Velupillai Kumaraswamy ( ta, வேலுப்பிள்ளை குமாரசுவாமி; 31 July 1919 – 10 March 1978) was a

Ceylon Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pr ...

lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament.

Early life and family

Kumaraswamy was born on 31 July 1919. He was the son of Velupillai, a

proctor Proctor (a variant of ''procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: * In law, a proctor is a historical class of lawye ...

from

Chavakachcheri Chavakachcheri ( ta, சாவகச்சேரி Cāvakaccēri, si, ජාවකච්චේරි Jāvakachchēri) is a large town in the Jaffna peninsula of Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It may have Javanese people, Javane ...

in northern

Ceylon 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 ...

. After school Kumaraswamy joined

Ceylon Law College Sri Lanka Law College (abbreviated as SLLC), formerly known as Ceylon Law College, is a law college, and the only legal institution where one can enroll as a attorney-at-law in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1874, under the then Council of Legal ...

, qualifying as an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

. Kumaraswamy had a son (Vaheeswaran) and a daughter (Dushyanti).

Career

Whilst still studying law, Kumaraswamy stood as the

All Ceylon Tamil Congress All Ceylon Tamil Congress ( ta, அகில இலங்கைத் தமிழ்க் காங்கிரஸ்), is the oldest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka. History The ACTC was founded in 1944 by G.G. Ponnambalam. Ponnambalam ask ...

's (ACTC) candidate in

at the 1947 parliamentary election. He won the election and entered

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Kumaraswamy became a Parliamentary Secretary after the ACTC joined the United National Party dominated government in 1948. Kumaraswamy was re-elected at the 1952 parliamentary election. The ACTC left the UNP government in 1953 but Kumaraswamy chose to remain with the UNP. Kumaraswamy left the UNP in 1956 over the party's support of the

Sinhala Only Act The Official Language Act (No. 33 of 1956), commonly referred to as the Sinhala Only Act, was an act passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956. The act replaced English with Sinhala as the sole official language of Ceylon, with the exclusion ...

. Kumaraswamy stood for re-election in the constituency at the 1956 parliamentary election as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidate but was defeated by the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Federal Party) candidate

V. N. Navaratnam Vallipuram Nallathamby Navaratnam ( ta, வல்லிபுரம் நல்லதம்பி நவரத்தினம்; 5 June 1929 – 29 January 1991) was a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament. Early lif ...

. He was the ACTC's candidate in the constituency at the March 1960 and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

parliamentary elections but on each occasion was defeated by Navaratnam. He contested the 1977 parliamentary election as an independent candidate but was again defeated by Navaratnam. Kumaraswamy practised law in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumaraswamy, V. 1919 births 1978 deaths All Ceylon Tamil Congress politicians Alumni of Ceylon Law College Ceylonese advocates Members of the 1st Parliament of Ceylon Members of the 2nd Parliament of Ceylon Parliamentary secretaries of Ceylon People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan lawyers Tamil politicians