Communist Leader P. Ramamurti’s Historic Speeches Show Early Fight for Workers’ Rights in Tamil Nadu

Published : Jan 06, 2025 20:09 IST - 6 MINS READ India’s first general election after Independence, held in 1952, saw the emergence of the Communist Party of India —the ban on which had been lifted only a few months earlier. The remarkable record of the CPI, during the 1940s, in mobilising people on land reforms, price rise, wages, workers’ rights, and the rights of various linguistic nationalities, contributed to its electoral successes in 1952. But Bharathi Puthakalayam, a young and respected publisher, has brought out a volume containing some key speeches of PR in the Madras legislative Assembly between 1952 and 1957 as Leader of the Opposition. But where it is a question of preventing landlords from evicting thousands of peasants and of depriving them of their lands, no Ordinance could be issued.” When Chief Minister Rajagopalachari invoked a belief in “god” during legislative proceedings on the motion of confidence he sought from the Assembly, PR retorted sharply: “…let us also remember that the Constitution provides for an oath or affirmation. Therefore, faith in God or no faith in God can never be an issue in this House or anywhere in the country so long as we are functioning under the Constitution, the Constitution of a secular state which it is claimed to be.” Speaking on the Tanjore Tenants and Pannaiyal Protection Bill at the Assembly in November 1952, PR demanded that tenant evictions be stopped at once.