Syama Prasad Mookerjee: PM Modi’s Patriot was a Collaborator
of British Rulers & Muslim League
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi celebrating victory in West Bengal assembly elections at
the BJP headquarters in New Delhi (May 4, 2026), stated that “the soul of Syama
Prasad Mookerjee must be at peace today”. Earlier too Modi had described him "a
statesman, thinker and a patriot who devoted his life towards strengthening
national integration".
Dr. Syama
Prasad Mookerjee (SPM 1901-1953) is a prominent Hindutva icon for the RSS/BJP
brigade. It was he who, on the advice of M.S. Golwalkar, the second chief of
RSS and its most prominent ideologue, founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS),
predecessor of the present Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1951 and became the
first president of the political arm of the RSS.
Modi and the Hindutva brigade is
fond of declaring Mookerjee as great nationalist and patriot who laid down his
life for the unity of the nation. The Hindutva rhetoric about patriotism of
Mookerjee needs to be cross-checked with the contemporary documents available
in RSS and Hindu Mahasabha archives. Perusal of these documents clearly shows
that the claim that Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was a 'selfless patriot' and a
great patriot right from his birth is a white lie. Mookerjee never-never
participated in the anti-colonial freedom struggle. If patriotism means being
part of the freedom struggle and making sacrifices, Mookerjee not only kept
aloof from it but also betrayed it by collaborating with the British rulers and
the Muslim League in order to crush and communally polarize the anti-British
liberation movement.
In
pre-Independence period he was a prominent leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, which
was led by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. When in 1942 Congress gave a call to the
British rulers to leave India immediately by launching Quit India Movement
(QIM), the British rulers responded to this mass movement by unleashing a reign
of terror. Congress was banned, its provincial governments were dismissed,
whole of India was turned into a jail and thousands died in the repression
unleashed by armed forces of the British and the native rulers. The crime of
many of those who were killed was that they dared to carry or unfurl the
Tricolour, flag of the resistance.
Hindu
nationalist organizations namely, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS with the Muslim
League (which since 1940 was ferociously demanding Partition of India) not only
boycotted QIM but also decided to support the British government in its
repressive campaign. The Hindu nationalists under the leadership of Savarkar
even ran coalition governments with the Muslim League led by Mohammad Ali
Jinnah.
The Hindu
Mahasabha president 'Veer' Savarkar joyously chronicled this ganging up of
Hindu Mahasabha with the Muslim League in his presidential speech to the 24th
session of the Hindu Mahasabha at Kanpur in 1942 in the following words:
“In
practical politics also the Mahasabha knows that we must advance through
reasonable compromises. Witness the fact that only recently in Sind, the
Sind-Hindu-Sabha on invitation had taken the responsibility of joining hands
with the League itself in running coalition Government. The case of Bengal is
well known. Wild Leaguers whom even the Congress with all its submissiveness
could not placate grew quite reasonably compromising and sociable as soon as
they came in contact with the Hindu Mahasabha and the Coalition Government,
under the premiership of Mr. Fazlul Huq and the able lead of our esteemed
Mahasabha leader Dr Syama Prasad Mookerji, functioned successfully for a year
or so to the benefit of both the communities.”
[Savarkar, VD., Samagar Savarkar Wangmaya (Collected
Works of Savarkar), Hindu Mahasabha, Poona, 1963, pp. 479-480.]
Later this
coalition arrangement was extended to NWFP (now in Pakistan, known as Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa) also. SPM was Deputy PM (those days chief minister was designated
as prime minister) and held the Home portfolio which oversaw the crushing of
QIM.
Following
the Hindu Mahasabha directive to co-operate with the British, the Hindutva
icon, Dr. Mookerjee assured the British masters through a letter dated July 26,
1942. In an autobiographical work he confessed:
“Let me now
refer to the situation that may be created in the province as a result of any
widespread movement launched by the Congress. Anybody, who during the war,
plans to stir up mass feeling, resulting internal disturbances or insecurity,
must be resisted by any Government that may function for the time being”
[Mookerjee, Shyama Prasad, Leaves from a Dairy, Oxford
University Press, p. 179.]
