Communist
15th May 2009, 19:23
sent by marxist-leninist digest
================================================== ======
It is a sad day before us that Comrade Homi Daji passed away this
morning in Indore. He was seriously ill and was in ICU for last 12
days. His body will be kept in Shaheed Bhawan, CPI Office, Indore,
tomorrow at 7 am to 9 am for public to pay homage. The last rites
will be performed in the Mill area crematorium at 10 am.
Here I am attaching in hurry, whatever could be easily accessed.
Please make use of this and let people know the life of legendary
leader from Working Class. Long Live Revolution ! Long Live Comrade
Homi Daji.
A Short Biography of Comrade Homi Daji
Jaya Mehta
Comrade Homi Daji was born in Bombay on 5 September 1926. His father
at that time owned a cotton ginning mill. His business was ruined,
when the great depression of 1930s started affecting the cotton
market in India. The crisis of capitalism plunged the early childhood
of Comrade Homi into severe economic hardship.
The family came to Indore and Homi began his education in Saint
Raphiel School- the best school in Indore. Soon, there was no money
to pay the school fees. The principal was kind enough to allow him to
sit in the verandah outside the class room and follow the teaching in
the class. When he appeared for matriculation examination he had to
borrow books from a friend who lived in the neighbourhood. He could
get the books only late at night and he had read them under the lamp
post on the road. There was one kerosene lamp in the house, which
could be used for studying only after other members had gone off to
sleep. In college also there was no money to buy books. This time
Homi made an agreement with a bookshop. He would bring textbooks?
orders for the shop and also deliver the books to the customers. In
return, he would be allowed to read his course books sitting in the
book shop. Indeed it was his brilliant performance right from the
beginning and his extraordinary tenacity that
enabled Homi Daji to get a first class degree in M.A. history (2nd
position in Agra University) and then a first class degree in Law.
Homi?s early years were greatly influenced by his mother. She was a
woman of great courage. Notwithstanding all the hardships, she was
sure that Homi?s education was most important. She expected that her
brilliant son would bring prosperity back to the family. But when
Homi chose to go for a life time struggle to change the system, she
accepted it happily and offered him all possible support.
Homi Daji?s political career began early. At the age of sixteen he
participated in demonstrations organized in Indore under the 1942
Quit India movement. Once, he was beaten up badly by the police. In
1943, he joined the All India Students Federation. When congress
moved out of student federation in 1945, Comrade Daji remained with
the communist faction. On 1st May 1946 Comrade Daji became a member
of the Communist Party of India. Straight-away, he was given the
charge of working class struggle.
Indore was an important textile center. There were seven composite
cotton textile mills in the town in which around 30 thousand workers
were employed. Just when Daji joined the party, a twelve day long
strike was organized in the textile mills. The senior leaders had got
arrested and Comrade Daji had to take the charge. He addressed many
meetings in the working class colonies and at the mill gates. He was
a very powerful orator and soon became very popular with the mill
workers.
In 1957, comrade Daji got elected to the Madhya Pradesh assembly.
This was the time when mill management had started harassing workers
associated with the communist party or AITUC. Workers were summarily
dismissed from their jobs without any explanation. Comrade Daji
decided to protest against this victimization before the government
in Bhopal. A cycle rally of workers was organized all the way from
Indore to Bhopal covering 200 kms. The workers demanded that the
government intervened and stopped the management from indulging in
such victimization.
In 1958 Daji was elected the secretary of the Textile Mill Workers?
Union. The dynamism of communist leadership on the trade union front
unnerved the government. In the year 1960, Madhya Pradesh Industrial
Relation Act was passed. The Act was worded on the pattern set by
Bombay Industrial Relation Act 1946. According to this Act only the
representative union had the right to negotiate with the management
on behalf of workers. INTUC was made the representative union in
textile mills and the possibility of AITUC entering into direct
negotiations with the management was ruled out.
