The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress (AHTUC) was a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

centre in the

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

. Affiliated to 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 mill ...

,Bhaskara Rao, V.
Agrarian and Industrial Relations in Hyderabad State
'. New Delhi: Associated Pub. House, 1985. p. 121 it claimed a membership of around 72,000. The trade union centre, which was aligned with the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

, was one of the organisations that took part in the

Telangana Rebellion The Telangana Rebellion popularly known as Telangana Sayuda Poratam (Telugu : తెలంగాణ సాయుధ పోరాటం) of 1946–51 was a communist-led insurrection of peasants against the princely state of Hyderabad in the r ...

against the

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

regime.

Foundation

The founding of the AHTUC was preceded by a

Marathwada Marathwada () is a proposed state and geographical region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was formed during the Nizam's rule and was part of the then Hyderabad State. The region coincides with the Aurangabad division of Maharashtra. ...

Labour Conference held in

Aurangabad Aurangabad ( is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is th ...

on 30 November 1945. The conference was organized by unions which were under the leadership of the Communist Party. The conference elected a provisional committee for the formation of a new trade union centre in the Hyderabad State.Bhaskara Rao, V.
Agrarian and Industrial Relations in Hyderabad State
'. New Delhi: Associated Pub. House, 1985. p. 119 The founding meeting of the AHTUC was held in

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...

on 16–18 August 1946. The new union centre was inaugurated by the veteran trade union leader N.M. Joshi, who was the general secretary of the AITUC. The founding president

Makhdoom Mohiuddin Makhdoom Mohiuddin, or Abu Sayeed Mohammad Makhdoom Mohiuddin Khudri, (4 February 1908 – 25 August 1969) was an Urdu poet and Marxist political activist of India who founded the Progressive Writers Union in Hyderabad and was active with the ...

of the AHTUC, who had an arrest warrant against him and lived underground, was arrested immediately after the meeting. He was later released. Upon its foundation, the new organization affiliated itself with the AITUC. The Singareni Collieries Workers Union, a union organising labourers in the Singareni coal fields, was affiliated itself to the AHTUC.Ram Reddy, R.
Industrial Relations in India: A Study of the Singareni Collieries
'. New Delhi, India: Mittal Publications, 1990. pp. 122–23

Leadership

The

Urdu poet Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghali ...

Makhdoom Mohiuddin was the founding president of the AHTUC, whilst Raj Bahadur Gour was the founding general secretary of the organisation.Gour, Raj Bahadur.
Random Writings
'. Hyderabad: Makhdoom Society in collaboration with Prachee Publications, Hyderabad, 2002. p. 5 Sayed Makhdoom served as vice president of the AHTUC.

Crackdown

Soon after the formation of the new trade union centre one of its affiliates, the electricity workers union led by B.S. Madhav Singh, broke away from the AHTUC and instead joined the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

trade union centre

Hind Mazdoor Sabha The Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) was formed by the Socialists in 1948 but has little real connection with the Socialist Party. It is one of the least political and most pragmatic trade-union federations in India. The HMS is affiliated with the Inte ...

. In August 1946, the regime began a crackdown on the AHTUC. AHTUC responded by issuing a call to celebrate 17 October 1946 as 'Anti-Repression Day'. This appeal resulted in yet intensified repression on behalf of the Nizam regime. On 30 September 1946 police conducted raids on some 150 houses in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, Secunderabad and other areas in

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

belonging to unions, parties and individual leaders that were taking part in the preparations for the 17 October protests. Large amounts of correspondence of the trade union movement were seized in the raids. Police forces were also deployed in industrial areas to hinder workers from gathering to rally against the actions of the government.Ramakrishna Reddy, V.
Economic History of Hyderabad State: Warangal Suba, 1911–1950
'. Delhi: Gian Pub. House, 1987. p. 535 Police raided the Singareni Collieries Workers Union office in Kothagudem on 12 February 1947. Workers rallied to protest the leaders of the union and help them escape. In total, 20 workers were arrested. They were sentenced to six months' imprisonment each. In the coming months the main leaders of the union were captured and jailed, and the union office was shut down.

Resistance struggle

As the Nizam declared Hyderabad as an independent state in September 1947, Makhdoom Mohiuddin was one of the signatories of a joint declaration of the Communist Party,

Andhra Maha Sabha Andhra Mahasabha ( Telugu: ఆంధ్ర మహాసభ, IAST: ''Āndhra mahāsabha'') was a people's organisation in the erstwhile Hyderabad state of India. The organization spearheaded people's awareness and people's movements among the ...

and the AHTUC calling for armed insurrection against the Nizam's rule for the integration of Hyderabad in the Indian Union (Mohiuddin signed on behalf of AHTUC).

Armed struggle War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

began in

. In December 1948 the municipal workers union affiliated to AHTUC, led by Amarnath Burman, went on strike.

People's Democratic Front

In 1950 the AHTUC was one of the founding organizations of the People's Democratic Front.Binani, G. D., and T. V. Rama Rao.
India at a Glance
'. Bombay sw. Orient Longmans, 1954. p. 127

References

{{Authority control All India Trade Union Congress 1946 establishments in India Telangana Rebellion Trade unions established in 1946