A veteran national leader, a fearless freedom fighter, an eminent parliamentarian and a writer and thinker, Madhu Limaye was born on 1st May, 1922 at Pune. While still at Fergusson College, he joined the Congress Socialist Party and became secretary of the Pune CSP at the age of seventeen. He left college to devote full time to struggle for freedom and the socialist movement. Here after, freedom of the country and socialism became his ruling passions. He organized students and workers at Dhulia and in 1940 he was arrested and sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment for making anti-war speeches.

During the 1942 underground movement he toured extensively to organize the youth and awaken the masses. As a result of his active participation in the Quit India movement, he was arrested and he served his jail­-term in Worli, Yeravada and Visapur jails till the end of the second  World War.

In 1947, the Socialist Party deputed Madhu Limaye to the International Socialist Conference at Antwerp. Later, he toured Europe and wrote on the conditions prevailing there.

On return from Europe, Madhu Limaye was entrusted with the work of preparing. the constitution of the Socialist Party. He was also made convenor of  its foreign  department.

About that time, he was appointed Joint Secretary  of  the  Socialist  Party.  In  1953,  he visited  Rangoon  as  General  Secretary  of  the Asian  Socialist  Bureau. In 1955 he participated in the Goa Liberation Movement during which he had to suffer severe physical hardship at the hand of the Portuguese authorities. Not only that, the Portuguese Military Tribunal sentenced  him to a twelve-year imprisonment, but true to the spirit of Gandhian satyagraha he offered no defence during the trial. After his release from Portuguese prison,  he was  elected  Chairman of the Socialist Party. He also worked in the field of trade unions and helped in the formation of labour unions among transport and  municipal  workers.

In 1964, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Monghyr in Bihar. He tried to turn Parliament into an instrument for fighting for the cause of the poor and the downtrodden. His deep study and mastery over rules of parliamentary procedure made him a prominent parliamentarian. He was elected four times from Bihar to the Lok Sabha, where subsequently he became leader of the socialist group. He chose to live a life of simplicity and renunciation, and for him service of the nation was the supreme goal. After 1980, owing to heart ailment, in addition to asthma from which he had suffered for decades, he had to give up active politics, and he decided to devote himself to scholarly pursuits. Though not active in day-to-day politics he continued to influence its course through his fearless writings in the press and through his books. He died on 8th January, 1995.

The Department of Posts is happy to issue a commemorative stamp in memory  of his contribution  to  the  nation.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India