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Casting Pearls

The Women’s Franchise Movement in Sri Lanka

CASTING PEARLS – is an account of the first struggles of women for the right to vote. The 1920s was a time of political excitement and social change, a time when universal suffrage was being hotly debated and when Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan said that giving women the vote was like casting pearls before swine. The pioneering women of the Women’s Franchise Union challenged all the diehards and came out boldly for the cause of basic democratic rights for women – namely, the right to vote, the right to contest elections and the right to sit in the legislature. Many spirited women of all ethnic groups led the movement -among them Lady Diaisy Bandaranaike, Dr Nalamma Satyavagiswara Aiyar, Florinda Wijeyekoon, Agnes de Silve, Dr Mary Rutnam, Nellie Gunasekara and Leelavati Aserappa. The opposition they faced ranged from the frivolous to the absurd, and the women reformers were well able to handle their critics and make sharp replies. But they also had the support of liberal and progressive men who believed that universal suffrage and gender equity were and essential part of democracy. By 1932, there were two women State Councillors – Adelein Molamure and Naysum Saravanmuttu. This book is an important addition to the writings on women’s history in Sir Lanka.

Malathi de Alwis, and anthropologist, ahs write widely on feminist issues.

Kumari Jayawardena, a political Scientist, has published on labour, class, ethnicity and feminism.

“This is an eminently readable book, even for those who are not specifically interested in the  history of the women’s franchise Movement, for it also sketches the Lankan scenario in the 1920s and 1930s.

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