Shankar Guha Niyogi

Shankar Guha Niyogi (14 February 1943 – 28 September 1991) was founder of Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, a labour union run in the town of Dalli Rajhara Mines in Chhattisgarh, who succeeded in sustaining the Mine Worker movement for 14 years from 1977 till his death in 1991.

Shankar Guha Niyogi
Personal details
Born	Dhiresh Guha Niyogi 14 February 1943 Jalpaiguri
Died	28 September 1991 Bhillai, Chhattisgarh
Nationality	Indian

Early life

Dhiresh Guha Niyogi was born in 1943 in Jalpaiguri, Bengal. Most of his childhood was spent in the forests of Upper Assam. He had his schooling in Calcutta, and later in Jalpaiguri. It was here that he became attracted to left politics in the late fifties. For a while he was also the Joint Secretary of the local unit of All India Students Federation, the student wing of the then undivided Communist Party of India.^[1]

Work & thinking

Niyogi was first and foremost a great social thinker of the alternative development movement, but worked as a trade union leader to be able implement his ideas in practical ways.

In the early 1960s he came to Bhilai to work at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), studied for and obtained a BSc Degree while working as a skilled worker in the BSP and established himself as a labour organiser. BSP was emblematic of the possibilities of India's public sector: the integrated steel plant and township spanned over 22,000 acres, operated captive iron ore mines in Dalli Rajhara, limestone quarries in Dani Tola and spawned a network of privately owned ancillary factories that employed thousands of workers. By 1964–65 he had become a union organiser and was Secretary of the Blast Furnace Action Committee. He and his union played a maior role in the anti-communal front subsequent to the Baria riots. In the next few years Niyogi was associated with the Co-ordination Committee of the Communist Revolutionaries, the precursor of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist). In 1967, Niyogi and his colleagues organised one of the BSP's first strikes for better working conditions. A year later he was thrown out of the BSP, and spent the next several years travelling through Chhattisgarh.^[2]

He then left Bhilai and roamed the far-flung areas of Chattisgarh – that vast cultural entity which includes the districts of Bastar, Bilaspur, Durg, Raigarh, Raipur, Rajnandgaon and Sarguja. After a brief period of working underground with the CPI(ML), Niyogi left the organisation and was on his own. For the next five or six years his nomadic existence took him to many occupations and struggles, all within the Chattisgarh region. Forest work in north Bastar, catching and selling fish in Durg district, agricultural labour in Keri Jungata, shepherding goats in interior Rajnandgaon, were some of the occupations he was involved in. Everywhere he was involved in local struggles. The struggle of adivasis in Bastar, agitation against Mongra reservoir in Rajnandgaon, and the Daihand people's struggle for water were some of the struggles from which he learnt his early lessons in mass organisation.^[3]

In 1970s, a young man who called himself Shankar arrived at the BSP's limestone quarries in Dani Tola. His past was unknown, but he seemed interested in the working conditions at the mine. In time he married an tribal lady called Asha, whose parents worked in the mines. In 1975, Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency and Niyogi was rearrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).

He was released in 1977, a time when the contract workers of Dalli Rajhara were contemplating a mass action. The contract workers at Dalli Rajhara had approached the management with a specific demand of raising the yearly bonus; once he arrived, Niyogi made it clear that he envisioned a politics that went beyond wage increments and bonuses.^[4]

Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS)^[5]

In 1977, Niyogi, Mr. Thakur and the contract workers of Dalli Rajhara established the Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS) workers union. The CMSS began by organising successful struggles for more wages and working conditions. The Union became the most popular union in the iron-ore mines within two months. Hundreds and thousands of miners joined the union although it was not accorded recognition.

The 31 May rally and gheraos were its major show of strength demanding bonus, fallback wages for the period of enforced idleness at work sites and pre-monsoon allowance for repair of their huts. Niyogi was arrested on the night of 3 June 1977 under Section 151 of Criminal Penal Code ( Cr.P.C.) provoking thousands of workers to demonstrate at the police station and practically lay siege to it. Police opened fire, killing twelve people including a woman named Anasuya Bai, the popular folksinger of the union. That particular shooting incident was the first of its kind under the new Janata regime that had come to power in March at the centre. But it only strengthened the workers' resolve to struggle. Within a fortnight of the shooting, even before Niyogi was released, the management signed an agreement with the still unrecognised union. Both bonus and pre-monsoon allowance were conceded, to be shared equally by the contractors and the Steel Plant. After his release, the union was recognised, and it spread from the iron-ore mines of Dalli Rajhara to the limestone mines in Danitola and Nandini, and the dolomite mines in Hirri. The first major organised action of the CMSS was the indefinite strike in September 1977 demanding increase in wage rate and improved living conditions. The daily wage, on the days on which one got work, was around Rs. 4. The unloading charges for handling ore used to be a meagre 27 paise per tonne. On some days the workers were forced to work almost sixteen continuous hours a day. Much of their wage and service conditions were so poor because of the fact that most of the 8,000 miners were contract labour. In the next phase of the struggle the union took up the issue of contract labour. A steady movement was built up for abolition of contract labour and departmentalisation of the existing work force. Throughout this phase the union faced the wrath of the powerful mining and labour contractors. As the organised efforts of the union became strong, labour co-operatives of the workers gradually replaced the contractors. That was when the BSP managed to step in to crush the union through mechanisation. Since about the early eighties the union began its long drawn out struggle against mechanisation. The first strike on the issue took place in May 1980.

