Vasant Gupte
( 9th May 1927 – September 2010)
Vasant Gupte would have
been 84 this May. These tributes, one by his family and the second by his comrades and
colleagues, celebrate his life and life philosophy.

Nana, to one and all
Vasant Gupte wanted to be an engineer by
profession, but was sent to Baroda for his studies in Arts because his father
wanted him to take over his practice. Soon after completing his LLB, Nana (who had been active
in the Socialist Party since his school days) announced that he had no
intention of taking up private practice as a lawyer, but wanted to serve
people. Upon the advice of Sane Guruji, the leader he most revered, Nana moved
to Bombay and joined the Mill Mazdoor Sabha in 1950. This is where he met his
life partner, our mother Shalini Patil.
The two married in April 1952 and two children, Manisha and Girija.
Nana, our father, became our mother too
after the death of our mother in 1978. He always taught us through his own
practice, never through lecturing – about the equality of the humankind, and no
discrimination of any sort was ever allowed, whether on the basis of gender,
caste, religion, literacy or race. He never made us see ourselves as his
daughters, but treated us as his children -- no fears, no inferiority complex
was ever introduced for being girls. He gave us complete independence in making
our choices in careers, marriage/no marriage and our political paths. Further
still, he showed confidence in us and stood steadfastly by all our decisions. Even
though he never introduced us to any education in religion, he did not impose
his atheism on us. Our atheism came to us of our own choice.
He was one of the few men of his time to
ensure that the flat we lived in (his only piece of property to the very end of
his life) was in his wife’s name, our mother’s name. To encourage our mother in
playing an active role in politics and social work, he would take over cooking
and other household responsibilities, something rarely seen among men of his
generation. Thus, men’s participation in household work came to us as almost a
natural thing. It was probably the beginning of seeds of gender equality sowed
in us.
Training
workers
Nana must have been one of the first trade
unionists to extend training to workers in law, and in negotiations. This made
the workers capable of handling their problems themselves and decision-making
at the local level instead of depending on the union leadership each time. It
showed his sense of understanding the need for workers taking initiative in
their own hands. This was his strong sense of practice of democracy in the
union.
He did not differentiate between workers
belonging to his union and others. It is with this principle that even after
organized sector unions were fading, he continued his contact with unorganized
sector workers by helping out the BSES workers with their PF cases,
negotiations of Tata Power Company project workers after the self-immolation of
2 workers, ready-made garment workers’ union, etc.
He gave special emphasis on projecting women
activists in the union, going to the extent of forming a women’s committee at
the national level of the HMS. This was also with the aim of women activists’
participation in decision-making at the local and national levels. He was full
of excitement when he saw any woman activist working among workers and always
gave them support for continuing with their work because he knew of the
hardships women have to face from their families and from society at large when
they enter into the trade union field. He had the capacity of understanding the
capabilities of women. He would often give examples from China where he had
seen a woman mechanic working under a train at midnight and women operating
huge cranes in the USSR to show women’s capabilities. He was also very
impressed with the women translators of Europe who he often felt had the job of
translating long, boring speeches in several languages, and yet they did it
with such patience and efficiency.
Nana was one of the few leaders to encourage
youth to take over important positions in the union. He also involved new youth
in labour research in the Maniben Kara Institute and trained them by treating
them as his equals. Together, Nana and the researchers of MKI conducted several
very important studies.
Many
pursuits
Nana’s interest in science continued
throughout his life. Hardly ever did he give us anything but books as gifts on
our birthdays. He always insisted on our reading the Science Today,
bought us encyclopedias, literary works and classics, made us listen to music,
watch plays. He would carry out experiments on Sundays – probably trying to
realize his initial dream of wanting to become an engineer. Holidays for us
were always family holidays, travelling to various parts of the country on
shoe-string budgets. Everytime he returned from his international tours, he
brought us literature from the countries he had visited, coins and notes, all
to enhance our knowledge of the world. He gave us detailed accounts of his
interactions with the ordinary people he had met there. Never once were any of
those descriptions biased on the basis of culture, race, religion, gender or
morality.
He always maintained a routine. His day
began with making his own cup of tea and ended with about 3 hours of reading,
writing and translating works of other authors from the English language into
Marathi. He translated some of Oscar Wilde’s short stories and made an abridged
translation of Evelyn Reed’s Woman’s Evolution, both of which were much
appreciated by people and thus reprinted. There is a tendency among the
middle-class to write about their travel endeavours. After his second trip to
the USA, Nana wrote about the liberation struggles of the blacks.
He had varied and practical ideas on energy
conservation. One such idea was to get people to pool in cars for everyday
commuting. He would often suggest that cars with even numbers should be allowed
to ply on one day and with odd numbers the next day to ensure that half the
number of cars stayed off the roads everyday. Another such idea was to have
taps with push buttons (something he had seen in the USSR) so that people only
used as much water as was absolutely necessary. A third was to have sea
transport for everyday commuting in Mumbai, because it would take the pressure
off the railways and roads, be more convenient for people and would of course
be cheap.
During the worst of personal crises in life,
Nana stood invincible. The death of our mother was a major blow to him. He was
only 51 years of age then, but never once did he show his grief to anybody. His
love for her was expressed in his continuing with their marriage for 32 years
after her death, till his own death. Even though he believed in the socialist
ideals to the very end of his life, he was disillusioned with the political
behavior prevalent among his ex-comrades. So he hung on to his political views
as a socialist, but stopped participating in active party politics. He
continued with his socialist ideals to the end of his life in wanting to donate
his body after his death, either by someone needy using his organs or through
research.
Girija
Gupte, with Manisha Gupte, Ramesh, Prateek and Priya Awasthi.
