Welikadawatte

Welikadawatte, a middle-class housing estate in Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka was a result of the first co-operative housing scheme in Sri Lanka.

In the mid-1950s, Dr. Seneka Bibile, together with Herbert Keuneman, 'Bonnie' Fernando, Anil and Jeanne Moonesinghe and other members of the radical intelligentsia founded Sri Lanka's first co-operative housing scheme, the Gothatuwa Building Society. The members of the society were drawn from the ranks of the journalists of the "Lake House" publishing group and of the professors of the University of Ceylon.

The housing estate was established on land granted through the offices of T. B. Ilangaratne in the Welikada area (Rajagiriya postal area) of Kotte, now the Capital of Sri Lanka but then a suburb of Colombo. Originally within a large cinnamon and coconut plantation known as "Marandaan Kurunduwatte", it was named "Welikadawatte" - the Sinhala for "Welikada Gardens". One notable aspect of the scheme was that the each of the houses had a distinct design, the architects experimenting with forms new to Sri Lanka at the time. Some of the designs were reminiscent of the approach of Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus - then popularly known as the 'American Style'.

The scheme later on expanded considerably, both in size and in population. It attained some fame as an island of intellectual creativity from the mid-1960s onwards.

Notable Residents

Among its notable residents have been Professors Seneka Bibile, Osmund Jayaratne, S.R. Kottegoda, T.W. Wikramanayake, Stanley Dissanayake and Jayadeva Uyangoda, Cabinet Ministers Anil Moonesinghe and Kingsley T Wickremaratne, Member of Parliament Raja Collure, writers Vijita Fernando, B.J.B. ("Bonnie") Fernando, Herbert Keuneman, Jeanne Moonesinghe and Lakshman Gunasekera, slain human rights journalist Richard de Zoysa and his mother, human rights activist and Mother's Front founder Dr Manoranee Saravanamuttu, women's rights activist Sepali Kottegoda and intellectuals Newton Gunesinghe, N.R. de Silva, civil servant Victor Unantenne and former soldier of the 'Lanka Regiment' of the Indian National Army, writer MW Indrasoma.

The offices of the Stromme Foundation, Humanitarian Information Centre for Sri Lanka Rights, and of the English Writers' Cooperative of Sri Lanka, are located here.

Notable Incidents

On the night of 18 February 1990, Richard de Zoysa was abducted from his home in Welikadawatte by several armed men later identified by Dr Saravanamuttu as Police officers. The next day his lifeless body was found in the sea at Moratuwa, some 12 miles south of Colombo. He had been shot in the head and the throat, and his jaw had been broken.