A teenager turned labourer at the age of 13 never thought that he would lead historic strikes against the rigid management of Asia’s biggest aluminum producing company Hindalco. Ramdev Singh (08 October 1935 – 14 April 2022) was the first trade union leader of Hindalco Industries Limited of Aditya Birla Group. He was popular among workers of Hindalco and other factories of Sonebhadra and Mirzapur. He led many strikes with thousands of workers against Hindalco management to reform laborers’ miserable conditions. He was quite famous among wagers between 1963 – 1977. He was popularly called as Neta ji or Ramdev Babu. The people of Mirzapur loved him so much, they called him Ram and Hindalco president as Ravan.
Ramdev Singh was born on 8 October 1935 in the Rajput family of a village Kausad of Siwan, Bihar. His father Vishnudev Singh was a farmer. Vishnudev Singh was married with three women. He had left Ramdev’s mother Dharohara Devi when he was merely 8 years old. Ramdev has three brothers and two sisters. He was the youngest one but later he took responsibility for his family. Ramdev Babu left his home to earn his livelihood at the tender age of 13. He couldn’t go to school.
His rise to a Trade union Leader
Ramdev Singh came to Gorakhpur in search of a job. He did many petty jobs earlier. At 18, he got a job as a supervisor in a company. His salary was 70 rupees monthly. He was the sole bread – earner of his family, so seventy rupees were not enough. He had to go to Shivpur Coalfield of Jharia to earn more money. Ramdev Singh was a born leader and tactful in making relations. He used to get close with officers and influential people easily. He got in touch with a famous leader and activist Rajnarayan ji who went to become health minister in UP govt. Rajnarayan ji was the only person who defeated Indira Gandhi in the general elections of 1977.
When Ramdev’s mother came to know that he was working in very dreadful conditions in the coal-field, she persuaded him to leave that job. He was very close to her mother, so he resigned. Ramdev went to J.K. Nagar, where he got to know about Hindalco. Many workers were shifting to Renukoot where Hindalco was opening their operations. It was 1962, when Ramdev too shifted to Renukoot and joined Hindalco as a wager. He was assigned to work in pot room where furnaces were emitting unbearable heat. All wagers had to work in miserable and dangerous conditions. They were treated like animals. They had to leave their food on plates, if officers called them. There were no proper rooms and facilities for wagers provided by factory management. 20-30 wagers had to live in tiny tin-shades.
After observing all these mismanagement, Ramdev Singh fumed at Hindalco officers. A few days after joining the factory, he went straight to talk to the foreman of his shift. The foreman asked him to do only what he ought to do. He didn’t back his stand. He then tried to talk to other senior staff. One officer threatened to throw him out of the company. He told Ramdev to go and earn crores of rupees, then come to question the Birla group. Ramdev replied that if there are crores in Birla’s treasury, it is because we are working hard to make him rich. This very sentence irked that officer. He talked to his superiors and issued a chargesheet to Ramdev Singh. Ramdev Babu lit his cigarette and burned that paper into ashes before him just like films. Ramdev Babu was terminated that day without telling him.
Next day, when he went to the factory, he was stopped by security guards at the entry gate. When workers got to know about Ramdev Singh was stopped at the gate for questioning the management. They started gathering at the gate in support of him. Almost all workers of Hindalco sat on the gate demanding entry of Ramdev Singh into the factory. They started sloganeering, if you will not let him in, we’ll not work. That was the moment when workers got their voice in the name of Ramdev Babu. He became their leader on that day only. Management hurriedly let Ramdev come into the factory and work. But he became a target of the company management. After some months, Ramdev made the first trade union in Hindalco and built an office by raising wooden planks and putting tin shade over it. He named his trade union ‘Rashtriya Shramik Sangh’. He started fighting more vigorously with management for betterment of workers. And after some months, management terminated him without any reason. He came out of Hindalco but did not give up on his fight for workers; however he started meeting with leaders and influential people to get support in this movement. Hindalco management deployed a team to keep their eyes on him. Ramdev Singh used to change his locations to dodge them. They plotted arrests of many close associates of Ramdev Babu. Even Ramdev Babu went to jail several times. There are various testimonies in the media that some top officers of Hindalco hired assassins to get rid of him.
