N. Shanmugathasan

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Nagalingam Shanmugathasan (1920-1993) was a trade unionist and political leader in Sri Lanka. His ancestry was from Manipay, Jaffna. After graduating from the university in 1943, Shanmugathasan joined the trade union movement, and became a full time activist of the Ceylon Communist Party. In the aftermath of the Soviet-Chinese split of the Communist movement, in 1964 he became the general secretary of the Ceylon Communist Party (Peking Wing) (later CCP(Maoist)). He contested the 1965 general election as a Communist Party (Peking Wing) candidate, but unsuccessfully.

In 1971 Shanmugathasan was imprisoned for one year following, following the crackdown on revolutionaries following the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna rebellion. Shanmugathasan was targeted by government his espousal of armed revolution for political change and for being identificated as one of the political mentors of Rohana Wijeweera, the founder leader of the JVP. While detained in prison Shanmugathasan authored a book, A Marxist looks at the History of Ceylon.

Shanmugathasan was one of few national level politicians of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. He died on Feb. 8, 1993.