This official handicap did not succeed in undermining the status of
AITUC. Although workers took the formal membership of INTUC, their
demands were still concretized and raised by AITUC leadership. Major
strikes were planned by AITUC and many a times the management had to
unofficially come to an understanding with AITUC before signing the
formal agreement with INTUC representatives. Some of the major trade
union struggles undertaken by textile mill workers under the
leadership of Comrade Daji are as follows;
1. In weaving department, a worker was given charge of two looms. In
1964, Hukumchand mill decided to increase the workload by giving
charge of four looms to a worker. It meant that half the workforce
will be retrenched and the other half will have unjustified increase
in work load. Comrade Daji and workers went on 14 day long hunger
strike against this arbitrary move.
2. In 1972 a strike call was given to all the textile mills in the
state. In Indore a successful 10 days strike was organized in which
workers demanded and got some major benefits. Seven day?s casual
leave was sanctioned for the textile workers. Workers were given
dearness allowance linked to the price index.
3. In 1979 a 32 days long successful strike was organized in textile
mills asking for a wage revision.
4. In 1984 Hope textile mill declared an illegal lockout. There was
an 8 day long hunger strike organized by Comrade Daji. Not only was
the management forced into opening the mill, the workers? provident
fund was also transferred to the Public Provident Fund account.
> From 1960 onwards small scale industrial units came up in the polo
> ground industrial area of Indore. AITUC spread its organizational
> work in this new industrial area. In small units with less than 100
> workers, the representative union provision was not applicable
> which provided greater space for trade union activities. In Malwa
> Vanaspati a big company in Polo ground industrial area, AITUC
> became the representative union in 1972.
The Indore unit of AITUC needs to be complimented for spreading out
trade union activities to a domain much larger than worker-management
negotiations. Comrade Daji?s contribution in this direction was
substantive. A citizens committee was formed. The party (union)
members were encouraged to participate in local electoral processes
and represent the interests of the working class. The presence of
party (union) members in the Municipal Corporation became large
enough to influence the Municipal rulings. In 1958 corporators
affiliated to the party successfully abolished the municipal tax on
cycles and municipal house tax on slum dwellers. This gave enormous
fame to Daji that people started calling him a ?Cycle tax abolisher?.
The politicization of union members in this manner paid progressive
dividends in many spheres and for a long time.
In 1958 Daji made another very important contribution to Indore town.
The square outside the palace of Holkars has been known as Rajbada.
Daji insisted that in the independent republic it has to be dedicated
to the people and gave it name Janata Chowk
In 1967 when chief minister D.P. Mishra came to Indore Comrade Daji
gave a call for Indore Bandh against his draconian policies Entire
Indore was completely shut down right to the level of a Pan Shop.
Black Flags were shown to him through out the town.
In 1974 Comrade Daji organized a very impressive citizens? protest
against the price rise. The mill workers participated in large
numbers and got themselves arrested. Their number was so large that
it became impossible to carry out even the routine production
operations in the mills. The mills had to be closed down. The protest
acquired an unprecedented momentum and the administration was forced
to clamp curfew on the town.
In the 1980s Comrade Daji was in the forefront of the campaign
demanding that Narmada water be brought to Indore because the
traditional sources could no longer fulfil the requirements of this
rapidly expanding town.
In 1962, Daji got elected to the parliament and the working class
identity of Indore town was impressed on the national scene. Daji?s
clear thinking and his special aptitude for debates was noticed by
the then Prime Minster Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. After the Chinese
aggression, Comrade Daji was included in the delegation, which went
to Colombo to meet the representatives of Non-aligned Countries. The
delegation was sent with the special task to explain the Indian side
of the Indo-Chinese conflict.
In 1972 Daji was once again elected to the Madhya Pradesh assembly
with a huge margin.
It should be noted that during his tenure at the parliament in Delhi
or at the assembly in Bhopal, Daji did not delegate all the trade
union struggle responsibilities to others. As mentioned above the
hunger strike for Hukumchand mill workers was organized when he was a
parliamentarian. Similarly the 1972 all Madhya Pradesh textile strike
call was given when he was an assembly member.
