of D. B. Jayatilaka at the request of his father he was allowed to return to Ceylon. Pre-war political career Ceylonese colonial political Soon after his return to Ceylon in November 1932, he plunged into active politics organising rural peasants, plantation workers and urban workers. He pioneered the founding of Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in 1935. In 1936 he was elected to the State Council of Ceylon from his home town of Avissawella, defeating F. A. Obeysekera where he continued his struggle for the betterment of workers and peasants. Opposition to the war effort and imprisonment When World War II brock out in the far east in 1941, the LSSP openly opposed to the British war effort and its members had to go underground. Philip Gunawardena was arrested and imprisoned due to his open opposition to the British war effort on the Governor's orders. On 5 April 1942, during the Japanese air raid on Colombo, LSSP leaders including Gunawardena were able to escape from prison. Going by the name Gurusamy, in July 1942 he escaped to India and participated in the independence struggle there. As a result his seat in the State Council made vacant in July 1942 and was filled by Bernard Jayasuriya in the by election that followed. In 1943 he was rearrested and detained in Mumbai, and after many months deported to Ceylon to where he was given a six month sentence for escaping and was imprisoned till the end of war. Post-war political career On his release in 1945, he resumed his political and trade union activities. The LSSP had split during the war and Gunawardena and N. M. Perera had formed the Workers' Opposition. The reformed LSSP contested the 1947 general election and emerged as the main opposition party with 10 seats in the first Parliament. Gunawardena who contested from the Avissawella electorate defeating Bernard Jayasuriya was elected to Parliament. His brother Robert Gunawardena was also elected to parliament from the LSSP from Kotte. However, he soon lost his seat when he was convicted by the district court and sentenced to three months rigorous imprisonment for leading employees of the South Western Transport Company owned by Sir Cyril de Zoysa in a general strike in 1947. As a result of the conviction he lost his civic rights for seven years. In the by-election that followed, his wife Kusumasiri Gunawardena won the Avissawella seat. Viplavakari