Whether
it is the Article 370 issue or the Partition of Bengal, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
has been invariably invoked. Especially when crucial elections are around – as
it happened in West Bengal recently. This has nothing to do with BJP’s
reverence for the founder of Bhartiya Jana Singh, but with their desire to show
the Indian National Congress, especially Pundit Nehru, in an unfavourable
light. However, in the West Bengal elections, the BJP had to walk a tight rope
balancing their craving for adopting Netaji and keeping retaining Mukherjee as
their political icon. The reason is historic. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had no
love lost for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose because he was convinced that the
latter had betrayed the Hindu Cause.
Quit
India Movement
It
is a well-known fact that the Hindu Mahasabha was opposed to the Quit India
Movement. In a letter dated 26 July 1942, to the Governor of Bengal, Sir John
Herbert, Mukherjee stated, “…Anybody, who during the war, plans to
stir up mass feeling, resulting in internal disturbances or insecurity, must be
resisted by any Government that may function for the time being.” He swore to
make “every possible effort to defeat the Quit India Movement in the Province
of Bengal.” And, ironically, when he had to resign from the Bengal Government,
the same Shyama Prasad Mukherjee described the policies of the British
government towards the Movement as "repressive".
Doesn’t it remind us
of the current doublespeak template refined and deployed by the BJP?
Mukherjee
vs Bose
After he quit as
Congress President in 1939, Subhas Chandra Bose set up Forward Bloc, a pressure
group within the Congress Party. He participated in the Calcutta corporation
elections to demonstrate his popular support. He proposed to the Hindu Mahasabha
to join hands against the Muslim League. But the negotiations broke down and
the Mahasabha fought alone and won 50 per cent of the seats. Bose hit back by
allying with the Muslim League and helped its member to become the City Mayor.
The shocked Mukherjee described this action as a betrayal of the Hindu Cause, and
never forgave Netaji. Netaji soon left for abroad, never to return.
Mukherjee’s
evolution as a Hindu Nationalist Leader
Mukherjee’s
evolution as a politician and a Hindu nationalist has been quite fascinating. He
started off as a member of the Indian National Congress but joined Hindu
Mahasabha later on. He went on to become the founder of Bhartiya Jana Sangh and
also a member of Nehru’s first Government. He was independent India’s first
Minister for Industry and Supply.
Before that, when he
returned from England after completing his education, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee opted
for a career as an educationist. At 33, he became the youngest ever Vice
Chancellor of Calcutta University. However, in 1929. He was elected to the
Legislative Assembly on the Congress ticket. In 1937, he fought the elections
as an Independent and won. Gradually, he started moving towards Hindu Mahasabha
led by Savarkar.
When he joined the coalition government led by Fazl-ul-Haque, he was the
Home Minister. He protested British preference for Muslim candidates over more
meritorious Hindu aspirants for government jobs. The British had been playing
their diabolical divide-and-rule games for a long time. In his official note
dated 06 December 1904, the Home Secretary to Govt. of India Herbert Hope
Risley wrote, “Bengal
united is a power. Bengal divided will pull in several different ways … One of
our main objects is to split up and thereby to weaken a solid body of opponents
to our rule…”
On
July 21, 1905, Viceroy George Curzon announced the Partition of Bengal. Its
primary aim was to divide the Hindu majority regions of West Bengal, Bihar and
Odisha from Muslim-dominated areas of Assam and Sylhet. This was seen as a
deliberate attempt to divide the Bengalis and disrupt nationalism in Bengal. As
the demand for reintegration refused to die, the British eventually reunified
Bengal six years later. But the seeds of India’s partition were sowed by then,
which exploded in 1946 in the form of the Noakhali bloodbath that set in motion
India’s blood-spattered division months later.
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was president of the Akhil Bhartiya
Hindu Mahasabha between 1943 and 1946. His was one of the strongest voices to
have opposed the united Bengal plan of the Bengal provincial Muslim League
leader and prime minister of Bengal HS Suhrawardy, as per which Bengal would be
a separate nation, independent from both India and Pakistan.
If the Bengali Hindus opposed the 1905 partition of
Bengal, they now demanded the division of Bengal on communal lines. The communal battles
that had started in 1905, reached their peak by 1947. But there was also the
fact that Bengal politics had changed dramatically in 1932 with the
introduction of the Communal Award. It gave more seats in the Legislative
Council to Muslims than Hindus. It also provided separate electorates for the
Dalits. Bengali Hindus ceased to be as significant and visible in provincial
politics as they were before. Hindu leaders suspected these to be aimed at
crushing them.
Consequently, in February 1947, the Hindu Mahasabha
under Mukherjee put forward the demand for dividing Bengal on religious
grounds. In a letter to Viceroy Mountbatten, Mukherjee argued, “if ever an
impartial survey is made of Bengal’s administration in the last ten years, it
will appear that Hindus have suffered not only on account of communal riots and
disturbance, but in every sphere of national activities, educational, economic,
political and even religious.” He further argued that the idea of a united
Bengal was not appealing because he believed that a ‘sovereign undivided Bengal
would be a virtual Pakistan’.
Mukherjee
and Article 370
Although
the Right-Wing politicians love to portray Shyama Prasad Mukherjee as a staunch
opponent of Article 370, the truth is otherwise. His opposition to the Article
was an afterthought. There is enough historical evidence to establish that
Sardar Patel was one of the architects of Article 370 and Mukherjee had
approved it unreservedly. This is corroborated by what Jitendra Singh, BJP’s
J&K spokesperson had said, “The late leader had suggested to the first
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to put a time-bound rider on Article 370 and to
specify for how long it was being envisaged.” Further, Balraj Puri, the veteran
journalist, had written in an article, “Shyama Prasad’s prolonged triangular
correspondence with Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah on the status of the State, which
was published at that time by the party, is the most authentic evidence of his
stand on the issue. For instance, in his letter dated 9 January 1953 to both of
them he wrote, ‘We would readily agree to treat the valley with Sheikh Abdullah
as the head in any special manner and for such time as he would like but Jammu
and Ladakh must be fully integrated with India.”
Mukherjee,
in a letter to Nehru on February 17,1953, suggested: “Both parties reiterate
that the unity of the State will be maintained and that the principle of
autonomy will apply to the province of Jammu and also to Ladakh and Kashmir
Valley. Implementation of Delhi Agreement—which granted special status to the
State—will be made at the next session of Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly.”
Obviously,
political compulsions forced Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to change his stand on
Article 370.
Conclusion
Despite some
apparent contradictions in his political stances Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was an
extraordinary leader. He remained steadfast on his ideological standpoint. Well
educated, articulate and with a vision that differed from that of the dominant
nationalist leaders like Nehru, Gandhi and Patel, he was a product of the
pulsating Bengal politics of the 1930s and 40s. Mukherjee concretised an
ideological alternative to that of the Indian National Congress.
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