Philip Gunawardena

Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and leftist. A founder of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party in Ceylon which was known for having introduced Trotskyism, he later founded the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and was called 'the Father of Socialism' and 'the Lion of Boralugoda'. A member of the State Council of Ceylon and the Parliament of Ceylon, he served as the Minister of Agriculture and food under S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike from 1956 to 1959 and as Minister of Industries and Fisheries in the national government under Dudley Senanayake from 1965 to 1970.

Country

India

Category

Politicians

Type

Politician

Status

deceased

Dates

Lived 1901 to 1972 · aged 71

Written about in

7 languages