S. D. Bandaranayake

Samuel Dias Bandaranayake was a Sri Lankan socialist politician and a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

Born to a wealthy family, his father was C. P. Dias Bandaranayake and his mother was the daughter of Mahamudaliyar Ekanayake from Matara, his grandfather was Conrad (Peter) Petrus Dias Wijewardena Bandaranaike, Maha Mudaliyar. He was a cousin of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike. He was educated at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, St. Thomas' College, Matara and studied agriculture at the University of Travancore. While in India he met figures such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore. On his return he joined the newly formed Ceylon Agricultural Corps as a Commandant during World War II. ^[1]

After the war he entered politics, campaigning for S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and joined his newly formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was elected to parliament in 1952 and was re-elected in 1956 however he did not accept the office due to disagreements with S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike on the Sinhala Only Act.

He was involved in the 1971 JVP Insurrection against the SLFP led government under Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The Criminal Justice Commission which was set up to prosecute insurgents found him guilty of two counts of being a member of the JVP and attending the five lectures. He was given a suspended sentence of two years. In 1977, he was re-elected to parliament.^[2][3]

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