The Ceylon National Congress ( Sinhala: ලංකා ජාතික කොන්ග්‍රසය ''Lanka Jathika Kongrasaya'') (CNC) was a political party in colonial-era

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

founded on 11 December 1919. It was founded during a period where nationalism and support for the

Sri Lankan independence movement The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement which was aimed at achieving independence and self-rule for the country of Sri Lanka, then British Ceylon, from the British Empire. The switch of powers was generally kno ...

grew quite intensely amidst British colonial rule in Ceylon. It was formed by members of the Ceylon National Association (founded in 1888) and the Ceylon Reform League (founded in 1917).Working towards reform

The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) ''The Sunday Times'' is a weekly Sri Lankan broadsheet initially published by the now defunct Times Group, until 1991, when it was taken over by Wijeya Newspapers. The paper features articles of journalists such as defence columnist Iqbal Athas ...

Retrieved 23 April 2015 The Ceylon National Congress played an instrumental role in the

. Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam was the founding president of the party. In October 1920, Sir James Peiris was elected president, staunchly supported by F. R. Senanayake and future prime minister D. S. Senanayake. Other former presidents include D. B. Jayatilaka, E. W. Perera,

C. W. W. Kannangara Dr. Cristopher William Wijekoon Kannangara (Sinhala language, Sinhala ආචාර්ය ක්‍රිස්ටෝෆර් විලියම් විජේකෝන් කන්නන්ගර; 18 October 1894 – 23 September 1969) was a ...

, Patrick de Silva Kularatne, H. W. Amarasuriya, W. A. de Silva, George E. de Silva and Edwin Wijeyeratne. The Ceylon National Congress would pave the way for the formation of the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

. In 1943, D. S. Senanayake resigned from the Congress because he disagreed with its revised aim of achieving full freedom from the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, preferring

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

status.SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD STORY, Chapter 10: Lord Soulbury and his soulless report
By K T Rajasingham, Retrieved 11-06-2015

References

{{Authority control 1919 establishments in Ceylon Defunct political parties in Sri Lanka Political movements in Sri Lanka Political parties established in 1919 Sri Lankan independence movement