In 1951, Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Two years later, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was handpicked by the man to be his private secretary.
When Vajpayee became Prime Minister, he made sure that his mentor was celebrated.
In 2000, Vajpayee arrived in Kolkata/Calcutta to inaugurate Mookerjee’s centenary celebrations. The main event was organised at the Netaji Indoor Stadium though chief minister Jyoti Basu was away on a foreign tour.
In 2001, a special exhibition was inaugurated at the National Archives of India; a commemorative stamp was also released around the time and the list goes on.
son of famous Bengali educationist Sir Asutosh Mookerjee
Vajpayee once famously recalled Mookerjee's final instructions before his 1953 mission to enter Jammu and Kashmir without an official permit:
"Vajpayee, go and tell the countrymen that I have entered Jammu and Kashmir, but I have not taken a permit."
Pre 2014, when the BJP with Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate started reviewing party iconography, people began hearing more about Mookerjee all over again.
PM Narendra Modi has always made it known that he is a great fan, admirer and disciple of Mookerjee.
In the 2013 Lalkar Rally in Jammu, against the backdrop of a discussion on Article 370, Modi invoked Mookerjee.
He reminded people of Mookerjee’s controversial death; he had been arrested when he entered Kashmir in 1953 and thereafter died in detention.
In one of his early Mann Ki Baat programmes, Modi underlined Mookerjee’s academic brilliance.
He said, “...very few people would know that he was the youngest vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta at merely 33 years of age”.
Modi credits Mookerjee for his fight for a unified India, famously echoing his slogan: "Ek desh mein do vidhan, do pradhan, do nishan nahi chalenge" (One country cannot have two constitutions, two prime ministers, and two flags).
PM also directly linked the abrogation of Article 370 to fulfilling Mookerjee's vision.
On July 6, 2026 - 125th birthday of Syama Prasad Mookerjee; PM Namo paid rich tributes and remembered him as a distinguished nation-builder, eminent educationist and visionary leader who dedicated his life to India's unity, dignity and progress.
"Dr. Mookerjee's contributions spanned diverse spheres. He was an outstanding thinker and educationist, who supported innovation and futuristic learning. As Industries Minister, he laid the foundations of industrial self-reliance while ensuring that traditional sectors and livelihoods flourished.
His humanitarian efforts during the Bengal Famine reflected his profound compassion for those in distress. Above all, his steadfast commitment to the unity and integrity of India remains an enduring source of inspiration.
As we move forward in our journey towards a Viksit Bharat, his vision continues to illuminate our path," PM tweeted.
The Chenani-Nashri Tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir was named Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel and a countrywide rural infrastructure programme was named after him too.
In 2020, Kolkata Port was renamed Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port.
The National Centre for Drinking Water, Sanitation and Quality in Joka was named after Mookerjee, as was a super specialty hospital and research centre at IIT Kharagpur.
“He was primarily an educationist,” says Mookerjee’s nonagenarian nephew Chittatosh Mookerjee.
As the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, Mookerjee introduced Bengali as a medium of instruction, founded diverse departments in science, encouraged the study of social welfare and vocational courses, and started departments in Chinese, Tibetan and Islamic history.
He also established Calcutta University’s Asutosh Museum of Indian Art to preserve regional heritage.
“Syama Prasad was a far-sighted politician who had a deep attachment to India’s glorious past. He chose to draw inspiration from Indian traditions rather than from the European philosophies of Karl Marx or John Stuart Mill.
But he possessed a thorough knowledge of Western political ideas," says Syama Prasad's great grand daughter Debdutta Chakraborty.
Ms Debdutta is researching Mookerjee’s political journey based on letters, diary entries, photographs and certificates culled from various archives including those preserved in Mookerjee’s private study at the family’s ancestral home in Bhowanipore.
She is granddaughter of Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s nephew Chittatosh Mookerjee.
The 'ancestral home' building currently houses the Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Institute or AMMI, a registered educational and cultural society run mostly by family members.
Debdutta continues, “Although we have donated many documents to the National Archives of India to ensure proper preservation, we still have with us several boxes and cupboards full of papers related to Syama Prasad’s work.”
Debdutta’s niggle is that despite all this historical evidence, Mookerjee has been relegated to the margins of history. She attributes it to the fact that his ideology did not align with “mainstream Nehruvian or Gandhian ideas”.
She says, “He did not subscribe to the militant politics of Bengal’s revolutionaries, nor did he toe the pro-Axis, anti-British line of certain leaders.”
In more ways than one, the British colonisers and their 'secret and not so secret' associates plotted the partition of India. It was also 'conspired' that Assam should go as part of East Pakistan.
Amongst the galaxy of freedom fighters, if there is one great freedom fighter, we should be thankful to for enabling Assam to remain as a part of India, it is Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
"He shines as a big star. This man’s foresight and fight helped Assam remain in India. Assam was a group-C state and was supposed to be a part of East Pakistan during partition. Dr Syama Prasad Mukherji was a life saviour of the people of our State," wrote MiraNath Bora.
"He saved Assam from being a part of Pakistan when he fought tooth and nail to retain Assam in India and not be included in the partitioned part given to over to Pakistan as part of East Pakistan.
Great freedom fighter Pushpalata Das said that Assam could not have been saved from being merged with East Pakistan by Gopinath Bordoloi alone if Dr Mookerjee did not actively lend his support, strategise and fight for retaining Assam in India," Ms Bora wrote in an article published in website of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation.
Dr Mookerjee also provided adequate security to persecuted Bengalis as long as he was alive.
As soon as he became Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University in 1935, he introduced Assamese language. He wanted that people of India should appreciate and learn Assamese language so as to know about the history of Assam and the state’s great and brave kings.
Mookerjee actually joined active politics 'reluctantly' when he was 38.
In a diary entry, he notes that before that he did not “feel attracted by the noisy and dusty career of a politician”. Chittatosh says, “He joined politics to protect Hindu Bengalis.” He continues, “You have to understand the political context of the 1930s and 1940s. That was a time when Hindus were a minority in Bengal, affected by riots in a Muslim-majority province.”
Debdutta adds, “He felt that the Congress and the Leftists did not counter the rabid Muslim League and failed to protect the interests of the minority Hindu community, especially in East Bengal.”
A well-known quote by Advani highlighting Mookerjee's movement against Article 370 states:
"He was a visionary who had foreseen the consequences of placing Jammu & Kashmir, a strategically located state, in a separate and tenuous Constitutional relationship with the rest of India."
ends
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