Balaupasakage Yasodis Tudawe (25 September 1915 – 22 January 2000) was a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n communist politician. He was a member of the

Communist Party of Sri Lanka The Communist Party of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය, ''Sri Lankavay Komiyunist Pakshaya'' ta, இலங்கை கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சி, trans ...

, serving two terms as a

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

and one term as Deputy Minister

of Education The tractate ''Of Education'' was published in 1644, first appearing anonymously as a single eight-page quarto sheet (Ainsworth 6). Presented as a letter written in response to a request from the Puritan educational reformer Samuel Hartlib, it r ...

. He studied at

St. Servatius' College St. Servatius' College is a boys' school located in Matara, Sri Lanka. The school was established in 1897 by recently arrived Belgian Jesuit missionaries, led by Joseph Van Reeth, first bishop of Galle and Father Augustus Standaert. St. Servat ...

, Matara.

Early life and career

Born in 1915 to a poor family in the village of Tudawa in Matara. Having completed his schooling, Tudawe became a teacher at the C.C. School at Gabadaweeadiya, Matara. He studied at

, Matara. He soon joined the Teacher's Association, Co-operative Society and the Youth Buddhist Society. He later became the District Secretary, Matara of the National Teachers Union of Ceylon.

Political career

He joined the

and rose to the post of District Secretary of the party and was a member of the Central Committee of the party. He was arrested by the police on charges of violating the curfew law during the 1953 Hartal, which had taken place in the country in the wake of the 1953 rice price hike. He was a founding member of the Matara Co-operative Hospitals Society. He participated in the International Co-operative Conference in Poland representing Ceylon. When the Soviet astronaut

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...

arrived in Matara in 1962, Thudawe translated his speech into Sinhala. As a long-standing member of the Ceylon Communist Party, he was elected to parliament at the 1965 general election in the Matara electorate and was re-elected at the subsequent 1970 general election by majority of the votes. Tudawe was appointed Deputy Minister of Education in the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

government led by Prime Minister

Sirimavo Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike ( si, සිරිමා රත්වත්තේ ඩයස් බණ්ඩාරනායක; ta, சிறிமா ரத்வத்தே டயஸ் பண்டாரநாயக்கே; 17 April 191 ...

. He was defeated in the 1977 general election, in which for the first time the Communist Party was left without parliamentary representation, however he thereafter elected as the opposition leader of the Matara Municipal Council. In the first Provincial Council election held in 1988, Tudawe was elected to the Southern Provincial Council and held the position of opposition leader and helped the Communist party to work on a correct path. He was elected Minister of the Southern Provincial Council in 1993, but the council was confined only to a few days because it was defeated by a no-confidence motion. Despite losing the re-election, he managed to continue his political career and public service.

Assassination attempt

On 1 October 1987, the JVP which was engaged in their second insurrection, launched a wave of attacks on other left wing parties. On 1 October the

Lanka Sama Samaja Party The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP (Literal translation, literally: Lanka Socialist Party, Sinhalese language, Sinhala: ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය, Tamil language, Tamil: லங்கா சமசமா� ...

and

Ceylon Communist Party The Communist Party of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය, ''Sri Lankavay Komiyunist Pakshaya'' ta, இலங்கை கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சி, trans ...

offices were attacked and burnt, and B. Y. Tudawe was shot by JVP gunmen whilst he watched television at his home in Matara, the following day the Communist Party offices in Matara were also attacked. Although hospitalised for a long period, he made a complete recovery and returned to politics carrying the JVP assassin's bullets till the day he died.

Personal life

B. Y. Thudawe was married Ramyalyn Tudawe in 1944 and has one child, Ranjini Tudawe.

Death

He died on January 22, 2000, at the age of 84 due to sudden illness.

References