Aristocracy & Independence

F.R. Senanayake

Prominent independence activist

Fredrick Richard Senanayake (1882–1926) was a lawyer, temperance campaigner and independence activist, and the elder brother of D.S. Senanayake.

He was a leading figure in the temperance movement of the early twentieth century, which campaigned against the colonial government's arrack and toddy revenue system. The movement was significant beyond its stated aim: it created a national organisational network among Sinhala Buddhists and gave a generation its political training.

He was among those arrested and imprisoned during the 1915 riots, on charges that were later shown to be baseless — an episode that radicalised much of the emerging Ceylonese leadership. He helped found the Ceylon National Congress in 1919. He died in India in 1926 while on pilgrimage.

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