His letter
to Bengal governor that the Fazlul Haq led Bengal Government, along with its
alliance partner Hindu Mahasabha had made concrete plan for suppressing QIM is
to be read and believed:
“The question is how to combat this movement
(Quit India) in Bengal? The administration of the province should be carried on
in such a manner that in spite of the best efforts of the Congress, this
movement will fail to take root in the province. It should be possible for us,
especially responsible Ministers, to be able to tell the public that the
freedom for which the Congress has started the movement, already belongs to the
representatives of the people. In some spheres it might be limited during the
emergency. Indian have to trust the British, not for the sake for Britain, not
for any advantage that the British might gain, but for the maintenance of the
defense and freedom of the province itself. You, as Governor, will function as
the constitutional head of the province and will be guided entirely on the
advice of your Minister.
[Cited
in A G. Noorani, The RSS and the BJP: A Division of
Labour, LeftWord
Books, pp. 56–57.]
It
was an abashed glorification of the foreign rule when he stated that freedom “already
belongs to the representatives of the people…Indian have to trust the British,
not for the sake for Britain, not for any advantage that the British might
gain, but for the maintenance of the defense and freedom of the province itself”.
A
prominent historian of India R.C.
Majumdar who
is also regarded as a true 'Bhartiya' historian by the Hindutva brigade
commenting on this letter wrote:
“Shyam
Prasad ended the letter with a discussion of the mass movement organised by the
Congress. He expressed the apprehension that the movement would create internal
disorder and will endanger internal security during the war by exciting popular
feeling and he opined that any government in power has to suppress it, but that
according to him could not be done only by persecution…. In that letter he
mentioned item wise the steps to be taken for dealing with the situation…”
[RC Majumdar, History of Modern Bengal, vol. 2, G.
Bharadwaj & Co, Calcutta, p. 350.]
The Hindu
Mahasabha decision to betray Quit India Movement resonated with the RSS also.
MS Golwalkar, the then chief of RSS admitted:
“In 1942
also there was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time too the
routine work of Sangh continued. Sangh vowed not to do anything directly.
However, upheaval (uthal-puthal) in the minds of Sangh volunteers continued.
Sangh is an organization of inactive persons, their talks are useless, not only
outsiders but also many of our volunteers did talk like this. They were greatly
disgusted too.”
[Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan (collected works of
Golwalkar in Hindi), vol. IV, Bhartiya
Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, p 40.]
Nowhere in
pre-Partition RSS literature we find references to any work which RSS might
have done 'indirectly' for Quit India Movement.
In a more
shocking development, the Hindu Mahasabha of Dr Mookerjee decided to help the
British rulers in World War II. It was the time when Subhash Chandra Bose,
known as Netaji, was organizing the INA (Azad Hind Fauj) in a
military campaign to force the British out. The extent to which the Hindu
Mahasabha was willing to help the British masters is clear from the following
directive issued by Savarkar as President of the Mahasabha:
“So far as
India’s defence is concerned, Hindudom must ally unhesitatingly, in a spirit of
responsive co-operation, with the war effort of the Indian government in so far
as it is consistent with the Hindu interests, by joining the Army, Navy and the
Aerial forces in as large a number as possible and by securing an entry into
all ordnance, ammunition and war craft factories…. Again it must be noted that Japan’s
entry into the war has exposed us directly and immediately to the attack by
Britain’s enemies. Consequently, whether we like it or not, we shall have to
defend our own hearth and home against the ravages of the war and this can only
be done by intensifying the government’s war effort to defend India. Hindu
Mahasabhaites must, therefore, rouse Hindus especially in the provinces of
Bengal and Assam as effectively as possible to enter the military forces of all
arms without losing a single minute.”
[V.D. Savarkar, Samagra Savarkar
Wangmaya: Hindu Rashtra Darshan, vol. 6, Maharashtra Prantik Hindusabha, Poona, 1963, p. 460.]
Thus, according to PM Modi and Hindutva
gang, a ‘Patriot’ and ‘Self-less’ freedom fighter must be a stooge of the
British, a collaborator of Jinnah led Muslim League and organizer of mass
murders of brave participants of Quit India Movement. All those who fought and
laid down their lives against the colonial masters for freedom of an
all-inclusive democratic-secular must have been fools!
Shamsul
Islam
June 7, 2026
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
Twitter:
@shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com
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https://tinyurl.com/shams-books
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