essions. The country's new leaders represented the various ethnic groups of the population in the Ceylon Legislative Council on a communal basis. In the meantime, attempts were underway for Buddhist and Hindu revivalism and to react against Christian missionary activities on the island. The first two decades in the 20th century are distinguished for the harmony that prevailed among Sinhalese and Tamil political leadership, which has not been the case ever since. In 1919, major Sinhalese and Tamil political organizations united to form the Ceylon National Congress, under the leadership of Ponnambalam Arunachalam. It kept pressing the colonial masters for more constitutional reforms. But due to its failure to appeal to the masses and the governor's encouragement for "communal representation" by creating a "Colombo seat" that dangled between Sinhalese and Tamils, the Congress lost its momentum towards the mid 1920s. The Donoughmore reforms of 1931 repudiated the communal representation and introduced universal adult franchise (the franchise stood at 4% before the reforms). This step was strongly criticised by the Tamil political leadership, who realised that they would be reduced to a minority in the newly created State Council of Ceylon, which succeeded the legislative council. In 1937, Tamil leader G. G. Ponnambalam demanded a 50–50 representation (50% for the Sinhalese and 50% for other ethnic groups) in the State Council. However, this demand was not met by the Soulbury reforms of 1944/45.
Post-independence Sri Lanka
The Soulbury constitution ushered in Dominion status for Ceylon, with independence proclaimed on 4 February 1948. The office of Prime Minister of Ceylon was created in 1947, with D. S. Senanayake as the first prime minister. Prominent Tamil leaders like Ponnambalam and Arunachalam Mahadeva joined his cabinet. Although the country gained independence, the British Royal Navy remained stationed at Trincomalee until 1956. A
