Dr Anirban Ganguly is a scholar of Indian civilisation-history-culture. He is also a Director of the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation.

In the first part of his interview to Sudhir Bisht, Dr. Ganguly talks about the contributions of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and others who have been subjected to “minimisation”, to Indian history.

SB: Dr Ganguly, your foundation recently organised at Nehru Memorial Museum, so is it not ironic that Nehru Memorial is organising an exhibition for Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, given the history of bitterness between the two?

Dr Ganguly: See, one thing is that in Nehru Memorial Museum over the years, there had been such exhibitions which had been held, commemorative exhibitions, on various other personalities apart from Nehru. In fact, the exhibition just before Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was on the life of Abdul Gaffar Khan. Last year, there was one on Lala Lajpat Rai. It so happens that after this government has come to power, they have consciously deiced Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. It is actually a symbol of those who fought for India’s independence as well as those who shaped India post- independence. It is the symbol of their legacy, kind of. It is a repository of all their papers, their documents, their private papers and all that. Therefore, they decided that there should be commemorations of such personalities; personalities who have been forgotten; Rani Gaidinliu, for example. There was an exhibition on her life last year and there was a programme also in commemoration on that. So, that’s why it is out of the way that they have done.



SB: But Nehru Museum hosting Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s exhibition?

Dr Ganguly: At the same time, at least if you read Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s speeches, his writings and Parliamentary debates, there was nothing personal that he had with Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru may have had, perhaps. His attitude towards his opponents may have a great tinge of the personal element in it but as far as Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s approach goes, there was nothing personal in his opposition to Nehru. You know, in an actual democracy, one should have space for all points of views. It has not happened thus far, that’s another matter.

SB: When I went to college in 1981, I came in contact with student bodies like ABVP, SFI and NSUI. I became interested in understating the political history of various organisations and their parent bodies. I studied history in school but I wasn’t aware that there was somebody like Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee who existed. It was not in the text books. So do you think that history has been unkind to him? That he got a raw deal as very few school students, even today know about the person who is responsible for the second division of Bengal, which virtually saved West Bengal for India?

Dr Ganguly: Yes, absolutely. The space to other leaders and their points of view has not been sufficiently given in our history narrative, post-independence. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, even though he was active after independence from 1947 to 1953, very short years, just about six years, but in those six years, he did a lot. From his standing, his stature, he contributed to enriching and stabilising India’s political life. He did it in his own way. And just because his politics did not conform to the dominant, political narrative of that period, there was an effort to either minimise his contribution or marginalise it. So he has become a victim of this minimisation and marginalisation.