From Agitation to Nation-Building: 70 Years of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh is indeed a unique case study, no other nationalist organisation globally has so successfully challenged leftist dominance in the realm of trade unionism.

(Sanghnomics is a weekly column that tracks down and demystifies the economic world view of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and organisations inspired by its ideology.)

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), India’s largest labour organisation, has turned 70. Inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it was founded on 23 July 1955 by Dattopant Thengadi—a visionary intellectual, exceptional organiser, and RSS ideologue. Thengadi had also worked closely with Dr B.R. Ambedkar and had predicted the collapse of the Communist bloc during the Cold War long before it occurred.

In his widely discussed podcast with Lex Fridman, broadcast in March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the BMS. He remarked, “In terms of membership size, if I may say so, we have the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. It has… millions of members across the country. Perhaps in terms of scale, there is no bigger labour union in the world. But what’s interesting is the approach they take. Historically, leftist ideologies have fuelled labour movements worldwide. And what has been their slogan? ‘Workers of the world, unite.’ The message was clear: unite first, and then we’ll deal with everything else. But what do the labour unions run by RSS-trained volunteers believe in? They say, ‘Workers! Unite the world.’ Others say, ‘Workers of the world, unite.’ And we say, ‘Workers! Unite the world.’ It may seem like just a small shift in words, but it represents a huge ideological transformation.”

The BMS is indeed a unique case study, no other nationalist organisation globally has so successfully challenged leftist dominance in the realm of trade unionism. For decades, trade unions were considered bastions of the Left. But BMS, brick by brick, built its presence across the country—even as critics dismissed it during the 1950s, a period marked by the Left’s growing influence. In 1957, India’s first Marxist government came to power in Kerala, although it was dismissed in 1959. Nevertheless, the Left's strength, rooted largely in the trade union movement, remained significant.

In contrast, BMS adopted a radically different ideological approach and began quietly organising workers in the 1950s. Dominant trade unions such as INTUC, AITUC, CITU, and HMS largely ignored BMS, underestimating the commitment of RSS volunteers.

Within the first decade of growth, BMS had established seven All-India Federations (Maha Sanghs) across key sectors—textile, coal, engineering, defence, railways, sugar, and electricity. By the time of its all-India conference in 1967, BMS had grown to include 7 federations, 541 unions, and 2,45,902 members.

By the 1980s, the BMS had firmly established itself. At its fifth all-India conference in Jaipur in 1978, its membership crossed 10 lakh. By the seventh conference in 1984, that figure had doubled. A government-led verification based on a cut-off date of 31 December 1980—published in 1984—placed INTUC first and BMS second in membership size.

However, in the subsequent verification (cut-off date: 31 December 1989), the Central Government, under Congress rule, had to declare in 1994 that BMS was now the largest central trade union, with an approved membership of 31,17,324. This ended INTUC’s decades-long dominance since 1948. The combined membership of AITUC and CITU was significantly lower than that of BMS.

BMS continued its rise—33 lakh members in 1987, 39 lakh in 1991, 45 lakh in 1994, and 47 lakh by the 11th conference in Bhopal in 1996.

According to C.K. Saji Narayanan, former President of BMS, the organisation now comprises over 5,700 unions across around 60 labour sectors. These are consolidated into 42 all-India federations, active in diverse fields. Today, BMS claims a membership exceeding 10 million across all Indian states and union territories.

BMS has also led several transformative labour reforms. Its slogan, “Nationalise the Labour,” reflects its ideological core. It rejects both political unionism and narrow, “bread-and-butter” trade unionism. BMS advocates for a tri-partite industrial approach that includes society, alongside workers and employers, as a key stakeholder. While demanding fair wages and improved working conditions, BMS insists that workers contribute to nation-building. This balanced philosophy is captured in its slogan: “Desh ke hit mein karenge kaam, kaam ke lenge poore daam” (“We shall work in the nation’s interest, and receive full wages for our work”).

During times of national crisis—the Chinese aggression in 1962, the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971, and the Bangladesh liberation—BMS joined like-minded trade unions to form the Rashtriya Mazdoor Morcha to support the government’s efforts. It suspended protests and demands during these periods. Similar actions were taken during Operation Sindoor.

Grounded in Bharatiya cultural values, BMS celebrates Vishwakarma Jayanti on 17 September as National Labour Day, a cultural alternative to May Day, which it views as tied to a failed and demoralising labour struggle in the United States. Vishwakarma, the divine architect, symbolises the dignity and nobility of labour in Indian tradition. Today, several Indian states officially recognise the day as a public holiday.

Earlier Sanghnomics columns can be read here.