Birth centenary Com D Gnaniah (DG), a veteran Trade Union Leader.
Article by Shri. P.Sermuga Pandian Senior Accounts Officer( Retired)
D.Gnaniah is one of the legendary leader of P&T Trade Union movement .He was born on 07.01.1921 in Nadukkottai village in Madurai District of Tamilnadu .The year-long birth-centenary celebrations of the great leader has started on 07.01.2021 in all over India . He had been a very close associate of Com O.P Gupta another veteran Trade union leader in P&T wing of central Government for more than 50 years.
Born in pro-German Lutheran Christian family, com DG was attracted towards Marxist philosophy even before his entry into the postal services. He was associated with the student movement and local kisan sabha. He got his graduation in the famous American college, Madurai where many ‘later day leaders of communist movement’ were educated
. He joined as Postal clerk in Karur Post office in Oct 1941. He was very much annoyed at “keeping of two separate mud-pots in post office” on caste basis . His fighting spirit against such discrimination made him to break the drinking pot kept for upper caste employees. The postal administration compelled him to join Army Postal Service (APS) to keep him away from the civil side.
But his transfer to APS became blessings in disguise .It helped him to broaden his vision. He was just 21 when the world opened its door for him. He served in various countries during his tenure in APS. It was terrible period of Second World war. He had to undertake journey to various places like the Suez, Haifa (Israel) , other Palestinian regions, Egypt , Tobruk (Libya), Syria and so many other places during 1942-46 to fulfill his War duties of British India in APS . He was in Cyprus for a long time.
As he was a voracious reader of books, the Central Library in Cairo, the Capital city of Egypt was his favorite place. It became a meeting place of various people with revolutionary thoughts. He read books of various authors in the Library and held discussion with all friends of socialist ideas. While serving in APS he befriended another stalwart of P&T movement com. Pramanathan. These friends were seriously watching the advancement Indian freedom struggle and people’s war slogan of Soviet Union. When he was at Karachi, he heard the news of Royal Indian Navy (RIN )struggle for freedom and other demands.
On his return from APS , he was posted at Tiruchirapalli where he developed contacts with the local union leaders. On hearing com Gupta’s efforts for the unification of P&T movement, he stood solidly with him. He started his union service as Assistant secretary in that area. When the employees of the Central Government called for strike from the midnight on 11-12 July 1960 with 6-point charter of demands having main demand “Need-based minimum wage for central Government employees” , Com DG organized the strike in Tiruchirapalli area in a powerful manner . He was arrested and released after the trail of 7 months. He got his suspension order and then dismissed from service. The great NFPTE union was derecognized. Com DG did his yeoman service by collecting relief materials and money from various personalities in Tamilnadu including MGR and dispatched to the needy. The former Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, and a veteran leader of DMK party, then a postal employee Shri G Lakshmanan also received the relief.
With his sincere and dedicated work with fighting fervor , he rose to the level of Secretary General of NFPTE , the mighty organization in the P&T . He served as Secretary General of NFPTE during 1965 to 1970. Com DG had played a major role in the discussion and formation of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) a negotiating forum and Compulsory arbitration in favour of CG Employees. He fought against Government’s stand of placing condition of proscribing strike for acceptance and formation of JCM. His speech on the inaugural day of JCM was much appreciated by various shades of leaders of CG Movement. Various trade unions of CG Employees should thank him for his major contribution of this greatest achievement for bringing a permanent negotiating forum for CGEs. Com DG had gone England to know about the functioning of whitely council based on its analogy the JCM was constituted in India for Central staff.
Com D Gnomish led the historic strike of entire CG Employees on September 19, 1968 with great valour and vigor. He was arrested one day earlier to the strike and imprisoned at Tihar jail. He guided the movement and enthused the workers through his fire-emitting write-ups from Tihar, even though he was behind the bars. NFPTE was derecognized. Along with all other leaders, he stood the ground and fought for complete restoration of recognition from Branch level to higher federation level. He had undergone indefinite fast along with all the leaders . The fast by the leaders received serious political attention and got support from veteran leaders of various parties. Leaders like A.B Vajpayee, S.A Dange, Chandra Shekhar, Mohan Dharia, Aruna Asaf Ali came to the spot and greeted the fasting leaders. Mohan Dharia and Aruna Asaf Ali mediated with the Government and the fast ended after 8 hectic days with success by getting full-fledged recognition of NFPTE.
