The Life and Times of George Fernandes

George Fernandes (1930-2019)-a firebrand trade union leader, socialist and amazingly powerful orator-is popularly known for leading the All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) in 1974 and calling upon its approximately 1.7 million employees to strike, which brought India to a halt for twenty days. Often described as a rebel, he pursued every cause he took up with passionate devotion, heedless of the many ups and downs in his life. From the early years of fighting for the rights of dock and municipal workers of Bombay (now Mumbai) through the Emergency, which he resisted by going underground, to his last private decade as a bed-ridden Alzheimer's patient, his fights were always persistent and single-handed.