S. J. V. Chelvanayakam
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Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam (March 31, 1898-April 27, 1977) was a Sri Lankan politician and leader of the Tamil community.
Chelvanayakam was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, but returned to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) at the age of four. He studied at Union College, Tellippalai, and St. Thomas' College. At age 19, he had a bachelor's degree, and by 25, was called to the bar. He married Emily Grace Barr Kumuarakulassinghe two years later.
Chelvanayakam became active in the All Ceylon Tamil Congress during the drive for independence, becoming the party's deputy leader. He was elected to Parliament in the 1947 elections.
The ACTC was torn between Chelvanayakam and G.G. Ponnambalam, who pushed for greater cooperation with the United National Party government. Chelvanayakam broke with Ponnambalam in protest over the latter's support for the denial of citizenship to the estate Tamils in 1949. He went on to found a new, more aggressive party, the Federal Party.
In the 1956 election, the Federal Party emerged as the leading party in the Tamil regions, but the new prime minister, Solomon Bandaranaike, pushed through the Sinhala Only Act, which met with stiff opposition from the Tamils.
Chelvanayakam led a satyagraha protest against the new law, but was attacked by Sinhalese monks. The campaign succeeded at first in swaying the government, which negotiated the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact which agreed to provide government services in Tamil and devolve powers to a set of provincial councils. Bandaranaike abandoned the pact after stiff opposition from Buddhist monks.
After his fruitless experience dealing with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party governments of 1956-65, Chelvanayakam turned to the UNP. After that party's victory in the 1965 election, the Federal Party joined the government of Dudley Senanayake. He signed the Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Pact which also provided for Tamil services and district councils.
Senanayake never implemented the Pact and Chelvanayakam and the FP left the government.
By the 1970s, Chelvanayakam had grown bitter over his failure to win any meaningful concessions from the Sinhalese, and became sympathetic to the cause of Tamil separatism. The FP and other parties merged into the Tamil United Liberation Front towards that end, with Chelvanayakam as their leader.
His health was increasingly poor; he had suffered from Parkinson's disease and growing deafness since the 1950s. He died in his home and was buried in Jaffna.
Chelvanayakam was a beloved figure to Sri Lanka's Tamils, to whom he was known as "Thanthai Chelva" or "Father Chelva". He was sometimes compared to Mahatma Gandhi due to his reliance on nonviolence and, even at the end of his life, his commitment to use only peaceful means to achieve his political ends.
Nonetheless, his life is often considered a failure. Supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam regularly cite him as an example of why only armed rebellion can satisfy the needs of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
