What is in news : The 67the death anniversary of Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee was observed as ‘Balidan Diwas’

Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee

• Born in a Bengali family on 6th July 1901.
• His father Ashutosh Mukherjee was a judge of the Calcutta High Court.
• In 1924 he enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High Court.
• At the age of 33, he became the youngest vice-chancellor of Calcutta University in 1934.
• During his term as Vice-Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore delivered the university convocation address in Bengali for the first time, and the Indian vernacular was introduced as a subject for the highest examination.
• Demanded the partition of Bengal in 1946 to prevent the inclusion of its Hindu-majority areas in a Muslim-dominated East Pakistan. A meeting held by the Mahasabha on April 15, 1947, in Tarakeswar, authorised him to take steps for ensuring partition of Bengal.
• In May 1947, he wrote a letter to Lord Mountbatten telling him that Bengal must be partitioned even if India was not.
• He also opposed a failed bid for a united but independent Bengal made in 1947 by Sarat Bose, the brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali Muslim politician.
• Due to difference of opinion on Jammu and Kashmir issues, he co- founded Janata Party in the year 1977-1979, which later on became the Bharatiya Janata Party.
• He died after 40 days of being arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir State police for entering the state without permit.