At that time , P&T labour was the organ of NFPTE . Com DG, as the editor of P&T labour , worte many educative articles and exposed the policies of then Government. During the time of emergency in 1975 , union journals were censored, seized and not allowed to reach the branches. Many leaders were victimized including DG .On the formation of Janata Government Shri George Fernandez was appointed as Minister of Communications . Com DG met him and narrated the problems of victimization during Emergency. Fernandez personally went through the files that rejected DG’s re-admission to Postal service. He overturned the orders of former Minister Sankar Dayal Sharma and made way for DG to re-entry into the services
Earlier the P&T workers were denied Bonus by the Government .As a leader of the Staff-side JCM (National Council) he was instrumental in signing the historic Bonus Agreement for Postal and Telecom Employees with Mr Swaminathan Member(PO) .Now lakhs of workers in both the wings are getting Productivity Linked Bonus(PLB) thanks to the agreement reached by him with the Government .
DG had attained his superannuation in January 1979. This was his 5th time of his re-entry in to the services after courageously facing three arrests three suspensions , one dismissal, one compulsory retirement etc for his strong and firm trade union activities for the cause of P&T workers. Even after his retirement, he served as a member of Board of Arbitration representing the staff side of CGEs for nearly 8 years.
After his retirement, com Gnaniah focused his attention to educate the workers on Marxism, the philosophy of working class. He had become a known CPI and AITUC leader within a short span of 10 years since 1979. He had been in the National Council, Control Commission of CPI. As Vice president of AITUC, he had ably conducted education camp to workers which was appreciated by many. He had his close association with senior leaders and shaped the policies of CPI by discussing with them .His closeness with leaders in Tamilnadu helped to shape up the political line of Tamilnadu CPI.
He had powerful oratory skills in Hindi, English and Tamil. He was the builder of the educational institutions like “Workers Education Centre” for the working class of Tamilnadu. He conducted many educational camps for rationalizing and making them understand the importance of struggle of working class in our society. He ably taught them to understand the caste question and the importance of the movement for social justice. Whenever he had the chance of meeting CPI, CPM leaders, he expressed his longing for the left unity. He never failed to criticize the left whenever he felt the shortcomings. He had taken many efforts to understand India, its history, social inequality, the dimension of Hindu- Muslim strife and Unity .He never minced words to narrate the contribution of Islam and the role of leaders from that community for the advancement of progressive movement.
He was versatile and prolific writer both English and Tamil . He had authored more than 30 books on social and historical issues .He released hundreds of pamphlets and short write-ups on current political/social issues that concerned the people . His books in English such as “Islam and India", “Terrorism sources and solutions” , “Obamas of America and Dalits of India” have received much attention of the intellectuals and got appreciation and accolades from the critics and historians. His bio sketch was captioned as ‘ I ALSO RAN’. His narratives on the history of P&T movement – Glimpses of a unique Trade Union ’ were well received by the workers. He was very fond of receiving comrades for intellectual discussion and for proper updating of current development in the Marxian movement. It was awesome to see a comrade even at the age of 97 reading and writing daily for hours together. Com DG a tireless personality with the thirst of learning and taking the learnt-things with great responsibility to the younger generation would live with all of us through his memories and write-ups.
His memory power was so amazing. He could recall minute details even about the ground-level local leaders of the movement . He was a role model for union leaders for he insisted and adopted democratic way of functioning in the trade unions in hearing all the viewpoints before taking a joint-decision.
He passed away on 08.07.2017 in Coimbatore at the ripe age 97. He lived a long and purposeful life with a firm conviction and served the working class. We have to learn from his life and rededicate ourselves for the cause to which he stood all these years.
Let every worker of P& T, and a member of Indian working class be proud of this great leader .Let us remember and salute him for his valuable contribution to the Indian Trade Union Movement during this year-long birth centenary celebrations staring from 07.01.2021
Some historic photos of the legendary leader Com D Gnaniah are given below
No comments:
Post a Comment