because a country is at war." During the early war period, the LSSP served in a key position in a series of worker action and strikes among tea plantation workers, stemming from the Mool Oya Estate incident (December 1939), in which an Indian tea factory worker was fatally shot by police. Ceylonese activism implications for India Through the rampantly increasing striking from the Mool Oya Estate incident, a workers' council was formed suggesting that repercussions of the deepest seriousness in India may come from any response. Following the incident, Colonial police forces used a heavy hand on the tea estates, leading to strong feelings of sentiment and discontent within the workers. Imprisonment of key leaders Sensing the growing anger against them, the LSSP was banned on 18 June, and key party activists —Philip Gunawardena, N.M. Perera, Edmund Samarakkody and Colvin R. de Silva — were detained and imprisoned. Due to its provocative nature towards the British, the LSSP was able to go underground and continue its activism. LSSP's move to India and establishment of the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India Through discussion, the Indian and Ceylonese trotskyists established a preliminary Committee for the Formation of the Bolshevik - Leninist Party of India. The discussions for this took place through underground meetings in Kandy in December 1940 and March 1941 and set the stage for a sole Trotskyist party for India. This was later amended to include Burma and Ceylon. The meeting in 1940 and 41 were attended by the jailed LSSP leaders aided by some guards of the Bogambara Prison. Though many were detained in Ceylon, several party leaders were able to escape to India, evading arrest. These included Party General Secretary Leslie Goonewardene and his wife, Vivienne Goonewardene. They settled in Calcutta, and established networks with the local Trotskyist networks. Other Ceylonese Trotskysists established contact with the Uttar Pradesh Trotskyist group, as well as groups in Bombay and Madras. On 7 April 1942, Philip Gunawardena, N. M. Perera, Edmund Samarakkody and Colvin R. de Silva escaped from prison aided by the prison guards and party activists Doric de Souza and Vernon Gunasekera. The BLPI was formed in May 1942 and was approved by the Fourth International. War period for the newly formed BLPI During World War II, the BLPI remained relatively small – a large contrast to the high expectations of a Subcontinent-wide political revolutionary party. While the BLPI's