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Ankati Revolution

Native name	මහා අරගල (mahā aragala) (The Great Struggles)
Date	4 February 1967 – 1 August 1974 (1967-02-04 – 1974-08-01) (7 years, 5 months and 4 weeks)
Duration	Torist Revolution (4 March - 5 December 1967) Constitutional Peace (6 December 1967 - 4 March 1968) Ankati Civil War (5 March 1968 - 1 August 1974)
Location	Royal Ankat
Outcome	End of Vijalanya Dynastic rule Start of Royal Ankati Government in Exile Failure of Constitutional Reforms Establishment of Socialist Republic of Ankat

The Ankati Revolution was a period of political and social revolutions that took place within the former Ankat Kingdom. The revolution began in 1967 with the Torist Revolution that effectively ended the House of Vijalanya's rule and established a period of 'Constitutional Peace' before tensions and disagreements resulted in the death of Queen Anula Rivan and her court, with the rest of the royal family fleeing as the Ankati Civil War erupted from 1968 until 1974.

Background

1910 Revolution

Main article: 1910 Ankati Revolution

Ascension of Queen Anula

Queen Anula, photographed in 1964

1967 Tan Mar Massacre

Main article: 1967 Tan Mar Massacre

Torist Revolution

Main article: Torist Revolution

Torist troops in the Aḍu Væḍivīmak valley

At the beginning of March 1967, in the wake of the 1967 Tan Mar Massacre the lower house of government, the Tor, was finishing its debates on its fifth item of policy for the year. The policy, which was in regards to crop rotations in the north of the country passed with a 74% of attendance for the deliberations and was due to be passed to the Royal Court for its following meeting on March 4th. The day prior to the meeting Queen Anula issued her veto on the policy. The veto, a right guaranteed to the monarch under the 1862 Constitutional revision, followed worrying trends being taken by the queen. Since spring 1966 the queen had begun to veto all Torist policy and many in her court had commented that she had a growing distate for the Tor and her increasingly ruthless acts had begun worrying even her closest advisors. The same day as the veto, a formal complaint by the Tor was delivered to the queen personally by Vimukthi Ratnam, leader of the Tor and a popular leader. Records of the meeting was lost, but in the aftermath he was arrested on charges of treason and sentenced to be executed the following day, March 4th.

In desperation and having run out of patience, senior Torist Daya Dalusinghe met with his brother, General Nalin Dalusinghe who commanded a division-sized force stationed outside of the nations capital of Nilagne Naegima and after tense talks with him and his officers they agreed to raise their flag in revolt and at dawn of March 4th marched 45,000 troops into Nilagne Naegima meeting fellow Torists Bertram Silva and Ananda Muttukumaru who had convinced the rest of the Tor to meet them at the Royal Palace to demand the queens abdication in favor of her 9-year old son Prince Nimal, a move critics believed would leave the Torists in full control of the country. They were meant to meet with Ranjan Peries, a member of the royal court who would guarantee them access to the Queen upon their arrival. Unknown to them, Ranjan had met with the queen during the night and had informed her of the Torists plot. Upon their arrival at the Royal Palace just before mid-day, they were met with the hanged body of Vimukthi Ratnam and surrendering members of the Royal Guard who told them the Queen had fled with her family toward neighbouring Gam Ivura by train.

The arrival of a sizeable force into the city had caused a collapse of order with the police forces siding with the Torists but unable to quell looting as people feared shortages in the event of a conflict. After the Palace was secured, Daya Dalusinghe went onto national radio to call for calm, stating that the queen had been deposed and a democratic authority would take place to oversee the transition. At the same time, the queen had sent orders to army units around the country, with half ordered to meet her at Gam Ivura and the other half to lay siege to Nilagne Naegima by the end of July. Following the radio broadcast by Daya, however, many in Gam Ivura began to riot against the royal government and upon her arrival, the queen ordered the 12,000 strong city militia to suppress the riots by force. Her orders caused many troops to begin to revolt, although many were either shot or fled the city toward the capital. While rioting in Gam Ivura continued, the upper house in the capital were dismissed under arms by the Torists who established a committee that worked to restore order within the city and communicate with sympathetic military forces around the country.

