Upon entering any Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office, one can expect to see two prominent portraits displayed prominently: Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, who took the helm of the party following Mookerjee’s passing.
In the introduction to the book Syama Prasad Mookerjee: Life and Times (2018), penned by Tathagata Roy, former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani emphasizes, “The BJP owes its current standing in Indian politics to the sacrifices of countless predecessors, particularly the vision and martyrdom of Dr. Mookerjee.” Advani highlights Mookerjee not only as a party founder but also as a leader of a political movement that defied the prevailing trends of his era. As the BJP gains traction in Bengal, it is worthwhile to reflect on the life and contributions of one of its foundational figures.
Born on July 6, 1901, Syama Prasad Mookerjee was the son of renowned mathematician and lawyer Ashutosh Mookerjee. He commenced his education at the Bhawanipur Mitra Institution in Kolkata at the age of five. After completing his matriculation in 1917, he enrolled at Presidency College, where he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in English Honors, later obtaining a Master’s degree in Bengali while also attending law classes in the evenings.
His university years were marked by significant global events, including the Russian Revolution, the concluding stages of World War I, and major political shifts in Europe such as the fall of the Czar, Lenin’s New Economic Policy, the establishment of the Weimar Republic, and the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
On the Indian front, Roy highlights the “atrocious massacre of 1,516 unarmed individuals at a peaceful protest by British Colonel Reginald Dyer at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar,” along with the notable renouncement of knighthood by Rabindranath Tagore in protest against the incident. Furthermore, the Rowlatt Act of 1919 allowed the government to arrest Indians without trial, further fueling discontent. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of the same year introduced limited self-governance, granting Indian representatives control over minor administrative sectors.
Despite these tumultuous circumstances, Mookerjee initially displayed little interest in politics. He married Sudha Chakravarty in 1922 and graduated with a Bachelor of Law from Calcutta University in 1924. He then traveled to England to become a barrister, with his primary objective being to study the operation of British universities, as noted by Anirban Ganguly and Avadhesh Kumar Singh in their work Syama Prasad Mookerjee: His Vision of Education (2017).
Upon returning in 1927, Mookerjee entered the legislative council as a candidate from the University Constituency for the Indian National Congress (INC) two years later. This move reflected his growing reputation as an educationist. According to Roy, his entry into the council was not primarily political but aimed at protecting university interests within the legislative framework.
By 1934, Mookerjee had ascended to the position of vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, becoming the youngest individual to hold the role at just 33 years old. During his tenure, he implemented instruction and examinations in native languages up to the matriculation level. Roy notes that among his initiatives were standardizing Bengali spellings and creating terminology for scientific and technical terms in Bengali.
Ganguly and Singh further elaborate that Mookerjee actively supported nationalist scholars in researching Indian history from an indigenous perspective, promoted archaeological excavations, established the first museum dedicated to Indian history and culture at the university, and, in 1937, invited Rabindranath Tagore to deliver a convocation address in Bengali—the first of its kind at the University of Calcutta.
Roy asserts that Mookerjee’s full immersion in politics was largely a response to the treatment of Bengali Hindus under the communal governance of the Muslim League-Krishak Praja Party coalition in Bengal. He was driven by a distinctly right-wing, Indocentric ideology and was fundamentally a constitutional politician, opposing revolutionary methods.
The worsening situation for Hindu minorities in Bengal prompted Mookerjee to engage more deeply in politics through the Hindu Mahasabha, where he was influenced by the ideas of Veer Savarkar. As noted by Ganguly and Singh, Mookerjee developed a close association with Savarkar, especially following Savarkar’s visit to Bengal in 1939, ultimately joining the Hindu Mahasabha.
With Savarkar’s health declining in the 1940s, Mookerjee increasingly took on the role of the organization’s working president. Internal conflicts within the Congress party, particularly after Subhas Chandra Bose’s split from Mahatma Gandhi, allowed the Hindu Mahasabha to gain significant political influence in Bengal. Roy points out that Mookerjee’s articulate advocacy for the Mahasabha’s ideology and his critique of the Congress’s conciliatory approach towards the Muslim League resonated across Bengal and India.
This momentum led to his appointment as the finance minister of Bengal in the coalition government led by A.K. Fazlul Haq during 1941-42, a position he would later resign from.
As the late 1940s unfolded, the partition of Bengal began to take shape, particularly with the emergence of the ‘Bengal Partition League,’ which aimed to establish a separate province to safeguard Hindu interests in the Hindu-majority western Bengal regions. Mookerjee, convinced of the need for such measures, became increasingly active in the political landscape as the situation evolved.
