Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Selfless, Patriotic, Visionary

Did he have any interest in sport? He did. Never wrote on sport but the visionary in him made a startling observation on cricket. I heard from my paternal grandfather Amulya Ratan Mukherji, “As early as 1930s Syama confided in us that the inter-community cricket tournaments fuel friction and divisive tendencies and so should be stopped immediately.” Later with MK Gandhi’s intervention the Pentangular inter-community cricket tournament was stopped in the mid-1940s. But rather too late:  by then the partition was a mere formality.

Thankfully the inter-community cricket tournament was banned and the inter-State Ranji Trophy championship became the most prominent cricket championship in the country.

Syama Prasad’s family members never used his name for personal glory unlike the family members of his political adversaries. Syama Prasad himself never took advantage of his father’s name and credentials. The Mookerjees of Sir Asutosh’s family were at the helm of their respective professions through individual merit. My paternal grandfather was his distant cousin. ARM was 5 years senior to SPM and was very close to his elder brother Rama Prasad, a legal luminary, who was of Dadu’s age.

First-class first in graduation. Repeat first-class first in post-graduation. Vice-chancellor of Calcutta University at 33. Forget politicians, wonder how many exceptional scholars anywhere in the world have achieved such exalted academic status so early in life.

Law studies at Calcutta followed by qualifying for the Bar in UK courts. But law was not his main interest. He went abroad primarily to study the functioning of academic education in UK. Although a die-hard patriot, Syama Prasad Mookerjee had the vision to realize that to succeed in the international arena Indians must be exposed to western education, particularly in technology, science and research.

This approach was unique indeed. Most wealthy Indians would go abroad for higher studies to further their own careers. But young Syama was different. He wanted the best of western education to be made available to all keen Indians here in India. This all-inclusive approach makes him an extraordinary personality.

Syama Prasad’s selfless attitude was the principal difference between him and all his adversaries in the Indian political scenario. Syama was stunned by the self-centred nature of political parties of various hues in the sub-continent. Unity was the last issue they had in mind in resistance to the ruling colonial power. Communal ideas, ‘class’ prejudice and provincial bias seemed to be their main concern. He decided that he would get into politics and fight the problems from within the political domain.

He was quick to realize that the colonial power was determined to drive a wedge between the two most prominent communities. He made desperate attempts to make the prominent leaders of all factions in the Indian political scenario to see reason: We must all unite and not let our country be partitioned. But our leaders had different agendas. So ambitious were they that they could not see beyond themselves. For our leaders the appeasement to one particular community overshadowed all reasonable arguments.

 In 1942 the Bengal Famine – artificially created by the colonial power – made SPM dive into social service on a scale rarely seen in India. He came under the influence of Swami Pranavananda, whose Bharat Sevashram Sangha devoted time and attention to the millions of refugees who came to the western part of Bengal to escape the tyranny unleashed on them.

Despite his best and tireless efforts, when Syama found that the partition of India was almost confirmed and that the whole of Bengal would become a part of the new nation of Pakistan, he was at his eloquent and energetic best. Full of logic and analysis he showed the Brits as well as the major political parties that if Bengal would have to be divided then the Hindu-dominated parts of Bengal should have their rightful due. Reluctantly, all the others had to agree that his points were absolutely to the point. Thus Bengal was truncated into West Bengal and East Pakistan.

Without the magnificent presence of Syama Prasad Mookerjee there would have been no State of Bengal on the India map. According to his biographers Anirban Ganguly and Avadhesh Kumar Singh, “It was his forceful leadership and intervention that saved a part of Bengal and the historic and strategically important city of Calcutta from going to the Muslim League-ruled Pakistan. This was arguably the greatest achievement of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee’ life.”

Without him there would not have been West Bengal at all. Syama Prasad’s Bengal was not only for Hindus: it was open to all religions as well as atheists and agnostics. It was not only for the Bengali-speaking population: it welcomed all those who wished to make Bengal their home. This was the vital contribution of this exemplary visionary. I know because my Maharashtrian in-laws while fleeing from riot-torn Lahore, settled down at Calcutta most willingly. Thank God they did!

In the late 1930s Syama Prasad Mookerjee joined Hindu Mahasabha because they were  fighting for the majority of the population in the country. It was obviously not Syama’s fault that the majority of the population in the sub-continent was of Hindu faith and that the land was known as Hindusthan. The Hindu majority population desperately needed a leader and Syama Prasad was the unanimous answer.

Patriots as diverse as Veer Savarkar and Mohandas Gandhi welcomed his presence at Hindu Mahasabha. By 1948 he resigned on a point of principle and formed his own political party Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the forerunner to the BJP. His personal secretary Atal Bihari Vajpayee always admitted that he learnt political etiquette, ideology and administration at the feet of his guru, Syama Prasad.

My Dadu always maintained, “Syama would never say ‘Jan Sangh’. His booming voice would always say with pride ‘Bharatiya Jan Sangh’. He was that kind of a perfectionist. For him the word BHARATIYA symbolized national unity. Great soul.”

Initially in 1947 he was a vital part of independent India’s first cabinet and was given the most important ministry of industries and supplies. In 1952 as a member of his own party – Bharatiya Jan Sangh – he was in the cabinet, again with the industry portfolio. Almost overnight corporations like Hindusthan Aeronautics Ltd, Damodar Valley Corporation, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Sindhri Fertilizer Plant, among numerous others, came up. In just two years he concentrated on both private and public sectors and gave India the much needed industrial infrastructure for self-sufficiency that the nation required at the time.

Here it may be of interest to know that Syama did not study at the prominent missionary schools of Calcutta. He preferred the Bengali-medium Mitra Institution, which was close to his family residence at Bhabanipur. His major subject in Presidency College and Calcutta University would surprise every reader. It was, believe it or not, Bengali. Yes, Bengali. Amazing love and respect for the motherland by an academic topper.

In 1953 his gruesome death in Srinagar at just 52 is too well documented for further elaboration. Suffice is to mention that he went into Kashmir (an Indian territory), was jailed in solitary confinement (without medication) and finally God took him away. No enquiry was ever conducted!

Syama’s mother’s fervent request to the then PM for a proper enquiry was not attended to. A cabinet minister died under mysterious circumstances and no enquiry was held!

Syama Prasad’s fault was his rational, unbiased ideology:  India is One Nation, no individual State should receive favoured treatment; and that a common civil code should exist for all Indians of whatever faith.

That’s Syama Prasad Mookerjee in a nut-shell: “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high… “