Corresponde nce: Girija Gupte girijagupte@gmail.com
Salute to VG!
Vasant Gupte was born to Adv. Nilkanth and Laxmibai Gupte on May 9, 1927 at Panvel in Maharashtra and
had his school and college education at Panvel, Baroda, Mumbai and Pune. He
took his Law Degree from Law College, Pune in the year 1949. Although Vasant Gupte (VG) was born and brought
up in staunch Congressman family, he was inspired by thoughts and writings of
Sane Guruji from his school days and became an active member of Rashtra Seva
Dal and Praja Socialist Party. Coincidentally, VG worked for and led Mill
Mazdoor Sabha as General Secretary and President for last 60 years whose
founder was none other than Sane Guruji.
He joined Mill Mazdoor Sabha (MMS) in
the year 1950 as full time Secretary and started his trade union career by
doing legal, organisational and trade union education work. He was elected as
General Secretary of the Mill Mazdoor Sabha in 1971 and continued discharging
his duties and responsibilities as General Secretary of the Union till the year
1998. In 1998, he was elected as President of Mill Mazdoor Sabha, the post that
he held until his last. During his 6 decades of trade union career, he has
contributed immensely for the well-being of the working class and trade union
movement in general and textile workers in particular in his various capacities.
During his long association with Mill Mazdoor Sabha, he was involved in various
struggles and strikes and was instrumental in conducting various successful
negotiations on behalf of textile workers.VG fought many battles on road and in
courts for the cause of workers. He was in forefront of historic textile strike
of 1950 for Bonus. MMS’s landmark
achievements, like 100% DA to silk textile industry, was a result of VG’s
meticulous preparation of claim and exposing intellectually the feeble pleas of
employers. He worked wholeheartedly for the cause of workers
not only in Maharashtra but also in the other states of India. He was General
Secretary of the Textile Workers Federation of India (HMS).
MMS
was a founder member of Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS). VG professed and practised the philosophy of
keeping TU free from the control of the government employer and political
parties including the Socialist Party. His humility, sincere and hard work, special skill in negotiations and TU
educational activities endeared him to all his seniors and he was first time
elected as National Secretary of HMS in its conference held at Calcutta in the
year 1974. He was the Secretary of HMS from 1974 to 1978. He was re-elected
National Secretary in the year 1981 at HMS conference held at Cochin. He was
Secretary of HMS for over one and half decades and finally step down from the
Secretary-ship position in 2006 as he wanted to devote more time for trade
union education and research work. During his long association with HMS, he
strived for strengthening the organization in various ways and travelled
extensively within India and abroad. His untiring service to the labour
movement for over the period of six decades was well recognized nationally and
internationally. He visited several countries including most of the countries in Europe,
Asia and in Northern Africa for
attending conferences, meetings and seminars. He has also attended ILO
Conferences held in Geneva three times in a row as a member of the Indian
delegation and HMS representative during the period 1990-93.
Research and Education, MKI
He was a great scholar, thinker and
voracious reader and a fine human being. He was fond of academic work and very
passionate about trade union education and research work. He was involved in
conducting trade union education programmes for textile workers from very
beginning of his trade union career. So, in the year 1981 when HMS established
its labour research and education institute viz. Maniben Kara Institute, he was a natural choice and was appointed
as its Director and held that post till his last. During his tenure, the
Institute has not only been able to expand its activities in the area of trade
union education and research, but also achieved national and international
recognition in these said areas through
research studies on labour like the Labour
in Free India, Minimum Wages in India, Profile of 100 TU Leaders, Service
Conditions in Public Sector etc. All these manuals and research studies are
guides to TU activists.
He had been regular guest lecturer
for post-graduate courses on Labour Welfare, Personnel Management, Industrial
Relations and Trade Unionism conducted by prestigious Institutes like the
Maharashtra Institute of Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and
Bhawan’s College. He was also permanent
faculty member for Trade Union education courses organized by the Central Board
of Worker’s Education, Indian Institute of Worker’s Education and by other
private institutions and trade unions.
He was a special invitee of the
prestigious Administrative Staff College of India at Hyderabad in 1964 for its
three months course for the top executives. He was awarded two year Senior
research fellowship by the Ford Foundation for doing research on Labour issues
under Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, New Delhi. During that period
(1968-70), he wrote a number of papers and manuals simplifying labour laws for
the use by trade union activists.
He participated in a number of
Seminars (National and International) organized by Governments and Labour
institutions. He worked on many committees appointed by the Maharashtra State
and Central Government. He was a regular paper setter and examiner for the
Bombay University for Post Graduate examinations in labour and welfare. He has
to his credit over 3 dozen books/manuals/literatures on various subjects
particularly in the area of trade union and also over 50 articles in English
and Marathi on various topics on labour.
Practice of Politics
VG was a diehard Socialist and
organized many struggles under PSP and was jailed on several occasions for
politial activities. He started a branch of socialist party in Panvel and
campaigned for socialist party candidates during elections although his father
was a congress leader.VG was one amongst
TU leaders who opposed Emergency. He as per directives of seniors tactfully
avoided arrest and done a herculean
job of guiding workers throuought India and fighting legal battles in
courts for defending TU and workers’
rights which were under various attacks
Vasant Gupte had devoted
his entire life to protect and promote the interest of the downtrodden and
working class. His passion and
commitment towards the trade union movement and his zeal to work for the
workers education was unmatched. He was
one of the disciplined soldiers of the movement who discharged his duties and
responsibilities towards it throughout his life with utmost sincerity and
honesty. His services to the working class and trade union movement will always
be an inspiration and guide for the trade union activists in times ahead.
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