BT.RANADIVE

BT RANADIVE

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

BTR completed his studies in 1927, obtaining an M.A degree with distinction.

In 1928 he joined the clandestine Communist Party of India. In the same year he became a major leader of the All India Trade Union Congress in Bombay. He was active with the Girini Kamgar Union of the textile workers in Bombay and with the struggles of the railway workers. He became the secretary of the GIP Railwaymens’ Union. In 1939, he married Vimala, a trade union activist.

In 1943 he was elected to the central committee of the party. In February 1946 BTR played a major role in organizing a general strike in support of the Naval ratings revolt.

At its 2nd Party Congress held in Calcutta in February, 1948 the party elected BTR in place of P.C. Joshi as its general secretary. BTR was the general secretary of CPI 1948-1950. During that period the party was engaged in revolutionary uprisings, such as the Telangana armed struggle. In 1950 BTR was deposed, and denounced by the party as a "left adventurist".

In 1956, at the 4th Party Congress in Palghat BTR was again included in the Central Committee. He became a leading figure of the leftist section of the CC.

At the time of the Indo-China border conflict in 1962, BTR was one of many prominent communist leaders jailed by the government. In 1964 he became one of the main leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist).

At the founding conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in Calcutta May 28–31 1970, BTR was elected president. The central building of CITU in New Delhi is named after him, BTR Bhavan.

He was elder brother of Ahilya Rangnekar, a CPI-M leader and 6th Lok Sabha member from Mumbai North Central (Lok Sabha constituency)

One of the pioneers of the Communist Party and the trade union movement in India BTR’s revolutionary career, which spanned seven decades, was singular for his deep commitment to Marxism-Leninism and for his tireless struggle to develop the revolutionary working class movement.

After a brilliant academic record as a student, BTR joined the Communist Party in 1928. Having been steeled in the struggles of the working class in Bombay, BTR rose to be the General Secretary of the CPI at its Second Congress in 1948. He was one of the pioneers who worked from the Party centre when it was set up in Bombay in 1934-35. Elected to the Central Committee and Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) at the Seventh Congress, he remained in these leading position still his death, on April 6, 1990.

BTR played a crucial role in the fight against revisionism in the united party. He made a big contribution to foundation of the CPI(M) and its basic programmatic and ideological outlook.

BTR was the staunch defender of the Party’s ideological purity. He doggedly opposed both right revisionism and left sectarianism in the communist movement. He made a notable contribution in fighting the naxalites left-sectarian deviation in the sixties. In his last days, BTR took up the challenge of defending the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism against the aberrations and distortions of Marxist theory by the leadership of the CPSU.

In the trade union movement, BTR will occupy a special place. He was one of the prominent leaders of the AITUC from the late twenties. He was the initiator of the formation of the CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) and guided its growth as a militant trade union centre till his death. He constantly strove to take the Marxist ideology to the working class, build up class unity and develop the political consciousness of the workers.

BTR, as a true Marxist-Leninist, integrated theory and practice in his daily activities. He championed the causes of the worker-peasant alliance, women’s equality, and ending caste and social oppression. He was a gifted writer whose large number of books will continue to educate future generations of communists and progressives.

BTR was a unique leader who assisted the Party at every juncture and turn in the situation in formulating correct tactics and enunciating the Marxist class standpoint. He set a high personal example for the entire Party by his life of spartan simplicity and total unwavering dedication to the cause. He underwent nine years of imprisonment and spent four years underground. His wife Bimla Ranadive and his sister Ahilya Ranganekar are leaders of the CPI(M) by their own rights.

RED SALUTE.