page_title: S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike
section_title: First Cabinet Minister of Health and Local Government
hierarchical_section_title: S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike / First Cabinet Minister of Health and Local Government
caption_attribution_description: English: The First Cabinet of Ministers of Ceylon in 1947, headed by Rt Hon D.S. Senanayake as first Prime Minister of Ceylon. Also in the picture Sir Henry Monck-Mason Moore the Governor of Ceylon, and the Chief Justice.සිංහල: පළමු ලංකාවේ අග්‍රාමාත්‍ය ලෙසින්, මහාමාන්‍ය ඩී.එස්. සේනානායකගේ‍ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් යුතුවූ, ලංකාවේ පළමු කැබිනට් අමාත්‍යවරුන් 1947දී. ලංකා ආණ්ඩුකාර ශ්‍රිමත් හෙන්රි මොන්ක්-මේසන් මුවර් ද , අග්‍ර විනිශ්චයකාර වරයා ද මෙම ඡායාරූපයේ සිටිති.
context_page_description: Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, frequently referred to as S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, was the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon and founder of the Left wing and Sinhalese nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party. SWRD Bandaranaike became the prime minister of Ceylon in 1956 and carried out left wing reforms such as nationalizing bus services and introducing legislation to prohibit caste based discrimination. Bandaranaike is also remembered for removing British naval and air bases in Sri Lanka and establishing diplomatic missions with a number of communist states.
  Bandaranaike served as the prime minister until he was assassinated by a Buddhist monk named Ven Talduwe Somarama in 1959 allegedly over the signing of the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact.
context_section_description: He contested for the newly formed House of Representatives in the 1947 election from the UNP from Attanagalla, winning with a good majority. In September 1947, D. S. Senanayake appointed him to his cabinet as the first Minister of Health and Local Government of Ceylon and he was elected as the Leader of the House. Effectively this made Bandaranaike the most senior member of the cabinet, after the Prime Minister. In fact, Senanayake had Sir Oliver Goonetilleke discuss with Bandaranaike as leader of the Sinhala Maha Sabha, the draft agreements for independence; which Bandaranaike received with mixed feelings. However, he did not object and the agreements signed with the Britain government making way for Ceylon to gain self-rule. As leader of the house, he delivered the address of thanks at the ceremonial opening of parliament on 4 February 1948, which marked Ceylon's independence from Britain.
  During the next few years, he supported legislation proposed by the government as leader of the house. This included the Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948 and the Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act No.3 of 1949 which deprived citizenship to Indian Tamils. He initiated several projects for the improvement of health as minister of health, including the expansion of hospitals and uplifting ayurveda medicine. He attended the Third World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 1950 as Chief delegate of Ceylon. However, he found himself at odds with Senanayake administration on policy. By 1951, it also appeared that Senanayake did not intend to make an early retirement that would have allowed Bandaranaike to succeed him as prime minister.
caption: The first Cabinet of Ministers of Ceylon. Bandaranaike is in the first row-second from the left
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