West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Samik Bhattacharya on Tuesday urged the state government to officially recognise Rani Jyotirmoyee’s contribution to keeping Nadia in India during Partition and include her role in school history textbooks, terming it a “historical omission.”
Addressing a function organised to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee and unveil his statue in Nadia, Bhattacharya said the role played by Rani Jyotirmoyee in ensuring that Nadia became part of India after Partition had largely been forgotten and deserved formal recognition in the state’s historical narrative.
“I am not the government, but I appeal to the education minister and the chief minister to ensure that Rani Jyotirmoyee’s contribution finds a place in the history of West Bengal. Future generations should know her role,” Bhattacharya said.
Recalling the events surrounding Partition in 1947, the BJP state president claimed Nadia was initially placed under Pakistan after Independence on 15 August before eventually becoming part of India following sustained efforts by Syama Prasad Mookherjee, N.C. Chatterjee, scientist Meghnad Saha and Rani Jyotirmoyee.
Bhattacharya maintained that without their intervention, the present geographical and political identity of Nadia and parts of West Bengal would have been different.
Bhattacharya said Rani Jyotirmoyee’s contribution had not received the recognition it deserved despite her role in safeguarding the territorial integrity of the state.
“This is not merely Nadia’s history but an important chapter in the history of India,” he said, adding that the younger generation remained largely unaware of her contribution.
The BJP leader also paid tribute to Syama Prasad Mookherjee, describing him as a central figure in the movement that led to the partition of Bengal before Independence. He said Mookherjee had initially stayed away from active politics but later joined the Hindu Mahasabha in response to the communal situation in undivided Bengal and campaigned for the division of Bengal to protect the interests of Bengali Hindus.
Tracing the political developments preceding Partition, Mr Bhattacharya referred to resolutions adopted by the Hindu Mahasabha in April 1947 and claimed that support from legislators across party lines ultimately paved the way for Bengal’s division, resulting in the creation of West Bengal.
He also highlighted Mookherjee’s academic career, describing him as the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, and credited him with promoting higher education in the mother tongue and supporting several educational reforms.
Turning to national politics, Bhattacharya said Mookherjee’s vision of “one nation, one Constitution” had been realised through the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi government.
Recalling Mookherjee’s arrest while entering Jammu and Kashmir without a permit in 1953, he said the BJP regarded the removal of the state’s special constitutional status as the fulfilment of one of Mookherjee’s long-standing objectives.
The BJP state president also asserted that Mookherjee’s politics stood for national integration rather than communal division and said the party’s government in West Bengal would work for all sections of society irrespective of electoral support.
The programme, organised by a local Trikon Park Club in Krishnagar, was attended by BJP Nadia North district president Arjun Kumar Biswas, club president Saikat Sarkar, MLAs Tarak Chatterjee, Shantanu Deb and Subrata Dutta, along with other party leaders.