N. M. Perera

Nanayakkarapathirage Martin Perera, commonly known as Dr. N. M. Perera (Sinhala එන්.එම්.පෙරේරා ; 6 June 1904 – 14 August 1979), was one of the leaders of the Sri Lankan Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). He was the first Trotskyist to become a cabinet minister. He served two terms as Minister of Finance, another two as Leader of the Opposition, as well as one term as the Mayor of Colombo.

Early life and family Born to Nanayakkarapathirage Abraham Perera, a rent collector at 36 St Joseph's Street, in Grandpass, Colombo, and Johana Perera. He was the fifth of nine siblings, including five boys and four girls.

Education Schooling Perera started his schooling in the vernacular section of St. Joseph's School, Grandpass and was later admitted to the English section. From there he spent a year at the Cathedral Boys' School, Mutwal a branch school of S. Thomas' College, Mutwal, then known as Cathedral Boys School, Mutwal. In 1919, he entered S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and left in 1922 to join Ananda College. At Ananda he played cricket for the college team.

Higher studies Perera entered the University College, Colombo in 1925 and passed the inter Arts in 1926. He then switched to inter Economics in 1927 and left to join the London School of Economics (LSE) on 10 October 1927.

He studied at the LSE from 1927 to 1933, having been admitted in October 1927 to complete a BSc in Economics, before starting his PhD studies in 1929 under Professor Harold Laski, who taught political and constitutional theory, along with Leslie Goonewardene. Perera travelled to France and Germany to conduct research at the libraries of Sciences Po and the Reichstag. His return in 1930 was delayed by the Auflösung des Reichstags. His attempts to travel to the United States was not successful as funding fell through. Following the Wall Street crash of 1929 and resulting trade depression in Ceylon, his father was no longer able to support him. With no financial assistance, he limited the scope of his research and presented his theses on the Constitution of the German Weimar Republic and was awarded his PhD in 1932 and soon after he applied to start on the DSc (Econ) with Professor Laski has his supervisor and in 1932 became the first Ceylonese to gain a DSc degree from the University of London.

Social service and Early politics Suriya-Mal Movement On his return to Ceylon in 1933, Perera with several other foreign educated youth, such as Leslie Gunawardena, S.A. Wickramasinghe, Dr Colvin R. De Silva, Vernon Gunasekara, B.J. Fernando, Doreen Wickramasinghe, and Selena Perera (is future wife) formed the Suriya-Mal Movement as an anti-imperialist counter movement to the Remembrance poppy sales.

With the outbreak malaria epidemic in 1934, the Suriya Mal Society pivoted from selling Sunflowers to rais funds for ex-servicemen to setting up makeshift field hospitals, soup kitchens, and care centers areas worst effected by the epidemic. The volunteer work done by the Perera as part of the Suriya Mal Society in the Kegalle district during the and during the subsequent floods gained for him the support of the poor and caste-oppressed people of the area, who called him Parippu Mahathmaya after the dhal (or parippu) he distributed as relief supplies.

Formation of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party Many of the Marxists who has come together to form the Suriya Mal Society, formed the first political part in the island on 18 December 1935 called the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. Perera along with Leslie Goonewardene, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena were the core group of founders and played a leading role in the party's Trotskyist activities between 1936 and 1940.

State Council of Ceylon In 1936, he contested the Ruwanwella constituency in the Kegalle District — which at the time comprised the Thun Korale areas of Yatiyantota, Ruwanwella, and Deraniyagala, along with parts of the present Galigamuwa electoral division — as a candidate of the LSSP in the 1936 Ceylonese State Council election. His opponent was the incumbent Molamure Kumarihamy of the Meedeniya Walauwa, the feudal manor which had tremendous power over the poor people of the Sabaragamuwa area at the time. He went on to hold this seat, or its Yatiyantota portion after the division of the constituency, continuously until 1977. Following his election, he and Philip Gunawardena, the other LSSP member of the State Council, used it as a platform to voice the party's policy and objectives for complete independence from Britain, in contrast to the Ceylon National Congress which advocated for self-rule.In 1937, he founded the Ratmalana Railway Workers' Union and served as the LSSP delegate to that year’s session of the Indian National Congress.

Anti-war activity and imprisonment With the outbreak of World War II, the Board of Ministers declared its support to the British government. The LSSP opposed the move, claiming that it was an imperialist war and organized protest. In 1939, Perera formed the All-Ceylon Estate Workers' Union and lead a militant strike at Mooloya Plantation in January 1940. Perera and Gunawardana voted against the war budget in the State Council. Following complaints from plantation owners, the Governor of Ceylon declared LSSP activities against the war effort to be subversive and order the police to arrest the leaders of the LSSP. On 18 June 1940, N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, and Colvin R. de Silva were arrested by the police with Edmund Samarakkody being arrested the following day, but Leslie Goonewardene evaded arrest. The LSSP called for a gathering to protest the arrest and carried out a protest march which was dispersed by the police with a baton charge followed by further arrests. LSSP leaders were detained at Welikada Prison but was later transferred to Bogambara Prison after it was suspected that they were planning a hunger strike. On 5 April 1942 during the Easter Sunday Raid, Perera along with several other imprisoned LSSP members escaped from prison. He was smuggled into Bombay in July 1942 and worked with the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI) in the Indian Independence Movement. He was arrested in Bombay in July 1943, deported to Ceylon, and sentenced by the Magistrate’s Court of Kandy to six months of rigorous imprisonment for escaping custody. He was held in Badulla for the remainder of the war and was released in 1945.

Leader of the opposition (1956-1959) N. M. Perera contested the 1956 general elections, where the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of the Bandaranaike gained landslide victory over the United National Party which was reduced to eight seats in parliament. Once again N. M. Perera was elected leader of the opposition in parliament, a post he held until 1959. He was a strong opponent of the Official Language Act, and narrowly escaped death when a bomb was thrown on stage when he was addressing a crowd at the Old Town Hall.

Personal life He married fellow LSSP founding member and later party secretary, Selina Margaret Peiris on 6 March 1936. N. M. Perera was an avid cricket fan and a keen tennis player.

Publications Parliamentary Democracy (1931) The Case for Free Education (1944) External Economic Assistance (1964) The Economy of Ceylon: Trends and Prospects (1971) Critical Analysis of the New Constitution of the Sri Lanka Government (1979)