G. G. Ponnambalam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details.
Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject

Ganapathipillai Gangaser Ponnambalam (8 November 1902 – 9 December 1977), known as G.G. Ponnambalam, was a Tamil politician in Ceylon, and then after independence, in Sri Lanka. He founded the first Tamil political party, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress. Ponnambalam stood for the principle of minority representation.

1 Personal history
2 Political philosophy
3 Political history
4 External links

[edit] Personal history

G.G. Ponnambalam’s parents were both from the northernmost part of the island, Jaffna District, his father Gangesar was a Postmaster from Alvai North, Point Pedro, and his mother was from Navali, Manippai. He received his secondary education at St. Joseph's College, Colombo, and then went to Kings College, London University on a scholarship and graduated with a degree in the Natural Sciences. He went on to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge to study the Law Tripos. GG graduated with a BA in Law and was subsequently called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, London.

He was an outstanding criminal defense attorney. In the famous Ranjani taxi cab murder case, the first finger print case in Ceylon, he thoroughly demolished the testimony of Scotland Yard's Inspector Godsell on cross-examination.

After his last (1956) term in parliament, he migrated to Malaysia and practiced law there until his death on 9 February 1977.

The Sri Lankan Government honored him by issuing a commemoration postage stamp on 22 May 1986.

[edit] Political philosophy

The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(March 2008)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

Ponnambalam and his colleagues stood for the principle of minority representation of the Tamils. They believed that without it the minority Tamils would become second class citizens. For the opposing viewpoint see Solomon Bandaranaike. Ponnambalam asked for a 50% representation of Tamils in parliament even though the Tamils only constituted 20% of Sri Lanka. This was immediately rejected and rebuked by the British Governor General as a "mockery of democracy”.^{[citation needed]}