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Following Monday’s (December 11) judgment of the Supreme Court upholding the abrogation of Article 370, many invoked Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee (1901-53), an ardent opponent of Kashmir’s ‘special status’ in the Indian Union.
“Today’s judgment … is like a homage given by the nation to the sacrifice of life by Syama Prasad Mookerjee,” Alok Kumar, International Working President of the VHP, said.
#WATCH | Delhi: On SC verdict on Article 370, Alok Kumar, International Working President, VHP says “Today’s decision of the Supreme Court on Article 370 is like a homage given by the nation to the sacrifice of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee… Due to some political… pic.twitter.com/49Mh3cQz5h
— ANI (@ANI) December 11, 2023
Who is Syama Prasad Mookerjee — and what were his views on Kashmir?
A foundational figure for the BJP
Dr S P Mookerjee was an academic, barrister, and politician, and the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, precursor to the BJP. He remains one of the most influential figures in the Hindu right, and continues to inspire the BJP’s politics.
“Mookerjee was a preacher of nationalism and a unified India,” Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal wrote for The Indian Express in 2021.
As the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (1943-46), Dr Mookerjee vociferously opposed Huseyn Suhrawardy’s United Bengal plan, which would create an independent Bengali nation, but with a sizable Muslim majority. For Dr Mookerjee, a “sovereign undivided Bengal would be a virtual Pakistan”.
In 1947, Dr Mookerjee was invited by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to join the interim cabinet as Minister for Industry and Supply. He was one of two non-Congress ministers in Nehru’s cabinet (the other being Dr B R Ambedkar).
Dr Mookerjee kept his ministership for just under three years, and resigned in April 1950 over the controversial Nehru-Liaquat Pact — a bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan which provided a framework for the treatment of minorities in the two countries.
By this time, he had also fallen out with the Mahasabha, and in 1951, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which he envisioned to be a “nationalistic alternative to the Congress party”.
Proponent of Kashmir’s integration with India
One of the key planks of the Jana Sangh was the integration of J&K with the Indian Union. After Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to India in 1947, negotiations continued for years regarding J&K’s exact status vis-à-vis the Indian Union.
In the summer of 1952, almost five years after India’s independence, Sheikh Abdullah, the state’s prime minister, signed the Delhi Agreement, defining the contours of J&K’s autonomy. Kashmir was allowed to fly its own flag alongside the tricolour, its land was secured against “outsiders”, and the Centre was forbidden from sending in armed forces without the state’s permission.
In Parliament, Dr Mookerjee launched a scathing criticism of the Nehru government’s J&K policy. He demanded to know who had made Sheikh Abdullah, a man with unacceptable “divided loyalty”, a “King of Kings”, and pressed for making the state a part of India with no special concessions.
“Nahin chalenge ek desh mein do vidhan, do pradhan aur do nishan (You cannot have two constitutions, do prime ministers, and two flags in one country),” Dr Mookerjee famously said.
An energetic agitation and an untimely demise
Dr Mookerjee came out in support of the Praja Parishad, the political party of Jammu Hindus, and its “highly patriotic and emotional” movement to “merge completely with India”. He repeatedly asked Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah to halt the crackdown on the Parishad, release its leaders from custody, and convene a meeting of all stakeholders from J&K.
In April 1953, amidst deadlock on the issue, Dr Mookerjee took the agitation to the streets in Delhi. Hundreds of Jana Sangh workers courted arrest.
Having failed to get Nehru to change his policy, Dr Mookerjee set out for Jammu on May 8, 1953. He intended to proceed to Srinagar thereafter, despite orders by Sheikh Abdullah to curtail his movement. He was arrested on May 11 and sent to prison in Srinagar.
In June, while still in prison, Dr Mookerjee fell ill, and suffered a massive heart attack on June 22. He died a day later.
Many in the Sangh Parivar continue to believe that Dr Mookerjee’s death was a part of a wider conspiracy to curb the movement in Kashmir. The BJP’s website says that he “was martyred for the cause of integrating Kashmir with the rest of India.”
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