Sirimavo Bandaranaike: The world’s first woman prime minister - BBC World Service, Witness History
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- čas přidán 5. 03. 2023
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected the modern world’s first female head of government in 1960, when she became the prime minister of Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was known then.
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She entered politics after the assassination of her husband just a year earlier.
Her daughter, Sunethra Bandaranaike tells Witness History about her mother’s ground-breaking political achievement.
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I felt she has some sort of princess Diana's facial actions...even looks are different
It's true....
I too felt the same .....
Yes exactly, my thoughts the same. The way she speaks and facial expressions 😊😊
I was going to comment about it
always smiling.. Princes Diana my all time favorite queen in my heart♥🌹..Love from Sri Lanka
Yep
People often think the first woman prime minister is Margret Thatcher or Indira Gandhi
👍
Those are the imbeciles 😊Educated, political savvy people with good IQ's know the correct answer 😊
Our people are clueless
Some even think the LTTE was the result of 1983
No one thinks that. Lol. Maybe very few
Sirimavo Bandaranaike served as their role-model.
During Sirimavo's time, SL had a surplus of foreign currency and we were giving loans to other countries in need. Our exports were sky rocketing (eg: Tires to India, radios across the globe, tea, coconut, handloom to name a few).
Then JR brought the open economy plus tons of corruption and rest was history.
We were so wealthy we had to stand in queues to buy a loaf of bread.
@@sanathgunawardena832lol 😂
And there was a weekly shower of gold
@@vouryj9556 Yeah and then useless people like you started looting them.
I see bit of princess Diana in her .
At the start of vidio.
Yes , I too felt the same !!!!
same
Especailly the way she was blushing,uncanny similarity to Princess Diana😊
Absolutely correct innocent , bit of shyness and load of Charisma
Oh..yah. Right
Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike! The first Woman Prime Minister the world had❣️
One of the greatest leaders Sri Lanka had❣️
One of the worst 😂 When people didn't have anything to eat her response was "Grow your own food at home" 😂🤣
Kept the economy closed as well and brought us into the 3rd world forever with Tito.... One of the reasons why we're not developed.
@@TheBasedDude Yes, yes. One of the worst leaders ever to rule the country. Luckily, the leader who came to power after her, with the help of people who cannot sacrifice short-term benefits for the betterment of future generations, opened the economy and unleashed the floodgate of importing apples, oranges, and whatnot to enjoy life by selling their wives to men in the Middle East. Now we are reaping the benefits of that wise ruler's actions and those wise people's decisions at the time. A child of that generation, or perhaps a person who voted for that wise ruler, still thinks that the cause of the country's poverty is Sirimavo's rule and does not have the ability to understand that the main cause of poverty is giving power to the so-called wise ruler to open the economy. Now the country is about to sink with billions of dollars of loans to repay. Anyone who wants to know which ruler is the cause of Sri Lanka's underdevelopment can check the amount of loans Sri Lanka had in 1977 and the balance of payments at that time. In 1977, Sri Lanka had a balance of payments surplus of USD 1259 million. Still, there are lazy people who do not value the importance of self-sufficiency. Agree though that the way she did was wrong. She should not have done it abruptly.
JR >>> Sirimavo
@@skullandbones88 JR was good but couldn't handle the ethnic tensions
1:32 @@TheBasedDudeJRJ could have sorted the ethnic problem, he couldn't because Sri Lankan people were divided by Indian leftist ideology. JR was banking on USA however as usual US didn't help as much as they could because JR refused to entrust the Trinco Harbour with USA. JR had a soft spot for India but hypocrite India backstabbed Sri Lanka and destroyed this country, that's the truth and reality.
This generation has forgotten India's hypocrisy, that's why I support China whole heartedly.
Even operation Wadamaracchi in 1987 where Gen Late Denzil Kobbekaduwa was to militarily finish off was forcefully stopped by India threatening to invade Sri Lanka if JRJ had finished off the war.
Learn some history son before just comment without knowing the history 😊
She resembles princess Dianas reactions when she talked at the beginning of the video
Brilliant in every way, probably the best head of the state we had. A no nonsense woman and a hyper focused person about her job. Truly rare.
