The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union

Indian Trade Unions

In India the Trade Union movement is generally divided on political lines. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, trade unions had a combined membership of 24,601,589 in 2002...

 federations in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and one of the five largest. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, AITUC had a membership of 2,677,979 in 2002.

It was founded on 31 October 1920 in Bombay by Lala Lajpat Rai

Lala Lajpat Rai

Lala Lajpat Rai was an Indian author, freedom fighter and politician who is chiefly remembered as a leader in the Indian fight for freedom from the British Raj. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari or Sher-e-Punjab meaning the samem and was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio...

  and a few others and, until 1945 when unions became organised on party lines, it was the primary trade union organisation in India.