Strikes of 1963 & 1966 which made him laborer’s hero
After constant talks and meetings with the Hindalco management, when Ramdev Singh could not find the necessary solution to protect the interests of the worker, Ramdev Singh decided to go on strike. On the very night of 1963, at 11 pm, hundreds of workers gathered and started a strike. It lasted for three days. Hindalco management came with a settlement clause of no victimization.
Ramdev Singh with his party members again called for strike in 1966. On 12th August, thousands of laborers sat on agitation. This strike was also to demand a proper solution for their problems. It was a bigger and longer strike than the former strike. It lasted for several months. On the call of Ramdev Singh, all the workers of Hindalco left their job and joined his strike. Asia’s biggest aluminum producing factory had to shut down its operation for 2 months. People often say, it was historic and it happened for the first & last time when chimneys of Hindalco stopped emitting smoke. Company Management conspired to end the strike. They terminated 318 people from the job and published their names on notice boards and local newspapers. Slowly, many workers started going to work due to fear of losing their job. But the strike continued. One of the strike leaders, Rakesh Chaturvedi had started publishing the newspaper ‘Swatantra Senani’ in Robertsganj to support the strike. Author and senior journalist Ajay Shekhar was also part of that newspaper. Management forcefully stopped the publication just after two issues.
Rakesh Chaturvedi contested for legislative elections in 1967 and became M.L.A. After thirteen and half months, he again had dialogues with Hindalco management and got most of the workers re-recruited. Still 14 workers were not taken on board, Ramdev Singh was one of them. He was the main leader of that strike and management never wanted him back in to the factory. Ramdev Singh remained unemployed for rest of the years till 1977.
Ramdev Singh also went against Hindalco management to establish markets in the vicinity of the factory. He united the traders and worked day and night to settle them. Eventually, Renukoot turned into a shining market. Ramdev Singh founded ‘Vyapar Mandal’ and became its first chairman.
Top politicians were his friends those days
Ramdev Singh never stopped his agitations for laborers’ welfare. He widened his area and started fighting for other factory workers’ strikes. This was the reason he attracted many influential leaders of that era like Former Prime Minister Ch. Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, top socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohiya, Jayprakash Narayan and George Fernandes. Former Union minister Raj Narain was his close friend who always stood besides Ramdev Singh. He started attending various political meetings and laborers’ jan sabha. He came to Bihar to join the J.P. movement in 1974. He was becoming popular. Many influential leaders started coming to his home in Pipari (Renukoot), which scared the management badly. Some top officers plotted an attack on Ramdev Singh. One of his companions, Madan Pandey, was injured by 17 knife strikes. He was saved in time. He later joined the Congress and became a Member of Parliament. Ramdev Singh’s office was burnt by management, where several documents related to his movements got burnt. One of the attackers was an admirer of Ramdev Babu. He later met him and apologized for his deed. Ramdev Babu learned from the attacker about the whole conspiracy made for his murder.
Ramdev Singh was very fierce and fearless, so was Raj Narain ji. This was the main reason for their strong bond. When Raj Narain found out about this, he came to meet his long time friend Ramdev Singh. It was 1977, he went to meet Hindalco president. Ramdev Babu got the job at his behest. So, after 14 years of being unemployed, he was finally re-recruited by Hindalco. His family was living in a very miserable condition. Their children were growing up and their future was being sacrificed by the revolution of the father. After persuasion by many people including Raj Narain ji, Ramdev Babu agreed to join the factory. Though he was working under Hindalco management but never bowed before them. He got many offers to join politics which he softly rejected. Even He denied to contest in general elections on congress ticket. He was a true socialist and remained a lifelong benefactor of society and laborers.
