George Fernandes

Born on the 3 rd of June 1930, George Fernandes was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist. His parents are John Joseph Fernandes and Alice Martha Fernandes (née Pinto). He was the oldest of six children; all sons; his siblings are Lawrence, Michael, Paul, Aloysius, and Richard. He was named after King George V, whom his mother greatly admired. His father worked for the Peerless Finance Group as an Insurance Executive. George attended a government school called the “Board School” for the first few years of his education. Later, he studied at the school attached to St. Aloysius College in Mangalore, completing his Secondary School Certificate (SSC). At 16, he was sent to be trained as a Roman Catholic Priest at St. Peter’s Seminary in Bangalore. However, he left the seminary at 19 due to frustration. He moved to Bombay in search of a job after leaving the seminary in 1949. After much struggle, he started working as the editor of “Konkani Yuvak,” a monthly newspaper, in 1949. He also worked as the editor of the English monthly edition, “The Other Side.” During the 1950s-1960s, Fernandes became a part of the Socialist Trade Union, under the influence of Veteran Union Leader Placid D’Mello, and Socialist Rammanohar Lohia. He stood up for the rights of the laborers who were being exploited. Fernandes was a crucial figure in the Bombay Labor Movement in the ‘50s.

Between 1961-1968, he served as a Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) member after winning the 1961 civic elections. What propelled him into the public eye was a victory over S.K Patil, a seasoned politician for the INC in the 1967 General Elections. Along with ending Patil’s political career, this outstanding victory earned Fernandes the nickname “George, The Giant Killer.” He was a member of Lok Sabha for over 30 years. Around this time he met Leila Kabir, the daughter of former Union Minister Humayun Kabir. They began dating and tied the knot on the 22nd of July, 1971. They had a son, Sean Fernandes, an investment banker in New York Click to look into! >> Read More... . Fernandes and Kabir separated during the ’80s.

He is well known for organizing the 1974 Railway Strike when he was the President of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation. The strike, which resulted from the collective grievances of railway workers, brought the entire nation to a halt. In 1976, he was arrested in the infamous Baroda Dynamite case. In 1977, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from jail and shocked the nation by winning from the Muzaffarpur constituency in Bihar.

Fernandes had Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, for which he underwent treatment in Haridwar in 2010. He passed away at the age of 88 on the 29th of January 2019, in Delhi, after contracting swine flu. The nation mourned the loss of this great leader, many speaking out publicly, describing their thoughts on him. Most notably, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, PM Narendra Modi, and President Ram Nath Kovind said highly of him. He was decorated with the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2020 in Public Affairs.