Unionized For A Classless Society

A national influence who shaped India's trade unions and fought against injustice, B.T Randive was also one of the prominent leaders of the Communist Party of India and struggled to birth a society free from the oppressions of caste and class.

B.T Ranadive; Source: Wikipedia

Bhalchandra Trimbak Ranadive, fondly known as BTR, was born on 19th December 1904. He witnessed colonial India, its struggles, and even independent India and its set of challenges, and so, he was able to be instrumental in shaping a vision for India.

He completed his master's in 1927 and, within a year, joined the furtive Communist Party. His ardent desire for change did not end there, and he became a notable leader of the All India Trade Union Congress. Amongst the many unions he was active in, he is most remembered for his struggles of textile workers in Bombay, and the strifes of the railway worked under the Girini Kamgar Union. Subsequently, he was appointed as the secretary of the GIP Railway worker's Union.

His work was more than just that, and he eventually married a woman named Vimal, who was also a trade union activist in 1939.

Apart from the unions, Ranadive found himself at the political front, elected to the party's Central Committee in 1943, and three years down the line, in 1946, he played a significant role to support the Naval Ratings Revolt or the 1946 Naval Uprising by organizing a general strike in its support.

Post-independence, all was going well for him, and in February 1948, at the Communist Party's second party congress, he was extended the roles and responsibilities of the General Secretary of the party and served for two years. He changed the face of the party and encouraged revolutionary uprisings. However, this did not bode well, and in 1950, he was denounced and deposed.

This slump was only short-lived and in 1956, he was included yet again in the Central Committee and became a leading figure for the leftist section.

He became a powerful leader who went to jail during the Indo-China war, became the president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions and is still remembered by its central building named after him, "BTR Bhavan".

BTR was a brilliant leader and scholar who fought for the rights of all sections of society.