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5 November, 2007
The ICEM was saddened by the news on 20 October 2007 of the death of Shri Kantibhai Mehta, or Kanti Mehta, the great former leader of ICEM affiliate, Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF). He was 87.
In a 23 October letter to the INMF, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote, “All of us will miss our great friend and most respected leader. Brother Kandi Mehta devoted his whole life to the development of the Indian trade union movement and played a key role in international labour work.”
Born in Calcutta, Kanti Mehta worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi, as well with other Indian leaders, including Kakasaheb Kalelkar and Vinoba Bhave. In 1942, he left university to join the Freedom Movement, at the side of Gandhi. He organised port and dock workers, and textile workers, before becoming a leader in the Indian National Trades Union Congress in 1948.
Kanti Mehta in 1983
A year later he helped found the INMF, and went on to serve as the trade union’s General Secretary and President. He was the primary reason that some one million mineworkers’ united in India between the years 1956 and 1970. In honour, the Mineworkers’ International Federation (MIF) held its 1975 Congress in New Delhi.
He was known for his selfless work on behalf of India’s rural workers, reflected in the fact that so many mineworkers’ unified behind a collective voice, the INMF’s. He served 15 years as a staunch workers’ representative on the ILO Governing Board. A deputy director general of the ILO called Brother Mehta one of just a few from the workers’ side “who had first hand knowledge of the needs and problems” of those in villages, small townships, as well as in urban areas.
He was a strong advocate for worker education, and was founder of the Institute for Miners and Metalworkers Education, which later became known as the Ghandi Labour Foundation (GLF) in Puri, India. He headed the GLF for many years after his 1995 retirement. In 1978, he was recipient of the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal Award for Industrial Peace.
He was an unlikely candidate for articulation of social issues affecting rural workers. He was born into a wealthy family of diamond merchants, and his life’s work became diametric opposite to his upbringing. The quiet dignity that he learned at the side of Gandhi in his early 20s shaped his life.
“He will always be a role model in MIF unions,” stated Warda. “He more than anybody was responsible for bringing the first trade union in from Eastern or Central Europe when the Hungarian miners’ union joined MIF at the 1990 Berlin Presidium. And his final achievement globally was strong support for the MIF-ICEF merger in 1995.”
In 2005, a book was published on his life, entitled “The Unsung Kohinoor: Kanti Mehta.” That book can be found at the GLF website, www.gandhilabourfoundation.org.