Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Syama Prasad Mookerjee (also spelled as
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee) was a
nationalist political leader of
India, and is considered the godfather of modern
Hindutva and
Hindu Nationalism.
Mookerjee founded the
Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the first Hindu nationalist political party of its kind, and was also the leader of the
Hindu Mahasabha and closely associated with the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Mookerjee was born on July 6, 1901 in
Calcutta, a major Indian city and capital of
Bengal. His father was Sir
Ashutosh Mukherjee, a well respected advocate in
Bengal, who became the
Vice Chancellor of the
University of Calcutta, and his mother was Lady Jogmaya Devi Mookerjee.
Mookerjee obtained his degree from the
University of Calcutta. Hr graduated in English securing the first position in first class and also did MA and BL. He became a fellow of the Senate in
1923. He enrolled as an advocate in
Calcutta High Court in
1924 after his father's death. Subsequently he left for
England in
1926 to study in
Lincoln's Inn and became a barrister in
1927. At the age of 33, he became the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, and held the office till
1938.
He was elected as member of the
Legislative Council of Bengal, as a Congress candidate representing Calcutta University but resigned next year when Congress decided to boycott the legislature. Subsequently, he contested the election as an independent candidate and got elected.
He emerged as a spokesman for
Hindus and shortly joined
Hindu Mahasabha and in
1944, he became the President. Mookherjee was not
anti-Muslim, but a Hindu political leader who felt the need to counteract the communalist and separatist
Muslim League of
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who were demanding either exaggerated Muslim rights or a Muslim state of
Pakistan.
Mookherjee adopted causes to unite
Hindu voices, and protect Hindus against the communal propaganda and the divisive agenda of the Muslim League. To Mookherjee, the Muslims were a minority and thus could not in any system of logic and reason be given a status superior to the majority Hindu masses. Mookherjee and his future followers would always cite inherent
Hindu practices of tolerance and communal respect as the reason for a healthy, prosperous and safe
Muslim population in the country in the first place.
Mookerjee initially was a strong opponent of the
Partition of India, but following the communal riots of 1946-47, in which Muslim mobs killed thousands of Hindus all over Bengal, provoking Hindu retaliation, Mookerjee strongly disfavored Hindus continuing to live in a Muslim-dominated state and under a government controlled by the
Muslim League.
Mookherjee supported the partition of
Bengal in 1946 to prevent the inclusion of its Hindu-majority areas in a Muslim-dominated
East Pakistan; he also opposed a failed bid for a united but independent Bengal made in 1947 by
Sarat Bose, the brother of
Subhas Chandra Bose and
Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali Muslim politician. He is accused of condoning violence against Muslims and pro-Pakistan activists during the partition riots of 1947.
He wanted the
Hindu Mahasabha not to be restricted to Hindus alone or work as apolitical body for the service of masses. Following the assassination of
Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu fanatic, the Mahasabha was blamed chiefly for the heinous act and became deeply unpopular. Mookerjee himself condemned the murder and left the party.
Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru inducted him in the Interim Central Government as a Minister for Industry and Supply. Mookerjee was widely respected by many Indians and also by members of the
Indian National Congress, the main Indian political organization, and
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of its chief leaders.
But on issue of the
1949 Delhi Pact with Pakistani Prime Minister
Liaqat Ali Khan, Mookherjee resigned from the Cabinet on
April 6,
1950. Mookherjee was firmly against Nehru's invitation to the Pakistani PM, and their joint pact to establish minority commissions and guarantee minority rights in both countries. He wanted to hold Pakistan directly responsible for the terrible influx of millions of Hindu refugees from East Pakistan, who had left the state fearing religious suppression and violence aided by the state. Mookerjee considered Nehru's actions as
appeasement, and was hailed as a hero by the people of
West Bengal.
After consultation with
Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, leader of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Dr. Mookerjee founded
Bharatiya Jana Sangh {Indian People's Union) on
October 21,
1951 at
Delhi and became its first President.
The BJS criticized favoritism to India's Muslims by the Nehru administration, and promoted
free-market economics as opposed to the
socialism in Nehru's economic and social policies. The BJS also favored a uniform civil code for both Hindus and Muslims, want to ban cow slaughter and end the special status of Muslim-majority
Jammu and Kashmir. The BJS founded the
Hindutva agenda which became the wider political expression of India's
Hindu majority.
In the
1952 General Elections to the
Parliament of India, Mookerjee and the BJS won 3 seats.
Mookerjee went to visit
Kashmir in
1953, and went on hunger strike to protest the law prohibiting Indian citizens from settling in a state in their own country and the need to carry ID cards, and was arrested on 11th May while crossing border. Although the ID card rule was revoked owing to his efforts, he died as detenu on
May 23,
1953 under mysterious circumstances. His death in custody raised wide suspicion across the country and demands for independent enquiry, including earnest requests from his mother to the then Prime Minister of India. Unfortunatley no enquiry commission was set up and his death remains a mystery.
Along with
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Mookerjee is considered the godfather of
Hindu nationalism in
India, especially the
Hindutva movement. He is widely revered by members and supporters of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Mookerjee was a major role model to
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who made the BJS the chief Hindu conservative political party in the 1960s and 1970s, and founded its successor, the
Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP has become one of the two largest national political parties, the other being the Congress Party, and had formed the Government from 1998 to 2004, with Vajpayee serving as the
Prime Minister of India.
In momory of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has given name of the overbridge near Vejalpur "Shyama Prasad Mukherjee" on August 27, 1998. BJP government and Ahmedabad citizen has preferred the name a most important bridge after a non Gujarati leader to acknowledge the great contribution of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. This is a rare incidence in India that a leader is acknowledge out of his home state.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98aug28/nation.htm
*
Excerpts from convocation address at Benares Hindu University (1st December, 1940)*
Hinduism,
Indian Nationalism*
Hindutva*
Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
Bharatiya Janata Party,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh*
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
