Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Who was Sirimavo Bandaranaike?
Sri Lanka's first female Prime Minister who made history as the world's first woman to serve as head of government, leading the country through three separate terms from 1960-2000.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Sirimavo Bandaranaike (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, born Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike on April 17, 1916, in Baḷangoḍa, Sri Lanka, made history as the world's first female head of government when she became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. Coming from a prominent Sinhalese Kandyan aristocratic family, she attended St Bridget's Convent in Colombo, an Anglican English-medium school, but remained a devout Buddhist throughout her life. She married Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, founder of the socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and a Prime Minister of Ceylon. During his tenure, she became a skilled political hostess and informal advisor, focusing on improving conditions for women and girls in Sri Lanka's rural areas.
Her husband's assassination in September 1959 dramatically changed her life. Encouraged by SLFP leadership to enter formal politics, she became the chairwoman of the party and led it to victory in the July 1960 general election, defeating Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake's United National Party. Her first term, from 1960 to 1965, was notable for ambitious and sometimes controversial policies, such as nationalizing key industries, banks, and schools, and pushing for Sinhala to be the sole official administrative language. These policies, while popular with the Sinhalese majority, worsened ethnic tensions with the Tamils, including estate Tamils who had been made stateless by the 1948 Citizenship Act. She lost the 1965 election to Senanayake and served as Leader of the Opposition until she returned to power in 1970 through an alliance with Marxist parties.
Her second term, from 1970 to 1977, saw the transformation of Ceylon into the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972. Her government faced serious economic challenges like high unemployment, inflation, and reliance on food imports and was shaken by a 1971 insurrection by radical youth from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. Despite these issues, Bandaranaike pushed forward with socialist economic reforms and nationalization efforts. Her government was defeated in the 1977 election by J. R. Jayewardene's UNP in a landslide, and she had her civic rights suspended for six years due to abuse of power charges, pausing her political career.
Bandaranaike returned to politics in the 1990s as the SLFP, then led by her daughter Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, regained influence. When Chandrika became President of Sri Lanka in 1994, she appointed her mother as Prime Minister once more, a role she held from 1994 until her death. Sirimavo Bandaranaike passed away on October 10, 2000, in Kadawatha, just hours after casting her vote in the parliamentary election, ending a four-decade-long political career that significantly impacted Sri Lankan politics.
Before Fame
Sirimavo Bandaranaike was born on April 17, 1916, into the Ratwatte family, one of the well-known Kandyan aristocratic families in Ceylon. She went to St Bridget's Convent in Colombo, a top school where she received an English-medium Anglican education while keeping her Buddhist faith and Sinhalese cultural identity. After school, she didn't go to university, which was rare for women of her time and social standing.
Her marriage to S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1940 placed her at the heart of Ceylon's political scene. As her husband advanced in the Ceylon National Congress and later founded the SLFP in 1951, she became a politically savvy partner, engaging in social work, supporting rural women's causes, and building grassroots connections that would later be key to her political campaigns. Only after her husband's murder in 1959 did the party see her as the best person to keep its coalition intact, pushing her into the formal world of electoral politics.
Key Achievements
- Became the world's first female head of government when elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in July 1960.
- Led the transformation of Ceylon from a dominion into the independent Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972.
- Served three separate terms as Prime Minister spanning four decades: 1960–1965, 1970–1977, and 1994–2000.
- Oversaw extensive nationalization programs encompassing banking, education, industry, and the media sector.
- Chaired the Non-Aligned Movement, positioning Sri Lanka as a significant voice in Cold War-era international diplomacy.
Did You Know?
- 01.Bandaranaike voted in the October 2000 parliamentary election on the very morning she died, collapsing and passing away just hours after casting her ballot.
- 02.She had her civic rights suspended from 1980 to 1986 by the Jayewardene government following a special presidential commission that found her guilty of abuse of power during her second term.
- 03.Her third term as Prime Minister made her and her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga the first mother-daughter pair to simultaneously hold the positions of Prime Minister and President in the same country.
- 04.Despite being educated in English-medium schools, she campaigned extensively on a platform of making Sinhala the sole official language, replacing English in government administration.
- 05.She survived an attempted military coup d'état in January 1962, when a group of senior military and police officers tried to seize control of the government.