By the end of July, when the queen had ordered the siege of Nilagne Naegima to begin, the Torists had control of roughly 60% of the military force of the country, with the remaining 40% either pledging allegiance to the queen or deserting back to their homes. A stale mate between the two sides had set in, with neither willing to commit to a full military conflict lasted until December, with only sporadic fighting when the two sides met by accident while patrolling their controlled zones. In december the queen, pushed by her family and the royal court, agreed to a 'Constitutional Peace', which would entail heavy changes that would severely diminish the power of the throne in favour of an elected singular house, the abandonment of royal rule over the provinces for elected officials, and the abdication of the queen for her son Prince Nimal.

At the end of the Torist Revolution, being declared a victory at the onset of the Constitutional Peace, celebrations were held in the streets and a sense of normalcy was being encouraged by Daya Dalusinghe, who had at this point taken the chair as the head of the Torist with the intention of becoming the leader of the committee. Although Vimukthi Ratnam was executed and around 260 people, civilian and military were killed in Gam Ivura it was a largely bloodless revolution. Queen Anula, in the agreement, was allowed to return to the Royal Palace with half of her royal guard, a 145-strong force that would be reinforced with an elite force of the Torist faction on the outer perimeter of the palace. The remainder of her royal guard would remain in Gam Ivura.

Constitutional Peace

The effective power of the monarch was all but removed at the start of January in 1968 when the Torists approved the first draft of a revised constitution that revoked all powers of veto and policy change but continued to allow the monarch the right to sit in on meetings. Disagreements between Torists, including leaders Daya Dalusinghe and Ananda Muttukumaru over the continued existence of the monarchy caused divisions that led to the creation of splinter factions in February, including Kaha Mal, or Yellow Flower. Kaha Mal, with Ananda at its head, gained quick popularity over the rural areas with its adherence to Margaya and quickly began to pressure both the Torists and Queen Anula for extensive democratic reforms and for the Queen to be tried for crimes committed during her rule.

These two factions agreed in February to a multi-party system of government but were thwarted when the Kamkaruvo Ekamutuyi (Workers united), a socialist union revived after it was violently suppressed in the 1910 revolution, also demanded representation after demonstrating it had begun to quickly gain support within the military and the two cities of Nilagne Naegima and Gam Ivura.

Ankati Civil War

Main article: Ankati Civil War

While the Constitutional Peace calmed tensions between the Torists and Monarchists following Queen Anula, it was quickly obvious that this would not last. Other factions, such as the Kamkaruvo Ekamutuyi and Kaha Mal, began to apply pressure to the Torists that any end to this revolution that resulted in the monarchy remaining, even if powerless, was a defeat they would not tolerate. Their methods of dealing with this, however, drastically stood apart. The Kaha Mal under Ananda Muttukumaru wanted the Queen to be tried for crimes they insist she was directly involved in, regardless of any possible consequences that may follow such a drastic move. The Kamkaruvo Ekamutuyi (Kam-Ek), the socialist union movement, was more inclined with the removal of the monarchy and then a permanent movement toward a republican model of government. Throughout the month of February 1968 it had become clear that the following that Queen Anula may have had at the end of the previous year in the lead up to the acceptance of the Constitutional Peace had dissipated quickly. Her close confidant, Priya Lanakage had fled at the start of February with her family and taking with her almost half of the royal court. Those loyal to her within the military had long since either fled, changed sides completely, or chosen to remain quiet in fear of their own safety. The fervor for change within the army had become palatable and fanaticism for it saw several executions for dissent within a two week period alone.

