Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (née Ratwatte; 17 April 1916 – 10 October 2000), commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan stateswoman who thrice served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1960 to 1965, from 1970 to 1977, and from 1994 to 2000. She was the first woman in the world to be democratically elected prime minister in 1960. A chairperson of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) from 1960 to 1994, she pursued socialist economic policies and promoted Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. Bandaranaike was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and later served as chairperson of the organisation from 1976 to 1977, becoming the first woman to lead the organisation. Her combined tenure of 17 years and 211 days in office, spanning three non-consecutive terms, makes her the longest-serving prime minister in Sri Lankan history.

Born into a Sinhalese Kandyan aristocratic family, Bandaranaike was educated in Anglican, English-medium schools, but remained a Buddhist, and spoke Sinhala as well as English. As a hostess for her husband S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who founded the socialist SLFP in 1951 and became prime minister in 1956, she became an informal advisor, and focused on improving the lives of women and girls in rural areas of Sri Lanka.

Following her husband's assassination in 1959, she was persuaded by the party leadership to join active politics and succeed her late husband as chairwoman, and returned her party to government by defeating prime minister Dudley Senanayake's UNP in the July 1960 election. Her opponents dubbed her as the "Weeping Widow". As a result of her election victory, the British press coined the term "stateswoman" as they could not use "statesman". She was then unseated by Senanayake in the 1965 election and became Leader of the Opposition, before winning a large majority in 1970 due to a cleverly structured election alliance with rival Marxist parties.

Bandaranaike attempted to reform the former Dominion of Ceylon into a socialist republic by nationalising organisations in the banking, education, industry, media and trade sectors. Changing the administrative language from English to Sinhala and routinely campaigning on Sinhalese nationalist and anti-Tamil policies exacerbated discontent among the native Tamil population, and with the estate Tamils, who had become stateless under the Citizenship Act of 1948.

During Bandaranaike’s first two terms as prime minister, Sri Lanka experienced high unemployment, inflation and economic difficulties, including increased dependence on food imports. Her governments nevertheless pursued significant social and development policies, including the expansion of education and healthcare, land reform and the development of the Mahaweli Development programme, which sought to increase agricultural production through irrigation, hydroelectric power and rural settlement. Her governments also pursued a non-aligned foreign policy that strengthened Sri Lanka’s role in international affairs. Surviving an attempted coup d'état in 1962, as well as a 1971 insurrection of radical youths, in 1972 she oversaw the drafting of a new constitution and the formation of the Sri Lankan republic, separating it from the British Empire. In 1975, Bandaranaike created what would eventually become the Sri Lankan Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, and played a large role abroad as a negotiator and a leader among the Non-Aligned Nations. After losing against J. R. Jayewardene in a landslide in the 1977 election, Bandaranaike was stripped of her civic rights in 1980 in what was widely regarded as a politically motivated measure by the succeeding government, which accused her of abuses of power during her tenure and barred her from holding office for seven years. The government later restored her civic rights in 1986. The new government initially improved the domestic economy, but failed to address social issues, and led the country into a protracted civil war against Tamil militants, which escalated in brutality, especially when the Indian Peace Keeping Force intervened. Bandaranaike opposed the Indian intervention, believing it violated Sri Lankan sovereignty.

Education: St Bridget's Convent, Colombo

Source: Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirimavo_Bandaranaike