The renaming of Suhrawardy Avenue as Gopal Mukherjee Road by the Suvendu Govt in West Bengal has led to a flood of scholarly and unscholarly argument ...
pointing out that the Suhrawardy in question was not the “Butcher of Kolkata" who instigated the August 1946 killings of Hindus and later became Prime Minister of Pakistan, but his uncle.
A typical Hindu or the correct way of response should be so what ?
Gopal Mukherjee's role in 'Calcutta's history' rose to prominence much ahead of the Partition. He met with force the Muslim League's agenda to snatch Calcutta by force. Armed with sticks, spears, knives, guns, or whatever his men could arrange, he led an army that stood like a wall against surrendering the city.
The sickular argument is only an argument and guided by propaganda spirit. How ?
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was certainly reflecting the majority opinion when he concluded his comment on the renaming.
“It’s time West Bengal remembers, corrects and honours the Real Heroes," said the chief minister.
He reasoned that, “For decades, a major artery of our city bore the name of someone who wilfully misused state power as a weapon, orchestrating the massacre of innocent citizens for sheer political gain.
By renaming it after Shri Gopal Mukherjee, the fearless soul who stepped up as a protector-in-chief to defend and save thousands of innocent lives, finally restoration of historical justice will be achieved by honouring a true guardian and saviour."
The CM, acknowledging what most Kolkatans probably believe, associated the former name of the road with a particularly bloody, unpleasant period of Bengal’s history.
The so-called academician Suhrawardy was no academician. He was a military medico with the Railways and was made VC by the Britishers as they wanted to set an unhealthy tradition by appointing a Muslim to the post.
No right-thinking Indian today would dispute that a family whose members went "en masse to Pakistan"—and whose ancestral home on that very street now houses a department of the Bangladesh mission in Kolkata because it was formerly East Pakistan— cannot deserve a road name.
The incident is about 1932. Suhrawardy was also given Knighthood for helping British cops arrest one freedom fighter.
Hassan was the uncle of the infamous 'Suhrawardy'; - that is Huseyn. They were devout Muslim League members and whose loyalties were certainly not with post-British Raj India.
One ended up as Prime Minister of Pakistan, and the other’s notable contribution was the setting up of the East London Mosque in the middle of the Second World War, in 1941— a strange priority for a supposedly eminent man of medicine.
If anything, both men were very useful to the British and thus were rewarded for it adequately.
Hence, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's decision and the endorsement of the move by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari ought to be appreciated.
The Muslim League was worried about the demographics of their dream nation that came with an economic challenge. While the eastern part of then Bengal province was Muslim-majority, it lacked industrial hubs, which were concentrated in cities like Calcutta and Howrah, on the western side.
The League then came up with a plan that left the region burning. Jinnah announced 'Direct Action Day' on August 16, 1946, to ensure Calcutta fell to the League by a show of muscle power. The day marked the beginning of violent events, with fiery speeches being given from local mosques at the instruction of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a League leader who then held the post of Bengal's Prime Minister.
Hindu houses were burnt and shops looted by Muslim League supporters. There were killings and rapes.
By August 17th, Hindus started organising. Gopal Mukherjee was among the musclemen who mobilised their forces. The Vyayam Samitis, who were instrumental in the freedom struggle, chipped in, armed with rods, knives, and even revolvers that they had sourced from American soldiers in the aftermath of World War 2. Funding for counteroffensive poured in from the Marwari traders of Burrabazar.
Mukherjee, fearing that Calcutta would turn into Pakistan, gave strict orders to his men to retaliate. In response to one murder, you kill 10 of the attackers, he told them.
This is how Calcutta was protected for India.
British historian and journalist Andrew Whitehead illustrated Mukherjee's role as, "Calcutta was in flames and Gopal Patha, in effect, took the opportunity to douse the city in kerosene." But for Mukherjee, it was his "duty to help those in distress".
A year after the killings started, in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi visited Calcutta. Many turned up to his message of peace and laid down their weapons. But Mukherjee was adamant.
"Where was Gandhiji, I said, during the Great Calcutta Killing?" he had recalled, refusing to surrender even a nail.
ends
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