Somasundaram Nadesan, QC (; 11 February 1904 – 21 December 1986) was a leading

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

lawyer, civil rights activist and member of the

Senate of Ceylon The Senate was the upper chamber of the Parliament of Ceylon, parliament of Dominion of Ceylon, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1947 by the Soulbury Commission. The Senate was appointed and indirectly elected rather than directly elected. It ...

Early life and family

Nadesan was born on 11 February 1904 in Anaikoddai in northern

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, ...

. His father was a school administrator and Nadesan was educated at

Jaffna Hindu College Jaffna Hindu College (; ; abbreviated as JHC) is a National school (Sri Lanka), national school in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1887 by a group of Hinduism in Sri Lanka, Hindu people who wanted an English language alternative to the Christi ...

before entering

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a Single-sex education, boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh (priest), Joseph Mar ...

on a Governor's scholarship. After school he joined

Ceylon University College Ceylon University College was a public university college in Ceylon. Established in 1921, it was Ceylon's first attempt at university education. The college didn't award degrees under its own name but prepared students to sit the University of Lo ...

before proceeding to

Ceylon Law College Sri Lanka Law College (abbreviated as SLLC), formerly known as Ceylon Law College, is a law college, and the only legal institution where one can enrol as an Attorney-at-Law in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1874, under the then Council of Le ...

, qualifying as an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...

of the Supreme Court in 1932.

Career

Nadesan started practising law in the 1930s. His practice became very successful and Nadesan appeared in some of the most famous legal cases in Ceylonese history: Abdul Aziz sedition (1943); Abdul Aziz criminal trespass (1959); Press Council Bill (1972); Pavidi Handa (Voice of Clergy) fundamental review (1982); '' Saturday Review''/'' Aththa'' ban fundamental review (1983); Paul Nallanayagam treason case (1986). He served on the bar for 55 years and was made a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1954. He was president of the Bar Council from 1970 to 1972. Following the problems caused by the

Sinhala Only Act The Official Language Act (No. 33 of 1956), commonly referred to as the Sinhala Only Act, was an act passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956. The act replaced English with Sinhala as the sole official language of Ceylon, with the exclusio ...

Nadesan wrote a series of articles ''

Sunday Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' in which he argued that conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamil nations could only be resolved by democratic principles such as

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

regional autonomy Regional autonomy is the authority of a region to govern and administer the interests of the local people according to its own initiatives. 21st-century examples of disputes over autonomy include the Basque Country and Catalonia in Spain, Sici ...

and constitutional safeguards for minorities. He dismissed the suggestion that federalism could lead separation, saying that separatist movements only took root in

unitary state A unitary state is a (Sovereign state, sovereign) State (polity), state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions (sub-national or ...

s. Nadesan was elected to the

in 1947 after being nominated by

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

members of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. He was appointed to National Flag Committee in 1949 and was the sole member of the committee who opposed the new flag design which he said would be "a symbol of disunity", having the two stripes, representing the country's minorities, ''outside'' the lion flag. In the senate he took part in debates on social and labour legislation, the national question, minority rights and citizenship of plantation workers. His most famous speech in the senate was that in April 1971 following the start of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurrection. When the

constituent assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

was established in 1971 Nadesan was highly critical of the draft new constitution, particularly its inadequate protection of minority rights. Except for a two-year period, he remained a member of the senate until it was abolished in 1971. Despite his passionate defence of minority rights Nadesan remained aloof of Tamil nationalistic politics and was critical of the

Vaddukoddai Resolution The Vaddukoddai Resolution was adopted on May 14, 1976, in Pannakam, near Vaddukoddai, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It called for the creation of an independent Tamil Eelam by the Tamil United Liberation Front under the leadership of S. J. ...

. The political violence of the 1970s/1980s forced Nadesan to move away from politics and towards human rights protection. He was a founding member of the Civil Rights Movement in 1971 and received the Peter Pillai Foundation award in 1983 for his promotion of

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

and the protection under privileged in society. In 1980 Nadesan was tried, and acquitted, for breach of parliamentary privileges. He died on 21 December 1986 aged 82.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nadesan, S. 1904 births 1986 deaths Alumni of Ceylon Law College Alumni of Jaffna Hindu College Alumni of the Ceylon University College Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Ceylonese advocates Ceylonese Queen's Counsel Members of the Senate of Ceylon People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon 20th-century King's Counsel Sri Lankan Tamil activists Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan lawyers Tamil politicians