She came to power with the sympathy of the people over the death of her husband. His husband is responsible for the LTTE and JVP struggles since he is the one introduced many extremist acts such as Sinhala only act. Later she took many poor decision by coping China and Russia finally ended up with creating many struggles among the majority of the population. In next election JR won with huge margin and changed the Constitution too. Later his daughter came to power over the sympathy of her husband's death. She also did the same by creating a huge economy decline during the begging of the 20s. This family should be in the top 10 list who created this situation which we experienced today.
Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike❤❤❤❤
Big Love❤ and respect From Somalia 🇸🇴❤
We must never deny our gratitude to her.
For running the country towards minus economy and keeping us in queues like gota Rajapakse' did and for bringing in the closed economy and ruining generations of opportunity for the integration to the world supply chain dynamics 😂
@@warsil3735Tell me you haven't learned history without telling me you haven't 😌
@@somebody69747 get your facts ch checked on economy and how she kicked out the foreign companies from Sri Lanka and allowed Singapore to profit and how she. Ran a minus economy in the early seventies and how people could not were allowed to eat even their own rice from originating from their own paddy fields 🤣 let alone be those queues of the Gota period remond is of the great depression we had during Her times lined up for a loaf of bread and even gram. Messed up the economy while the rest took leaps .🤣🤣 Update your's f with r search facts instead of being a Waluwwe stooges 🤣🤣 or appuwa who lets the slave master do anything and say he or she was always correct
@@warsil3735Don't mind him bro he is a delusional dude who believes in closed economy fairy tales of SL 😂
Compared to her, Chairman Mao is basically Jesus
She was trying to establish venecural mass production system which doesn't have to depend on any other country. But it was sadly failed.
The failure which was predicted by economists in the Central bank at the time. She and her husband miserably failed Ceylon.
@@user-if2kq8nh8m Our failure started after the independence in 1948... If we were still under the constitution of Britain, we would have been British Citizens.
@@WhyteElefantso u wanted to be a slave still brother?
@@user-if2kq8nh8m not at all it was the oil crisis and burecracy
@@WhyteElefant Not how it works
Her smile ❤❤❤
Wow her voice was so deep and beautiful. It’s amazing how women truly did it all back then. And made it look so easy.
Her smile & Expressions... 🥺❤️
Best leader we had... 🥺🇱🇰
I wish to be a leader like that if I get a chance 🥺❤️
Am from the illuminati. I can make your dream come true 😅
Wishing you all the best in the near future stay blessed ❤
Absolutely incredible
I love the way she smiles and starts chuckling a great woman❤
People talk about irrelevant figures but this is the first time i am hearing of this legend
Did you realize that this one was also irrelevant, despite the title, ' the 1st woman Prime Minister'
I was very small at the time Mrs. B was in power, but I do remember that ppl had to endure a lot of hardships- rice was rationed as were many other items and ppl had to wait in long queues. The govt. asked citizens to have yams three times a week coz of the shortage of rice etc. The communist insurgency also took place during her time. This was the reason that JRJ breezed into power with an unprecedented mandate in the next elections. However, now ppl say that had her policies been implemented properly, SL would be a highly elevated country. I shed silent tears for my motherland now.
Now we realise the value of that leader.
Proud to be a srilankan ❤🎉 still she’s an inspiration to everyone women not only here but also for many people ❤✌️🌟
❤🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰 wish she is here again to save Sri Lanka.😢😢😢
She with her husband lead Sri Lanka into doom 😂
Only a leader like JR can save Sri Lanka
JR was trash as well @@skullandbones88
She, her husband and daughter ruled the country for a total of 26 years (1956-59, 1960-65, 1970-77, 1994-2005). Hasn't she and her family ruined this country enough ruling for a third of our independent years???😂
@@TheBasedDude That's the only government, kept the balance sheet +. None of the other government did it. They knew only to rob.
Love and Respect for Sirimavo Bandaranaike from 🙏🏼💖🇵🇰
She was indeed the best. Love from Sri Lanka.❤
बहुत ही सुन्दर कवरेज
She is a best leader to Sri Lanka 😢😢❤❤always respect her...
😂😂
She came to power with the sympathy of the people over the death of her husband. His husband is responsible for the LTTE and JVP struggles since he is the one introduced many extremist acts such as Sinhala only act. Later she took many poor decision by coping China and Russia finally ended up with creating many struggles among the majority of the population. In next election JR won with huge margin and changed the Constitution too. Later his daughter came to power over the sympathy of her husband's death. She also did the same by creating a huge economy decline during the begging of the 20s. This family should be in the top 10 list who created this situation which we experienced today.
