Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike

Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (1899-1959), prime minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka; 1956-59), born in Colombo. As a young lawyer he became active in the United National Party (UNP) and from 1931 to 1951 served the party in legislative and ministerial posts. He then broke with the UNP, organized the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and in 1952 became the leader of the opposition. Winning the 1956 elections at the head of a four-party coalition, he became prime minister. As such, Bandaranaike made Sinhalese, instead of English, the official language of the country and promoted socialist, non-Western policies that profoundly changed the course of Ceylonese politics in the following decades. He was assassinated by a Buddhist monk in 1959, and his wife, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, assumed leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.