V. M. Tarkunde

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Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde (born in Saswad, near Pune, 3 July 1909; died in Delhi, 22 March 2004) was the father of the movement for civil liberties and human rights in India.

After earning a Barristership from London in 1931, he returned to India, began practising law at Pune, and joined the Congress Socialist Party, socialist wing of the Congress in 1933. He became closely associated with M. N. Roy in 1936.

In 1940, Roy and Tarkunde, along with several others, left the Congress after dissenting on the question of participation in the Second World War. Roy advocated participation in the war against fascist powers, while simultaneously striving for Indian independence, and founded the Radical Democratic Party to further this cause. Tarkunde become a full-time member of the party in 1942, and its general secretary in 1944.

After the attainment of independence, in 1948, Roy dissolved the party, after propounding his ideas on Radical Humanism in collaboration with party members, and asking them to strive individually for this ideal in accordance with their own circumstances.

Tarkunde began practising in the Bombay High Court in 1948, and was elevated to the bench in September 1957.

In 1969, Tarkunde founded the Indian Radical Humanist Association as an organisation for radical humanists. He also stepped down voluntarily the same year as Judge of the Bombay High Court, and began his practice as a lawyer in the Supreme Court, being chiefly concerned with public interest litigations (which he conducted with little or no fees) and constitutional cases; he continued his practice until close to the age of 90. He also began editing the Radical Humanist (founded in 1937 by Roy as Independent India) in April 1970, supporting it initially with his own income.

During the emergency, he worked closely with Jayaprakash Narayan, providing leadership to the NGOs Citizens for democracy and People's Union for Civil Liberties, of which he was the founding president. He played a principal part in resisting the excesses of the period.

After the emergency, he was the principal investigator in many cases of human rights violations. His independent reports on various instances such as the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots, and human rights violations in the Punjab, Kashmir, and the North-East, were crucial in bringing out the truth.

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