Meanwhile the Central Industrial Security Force (C1SF) was posted at the mines, presumably to protect the mines from its own miners. In September 1980 hundreds of workers gheraoed the CISF personnel in protest against a jawans' (soldiers') attempt to rape a fourteen-year-old adivasi girl. Once again shooting took place in which one person was killed and thirty-eight injured. Niyogi and other leaders were arrested. Following widespread protest the government ordered a judicial enquiry. But it must be added that no meaningful action was taken on the recommendations of Justice M. A. Rajjak enquiry commission appointed over the 1977 shooting incident. The fate of the second committee seems to be no different. As the agitation against mechanisation intensified init ially in January 1981 Niyogi, Sahdev Sahu and Janaklai Thakur were served externment orders which were struck down by the courts. A fortnight later, on 11 February, Guha Niyogi and Sahu were invited for talks by the District Collector, Durg. When they reached the office they were detained under the National Security Act, 1980 (NSA). Workers went on strike. Two months later they were released by a judicial review committee. Finally the Steel Plant management climbed down and entered into an agreement with the union in the presence of the Chief Labour Commissioner. Partial departmentalisation was agreed upon, and the threat of mechanisation was held in abeyance.

Meanwhile CMSS evolved an innovative plan for semi mechanisation that would have increased production and productivity without resorting to retrenchment. This alternative, in the context of an underdeveloped economy like ours, attracted widespread attention. In November 1983 Niyogi along with a number of fellow activists and workers attended a convention in Delhi on "Mines, Mechanisation and People". The meeting, an attempt to initiate a debate between academics and union activists from different parts of the country was sponsored by the People's Union for Democratic Rights. Eventually, faced with the workers resistance and the credibility gained by their alternative proposal, the Steel Plant management did not pursue its plans.

In 1989, a number of workers, especially women were surreptitiously getting retrenched. The workers went on strike for three weeks in May forcing the authorities to retreat once again.

The CMSS also took up an anti-liquor campaign. The campaign and its effective implementation was made possible by the participation of women workers. Initially the movement faced the wrath of liquor contractors and their political patrons. There have been some cases of assault on the activists in this period. But eventually the campaign enhanced the effective income of the workers and made a visible difference to the personal and social life of the township.

Shahid hospital was one such initiative that began as a dispensary in an unused garage in 1982. Today, it is a self-financed 100-bed hospital dedicated to providing quality low-cost health care to workers and villagers around Dalli. Shahid hospital was set up in memory of Kusum bai, an Adivasi woman, who died from a ruptured fallopian tube in 1979 because she had no access to health care and in memory of those killed in the 1977 shooting. Contract workers could not go to BSP's hospitals. By 1983, the hospital had 10 beds and four doctors but no money. So each worker donated a month's mine allowance Rs. 30 to the hospital.

By 1990, CMSS had about 10,000 members, and had engineered a series of mass actions and negotiations that ensured that they were amongst the best paid contract workers in the country.

Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha^[6]

The Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), was formed to take up the wider problems of the region, especially those of the adivasis. A subsequent struggle to free bonded labourers in the region led to the formation of the Chattisgarh Gramin Shramik Sangh (CGSS). Over the years the CMSS, CMM and CGSS have worked in tandem.

The unions affiliated to Chattisgarh Mukh Morcha gradually took roots in the adjoining areas. Among the most notable was the Rajanandagaon Kapada Mazdoor Sangb (RKMS). The textile mill at Rajanandagaon, established in 1896 was the oldest industrial unit in the region. From Shaw Wallace managing agency of the colonial period it changed many hands to eventually become part of the State owned National Textile Corporation (NTC) in 1972. The newly established union took up the issues of parity in wages with other NTC mills and workers participation in management. In July 1984 the workers went on indefinite strike. In a major incident on 12 September 1984, police opened fire on the workers in which three workers were killed. Curfew was imposed. Large number of women participants were brutally assaulted. At least three women were raped by policemen. A number of union activists, including Niyogi were arrested. The strike continued altogether for over five months. Eventually in December some sort of settlement was arrived at.

