Memoir
Marxist Trade Union Leader Shankar Guha Niyogi
–---------------Biswajit Singh-------
What stood out was the school, as if the work of forging the next generation to challenge the system had begun. Now it is seen that this movement is not going to be confined to one generation. Will pass on from generation to generation. ... Niyogi changed the definition of trade union, labor movement and trade union leader.
If the workers of other trade unions also sat demanding their multi-dimensional development, then they started worrying about what would happen to the established leaders.” (Weekly Hindustan, November 3, 1991)
Renowned journalist Narendra Kumar Singh writes, “Nyogi was different. In my view, Niyogi was one of the few Marxists who had truly declassified himself.
Most of our communist leaders came from the middle class or upper middle class. For example Jyoti Babu, the son of a landlord, EMS or a pipe drinker. The communist movement was dominated by people studying in Oxford and Cambridge. In fact the dominance of that class still persists.
Most of the Marxist leaders were never able to align themselves with the workers and peasants.This was the success of Niyogi. He himself came from the middle class. But when he thought of forming an organization of farmers, he went to a village and started working as a sharecropper. The fields were plowed. When he thought of forming a labor union, he went to iron mines and became a daily wage laborer. He used to live in the slum there and after marrying a laborer woman, he settled the household. In this way Niyogi declassified himself. The workers considered him as one of them."
Shankar Guha Niyogi himself never contested the elections, but definitely tried to make Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha politically and on his behalf he was successful in getting one of his MLAs to the assembly twice.
According to the eminent Hindi writer Vijaybahadur Singh: “He was no less than the Gandhi of his locality for the innocent laborers. They all used to sit up at his behest. Later on, he became a myth man for people like me. In lieu of making the lives of mine owners, liquor makers, contractors comfortable - they were murdered by these people."
He was not just a Workers leader but a philosopher and a great karma yogi who showed the right direction of development of the country. My salute to the great struggle and sacrifice of such a great hero.
