Vimal Ranadive was one of those early leaders whose life was dedicated to working with trade union and women’s organization. Born on 10 April 1915 in a middle class family in Maharashtra, she joined the anti colonial nationalist movement at the tender age of 12 as a Seva Dal volunteer. At the age of 15, she was arrested for picketing a foreign cloth shop. The British judge asked her to admit the mistake and apologise. She boldly refused and said “We know what we have done and for what, we won’t apologise” and went to jail gladly. In 1930, more than eighty years ago, it was the choice made by a fifteen year old girl, Vimal.
It was a choice to fight injustice, to fight all kinds of exploitation and therefore to fight imperialist aggression. She stood by this choice all through her life. She was behind bars for 6 months. After her release, she continued her education.
She worked as a teacher in order to support her family. She was born in a family with a left ideology; S G Sardesai, a prominent #CPI leader was her brother. It was under his influence that she was attracted towards Communist ideology, joined Girni Kamgar Union, and organised them. The Desai and the Ranadive families came close to each other because of their ideological affinities. BTR’s sister Ahilya (Rangnekar) and Kusum were close friends of Vimal. All of them together worked for Girni Kamgar Union. The British government in those days put a ban on mill workers’ strike. But a protest march of workers was organised defying the ban during the Naval Mutiny which started in Mumbai. Kamal Dhonde lost her life and Kusum sustained bullet injuries on her leg during this protest march.
BTR met Vimal Sardesai in 1939 who also started working among the textile workers in Bombay. During the activities among the workers they came closer to each other and decided to get married. However, due to hectic political activities of BTR it was not possible to do so for quite some time. The second World War commenced on 1st September 1939 and strikes were organised in different parts of the country to oppose the war.
Big demonstrations were organised all over India. The British Government banned the “National Front” and “Kranti”, journals published in English and Marathi by the #Communist Party. Seeing the danger of arrests, leaders had to go underground. Before going underground, BTR and Vimal Sardesai arranged registered marriage in presence of selected comrades. However, after few months of underground life he was arrested and taken to Deoli detention camp in Rajasthan. Arrests, imprisonments or going underground were part and parcel of their lives. When her son was just two years old she was jailed for two years. She spent many years underground including at the time of the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi. Participating in peoples’ movements was the way of life with them.
Occasionally small employments were taken up by Vimal-di to support the family. Vimal acted in some films too. Women working in theatres and films were looked down upon in those days; to mitigate those ill feelings Vimal worked in films with full encouragement from BTR. ‘Women work equally with men at work places. Hence trade unions should not be organised for men alone. Special attention should be given to organise women as well in trade unions’, these are the words of Com. B T Ranadive, one of the founders of CITU and Vimaldi’s comrade and life-companion. Together with him, she saw that women having family responsibilities would not be able to attend meetings arranged at inconvenient times and would incur blame for it. Their simple answer to this problem was: ‘organise meetings at a time convenient for women’. In its early days, hardly 10 to 20 members used to attend working women’s conventions of CITU. But this did not deter Vimal Ranadive. She was persistent in her efforts to bring more women to join trade unions.
In subsequent years, she worked both for the Working Women’s Coordination Committee of CITU and All India Democratic Women’s Association. When CITU centre was functioning from Calcutta, she worked among tea, coffee, and rubber plantation workers. The first All India Working Women’s Convention was held in 1979. She was its first all India convenor. In 1981 the All India Democratic Women’s Association was formed at a convention in Madras; she was elected its vice president.. She looked at women’s’ issues from the point of view of the working class and at working women’s issues from the point of view of subjugation of women. It was her view that organisations of workers and of women should work in coordination. Even while she was taking up the responsibilities of CITU, she was supporting women’s movements by working as AIDWA’s vice president. She took an active part on many issues like dowry and rape laws, the Shah Bano case and was in the forefront of the movement to set up a National Commission for Women.
She was the first General Secretary of the All India Plantation Workers’ Federation, the founder President of the #AIFAWH and was the leader of the #Beedi workers also. She was the founder Convenor of the #AICCWW (CITU) and continued in that position till her death. She was Secretary of #CITU. Com. Vimal was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1988. She was the founder editor of ‘The Voice of the Working Woman’ and ‘Kamkaji Mahila’
She died on 24th July 1999. At a time when the country is going for one of the most crucial times after independence – to decide whether the country will survive as a sovereign, secular democracy, it is very necessary to remember Vimal Ranadive, for her struggles, sacrifices and contribution