In 1964, Comrade Daji became the general secretary of Madhya Pradesh
unit of AITUC. In 1980 he was elected as all India general secretary
of AITUC. From 1974 to78, he was a member of the central secretariat
of the Communist Party of India.
He has represented the party and AITUC to the outside world on
various occasions.
In 1950 he was in AITUC delegation which went to Moscow to join the
May Day celebration.
In 1973 he went to Moscow to participate in World Peace Conference.
He attended the meet on World Solidarity with Vietnam Meet.
He attended the tri continental conference in Cuba in 1966.
He went as AITUC delegate to attend the trade union conferences in
Yugoslavia, China East Germany.
Comrade Daji?s political career came to an abrupt halt when in 1992;
he suffered a paralytic stroke because of brain hemorrhage. It took a
long time for him to recover, even partially. Incidentally, this was
the time when the machines in the composite textile mills also came
to a halt. Mill after mill closed down and workers were thrown out on
the streets. Although the three NTC mills gave idle wages for a few
years and then also VRS, the workers lost their working class
identity. Now, the physical structures of the mills are also
demolished and what remains is only the fond memory.
With the closure of textile mills, the trade union movement in Indore
received a big setback. There was no other industry which has so many
workers working at one place. Moreover, the modern mills in Pithampur
and Indore-Dewas industrial area do not entertain trade unions
affiliated to political parties. They prefer in-house unions which
are apolitical and pliant.
There have been major upheavals in Comrade Daji?s personal life. He
lost his younger brother at a very young age. He also lost both his
children when they were at the prime of their career. His son Rusi
was a promising young lawyer. But his much greater achievement was
that he followed his father?s ideology with great enthusiasm. He was
always by his side in every struggle and decided that rather then
settling down with a mainstream career, he would devote his life to
the work started by his father. His daughter Dr. Roshni Daji did her
medicine from Moscow and then served this country?s poor working
class in a true comradely spirit. After her brothers death she took
the responsibility of providing the strength and support to her
parents and other comrades in the town. She evolved into a very
promising young comrade in Indore, who could lead the womens?
movement on one hand and organize progressive doctors with the other.
The untimely death of both the children was indeed a bi
g loss to the family. But it was a bigger loss to Indore town and
to the progressive movement at national level.
Comrade Daji?s paralytic attack in 1992, severely constrained his
movements. Despite all the set backs, Comrade has remained active
mentally and as far as possible, physically. He has retained his zeal
for life, which only a comrade is capable of. Even now when we
interviewed him at great length, he only talked about struggles
--past struggles and future demands on left politics. For him
politics is supreme and an individual?s personal life is
inconsequential.
This biography cannot be completed without saluting his wife, Comrade
Perin Daji. He married her in 1950. She belonged to a well off family
and willingly gave up all the comforts to join Homi in his grand
revolutionary project. She knew at the time of her marriage that life
is going to be hard and very demanding. She told Comrade Daji that
I?ll be with you everywhere in every struggle. Only do not ask me to
join your hunger strike; I don?t want lavish food but I can?t remain
hungry. For last 57 years she has been his strength and support in
all difficult times. She showers affection on every one around her.
She is devoted to Comrade Daji and is very proud of his struggles in
life. He surely draws infinite strength from her love and from her
respect.
On 5th September 2005, the citizens of Indore organized a magnificent
meeting to honour Comrade Daji?s lifetime achievements. Irrespective
of party affiliations, people came from all sections of the society
to pay respect to him. Comrades of the town came in big numbers with
their red flags. Memories of 50s and 60s were revived.
However, paying respect to a comrade cannot be a matter of one
gathering. It demands much more. It demands a rejuvenation of working
class movement. It demands tireless strife for a better society.
Let us pledge to pay our respects not only to Comrade Daji but all
the Comrades who joined his fight against injustice and exploitation.
Let us pay our respect to those who dreamt of a free and just society
by carrying their dream forward.
