Dutta Samant Biography 
Dr. Dattatray Samant, shortly called Dutta Samant was a politician and trade union leader from Mumbai. He was fondly called Doctorsaheb. Samant came to limelight in the early 1980s, when as a trade union leader he led a one-year strike which triggered the closure of most of the textile mills in Mumbai city. Homi Wadia, one of the earliest film directors of Indian film scene known for stunt movies, closed down Basant Studios in 1981 following a labour dispute with Dutta Samant and quit filmmaking, after a period of long 5 decades. He has been elected to the parliament on 8th Lok Sabha elections, as an independent candidate in 1984, when Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi swept the whole seats. On 16 January 1997 Samant was gunned down and murdered outside his home in Mumbai by four gunmen.
He was born into a Marathi family, brought up in Deobag on the Konkan coast of Maharashtra. He spent a few early years at Ghatkopar in Mumbai, known for textile business. He completed MBBS. But he got involved as a trade union leader as a member of Indian National Trade Union Congress. Samant rose to become one of the most prominent INTUC leaders in the 1960s and 1970s, when trade unions grew strong. He got involved in strikes to hike wages of employees belonging to textile industry and refused to comprise with leading forces.
In 1972 elections, he got elected to the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha where he served as a legislature. Though he belonged to Indian National Congress, he was arrested during Emergency period, for being a Union leader. He got released in 1977 and gained immense popularity among common man and workers soon after release. An estimated 2 to 3 lakh mill workers walked out of textile industry, which remained completely shut for one year. Indira Gandhi considered him a serious political threat, though he was affiliated to Congress. Negotiation and resolution attempted in failure and slowly the well-established textile business of Mumbai moved away from the city.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 20, 2016
