P. Ramamurthi

P. Ramamurti ( born September 20, 1908 in Veppathur, Thanjavur District, Tamil Nadu, Madras † 16 December 1987 ) was an Indian freedom fighter, parliamentarian and Marxist theorist. He is regarded as the doyen of Indian trade union movement.

Journey

Ramamurti came from a Brahmin family. He was the half- orphaned by the death of his father three years. When his brother Mahalingam five years later a position at the Currency Board in Madras (now Chennai ) received, moved the whole family in the local district Triplicane, where he also received his secondary school education.

He was attracted to the Indian liberation movement early on. The speeches of nationalist leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mohandas Gandhi and Subramaniya Bharati, on his home nearby Marina beach influenced him as well as the Jallianwalabagh massacre. When Gandhi proclaimed the campaign of non-cooperation, demanding that students should only attend national schools, he moved to the Institute in Allahabad, which at that time under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru and Tandon Purushottam The, later president of the Congress Party. During his time there Ramamurti became fluent in Hindi speak. After two years, the school was closed. The Council of C. Rajagopalachari, he visited the Sabarmati Ashram Ahmedabad, following, he returned to his former school.

Activist for the Congress Party

His higher education began at Presidency College ( now part of the University of Madras). His work for a Congress candidate for accusation A few months later it was done. In order to avoid disciplinary action, Banaras Hindu University moved to the, at that time headed by Madan Mohan Malaviya freedom fighters. Shortly before the end of his two-year training in 1929, he led the protests against the Simon Commission visit. The following year he was first sentenced to a prison term of 6 months because he organized protests against the wearing of foreign cloth.

After his release he returned to Madras, where he was working for the Congress and campaigned for equal rights for the untouchables ( Dalits ). He organized the cobbler of Triplicane, who were all untouchables, and where access to this was denied by the orthodox management of Parthasaray Temple. Ramamurti reached a court ruling that allowed the untouchables, to take part in the elections to the Board of Directors of the temple at that time, tremendous progress.

As within the Congress Party which was Congress Socialist Party (CSP ) of Jayaprakash Narayan founded, he joined this. Soon he came into contact with Marxist ideas. He organized rickshaw coolies and factory workers who he ( Labour Tribunal ) represented variously in labor courts.

During the 1930 Ramamurti advocated particularly for the abolition of exploitative inam zamindari system of land tenure, especially the Dalits were the farm workers, disadvantaged. Its final abolition was achieved only in 1951.

Marxist activist and parliamentarian

Through his contacts with the Communist leader J. Sundarayya ( 1913-85 ) to Ramamurti approached to the Communist Party ( CPI). He was working for them from 1936/37, in the underground and rose within the organization on steadily. In several court cases from 1941 he was convicted of "conspiracy" and held prisoner until shortly before India's independence. After the banning of the Communist Party, he was imprisoned again. In total, he spent nine years of his life in prison.

At the first election to the Legislature of Madras after independence - 1952, he was still imprisoned, he was elected Member of Parliament for North Madras. As leader of the opposition - even though the Popular Front, who was with the CPI had the majority - through speeches, he succeeded in Tamil, for its introduction as an official language he entered. Furthermore, he committed himself to the rights of farm workers and against police brutality that has been applied in particular against striking laborers and over again. In the negotiations, the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu over water rights in the 1950s, he acted as intermediary. At this time, Rajagopalachari was the Chief Minister of the Congress and a vocal opponent of the Communists. However, this did not affect the cordial personal relationship between the two.

Ramamurti did not believe in the success of the course set by Nehru socialist path, but was of the opinion that only unity, political training and unconditional belief in the ideology associated with militancy, could lead to the goal.

In 1964, there were ideological differences within the CPI, leading ( CPI ( M) ) to an elimination of the Communist Party of India ( Marxist). Ramamurti was one of nine founding members of the new Politburo. His main concern was to strengthen the trade union wing. To this end, he organized nationwide and wrote pamphlets to present-day problems. As in 1970, the Indian Federation of Trade Unions AITUC split and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions ( CITU ) was created, he was its first Secretary-General (until 1983 ).

In 1967 he was first elected at the national level in the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha. The upper house Rajya Sabha, he belonged to 1971-77. Overall, he was at the national level 16 years Member of Parliament, where he mainly dealt with labor issues. International worked in the World Federation of Trade Unions ( WFTU ) in the fight against imperialism. His two -hour speech in 1979 prevented an agreement, the state company Bharat Heavy Industries ( BHEL ) with Siemens. In his view, the contract had the local research and development hinders most strongly. In principle he was against cooperation with multinationals.

From 1983, he was released due to poor health of all activities for the party, he remained still active in the background. Ramamurti died in 1987 age of 79 in Madras. On the occasion of his 100th birthday was unveiled his statue in Madurai on 20 September 2008.

His daughter R. Vaigai is a lawyer in Madras, chairman of the All India Lawyers' Union for Chennai and director of the local People's Law Centre.

Works

In Western languages ​​:

• Surging tide of working class struggles: report of Com. P. Ramamurti to the General Council meeting held at Coimbatore on June 11-14, 1971; Calcutta in 1971? ( Centre of Indian Trade Unions ), 94 S
• Stop BHEL 's dangerous truck with Siemens to investigative analysis; New Delhi, 1978 ( Centre of Indian Trade Unions ), 136 S
• For whom the tolls BHEL? ; New Delhi 1979 Communist Party of India ( Marxist), "Full text of the speech in Rajya Sabha exposing the dangerous machinations to serve the interests of West German multinational firm"
• Real face of the Assam agitation; New Delhi 21980 ( Communist Party of India ( Marxist) ), 32 S
• The freedom struggle and the Dravidian movement; Madras, 1987, ISBN 0861317696
• The Problems Of Indian Polity, 1986, ISBN 8121200423