We had to stand in queues to buy a loaf of bread during those days
She was awesome seems genuine
Being half Sri Lankan, I had no idea that the first woman PM in the world was a Sri Lankan. What a matter of pride!
Just like yourself, your pride will also be half-baked. Just follow what other genuine fellow countrymen have felt about her misrule from their entries.
@@sathyansundar Like I said, I had no idea she was the first woman PM and didn't even know who she was before this video. I just thought it was nice that the first woman PM was from SL. That being the case, I obviously have no idea how she was during her tenure and whether people liked her or not. So no need to call people half-baked, you can enlighten without being rude.
@@vd_log5569 Do not take it personally dude! The 1st PM of Canada was associated with the Trans-atlantic slave trade for his inaction, and the nation has stopped honouring him. His statues were removed from public squares as the result of the aftermath of 'Black Lives Matter movements' here in this part of the world. Indira Gandhi was the 1st woman PM of India that brought in emergency , the worst atrocity that anyone could do to the institution of democracy, which buried everything she may have perceived to have accomplished. We all are sometimes half-baked when identifying things that are considered proud, only to realize eventually they are nothing but things to be ashamed of. Britain's woman PM Margaret Thatcher often praised as an Iron Lady was ridiculed when she introduced poll tax and couldn't even get the support of her own tories. Her lavish public spending on the royal family affairs brought down the average living standards of the Londoners, to the point, they came out of their homes to chant 'The B!tch Is Gone' when she died. Sirimao made complacent with Indira in making hundreds and thousands homeless and stateless on signing the treaty of returning the indentured Tamil workers.
Respect u mam ❤
For what you respect her ??
True noble patriotic daughter of mother Lanka. What a proud nation that we are? Can we see those humble but insightful ladies in the present day? Her name surely should be written in golden letters to world history . Thank you Madam for the episode...!!! Always JAYANTHA P. and followers ...
😂😂😂😂
how smart she was❤
Very beautiful smile and a sweet voice
My mother grew up in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 and told me that Mrs. Bandaranaike's socialist policies completely ruined the economy. She wanted the country to be self suffficient and literally stopped all imports overnight from India 🇮🇳 and elsewhere without any proper planning. As a result, there were massive food shortages. They were reduced to cooking without basic ingredients like onions 🧅 and garlic 🧄
We in village didnt have food problem . We produce rice abd vegetables and had cattles. Lazy people suffered. India itself had a close economy until 1990s. Lol
@@Avastidas People in the cities couldn't be accused of being "lazy" if they didn't have land to grow anything on
@@lionelproctor82
But our people are still lazy. I know Sri Mavo built many new villages, settled people and created farms and agriculture. Still such villages exists . But Male racist politicians didn't allow her to finish her project. They want every thing for free. Everything is imported . Not much export. They closed paper factory , suger factory . Our People wanted immidiate comfort. They didn't focus on long term solution.
every country had to put restrictions to uplift the economy usa had a heavy tariffs on imports until 2000s. her economic policies failed in because of oil crisis and JVP
What a great women !
Grace personified ❤
What a great lady!
I think we should appreciate more women politicians who came without anyone’s support and rose to a significant position in politics
What an elegant woman she was!!
Bandare Family Great 🙏🇱🇰💙💙
She is beautiful 😊
❤❤❤
She was georgious and beautiful 🎉
Phenomenal woman ❤
Ruthless communist woman
So beautiful woman ❤
See the quality ❤
❤
❤ Very few come foward towards giving service towards a common man. She is also one among them.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Wish she was here still..
Good and rare one
Bad and common one in truth
Nice smile
Her smile is pretty
Yea she destroy the country and smile 😁
@@EscapeWithAmelia Why? what happened?
Wow
Salute ❤
I had no idea till now!
Good 😊
❤❤
Beautiful women
Great lady
Trust me i dont think we will ever get a clean politician like her
Obviously
Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 ♥️
Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell PC CC OBC KC (born March 10, 1947) is a former Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Benazir Bhutto ) was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern New Zealand politician. She was the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand from October 2017 to January 2023. Among others.
