Blackwell Reference Online

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Patabandi Don Nandarisi Don Rohana Wijeweera was a revolutionary leader and socialist born in Kottegoda in the deep south of Sri Lanka. Later, he adopted the name Rohana derived from Ruhuna , the ancient name for that region. His father Don Andris Wijeweera was a stalwart of the Communist Party (CP) of Ceylon. Physical assault by right-wing United National Party (UNP) thugs on his father during the election campaign (1947) and the resulting paralysis left a lasting impression on him. While studying medicine at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow Wijeweera got embroiled in the Khruschev-Mao ideological disputes and became a partisan of Maoism. Consequently, in 1964 he was refused re-entry to the Soviet Union and was forced to abandon his studies. Wijeweera joined the pro-Peking group of the Ceylon CP led by N. Shanmugathasan in 1964. His political education and international experience propelled him to leadership of the youth wing of the party. From the outset he was critical of his party's position that the majority Sinhala community would never accept leadership by Shanmugathasan, an ethnic minority Tamil. He was also frustrated by its emphasis on trade union work among the urban and Tamil plantation proletariat. As his factionalizing became more obvious, Wijeweera was expelled in 1965. Between 1965 and 1970 Wijeweera and his co-thinkers, many of whom were contemporaries at Dharmasoka ... log in or subscribe to read full text