The Donoughmore Experience: Broader Commitment To Justice As An Essential Complement For A Democracy That Delivers
By Rajan Hoole –December 1, 2016
Dr. Rajan Hoole
The Donoughmore proposals of September 1928, sought to replace the Legislative Council, elected under limited franchise with a State Council elected under universal adult franchise, conferring on it shared executive power. It was a salutary measure, which was an opportunity to prepare ourselves for full independence. Instead they began a curious saga ending with independence where the ominous signs were masked by the ceremony of the British exit.
To begin with the Legislative Council in November 1928 defeated universal franchise, the main thrust of the reforms, by an amendment to the Donoughmore proposals by Molamure and Senanayake. It made five years residence in addition to passing a literacy test mandatory for the franchise. It was in effect a class qualification. The British compromised and agreed instead to a test of domicile, after which the Bill passed 19 for and 17 against in December 1929. It was an inadvertent precedent for racial and religious discrimination. In using domicile as qualification for the franchise, the target group was plainly the Indian Tamils.
By then an estimated 70 to 80 percent of the Indian Tamil population had been born here and would have in time qualified for domicile. Their right to be treated as in all respects equal to British subjects in Ceylon was part of the 1923 treaty with India governing migration of labour. The effect of requiring proof of domicile was to slow down voter registration.
Ceylon domicile could mean, domicile of choice, to have an abiding interest in Ceylon; or domicile of origin, that is, father having Ceylon domicile. The registering officers took the practical way out, and registered those with five years residence as qualified for domicile of choice and those born here as having Ceylon domicile of origin. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, Minister of Home Affairs, was outraged. In 1938, a House committee of seven chaired by Bandaranaike, decided by a majority against changes to the registration as it ‘would be disastrous to the Indian estate labourer.’ Bandaranaike vehemently opposed this considerate view.
In February 1940, Bandaranaike wanted the new Legal Secretary Drayton to move legislation requiring inquisitorial conditions for registration, including for example that the registrant has owned a business here for ten or fifteen years and that he is married and settled down here. Drayton declined after seeing the committee decision. He explained to the House in May the practical limits of registering officials: A child born in Ceylon having a Sinhalese name was presumed to have Ceylon domicile of origin; officials did not inquire into the father’s domicile or the child’s legitimacy as strict legal procedure demanded.
Bandaranaike’s truculence was however rewarded. Governor Caldecott cited ‘growing unrest’ and in June 1940 decided to postpone the elections due in January 1941 by two years. Bandaranaike earlier told the House, “nothing will please me more than to see the last Indian leaving the shores of Ceylon…[in which event], I will die a happy man.” It was the voice of contradiction, ‘I love the fruits of Indian labour without the Indians.’ The consensus among British interests and the Ceylonese legislators, several of them planters, was that Indian labour was essential and the latter routinely approved permits for their import.