🙏🇱🇰💙💙💙💙💙💙
I’ve seen her old interviews she is amazing and yes something about her reminds me of Princess Diana!!
Proud Sri Lankan here ❤
Which leader smiles this much
Anjila jolie w/o murli Manohar Joshi
VeriNa Shikarpur bulandshahr up
Srimavo Bandarika w/o Casto Mukerji
Raura-malkpur bulandsher up
Mother of Mother Sri Lanka!!
❤❤🎉🎉
Who is first.Golda Maiyer woman Prime Minister of Italy? or
Aadambarai❤
Sri lanka ❤️🇱🇰🇱🇰
The first woman Prime Minister was in Mongolia in 1954
💞💞💞💞
So pretty❤
She is remembering me someone but I don't know exactly who is.. I thought she was tough woman but she look like a cutie here
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh both have had longstanding female leaders.
Proud to be a Sri Lankan 🇱🇰
She introduced a number of progressive policies and wanted to make Sri Lanka a manufacturing hub in the region. In 1977, when she was defeated, Sri Lanka was debt free and had a positive balance of trade. The country manufactured many things internally and exported some of the products. Then came UNP, opened up the economy; here we are; bankrupt!
What did we manufacture and export in that era? 😂 Only tea just like today. A country like Sri Lanka can't run a closed economy because they have limited resources. Sirimavo's nationalisation process and the socialist trade unions of those times drove almost all the foreign investors out of the country 😂 Those foreign investors went to Singapore.... One of the greatest economic decisions we took was to open the economy, but then we didn't use it correctly.
If that system was successful, why did she lose so badly in 1977. People were doing so great isn't it?😂
Bro blaming only UNP 💀
That wasn't the issue. JR go elected. He brought the corrupt politics to the table. It was worse than close economics. All the issuues, from kalu juliya, LTTE, JVP revolt were creations of his unjust politics.
@@hoehoe360 UNP is basically socialist too, but for the rich 🤷♂️ neoliberalism is garbage. We need a Libertarian party.
💕💕💕🙏💕💕💕🙏💕💕💕🙏
Why now this appeared?
Hmmmmmmmmmmm 🤔
The first woman prime minister looks like our longest woman prime minister Sekh Hasina 😎
Proud to be a srilankan ❤
And she was Voted in by the people, goes to show how progressive sri lanka was at the time.
Only because her husband was once the president 😂 if people were smart back then we'd be better than Singapore today
Sri Lanka should've been a part of India...
Together both countries would have exponential growth 😊
And she is the 1st woman prime minister who driven the country economy bankruptcy.
I still reneber standing on long que for hours & hours for 1 pb of Brad.
Yes. Our text books always used to quote her as the first woman Prime Minister in the world. Next came Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meyor. Sirimavo Bandarnayake was the first women in a domain dominated by men so far.
Widows trying to slip into the shoes of their husbands are hardly legends.
@@sathyansundar widows who perform can become legends. It is just they didnot just get opportunity to prove themselves as they remained as housewives though talented.
@@111saibaba I agree. My debate was widows trying to slip into the shoes of their late husbands are hardly legends. From Khalida Zia to Sirimao, from Corazon Aquino to Violeta Chamorro, a vast majority of them have become tragedies or in fact liabilities to some of the developing nations. Even the ones that inherit the power from their fathers and father figures have proved to be a disaster. I am not against women empowerment, but in a democratic process, people sometime behave like cattle class and praise women for all the wrong reasons. Sirimao is a classical example. Look at some of the replies particularly one from Rebeccasayuri trying to mismatch the ethnic genocide that happened in Srilanka to the death of LTTE leader, and the lack of governance from the Sinhala majority leaders. It is all tell-tale volumes of herd mindset.
@@sathyansundaryou are right to some extant. But Indira Gandhi who almost inherited her fathers throne lead the country very effectively. Barring emergency under her leadership country made progress in many fronts. 20 point programme uplifted many from abject poverty. Bank nationalization opned doors for new avenues and gave impetus to small scale industries. Preivy purse was cancelled saving the country heavy expenditure. No doubt foundation were laid down for dynastic and unethical practices too. Operation Blue Star, formation of Banglafesh were under her leadership. But She also paid price for it..
