourth International.
The Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) is a political party in Sri Lanka that has traditionally represented Sri Lankan Tamils of Indian origin working in the plantation sector of the economy.
Mark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle was a British-born Australian Marxist revolutionary who played a key role in the Sri Lankan independence movement. He was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka. He is most known for initiating the Bracegirdle Incident.
Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka are Tamil people of Indian origin in Sri Lanka. They are also known as Malayaga Tamilar, Hill Country Tamils, Up-Country Tamils or simply Indian Tamils. They predominantly descend from workers sent from Southern India to Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Some also migrated on their own as merchants and as other service providers. These Tamil speakers mostly live in the central highlands, also known as the Malayakam or Hill Country, yet others are also found in major urban areas and in the Northern Province. Although they are all termed as Tamils today, some have Telugu and Malayalee origins as well as diverse South Indian caste origins. They are instrumental in the plantation sector economy of Sri Lanka. In general, socio-economically their standard of living is below that of the national average and they are described as one of the poorest and most neglected groups in Sri Lanka. In 1964 a large percentage were repatriated to India, but left a considerable number as stateless people. By the 1990s most of these had been given Sri Lankan citizenship. Most are Hindus with a minority of Christians and Muslims amongst them. There are also a small minority followers of Buddhism among them. Politically they are supportive of trade union-based political parties that have supported most of the ruling coalitions since the 1980s.
The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement which was aimed at achieving independence and self-rule for the country of Sri Lanka, then British Ceylon, from the British Empire. The switch of powers was generally known as peaceful transfer of power from the British administration to Ceylon representatives, a phrase that implies considerable continuity with a colonial era that lasted 400 years. It was initiated around the turn of the 20th century and led mostly by the educated middle class. It succeeded when, on 4 February 1948, Ceylon was granted independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. Dominion status within the British Commonwealth was retained for the next 24 years until 22 May 1972 when it became a republic and was renamed the Republic of Sri Lanka.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, in the British Crown Colony of Ceylon, the government of Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka assured the British King and his government of its continued support.
The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in effect between 1931 and 1947 in Ceylon. In 1931 there were approximately 12% Ceylonese Tamils, 12% Indian Tamils, 65% Sinhalese, and ~3% Ceylon Moors. The British government had introduced a form of communal representation which a strong Tamil representation, out of proportion to the population of the Tamil community. The Sinhalese had been divided into up-country and low-country Sinhalese.
Nadesan or Natesan is a South Indian male given name. Due to the South Indian tradition of using patronymic surnames, it may also be a surname for males and females.
Alexander Ekanayake Gunasinha trade unionist and politician. A pioneering trade union leader, known as the "Father of the Labour Movement", he was the founder of the Ceylon Labour Party, Sri Lanka's first labour organisation. A former mayor of Colombo, he served as the Minister without portfolio, Minister of State and Chief Government Whip in the First Parliament of Sri Lanka and Ceylon's Ambassador to Burma and Indonesia.
The fourth election to the Legislative Council of Ceylon was held in 1924.
Peri Sundaram, born Periannan Sundaram, was a Ceylonese lawyer, trade unionist and politician. He was the first Minister of Labour Industries and Commerce in the State Council of Ceylon and Deputy President of the Senate of Ceylon.
Henry Woodward Amarasuriya was a Ceylonese plantation owner, politician, educationist and philanthropist. He was the Cabinet Minister for Trade and Commerce in the cabinet of D. S. Senanayake. A former member of the Ceylon state council, H. W. Amarasuriya was a founding member and the first general secretary of the United National Party. He also held the position of Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees in the first parliament of Ceylon. A member of the first Education Executive Committee of the state council and a former general manager of the Buddhist schools, he did a great service to improve the education in Ceylon.
The Ceylon Labour Party (CLP) was a political party in Sri Lanka.
Sebastian Cyril Constantine Anthony Pillai, also spelled S.C.C. Anthonypillai, was a Ceylonese-Indian trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament.
Abdul Aziz was an Indian-born Ceylonese politician and trade unionist. He was elected to the first Parliament of Ceylon in March 1950 representing the Ceylon Indian Congress as the member for the Maskeliya electorate, at a parliamentary by-election, following the death of the sitting member, G. R. Motha.
Desigar Ramanujam was a Ceylonese trade unionist and politician.
H Cannappen Velusingham Velupillai was a Ceylonese trade unionist, politician and poet.
Dewan Bahadur Chevalier Ignatius Xavier Pereira was a colonial-era Ceylonese businessman and politician.
Henry 'Harry' Abdy Fellowes-Gordon was a British tea planter and politician in Colonial Ceylon.
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