On 1 March a message recovered by Torist forces indicated that Kam-Ek socialist militias in Gam Ivura had overnight stormed the Royal Guard force kept in the city and had taken the 130-strong garrison prisoner without loss, although sporadic fighting from loyalists elsewhere in the city had lasted until sunrise. The confrontation between Daya Dalusinghe and Jayantha Kulatunga, leader of the Kamkaruvo Ekamutuyi on that day is largely considered to have been the final catalyst for the Civil War to begin. Dalusinghe, supported by his brother General Nalin Dalusinghe, forcibly removed Kulatunga from the building and mobilised their forces on the 2nd to begin rounding up members of the Kam-Ek both within the capital and in Gam Ivura. At the end of the day, with some 5,000 members of the Kam-Eks Red Brigade in custody the brothers were faced with the looming realisation that not only had Kulatunga evaded arrest that day, but he had managed to lead his forces in looting several army depots spotted around the capital, a move that bolstered his forces significantly and severely diminished the fighting potential of the Torist forces. This move, on dawn of the next day would begin the fighting in earnest.

Shortly after 9AM on 3 March fighters loyal to Kaha Mal ambushed several Torist patrols within the capital, igniting improvised explosives or unleashing deadly torrents of machine-gun fire. The climbing smoke and echoing sounds of battle put the city on notice that on the otherwise perfect morning, something had broken in the nation. General Dalusinghe left the city with 6,000 soldiers in pursuit of Kulatunga and his Kam-Ek forces while his junior officers under the command of Daya Dalusinghe attempted to quell the rapidly evolving revolt within the city. By dawn of 4 March the battle had devolved into messy house-to-house fighting as members of Kaha Mal would utilise Guerrilla warfare to evade the larger forces of the Torist faction to heavily punish attacking forces. Despite accounts from the battle differing massively from both factions, neutral observers have estimated that the Kaha Mal were able to wound or kill ten Torist soldiers for every Kaha Mal soldier wounded or killed in turn. Messages to General Dalusinghe to return to the city went unanswered, as unknown to his brother the senior military official had marched his 6,000-strong force into an ambush by the Kam-Ek forces that scattered his men and forced General Dalusinghe to flee to the west of the country, abandoning his radio vehicle. A final message, sent two days later on 7 March as fighting had encircled the government quarter and the royal palace, begged General Dalusinghe to return, with news that the Torist forces had begun to flee their positions as it was revealed that Kamkaruvo Ekamutuyi forces had circled back into the city and had bolstered the Kaha Mal forces on the 5th of March.

Despite orders from Kulatunga to encircle but leave the Royal Palace alone, once the Royal Guard had been defeated members of both factions stormed the palace. The Sack of the Royal Palace is a moment of distinction for the Civil War's early days and a vital moment in the nations history, as during the sacking Queen Anula and the Crown Prince Nimal were both shot and killed by Kaha Mal fighters who proceeded to set light to the Palace, burning it and the Palace's library which contained notes from the Queens reign which was the prize Kulatunga apparently wanted the Palace left alone to acquire. The deaths of both the monarch and her heir left the Monarchists reeling, as it was not known until later in the year that her remaining children had escaped with the remainder of the Queens Royal Guard to Gam Ivura and then unto Pæraṇi Pragnāva, a Sudu Mārgaya monastary that kept them safe.

Following the Sacking of the Royal Palace hostilities erupted across the country, with the Kamkaruvo Ekamutuyi fleeing to their strongholds to the east, the Kaha Mal remaining in hiding for hit-and-run style attacks at the start of the war, and the Torist Faction declaring martial law across the entire nation, basing themselves heavily in Nilagne Naegima, Gam Ivura and a handful of settlements that dotted the Taeggak, the nations largest river that fed three quarters of the nations crops. The Monarchists, formed by members of the Queens Court and surviving members of her royal guard, occupied Sasrika Kanda, a heavily fortified town in the Simhaya mountains that had once been the Queens childhood home. Pæraṇi Pragnāva, the Sudu Mārgaya monastary the Queens children were taken to was close by and, by way of the monks neutrality considered a safe haven.

Kam-Ek forces following the capture of Nilagne Naegima in 1973

Aftermath

Revolutionary memorial in Nilagne Naegima, built on the site of the old royal palace.

Editor

• User:Belfras/Sandbox15 - Torist Revolution
• User:Belfras/Sandbox16 - Ankati Civil War