However i am not competent to comment on Srilankan politics. But entire world blamed Rajapaksha for genocide that happened after Prabhakaran's death. They wiped LTTE but also wiped out some Tamil Population of Elam. Probably it is not due to inaction of the government but perhaps over action by it.
@@111saibaba Your naivety comes not only as a surprise but a bit disingenuous, however, you opted out on your incompetency of knowledge on Srilankan politics. You don't have to be a neighbour of any middle-eastern country to have a basic knowledge of the genocide that is going on in Palestine. Wiped out LTTE but also wiped out some Tamil population in Eelam. So to you it is an act that is close to but don't fit into genocide? What about Punjab, Kashmir & Manipur now? Inaction and over action. What non-sense is that? Ever since independence, the Srilankan political majoritarianism was genocidal to the ethnic minority Tamils & Muslims. It started with Bandaranaiyake and spear-headed by his widow, this Sirimao hand and glove with the other widow Indira Gandhi, the one that deserved your paragraphs of appraise, despite she was the killer of democracy by bringing in state-sponsored emergency period. "Gandhi inheriting the throne from father Nehru"...what a piece of outdated monarchist mindset?
She came to power with the sympathy of the people over the death of her husband. His husband is responsible for the LTTE and JVP struggles since he is the one introduced many extremist acts such as Sinhala only act. Later she took many poor decision by coping China and Russia finally ended up with creating many struggles among the majority of the population. In next election JR won with huge margin and changed the Constitution too. Later his daughter came to power over the sympathy of her husband's death. She also did the same by creating a huge economy decline during the begging of the 20s. This family should be in the top 10 list who created this situation which we experienced today.
Yes. You're true. That punda is a Sinhala racist slluttt
Exactly. Multiple factors at play here. Acknowledging nuance is recognizing multiple things can be true at the same time. As much as I appreciate the feminist lense of this post, I don’t want it to turn into some revisionist history.
U r the real extremist with hidden agenda
Sirimavo? More like Sirima-woe! 😂
Just coined a new name for her 😁. It's amazing how her name totally sums up the chaos of her governance! I mean, what a fitting name to describe her messy rule! 😂
Of course for the far right and the Westernized people of Ceylon.
However she nationalised certain establishments which were serving the privileged and let the poorer people benefit from those assets.
Banks, schools, transport were a few.
Some blunders but a lot of achievements for the downtrodden.
Her foreign policy was a smart act.
Both the Indians and the Chinese respected her genuinely.
We were so wealthy we had to stand in queues to buy a loaf of bread.
Sirima-woe: 🍾🥂🍛🍗🍴🍷😋🤤
Sri Lankans: ♨️🚫🛐🥔🍠💀⚰️🪦
Did it make a difference in Sri Lankan’s people life ?????
🇱🇰❤️
People. talk pf Handen hari hal genath denawa a derogatory remark man landed on moon in1969 election in1970. She was the one who spoke the truth only truth Yathawadi Thathakari Thathwadi Yathakari
She came to power with the sympathy of the people over the death of her husband. His husband is responsible for the LTTE and JVP struggles since he is the one introduced many extremist acts such as Sinhala only act. Later she took many poor decision by coping China and Russia finally ended up with creating many struggles among the majority of the population. In next election JR won with huge margin and changed the Constitution too. Later his daughter came to power over the sympathy of her husband's death. She also did the same by creating a huge economy decline during the begging of the 20s. This family should be in the top 10 list who created this situation which we experienced today.
What truth, sir? The truth was that people had to suffer in long queues to receive the rationed handen genaa haal.
she was attractive
she is so cute
She was a honest politician unlike her husband who is a total grifter
She is just a dynast
SIRIMAWO......J.R......SANWARDANAYA WINASA KALE WIJEWEERA
And Sri Lanka is now in shambles! 😂😂😂
I thought first as Shaheed benazir bhutto
Raise the fee! Ps lady sounded like a cross between Blanche DuBlois and Audrey Hepburn.
SRILANKA'S MISFORTUNE THAT GREAT STATESMAN " Lee Kwan Yew " WAS BORN IN SINGAPORE & ALL OTHERS HERE ! 🇱🇰 😭
Singapore politicians didn't create communal riots for vote bank or didnt burn the library to suppress minorities' education. Sri Lankan people must grow up morally first to have a good leader among themselves.