Shiran Illanperuma, whose essay marks Dr. S. A. Wickramasinghe’s 125 birth anniversary and is entitled “The doctor who felt the people’s pulse”
April 13 marked the 125 birth anniversary of S.A. Wickramasinghe, a national freedom fighter and founder of the Communist Movement in Sri Lanka. Wickramasinghe remains a pivotal, if somewhat underrated, figure in the pantheon of the first generation of Sri Lankan national and leftist leaders.
Stories of Wickramasinghe’s politicisation often begin with his experiences of 1915 riots at the young age of 14. Wickramasinghe was appalled by the brutality with which the colonial administration treated the Sinhalese. But at the same time, he organised fellow students at his school Mahinda College to protect Muslim students from reprisals by the Sinhalese.