The unions affiliated to CMM in 1989–90 began taking shape in Durg and Bhilai region. The Morcha affiliated unions that took root in this belt include Pragatisheel Engineering Shramik Sangh (PESS), Chattisgarh Shramik Sangh, Chattisgarh Cement Shramik Sangh and Chattisgarh Mill Mazdoor Sangh. A massive rally held on 2 October 1990 was the major turning point in this movement. The union especially PESS, built up a steady demand for implementation of minimum wages, a living wage, adequate work safely and abolition of contract labour. The movement faced intense repression and violence both from the police and the hired hoodlums of the management. The focal point of the struggle in the last few months has been in the units owned by Simplex group. For practically over ten months the workers are on strike. A large number of workers were arrested under section 107 and section 1.51 billion.P.C, in blatant violation of law. Finally on 4 February 1991 Shankar Guha Nivogi himself was arrested under some old cases pending since years. Subsequently he was released on bail.

Assassination^[7]

Since 1991, Niyogi's focus of new activities had shifted to organising workers in the industries of Bhilai. The earlier struggles had been primarily in 'interior' areas. Now the movement came into direct, sharp and sustained conflict with the wealthiest and most powerful industrialists of the area. As tensions mounted and physical attacks on union workers increased, Niyogi anticipated his own murder. In a message which he recorded a few weeks before his death, he spoke of how the industrialists of the Bhilai area would make their final assault on the movement in the form of a conspiracy to kill him.^[8]

Niyogi lodged two police complaints on 29 April 1991, and on 4 July 1991, apprehending his own murder. No action was taken on these complaints. On the contrary the administration initiated externment proceedings against him under the Section 5 of Madhya Pradesh Rajya Suraksha Adhiniyam, 1990. A writ challenging the proceedings against Niyogi and the constitutional validity of the act was filed in the Jabalpur High Court. The Court issued a stay on the externment proceedings on 10 August. In the second week of September, Niyogi led a delegation of workers to Delhi where he met among others the President of India, the Prime Minister, leaders of all major political parties. In Bhopal he met the labour minister. After visiting Pipariya, Hoshangabad where activists of Samata Sangathan faced massive repression recently, he returned to Durg on 18 September.

On 28 September 1991, Shankar Guha Niyogi put aside his copy of Lenin on Trade Unions and Revolutions, and fell asleep under a mosquito net in his room on the ground floor of an apartment in the Bhilai industrial township. In the early hours of the morning, a young man rode up to the house, looked in through the bedroom's well-lit window and pumped six bullets.^[10]

The government initially announced a reward for those giving clues. It entrusted theinvestigation to B. B. S. Thakur, additional Superintendent of Police, Durg under the overall supervision of A. N. Sinha, DIG whose name was explicitly mentioned by Niyogi among those who are possibly involved in the conspiracy to murder him. Niyogi expressed his apprehensions in a tape recorded message that was discovered after his death. Independently Asha Niyogi, on behalf of the union, lodged a complaint with the police naming ten people as being responsible for the murder. They include Moolchand Shah, Naveen Shah and Hirabhai Shah of Simplex Group, B.R.Jain and Arvind Jain of Bhilai Engineering Corporation, H.P.Khetawat of Bhilai Wires, Vijay Gupta and Kulbir Gupta of B .K .Engineering Corporation, Vinay Kedia and Kailashpathi Kedia of Kedia Distlleries.

On 29 September, the dead body was taken to Dalli Rajhara where fourteen years ago, Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh had taken birth. Draping his body in the red-green flag of the Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha, his comrades and followers marched in a resolute procession to the cremation site. Across the Chattisgarh region, over two lakh workers struck work that day bringing 150 industrial units to a standstill. About one and a half lakh men, women and children followed the funeral procession and then stood in homage as crematory flames consumed the earthly body of a legend.^[11]

Judgement of assassination

In 1997, a Madhya Pradesh Sessions Court convicted Moolchand Shah, Chandrakant Shah and three others of conspiring to kill Niyogi and sentenced Paltan Mallah, the hired assassin, to death. However, in 2005 the Supreme Court of India held that there was insufficient evidence to convict the industrialists and commuted Mallah's sentence to life imprisonment^[12][13][14]

References

Well known Civil Liberties leader and senior advocate, late Sri K.G. Kannabiran, successfully prosecuted the case at the appellate stage at the specific request of Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha and appointed by the Madhya Pradesh Government on their request as a special public prosecutor.

External links

• 1. "Niyogi – His Work & Thinking"
• 2. "Our Environment : Perspective of Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh", by Shankar Guha Niyogi and translated by Rajani Bakshi
• 3. "Shankar Guha Niyogi and the Chattisgarh Peoples Movement"