Editing History of Sri Lanka (section)

===Independence===
The Sinhalese leader Don Stephen Senanayake left the CNC on the issue of independence, disagreeing with the revised aim of 'the achieving of freedom', although his real reasons were more subtle.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/CJ13Df01.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011107180747/http://atimes.com/ind-pak/CJ13Df01.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=7 November 2001 |title=Asia Times: Sri Lanka: The Untold Story |publisher=Atimes.com |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref> He subsequently formed the [[United National Party]] (UNP) in 1946,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/sri-lanka/68.htm |title=Sri Lanka – Sinhalese Parties |publisher=Countrystudies.us |date=1 January 1986 |access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref> when a new constitution was agreed on, based on the behind-the-curtain lobbying of the Soulbury commission. At the elections of 1947, the UNP won a minority of seats in parliament, but cobbled together a coalition with the Sinhala Maha Sabha party of Solomon Bandaranaike and the Tamil Congress of G.G. Ponnambalam. The successful inclusions of the Tamil-communalist leader Ponnambalam, and his Sinhalese counterpart Bandaranaike were a remarkable political balancing act by Senanayake. The vacuum in Tamil Nationalist politics, created by Ponnamblam's transition to a moderate, opened the field for the Tamil ''Arasu Kachchi'' ("Federal party"), a Tamil sovereignty party led by S. J. V. Chelvanaykam who was the lawyer son of a Christian minister.<ref name="Wickramasinghe"/>