Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and leftist. A founder of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party in Ceylon which was known for having introduced Trotskyism, he later formed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and was called 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'. A member of the State Council of Ceylon and the Parliament of Ceylon, he served as the Minister of Agriculture and food under S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike from 1956 to 1959 and as Minister of Industries and Fisheries in the national government under Dudley Senanayake from 1965 to 1970. Early life and family Born Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena on 11 January 1901 in the rural village of Boralugoda in the Avissawella in the Hevagam Korale. His mother was Dona Liyanora Gunasekera from Dompe in the Siyana Korale. His father was Don Jakolis Rupasinghe Gunawardena, known as Boralugoda Ralahamy was a local landowner who served as the village headman (Ralahamy) and Vidane Arachchi until he was imprisoned and sentenced to death under martial law during the 1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots, sentence was later reprieved by the Governor following a petition by his wife. He was the third child of a family of three boys and seven girls, which included Robert Gunawardena and Caroline Anthonypillai who became leftist politicians. Vivienne Goonewardena was his niece. Education Having attended the local temple Boralugoda Temple and the village school Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Kaluaggala for his primary education, he attended the Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa and Ananda College in Colombo for his secondary education. When studying at Ananda College, he was boarded at the house of T. B. Jayah. Having passed his London matriculation, he entered the University College, Colombo to study economics and soon joined the Ceylon National Congress, but was drawn towards the activities of the Young Lanka League. Studies in the United States His father wanted him to study in the United Kingdom and become a barrister. Instead at the age of 21, he traveled to the United States where he studied economics at the University of Illinois, there he was radicalized and got caught up in the declining labor movement during the Great Depression. Two years later, he moved to the more radical University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he met Jayaprakash Narayan. The two were introduced by Avrom Landy to the Communist Party