B. T. RANADIVE

(1904 - 1990)

Bhalchandra Trimbak Ranadive (19 December 1904 – 6 April 1990), was an Indian communist politician and trade union leader.

Ranadive completed his studies in 1927, obtaining an M.A. degree. In 1928 he joined the clandestine Communist Party of India (CPI). In the same year he became a major leader of the All-India Trade Union Congress in Mumbai. He was active with the Mumbai textile workers’ Girini Kamgar Union and with the GIP Railwaymen’s Union. In February 1946 he played a major role in organizing a general strike in support of the Naval ratings revolt.

In 1943 he was elected to the central committee of the CPI, and at the 2nd Party Congress held in Kolkata in February, 1948 the party elected him as its general secretary. He served in that capacity from 1948 until 1950. During that period the party was engaged in revolutionary uprisings, such as the Telangana armed struggle.

In 1950 Ranadive’s leadership came under criticism. He was denounced within the party as a "left adventurist" and deposed from his leadership post. In 1956, at the 4th Party Congress in Palghat, he was restored to the Central Committee.

Ranadive became a leading figure of the CPI left wing, and in the 1964 split, he left the CPI and became one of the main leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist).

At the founding conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in Kolkata, May 28–31 1970, Ranadive was elected its president. The central building of CITU in New Delhi was later named after him.

WRITINGS OF B. T. RANADIVE:

1930: Population Problem of India

1943: Working Class and National Defense. Report on Production (First Congress of the CPI, 28 May 1943)

1945: India's Sterling Balances