V. Subbiah
| V. Subbiah | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
7 February 1911 Pondicherry, French India |
| Died | Pondicherry, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Political party | Communist Party of India |
| Spouse(s) | Saraswathi Subbiah |
| Residence | Pondicherry, India |
| Alma mater | Calve College High School, Pondicherry |
| Occupation | Politician |
V. Subbiah (7 February 1911 – 1993) was an Indian communist politician from Pondicherry (now Puducherry). Subbiah was the secretary of the Communist Party of French India. He is regarded as the founder of the trade union movement in the union territory. Subbiah was one of the 'Tamrapatra awardees', awarded the decoration for their role in the Indian freedom struggle.
Born and raised in Pondicherry, Subbiah studied at the Calve College High School, but he was expelled from the school after organizing an agitation. The expulsion was however revoked as students and parents had protests against the decision. During the early phase of his political career, Subbiah was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and joined the Indian National Congress. He founded the Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1933. Moreover, he launched a publication called Sutantiram ('Independence'). Soon he was recruited into the communist movement after having befriended Amir Hyder Khan and S.V. Ghate. He took part in agitations in different areas of the Madras Presidency. He was jailed both by French and British colonial authorities, and moved underground when not in jail.
In 1935 he organized a union of thousands of textile workers in Pondicherry. In July 1936, twelve textile workers were killed as French police opened fire on demonstrators in a bid to qualm the agitations of the union. The killings sparked uproar. Nehru asked Subbiah to travel to Paris to negotiate directly with the French government. Subbiah did so, and in Paris he was able to reach an agreement guaranteeing a law for an 8-hour day for the workers in French India.
In 1946 he was elected to the Representative Assembly of French India as a candidate of the National Democratic Front. In January 1947 he was elected to the French Senate as a representative of French India. He sat in the Republican and Resistance Union for the French Union (the parliamentary faction of the French Communist Party).
During this period, there was a heated rivalry between Subbiah and Edouard Goubert (the leading pro-France politician in the colony), and Goubert's henchmen would engage in lynchings of communist activists. In 1948 the French authorities served an arrest warrant against V. Subbiah, during which he lived in Pondicherry in disguise with the help of Mr. Thiruvengadam, a renowned freedom fighter from Pondicherry . In January 1950 the office of the Communist Party, located in the private residence of V. Subbiah, was burnt down. The police chief was present at the scene, but police did not intervene.
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