Keenakelle Estate Strike and Police Shooting

Published: September 2, 2025
June 13 – September 1, 1970

Merging the estates

James Somerville, an estate superintendent of Queenstown Group, received a notice from the company in April 1970 that Queenstown Estate was to be amalgamated with Keenakelle Estate, both in the Badulla District. Estate workers at Keenakelle were alarmed when they heard of the amalgamation with Queenstown several miles away. According to an official of the Ceylon Plantation Workers’ Union (CPWU), the consternation arose over concerns that vehicles at Keenakelle would be shifted to Queenstown, depriving them of a means of transport in an emergency. Workers would need to travel eleven or twelve miles to the main office, and in general, Keenakelle “would be reduced to a division in the [Queenstown Group] and… facilities of Keenakelle Estate would deteriorate as a result.” Somerville complained of a later assault by workers on May Day, though the union denied this happened. On June 9, the amalgamation took place.1

Starting on June 13, workers struck in protest. The strike continued for weeks on end, drawing support from estate staff and workers, cutting through ethnicity, and triggering a token strike in support from 25,000 workers from the Badulla District in August.2 The pro-worker weekly Tholilali further boasted that the strikers persevered through management attempts to divide strikers communally and deny them their rice rations.3 Strikers also prevented Somerville from entering the estate.4

Other than at the beginning of the strike, there was no police presence on the estate. However, in late August, strikers belonging to the CWC relented and returned to work, and they were afforded some police protection.5

Unusual burial

On September 1, things took a violent turn when two bungalows were burnt. Police reinforcements were then summoned to the estate, where they further claimed that they were attacked by strikers. A thousand-strong mob, they said, flung chili powder at them, prompting a responsive firing. One of the alleged throwers, P. Ramiah, was injured by the shooting, and later died in the hospital.6 Shortly after, another worker, Alagarsamy (20) died from the shooting.7 Departing from custom, the police refused to hand over the dead bodies to the families and instead buried them at the cemetery with only a few relatives present.8

On September 10, DWC leader Abdul Aziz mentioned the shooting in parliament. He partially blamed the CWC for the deaths, stating that the return of CWC members to work gave the estate management an excuse to invite police. Complaining about the burial, along with police mistreatment of estate workers more broadly, he called for a commission of inquiry. The parliamentary secretary for defence, Lakshman Jayakody, refused to address the matter claiming it was sub judice with the magistrate.9 The UNP too raised the issue of the shooting the next day. Colombo South MP J. R. Jayawardene noted that the strike had been peaceful until September 1 and accused the ruling party of inviting police to the estate. He also noted that police were still on the estate even after the strike ended. Nuwara Eliya MP Gamini Dissanayake also criticized the burial process, claiming that even a police dog was given more respect in death. Labour Minister M. P. de Zoysa Siriwardene assured them that an investigation was being conducted into the UNP MPs’ concerns, though the police department was not under his purview.10

Token strike

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, many workers fled the estate. A CPWU official recounted that he had tried to enter the estate four times, but each time failed due to intimidation from thugs.11 Two weeks later, demonstrations against the shooting bloomed throughout the hill country. The CWC claimed that six hundred thousand workers across estates and unions agreed to participate in a token strike in solidarity with the Keenakelle workers in mid-September.12 Trade organization after trade organization condemned the shooting, including a non-striking union, and a number called for a commission of inquiry.13

However, at Keenakelle itself, about 94 per cent of workers had returned by this time; the remainder were believed by police to be absconding. Police maintained a presence on the estate,14 and in the senate, Senator S. Nadesan accused them of having “unleashed a reign of terror” during their prolonged stay.15

In November, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike promised to launch a commission of inquiry into the police shooting.16 However, no such commission was established; the case went through a typical magisterial inquiry. The magistrate ultimately agreed with the police version of events and acquitted the officers.17

In January 1974, a dispute between workers of the Ceylon Plantations Workers’ Union and the proprietors of Keenakelle Estate was settled in arbitration. The dispute emerged from the 1970 strike. Fifteen workers of the union had fled the estate after the police shooting and had only re-offered their services in December. The management viewed their absence as a frustration of contract, and refused to rehire them, whereas the union viewed it as precipitated by police and thug action. The arbitrator sided with the management, noting that, by October 1970, the vast majority of workers had returned. Three workers, however, were to be paid ex gratia compensation.18