*************
Jaya Mehta
================================================== ======
It is a sad day before us that Comrade Homi Daji passed away this
morning in Indore. He was seriously ill and was in ICU for last 12
days. His body will be kept in Shaheed Bhawan, CPI Office, Indore,
tomorrow at 7 am to 9 am for public to pay homage. The last rites
will be performed in the Mill area crematorium at 10 am.
Here I am attaching in hurry, whatever could be easily accessed.
Please make use of this and let people know the life of legendary
leader from Working Class. Long Live Revolution ! Long Live Comrade
Homi Daji.
A Short Biography of Comrade Homi Daji
Jaya Mehta
Comrade Homi Daji was born in Bombay on 5 September 1926. His father
at that time owned a cotton ginning mill. His business was ruined,
when the great depression of 1930s started affecting the cotton
market in India. The crisis of capitalism plunged the early childhood
of Comrade Homi into severe economic hardship.
The family came to Indore and Homi began his education in Saint
Raphiel School- the best school in Indore. Soon, there was no money
to pay the school fees. The principal was kind enough to allow him to
sit in the verandah outside the class room and follow the teaching in
the class. When he appeared for matriculation examination he had to
borrow books from a friend who lived in the neighbourhood. He could
get the books only late at night and he had read them under the lamp
post on the road. There was one kerosene lamp in the house, which
could be used for studying only after other members had gone off to
sleep. In college also there was no money to buy books. This time
Homi made an agreement with a bookshop. He would bring textbooks?
orders for the shop and also deliver the books to the customers. In
return, he would be allowed to read his course books sitting in the
book shop. Indeed it was his brilliant performance right from the
beginning and his extraordinary tenacity that
enabled Homi Daji to get a first class degree in M.A. history (2nd
position in Agra University) and then a first class degree in Law.
Homi?s early years were greatly influenced by his mother. She was a
woman of great courage. Notwithstanding all the hardships, she was
sure that Homi?s education was most important. She expected that her
brilliant son would bring prosperity back to the family. But when
Homi chose to go for a life time struggle to change the system, she
accepted it happily and offered him all possible support.
Homi Daji?s political career began early. At the age of sixteen he
participated in demonstrations organized in Indore under the 1942
Quit India movement. Once, he was beaten up badly by the police. In
1943, he joined the All India Students Federation. When congress
moved out of student federation in 1945, Comrade Daji remained with
the communist faction. On 1st May 1946 Comrade Daji became a member
of the Communist Party of India. Straight-away, he was given the
charge of working class struggle.
Indore was an important textile center. There were seven composite
cotton textile mills in the town in which around 30 thousand workers
were employed. Just when Daji joined the party, a twelve day long
strike was organized in the textile mills. The senior leaders had got
arrested and Comrade Daji had to take the charge. He addressed many
meetings in the working class colonies and at the mill gates. He was
a very powerful orator and soon became very popular with the mill
workers.
In 1957, comrade Daji got elected to the Madhya Pradesh assembly.
This was the time when mill management had started harassing workers
associated with the communist party or AITUC. Workers were summarily
dismissed from their jobs without any explanation. Comrade Daji
decided to protest against this victimization before the government
in Bhopal. A cycle rally of workers was organized all the way from
Indore to Bhopal covering 200 kms. The workers demanded that the
government intervened and stopped the management from indulging in
such victimization.
In 1958 Daji was elected the secretary of the Textile Mill Workers?
Union. The dynamism of communist leadership on the trade union front
unnerved the government. In the year 1960, Madhya Pradesh Industrial
Relation Act was passed. The Act was worded on the pattern set by
Bombay Industrial Relation Act 1946. According to this Act only the
representative union had the right to negotiate with the management
on behalf of workers. INTUC was made the representative union in
textile mills and the possibility of AITUC entering into direct
negotiations with the management was ruled out.
