Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan (24 September 1924 – 2 January 2016) was a trade union leader and the former

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

(CPI), one of the oldest political parties in India.

Early life

Bardhan was born in

Barisal Barisal ( or ; , ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal District and Barisal Divi ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(now

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

) on 24 September 1924. He embraced Communism at the age of 15 after he moved to

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

. He joined the

All India Students Federation The All India Students' Federation (AISF) is the oldest Student society, student organisation in India, founded in 1936. Pre-independence AISF was founded on 12 August 1936, with guidance and cooperation from the Indian independence movemen ...

at the

Nagpur University Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a public state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as the second-oldest in Maharashtra. It is named ...

in 1940. He joined the

(which was then banned), the same year. He served as the President of the Nagpur University Students' Union. He became a full-time student organizer, while continuing his studies, and in 1945 he was elected the Secretary of AISF. Bardhan held a postgraduate degree in economics and a degree in law.

Trade unionism and politics

Bardhan worked with workers ranging from various sectors like textile, electricity, railways, defence etc. He contested several elections from

but was elected only once to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1957 as an independent candidate. He was also instrumental in the integration of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

that led to its creation on 1 May 1960. Bardhan entered national politics and moved to Delhi. He became the General Secretary of the

All India Trade Union Congress The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union federation in India. It is associated with the Communist Party of India. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, AITUC had a membership of 14.2 mil ...

in 1994 and became the Deputy General Secretary of the

in 1995. When

Indrajit Gupta Indrajit Gupta (18 March 1919 – 20 February 2001) was an Indian politician who belonged to the Communist Party of India (CPI). From 1996 to 1998, he served as Union Home Minister in the United Front governments of prime ministers H. D. Deve ...

joined the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

government as the

Minister of Home Affairs (India) The Minister of Home Affairs is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the home minister is the maintenance of the internal securi ...

, Bardhan succeeded him as the General Secretary of the

following Gupta's resignation from the post of party's General Secretary. Bardhan served as the party's General Secretary from 1996 to 2012. He is remembered for the campaign he initiated in response to

Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. He is one of the co-founders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak San ...

's ''Rath Yatra''. Bardhan always supported the cause of a secular India. Bardhan played a key role in the formation of the

United Progressive Alliance The United Progressive Alliance (UPA; Hindi: Saṁyukta Pragatiśīl Gaṭhabandhan) was a Political group, political alliance in India led by the Indian National Congress. It was formed after the 2004 Indian general election, 2004 general ele ...

government which was supported by the

. Bardhan was also among those who supported the candidature of

Pratibha Patil Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born 19 December 1934), also known as Pratibha Patil Shekhawat, is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2007 to 2012. She was the first woman to become the president of India. A m ...

, then

Governor of Rajasthan The governor of Rajasthan is the nominal head of the Indian state of Rajasthan. The governor's powers are mostly ceremonial and the executive powers of the governor are exercised by the chief minister, who is the head of the executive of the st ...

, to the coveted post of the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

Personal life

Bardhan married Padma, who was a teacher in Saraswati Vidyalaya Higher Secondary School, Shankar Nagar, Nagpur. They got a son Ashok and a daughter Alka Barua. Padma died in 1986. After her death, Bardhan spent his life in a small room at Ajoy Bhavan, the headquarters of CPI in Delhi. Bardhan was fluent in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

s. Bardhan had a brother-like relation with the veteran

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

leader Sumatitai Sukaklikar from Nagpur. Although they contested elections against each other, Sumatitai was like an elder sister to Bardhan.

Death

Bardhan suffered a paralytic

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in December 2015. He was admitted to the hospital. He died, aged 91, on 2 January 2016 at the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital in New Delhi. His death was condoled by many including the

Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Indian National Congress, Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Works

A.B. Bardhan wrote many books, such as: * Debate on reservation * Class, Caste Reservation & Struggle Against Casteism * 80 CPI * Generalists, specialists and the working class * The tribal problem in India * India's Freedom Struggle: Several Streams * Hutatma Bhagat Singh * Prejudices & myths that feed communalism x-rayed * Reforms 2020: Last 20 Years, Next 20 Years

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardhan, Ardhendu Bhushan 1924 births 2016 deaths Leaders of political parties in India Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University alumni Communist Party of India politicians from Maharashtra People from Nagpur district People from Barisal District