R. Umanath (21 December 1921 – 21 May 2014) was a communist politician from Tamil Nadu, India, and a Politburo member of

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

from 1998. He was born in 1921 in

Kasaragod Kasaragod () is a municipal town and the administrative headquarters of the Kasaragod district in the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1966, Kasaragod was the first municipal town in the district. It is the northernmost district of Kera ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

and moved to

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

during his student days.

Early days

Born in a poor Brahmin family in

, Umanath learnt to play

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

to accompany his mother who eked out a livelihood as a

Bhajan Bhajan is an Indian term for any devotional song with a religious theme or spiritual ideas, specifically among Dharmic religions, in any language. The term bhajanam (Sanskrit: भजनम्) means ''reverence'' and originates from the root w ...

singer. While his family had hoped that Umanath, a student of

Annamalai University The Annamalai University (AU) is a public state university in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The sprawling campus offers courses of higher education in arts, science, engineering, management, humanities, agriculture, and physical education. ...

, would land in a good job, he disappointed them by quitting his studies to become a full-time member of the Communist party. He joined 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 ...

in 1939 while studying at the

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He left his studies to become a whole-timer of the Party. Umanath was arrested along with P. Ramamurthi in 1940 in connection with the Madras Conspiracy Case, and jailed for three years. He spent nine and a half years in jail, and another seven years underground.

Role in Parliamentary politics

He was elected to the 3rd and 4th

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

s from the

Pudukkottai Pudukkottai Municipal Corporation is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest Heritage city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different t ...

in 1962 and 1967. He was elected to the

Tamil Nadu legislative assembly The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has a strength of 234 members, all of whom are democratically elected using the first-past-the-post system. The presiding office ...

as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from

Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam district. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

and 1980 elections.

Stalwart in Communist Party

A trade union leader for many years, Umanath is a former vice-president of the

Centre of Indian Trade Unions The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) is a national level trade union in India. It is associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It has presence mostly in the Indian state of Tripura, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnatak ...

. He was one of the founders of the CITU and the first general secretary of the organisation in the State. He remained the President of the state CITU for years. He served as one of the Vice Presidents of the

till 2010. Umanath was also a Tamil Nadu State Committee secretary of CPI(M). He was firmly opposed to

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

and Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. In 1991, he was elected to the Polit Bureau and served in that capacity till 2008. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Party from 1978 to 2012. He died on 21 May 2014 in

Tiruchirappalli Tiruchirappalli (), also known as Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with being the best livable and the cleanest city of T ...

. His wife was the reputed communist leader Pappa Umanath. U. Vasuki, who is also the CPI(M) state secretariat member is his daughter.

External links

Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Tamil Nadu 1921 births India MPs 1962–1967 India MPs 1967–1970 Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu 2014 deaths People from Pudukkottai district {{CPIndiaMarxist-politician-stub