Legacy of brutality

The Keenakelle case became a notorious example of police brutality unto the estate workers. In January 1971, CWC General Secretary M. S. Sellasamy mentioned it as a “brutal” example in a memorandum to Bandaranaike on killings of workers.19 Two months earlier, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), creeping towards an insurgency, held a meeting with the LSSP (Revolutionary) and the Young Socialist Front at the estate, and leaders from all three groups spoke.20 JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera himself denounced the shooting, despite his aversion to the estate sector and Indian Tamils more generally.21

Trade unionist N. Shanmugathasan recalls the strike as militant and quite successful in rousing support. It became something of a legend to estate workers. But the shooting was followed by more frequent killings of plantation workers by police. While a left-wing government was in power, to estate workers, the state’s approach to strikes was business as usual.22

උපුටා දැක්වීම්

Alles, A. C.  Insurgency, 1971: An Account of the April Insurrection in Sri Lanka. Colombo: The Colombo Apothecaries’ Co., 1976.

Asian Labour, vol. 19 (1971).

Government of Sri Lanka. “Industrial Dispute between the Ceylon Plantation Workers’ Union and Messrs. Rajawella Produce Co. Ltd. (Keenakelle Estate).” Ceylon Government Gazette, no. 99, February 15, 1974. Colombo: Department of Government Printing, 1974.

Halliday, Fred. “The Ceylonese Insurrection.” New Left Review, no. 69 (1971): 55-90. https://newleftreview.org/issues/i69/articles/fred-halliday-the-ceylonese-insurrection.pdf.

Kanapathypillai, A. P. The Epic of Tea: Politics in the Plantations of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association, 2011.

Shanmugathasan, N. Political Memoirs of an Unrepentant Communist. Colombo: Ceylon Communist Party, 1989.

අවසන් සටහන්

  1. Government of Sri Lanka. “Industrial Dispute between the Ceylon Plantation Workers’ Union and Messrs. Rajawella Produce Co. Ltd. (Keenakelle Estate).” Ceylon Government Gazette, no. 99, February 15, 1974. Colombo: Department of Government Printing, 1974. Hereafter, this is referred to as Gazette.
  2. “Kīṉākalai Vēlainiṟuttattukku Ātaravāka Batuḷai Māvaṭṭattil Veṟṟikaramāṉa Aṭaiyāḷa Vēlainiṟuttam” [Successful Token Strike in the Badulla District in Solidarity with the Keenakelle Strike], Tholilali, August 9, 1970.
  3. “Kīṉākalai Naṭantu Eṉṉa?” [What Happened at Keenakelle], Tholilali, October 22, 1970. Somerville claimed that the workers simply had taken all food that was available. Gazette, 91.
  4. Tholilali, August 9, 1970.
  5. Gazette, 90.
  6. “Estate Men Clash with Police: One Shot Dead,” Ceylon Daily News, September 4, 1970. Hereafter, Ceylon Daily News will be abbreviated as CDN.
  7. “Another Dead,” CDN, September 10, 1970.
  8. A. P. Kanapathypillai, The Epic of Tea: Politics in the Plantations of Sri Lanka. (Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association, 2011), 67.
  9. Parliamentary Debates (House of Representatives) vol. 90, col. 1868-1870
  10. Ibid., col. 2308 – 2313.
  11. Gazette, 90.
  12. “600,000 Strikers,” CDN, September 17, 1970.
  13. For example, “Estate Workers on Token Strike,” CDN, September 16, 1970; “Probe Estate Shooting – TUs,” CDN, September 23, 1970.
  14. “Keenekelle Normal Again,” Ceylon Observer, September 17, 1970.
  15. Parliamentary Debates. Senate. Vol. 30 col. 1172.
  16. “Kīṉākollai Sampavam Paṟṟi Ārāya Vicāraṇaikku Kuḻu,” [Commission to Inquire into the Keenakelle Incident], Eela Nadu, November 20, 1970.
  17. “Police Shooting Was Justified – Magistrate,” CDN, February 7, 1971.
  18. Gazette, 89-92.
  19. Asian Labour, vol. 19 (1971): 27-28.
  20. Halliday, Fred. “The Ceylonese Insurrection.” New Left Review, no. 69 (1971): 80. https://newleftreview.org/issues/i69/articles/fred-halliday-the-ceylonese-insurrection.pdf
  21. A. C. Alles, Insurgency, 1971: An Account of the April Insurrection in Sri Lanka. (Colombo: The Colombo Apothecaries’ Co., 1976), 25.
  22. N. Shanmugathasan, Political Memoirs of an Unrepentant Communist. (Colombo: Ceylon Communist Party, 1989), 166-167.