This official handicap did not succeed in undermining the status of
AITUC. Although workers took the formal membership of INTUC, their
demands were still concretized and raised by AITUC leadership. Major
strikes were planned by AITUC and many a times the management had to
unofficially come to an understanding with AITUC before signing the
formal agreement with INTUC representatives. Some of the major trade
union struggles undertaken by textile mill workers under the
leadership of Comrade Daji are as follows;
1. In weaving department, a worker was given charge of two looms. In
1964, Hukumchand mill decided to increase the workload by giving
charge of four looms to a worker. It meant that half the workforce
will be retrenched and the other half will have unjustified increase
in work load. Comrade Daji and workers went on 14 day long hunger
strike against this arbitrary move.
2. In 1972 a strike call was given to all the textile mills in the
state. In Indore a successful 10 days strike was organized in which
workers demanded and got some major benefits. Seven day?s casual
leave was sanctioned for the textile workers. Workers were given
dearness allowance linked to the price index.
3. In 1979 a 32 days long successful strike was organized in textile
mills asking for a wage revision.
4. In 1984 Hope textile mill declared an illegal lockout. There was
an 8 day long hunger strike organized by Comrade Daji. Not only was
the management forced into opening the mill, the workers? provident
fund was also transferred to the Public Provident Fund account.
> From 1960 onwards small scale industrial units came up in the polo
> ground industrial area of Indore. AITUC spread its organizational
> work in this new industrial area. In small units with less than 100
> workers, the representative union provision was not applicable
> which provided greater space for trade union activities. In Malwa
> Vanaspati a big company in Polo ground industrial area, AITUC
> became the representative union in 1972.
The Indore unit of AITUC needs to be complimented for spreading out
trade union activities to a domain much larger than worker-management
negotiations. Comrade Daji?s contribution in this direction was
substantive. A citizens committee was formed. The party (union)
members were encouraged to participate in local electoral processes
and represent the interests of the working class. The presence of
party (union) members in the Municipal Corporation became large
enough to influence the Municipal rulings. In 1958 corporators
affiliated to the party successfully abolished the municipal tax on
cycles and municipal house tax on slum dwellers. This gave enormous
fame to Daji that people started calling him a ?Cycle tax abolisher?.
The politicization of union members in this manner paid progressive
dividends in many spheres and for a long time.
In 1958 Daji made another very important contribution to Indore town.
The square outside the palace of Holkars has been known as Rajbada.
Daji insisted that in the independent republic it has to be dedicated
to the people and gave it name Janata Chowk
In 1967 when chief minister D.P. Mishra came to Indore Comrade Daji
gave a call for Indore Bandh against his draconian policies Entire
Indore was completely shut down right to the level of a Pan Shop.
Black Flags were shown to him through out the town.
In 1974 Comrade Daji organized a very impressive citizens? protest
against the price rise. The mill workers participated in large
numbers and got themselves arrested. Their number was so large that
it became impossible to carry out even the routine production
operations in the mills. The mills had to be closed down. The protest
acquired an unprecedented momentum and the administration was forced
to clamp curfew on the town.
In the 1980s Comrade Daji was in the forefront of the campaign
demanding that Narmada water be brought to Indore because the
traditional sources could no longer fulfil the requirements of this
rapidly expanding town.
In 1962, Daji got elected to the parliament and the working class
identity of Indore town was impressed on the national scene. Daji?s
clear thinking and his special aptitude for debates was noticed by
the then Prime Minster Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. After the Chinese
aggression, Comrade Daji was included in the delegation, which went
to Colombo to meet the representatives of Non-aligned Countries. The
delegation was sent with the special task to explain the Indian side
of the Indo-Chinese conflict.
In 1972 Daji was once again elected to the Madhya Pradesh assembly
with a huge margin.
It should be noted that during his tenure at the parliament in Delhi
or at the assembly in Bhopal, Daji did not delegate all the trade
union struggle responsibilities to others. As mentioned above the
hunger strike for Hukumchand mill workers was organized when he was a
parliamentarian. Similarly the 1972 all Madhya Pradesh textile strike
call was given when he was an assembly member.
