placed the country under provincial emergency regulations. The armed forces were deployed to assist the police to bring the situation under control. Senanayake took ill, and Gunathilaka took command of the security forces from the Queen's House. The army began to suppress riots and hartal was eventually stopped. The hartal was scheduled for only one day, but in some cases the crowds were so worked up that they continued until the morning of the 13th. Shaun Goonewardene held that there was no intent to continue the demonstrations after the 12th, while Edmund Samarakkody suggested that the demonstrators were ready to go on only if the leadership had given them a signal. In many areas the police and demonstrators clashed and at least ten people were killed. Aftermath Immediate outcome Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake was badly affected by the crisis, having taken gravely ill at the height of the Hartal. He resigned as Prime Minister on the 12 October 1953 on health grounds, leaving politics and the public limelight. The United National Party remained in control of the government, while Colonel Sir John Kotelawala took over as Prime Minister. The rice subsidy was partially restored, and various foreign policy initiatives were undertaken to brighten Ceylon's image abroad, including entry into the United Nations in 1955. The hartal would eventually shake the apparent invincibility of the UNP government which would go on to lose the 1956 elections to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) under S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who contested under the "Sinhala only" slogan. Dudley Senanayake return to politics and went on to serve as Prime Minister on two other occasions, for four months in 1960, and a full term from 1965 to 1970. Long-term effects The 1953 hartal is the central event of its history to which Sri Lanka's Old Left looks back with heroic nostalgia. For many years Hartal Day was an occasion for rousing speeches by the Left. It was an application of the classic Marxist thesis of the general strike but those who called the hartal never intended to take it beyond that stage, whereas in the Marxist playbook a general strike ought to lead to the overthrow of the government in power. But still nursing gradualist illusions of ultimately seeking parliamentary power the LSSP leaders primarily did not envisage anything like such a scenario. In retrospect it has become the traditional wisdom to say