The Enduring Legacy of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee

On a rain-drenched evening, after completing his worship of Goddess Kali at a temple in south Kolkata, the pujari (priest), Anath Taran Ghoshal, sits down cross-legged at Her feet and talks about his favorite freedom fighter. “Dr Shyama Prasad Mookherjee was a worshipper of Goddess Kali and he was blessed by the Divine Mother because though they tried to suppress his greatness, it shone forth. And now, finally, the respect he really deserves is being accorded to him.”

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in West Bengal in the Assembly elections held in April and May this year, it has observed every significant day associated with Dr Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, including, for the first time, West Bengal Day on June 20. On that date, in 1947, the Bengal Legislative Assembly voted in favor of dividing the province into East and West Bengal. The eastern part, which was predominantly Muslim, would fall in the newly created Pakistan and become East Pakistan, and the western part, which was predominantly Hindu, would be part of India and be known as the state of West Bengal.

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Dr Mookherjee was at the forefront of the fight to ensure that an undivided Bengal does not become a part of Pakistan where Hindus would be in the minority. It is also for the first time that July 6, the birth anniversary of Dr Mookherjee, is being celebrated with added emphasis. “Today is his 125th birth anniversary, which is very special and I am really happy that the BJP is in power now because they are doing justice to the day,” says Sanjay Goenka, a Calcutta businessman. The day has been declared a national holiday. But BJP’s endeavor to highlight Shyama Prasad Mo okherje e’s contributions did not just start now. The BJP-led Union government, in January 12, 2020 declared that Kolkata Port would henceforth be called Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port and formally renamed. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee’s has been written about by many scholars.

In his article on West Bengal Day Somen Sengupta, wrote, “Creation of West Bengal as a state and its inclusion in India is an amazing case study in the political history of India. No other Indian state had experienced more pain and pangs at the time of its birth as West Bengal did. The western part of undivided Bengal which is now known as West Bengal was not destined to be created in 1940 when at Muslim League’s national meet at Lahore, the resolution on Pakistan was passed. It clearly stated the demand for a separate homeland for Indian Muslims who as per Mohammad Ali Jinnah are part of a different nation. The dream of a future Pakistan in 1940 was to include all Muslim major provinces of India including Bengal which had nearly 55% of Muslim population.

However in 1933 in England when a young student of Cambridge named Chowdhury Rahamat Ali first spoke about a separate Islamic nation for Indian Muslims and coined the word Pakistan with alphabets picked from Punjab, Baluch, NE Frontier etc Bengal was not included in that. It is good to recall that a man present in that meeting silently laughed at this idea thinking it an “impossible dream”. He was Mohammad Ali Jinnah. In 1940 the same man then fuelled by money and political power had a bigger and determined dream of Pakistan which was much bigger than the idea propounded by Chowdhury Rahamat Ali. Though most of the national leaders of Congress ignored the Lahore resolution of Muslim League there was a man in Bengal who had a hunch that the demand would gain prominence sooner or later. His profound academic experience and practical political wisdom convinced him that a time has come to act to save Bengali Hindus from annihilation.

He was Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, the legendary educationist who joined Hindu Maha Sabha (HMS) in 1939.” In 1951, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookherjee found the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which is the precursor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Whether an educationist or a politician, Dr Mookherjee excelled in all his roles and it is time that he is honored for his immense contribution to independent India. On rain-drenched evenings or sunny mornings or misty dawns or dark nights, the time has come to recall what he did.

The writer is Editor, Features