Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri was born on 10 August, 1894 at Berhampore in Ganjam district at that time in the Madras Presidency and now in Orissa. He came from a Telugu speaking Brahmin family. His father Shri V.V. Jogaiah Pantulu was a prosperous lawyer at Berhampore and the leader of the local Bar. After his early education in his home-town Giri went to Ireland and joined the University of Dublin for higher studies. It was here that he came under the spell of the freedom struggle in Ireland and drew his inspiration from De Valera. He became associated with the Sinn Fein Movement and came in close contact with De Valera, Collins, Pearee, Desmond Fitzgerald, MacNeil, Connolly and others. Giri was called to the Bar during World War I and returned to India in 1916.
Upon returning to India, he became heavily involved in the labour movement. As early as 1922 he identified himself closely with the organization of the working classes and became a trusted lieutenant of N.M. Joshi. From that time onwards his main sphere of work was the Trade Union movement. To this day he is proud above all else of being a trade unionist, becoming general secretary and then president of the All-India Railwaymen's Federation and twice serving as president of the All-India Trade Union Congress. Giri first entered politics in 1937 when he became minister of labour and industries for the Congress Party government formed in the Madras Presidency. When the Congress governments resigned in 1942, he returned to the labour movement as part of the "quit India" movement and was imprisoned by the British.
Giri has written two books, one on "Industrial Relations" and the other on "Labour Problems in Indian Industry".
