Dominion of Ceylon

Sri Lanka, 1948–1972. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Dominion of Ceylon, officially Ceylon, was an independent country in the Commonwealth of Nations from 1948 to 1972, that shared a monarch with other dominions of the Commonwealth. In 1948, the British Colony of Ceylon was granted independence as Ceylon. In 1972, the country became a republic within the Commonwealth, and its name was changed to Sri Lanka. Don Stephen Senanayake became the first prime minister of Ceylon.

Seat of power: Colombo

Rulers

Culture

• The constitution of Ceylon created a parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
• In 1957 British bases were removed and Ceylon officially became a non-aligned country.
• In 1949, with the concurrence of the leaders of the Sri Lankan Tamils, the UNP government disenfranchised the Indian Tamil plantation workers.
• In 1965, Ceylon became the world's leading exporter of tea, with 200,000 tonnes of tea being shipped internationally.

Picture

The Independence Memorial Hall in Colombo is a national monument built for the commemoration of the independence of Sri Lanka from British rule.

Image: Charaka Ranasinghe, CC BY 2.0, file

Sources

• Dominion of Ceylon (Wikipedia)
• Dominion of Ceylon (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.