State Council

After returning to Ceylon in 1935, Dudley took oaths as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon and briefly embanked on a legal practice under H. V. Perera, KC, before entering politics on his father's urging. He was elected from the Dedigama electorate in 1936 to the State Council, while his father was Minister of Agriculture and served as a back-bencher for ten years. As State Councilor of Dedigama, he undertook much development work in his electorate developing roads, hospitals, schools, and police stations. During this time, he became active in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC), having been appointed in December 1939 as its joint secretary with J. R. Jayewardene, another young lawyer who had been elected to the Colombo Municipal Council. The CNC was urging for the independence of Ceylon to the extent that his father D. S. Senanayake resigned from the congress because he disagreed with its revised aim of achieving complete independence from the British Empire, preferring Dominion status and its inclusion of Marxists.^[3] Following his father's resignation, Dudley succeeded his father as Minister of Agriculture and Lands in the second board of ministers of the state council in 1946.

Minister of Agriculture and Lands

The first Cabinet of Ministers of Ceylon in 1947

Taking on his father's ministry, he carried forward many of the agricultural projects initiated by him, such as the Minneriya irrigation project. Contesting in the 1947 general elections from the Dedigama electorate, he was elected to the first parliament of independent Ceylon and was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Lands by his father D. S. Senanayake, who became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon in 1947. He continued many of the agricultural projects he started in his first year and started the ambitious Gal Oya Project, which provided water for the cultivation of over 120,000 acres. He initiated a guaranteed price scheme for paddy and farmers. He received the portfolios of Health and Local Government when S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike resigned and crossed over to the opposition.

Second Prime Minister of Ceylon

He was still serving as agriculture minister when his father died unexpectedly. Four days later, on 26 March 1952, to the surprise of many, Dudley was chosen as prime minister by the Governor-General Lord Soulbury over his cousin Sir John Kotelawala. He called a general election, which the UNP won. The government became unpopular a year later, in 1953, when the price of rice was raised and subsidies were cut. Though the UNP remained in power, the Hartal 1953 greatly affected the administration and Senanayake personally, and he resigned as prime minister on health grounds in October, leaving politics and the public limelight.

Return to politics

In 1954, he accompanied his successor Sir John Kotelawala and the leader of the opposition S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike on a state visit to India on Sir John's invitation. He returned to politics in 1957 when the UNP lost elections and was appointed President of the UNP. He supported the efforts of J. R. Jayewardene in establishing UNP trade unions known as Jatika Sevaka Sangamayas and opposed nationalization of insurance companies and the Colombo port by Bandaranaike.

Following the assassination of Bandaranaike in 1959, the caretaker prime minister Wijeyananda Dahanayake called for elections after a year of turmoil. In March 1960, the UNP managed to form a government after elections and Senanayake became prime minister again, but the coalition fragmented and Dudley resigned as prime minister after only four months in office after new elections were held, in which the UNP won fewer seats. He became the leader of the opposition and helped force early elections in 1965 by persuading 14 supporters of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike to defect.

Third term as Prime Minister

Dudley Senanayaka in 1965, at Hillwood Girls' College Kandy

Senanayake was able to form a government following the 1965 elections and served his longest term as prime minister from March 1965 to May 1970. He had narrowly missed an assassination attempt on 23 March 1965 when a bomb was thrown into Esmond Wickremesinghe's house moments after Senanayake had left the premises while negotiations were underway to form a government.

His government originally consisted of six other parties and included both Tamil and Sinhalese nationalists. Much of his term was carried out under a state of emergency (since January 1966) due to sporadic occurrences of communal violence, however Senanayake was able to control these effectively and was able to give Tamil language official status in Tamil speaking areas, which became a step closer to address the grievances of the Tamil community on language after S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike had replaced Sinhalese as the official language replacing English. He established the Poya holiday, the day of Buddhist sabbath, and rendered formal recognition for the Mahanayaka theros. He established a University for Bhikkus in Anuradhapura. He undertook many educational reforms, expanding vocation education by setting up the Ceylon College of Technology, Katubedda in 1966 and six Junior University Colleges in 1969.

In 1966, his government claimed an attempted coup d'état was occurring and the commander of the army and several military personnel were arrested. They were later acquitted of a plot to overthrow the legally elected government, which greatly discredited the Senanayake administration, along with the bribery trail of Dr. Mackie Ratwatte, brother and former personal secretary of Sirimavo Bandaranaike.^[4]

He paid a private visit to the United States for treatment at Walter Reed Hospital, during which time he met President Lyndon Johnson, who informed him that no large-scale aid would be provided by the United States to Ceylon. He stopped off at London but was forced to return to Ceylon following rumors of his impending death.

His government has been credited with restoring the Sri Lankan economy. He initiated planning for the most ambitious construction projects in Sri Lanka, that of the Mahaweli Development programme. His administration initiated the expansion of the tourist industry, which in later years became a major source of foreign exchange and employment in Sri Lanka. However, he and his allies were defeated in the 1970 elections.^[5][6]

Later life and death

In the 1970 elections, the UNP won the largest vote share of any individual party. However, the UNP was thrown from office after the United Front coalition (SLFP, LSSP, and the Communists) led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike won a large majority of 91 seats. Senanayake retained his Dedigama seat in the election, which was one of the few rural seats won by the UNP in the election. Although he remained a member of parliament and active in politics, he did not accept the post of leader of the opposition for health reasons, allowing J. R. Jayewardene to serve as leader of the opposition and become de facto leader of the UNP.

He died aged 61 while being member of parliament for Dedigama on 13 April 1973 due to a heart ailment. Since his Cambridge days, he had suffered from a stomach ailment that was only diagnosed later as a birth defect, which got aggravated when under stress.^[7]