In 1964, Comrade Daji became the general secretary of Madhya Pradesh
unit of AITUC. In 1980 he was elected as all India general secretary
of AITUC. From 1974 to78, he was a member of the central secretariat
of the Communist Party of India.
He has represented the party and AITUC to the outside world on
various occasions.
In 1950 he was in AITUC delegation which went to Moscow to join the
May Day celebration.
In 1973 he went to Moscow to participate in World Peace Conference.
He attended the meet on World Solidarity with Vietnam Meet.
He attended the tri continental conference in Cuba in 1966.
He went as AITUC delegate to attend the trade union conferences in
Yugoslavia, China East Germany.
Comrade Daji?s political career came to an abrupt halt when in 1992;
he suffered a paralytic stroke because of brain hemorrhage. It took a
long time for him to recover, even partially. Incidentally, this was
the time when the machines in the composite textile mills also came
to a halt. Mill after mill closed down and workers were thrown out on
the streets. Although the three NTC mills gave idle wages for a few
years and then also VRS, the workers lost their working class
identity. Now, the physical structures of the mills are also
demolished and what remains is only the fond memory.
With the closure of textile mills, the trade union movement in Indore
received a big setback. There was no other industry which has so many
workers working at one place. Moreover, the modern mills in Pithampur
and Indore-Dewas industrial area do not entertain trade unions
affiliated to political parties. They prefer in-house unions which
are apolitical and pliant.
There have been major upheavals in Comrade Daji?s personal life. He
lost his younger brother at a very young age. He also lost both his
children when they were at the prime of their career. His son Rusi
was a promising young lawyer. But his much greater achievement was
that he followed his father?s ideology with great enthusiasm. He was
always by his side in every struggle and decided that rather then
settling down with a mainstream career, he would devote his life to
the work started by his father. His daughter Dr. Roshni Daji did her
medicine from Moscow and then served this country?s poor working
class in a true comradely spirit. After her brothers death she took
the responsibility of providing the strength and support to her
parents and other comrades in the town. She evolved into a very
promising young comrade in Indore, who could lead the womens?
movement on one hand and organize progressive doctors with the other.
The untimely death of both the children was indeed a bi
g loss to the family. But it was a bigger loss to Indore town and
to the progressive movement at national level.
Comrade Daji?s paralytic attack in 1992, severely constrained his
movements. Despite all the set backs, Comrade has remained active
mentally and as far as possible, physically. He has retained his zeal
for life, which only a comrade is capable of. Even now when we
interviewed him at great length, he only talked about struggles
--past struggles and future demands on left politics. For him
politics is supreme and an individual?s personal life is
inconsequential.
This biography cannot be completed without saluting his wife, Comrade
Perin Daji. He married her in 1950. She belonged to a well off family
and willingly gave up all the comforts to join Homi in his grand
revolutionary project. She knew at the time of her marriage that life
is going to be hard and very demanding. She told Comrade Daji that
I?ll be with you everywhere in every struggle. Only do not ask me to
join your hunger strike; I don?t want lavish food but I can?t remain
hungry. For last 57 years she has been his strength and support in
all difficult times. She showers affection on every one around her.
She is devoted to Comrade Daji and is very proud of his struggles in
life. He surely draws infinite strength from her love and from her
respect.
On 5th September 2005, the citizens of Indore organized a magnificent
meeting to honour Comrade Daji?s lifetime achievements. Irrespective
of party affiliations, people came from all sections of the society
to pay respect to him. Comrades of the town came in big numbers with
their red flags. Memories of 50s and 60s were revived.
However, paying respect to a comrade cannot be a matter of one
gathering. It demands much more. It demands a rejuvenation of working
class movement. It demands tireless strife for a better society.
Let us pledge to pay our respects not only to Comrade Daji but all
the Comrades who joined his fight against injustice and exploitation.
Let us pay our respect to those who dreamt of a free and just society
by carrying their dream forward.
*************
Jaya Mehta