Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (,; born 29 June 1945), commonly referred to by her initials CBK, is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fifth president of Sri Lanka, from 12 November 1994 to 19 November 2005. The country's first and only female president to date and the country's second female prime minister. She is the daughter of two former prime ministers and was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) until the end of 2005.
Early life and family
Chandrika Bandaranaike was born on 29 June 1945, at Wentworth in Guildford Crescent, Colombo to Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike and Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike. The family moved the year later to a mansion at Rosmead Place, Colombo purchased by her paternal grandfather.
Her father S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was an Oxford educated barrister who was the Minister of Local Administration at the time of her birth. A nationalist and left-wing politician, who had by the time built up a strong following known as the Sinhala Maha Sabha. He was the only son of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranike, the Maha Mudaliyar, the chief Ceylonese representative and advisor to the Governor of Ceylon. Her mother Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, was the daughter of Barnes Ratwatte Dissawa, Rate Mahatmaya of Balangoda during British colonial rule, who was descended from Ratwatte Dissawa, Dissawa of Matale, a signatory on behalf of the Sinhalese to the Kandyan Convention of 1815.
Young Chandrika grew up in the comfort of the wealthy Bandaranaike family at their mansion at Rosmead Place in Colombo and at their family seat of Horagolla Walauwa, which was her father's constituency. Her early years saw her father's rising political career as he became the first Cabinet Minister of Health and Local Government when Ceylon gained its independence in 1948 and his dramatic departure from the governing party to form his own party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) with his follows of the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1951. Contesting the elections that followed and strengthening the SLFP in the periods between elections; Bandaranaike became the Leader of the Opposition in 1952 and Prime Minister in 1956. As prime minister, he was responsible for putting forth significant reforms such as the nationalization of bus companies and the Port of Colombo, a prohibition on caste-based discrimination, the removal of British military bases, and the establishment of diplomatic missions with a number of Communist states. He also made Sinhala the country’s only official language, thus marginalizing the Tamils as well as members of the middle-class educated elite whose first language was English. He was subsequently assassinated in 1959 when Chandrika was fourteen. Following the assassination, Bandaranaike's grieving widow took over the leadership of the SLFP and led it to an election victory making her the first female prime minister in the world, in 1960. Therefore, Chandrika was involved in politics from a young age along with her siblings as she was the second of three children in the family. Her elder sister Sunethra Bandaranaike became a socialite and her younger brother Anura Bandaranaike joined active politics, going on to become a cabinet minister and Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka as well as the youngest leader of the opposition.
Education
Chandrika was educated at the St Bridget's Convent, Colombo, and enrolled at the Roman Catholic Aquinas University College, Colombo to study for a law degree. However, in 1967, she left Aquinas without completing her law studies in France on a scholarship from the Institute of French Studies. There she spent one year at the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence following a course in the French language and culture. In 1968, she went on to study at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) graduating with a diploma in political science in 1970, thereafter enrolling in a PhD program in development economics, at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, where she studied from 1970 to 1973 She is fluent in Sinhala, English and French.
Early political career
She returned to Ceylon in 1972, where her mother had become prime minister for the second time in 1970 and launched a wide-ranging programme of socialist reform, and faced a violent communist insurrection in 1971. After returning she enrolled in and became active in the SLFP which had been founded by her father and now led by her mother. In 1974, she became an executive committee member of its Women's League.
