Syama Prasad Mukherjee
Syama Prasad Mukherjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian politician, barrister and academician, who served as India's first Minister for Industry and Supply (currently known as Minister of Commerce and Industries) in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After falling out with Nehru,[3] protesting against the Liaquat–Nehru Pact, Mukherjee resigned from Nehru's cabinet.[4] With the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party, in 1951.[5]
For the Indian statistician, see Shyamaprasad Mukherjee.
Syama Prasad Mukherjee
Position established
Position established
6 July 1901
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
(present-day Kolkata, West Bengal, India)
23 June 1953 (aged 51)
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Sudha Devi
5
Ashutosh Mukherjee (father)
Jogamaya Devi Mukherjee (mother)
Chittatosh Mookerjee (nephew)
He was also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha from 1943 to 1946. He was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in 1953 when he tried to cross the border of the state. He was provisionally diagnosed of a heart attack and shifted to a hospital but died a day later.[6][7] Since the Bharatiya Janata Party is the successor to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Mukherjee is also regarded as the founder of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by its members.[8]
Early life and academic career[edit]
Syama Prasad Mukherjee was born in a Bengali Brahmin family on 6 July 1901 in Calcutta (Kolkata).[9][10][11]West Bengal.[12] His grandfather Ganga Prasad Mukherjee was born in Jirat and he was first in the family who came to Calcutta and settled here.[13]
Syama Prasad's father was Ashutosh Mukharjee a judge of the High Court of Calcutta, Bengal, who was also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta.[14][15] His mother was Jogamaya Devi Mukherjee.[10] He was a very meritorious student and he came to Calcutta to study in Medical College with the help of the wealthy people of Jirat. Later he settled down in the Bhawanipore area of Calcutta.[16]
He enrolled in Bhawanipur's Mitra Institution in 1906 and his behaviour in school was later described favourably by his teachers. In 1914, he passed his matriculation examination and was admitted into Presidency College.[17][18] He stood seventeenth in the Inter Arts Examination in 1916[19] and graduated in English, securing the first position in first class in 1921.[10] He was married to Sudha Devi on 16 April 1922.[20] Mukherjee also completed an MA in Bengali, being graded as first class in 1923[21] and also became a fellow of the Senate of the University of Calcutta in 1923.[22] He completed his BL in 1924.[10]
He enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High Court in 1924, the same year in which his father had died.[23] Subsequently, he left for England in 1926 to study at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the English Bar in the same year.[24] In 1934, at the age of 33, he became the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta; he held the office until 1938.[25] During his term as Vice-Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore delivered the University Convocation Address in Bengali for the first time, and the Indian vernacular was introduced as a subject for the highest examination.[26][27] On 10 September 1938, the Senate of Calcutta university resolved to confer honorary D.Litt. on the Ex-Vice Chancellor in its opinion "by reason of eminent position and attainments, a fit and proper person to receive such a degree."[28] Mukherjee received the D.Litt from Calcutta University on 26 November 1938.[29] He was also the 15th President of the Association of Indian Universities during 1941-42.
Opinion on special status of Jammu and Kashmir[edit]
Mukherjee was strongly opposed to Article 370, seeing it as a threat to national unity. He fought against it inside and outside the parliament with one of the goals of Bharatiya Jana Sangh being its abrogation. He raised his voice strongly against the provision in his Lok Sabha speech on 26 June 1952.[65] He termed the arrangements under the article as Balkanization of India and the three-nation theory of Sheikh Abdullah.[68][69] The state was granted its own flag along with a prime minister whose permission was required for anyone to enter the state. In opposition to this, Mukherjee once said "Ek desh mein do Vidhan, do Pradhan aur Do Nishan nahi chalenge" (A single country can't have two constitutions, two prime ministers, and two national emblems).[70] Bharatiya Jana Sangh along with Hindu Mahasabha and Jammu Praja Parishad launched a massive Satyagraha to get the provisions removed.[68][71] In his letter to Nehru dated 3 February 1953, he wrote that the issue of accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India should not be delayed, to which Nehru responded by referring to international complications the issue could create.[65]
Mukherjee went to visit Kashmir in 1953 and observed a hunger strike to protest the law that prohibited Indian citizens from settling within the state and mandating that they carry ID cards.[10] Mukherjee wanted to go to Jammu and Kashmir but, because of the prevailing permit system, he was not given permission. He was arrested on 11 May at Lakhanpur while crossing the border into Kashmir illegally.[72][73] Although the ID card rule was revoked owing to his efforts, he died as a detainee on 23 June 1953.[74][65]
On 5 August 2019, when Government of India proposed constitutional Amendment to repeal Article 370, many newspapers described the event as realization of Syama Prasad Mukherjee's dream.[75][76]
Personal life[edit]
Syama Prasad had three brothers who were: Rama Prasad who was born in 1896, Uma Prasad who was born in 1902 and Bama Prasad Mukherjee who was born in 1906. Rama Prasad became a judge in High Court of Calcutta while Uma became famed as a trekker and a travel writer. He also had three sisters who were: Kamala who was born in 1895, Amala who was born in 1905 and Ramala in 1908.[77] He was married to Sudha Devi for 11 years and had five children – the last one, a four-month-old son, died from diphtheria. His wife died of double pneumonia shortly afterwards in 1933 or 1934.[78][79][80] Syama Prasad refused to remarry after her death.[81] He had two sons, Anutosh and Debatosh, and two daughters, Sabita and Arati.[82] His grandniece Kamala Sinha served as the Minister of State for External affairs in the I. K. Gujral ministry.[83]
Syama Prasad was also affiliated with the Buddhist Mahabodhi Society. In 1942, he succeeded M.N. Mukherjee to become the president of the organisation. The relics of Gautam Buddha's two disciples Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, discovered in the Great Stupa at Sanchi by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1851 and kept at the British Museum, were brought back to India by HMIS Tir. A ceremony attended by politicians and leaders of many foreign countries was held on the next day at Calcutta Maidan. They were handed over by Nehru to Mukherjee, who later took these relics to Cambodia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. Upon his return to India, he placed the relics inside the Sanchi Stupa in November 1952.[38][84][85]