The Hindu : Front Page : Parliamentarian Hiren Mukherjee passes away

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 31, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

Parliamentarian Hiren Mukherjee passes away

Hiren Mukherjee

KOLKATA, JULY 30. A gifted orator and parliamentarian par excellence, legendary Communist leader Hirendranath Mukherjee symbolised the golden era of Indian parliamentary politics.

Mr. Mukherjee, who jocularly referred to himself ``a jack of several incompatible trades'', was a contemporary of veteran Communist leader P.C. Joshi, Ranen Sen, Somnath Lahiri and Bhabani Sen and was closely associated with leaders including, Muzaffer Ahmed and Abdul Halim.

A leading figure in the political and cultural life of the country, Hiren Mukherjee resented being dubbed as ``a grand old Communist'' and preferred to call himself an ``unrepentant Communist'', holding fast to the `ism' that made him join the then `illegal' Communist Party of India in July 1936.

He had served in bodies as disparate as the All India Congress Committee (1938-39) and the National Council of the Communist Party of India (1958-68). He was a member of the Lok Sabha from 1952 to 1977, a deputy leader of the Communist party in Parliament (1952-64) and then its leader from 1964 to 1967.

Prolific writer

A prolific writer in Bengali and English, he had authored studies on Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, besides a near-classic on India's Freedom Struggle.

He was awarded honorary doctorates (D.Litt.) by Andhra, Calcutta, North Bengal and Rabindra Bharati universities. He was also the recipient of the Soviet Land Nehru Prize (1978), Vidyasagar Literary Prize (1991), Padmabhusan (1990) and Padma Vibhusan (1991).

Mr. Mukherjee, born on November 23, 1907, was educated at Calcutta and Oxford and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, London. It was during his stint in Oxford that he was appointed professor of History and Political Theory at Andhra University by Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. Mr. Mukherjee joined Ripon College as head of department of History (1936-52) and as a lecturer in history and political science (1940-44) in Calcutta University.

Good academic record

He had a brilliant academic record and was awarded the coveted Eshan scholarship, Burdwan scholarship and gold medal for his results.

The chairman of the mass media centre, Government of West Bengal, he had a vibrant interest in a wide-range of subjects.

One of the founders of the progressive writers union in 1936 and friends of Soviets in 1941 and Indo-China friendship society in 1948, he was the president of the IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association) in 1940.

Trade unionist

Closely associated with the trade union movement, he gave leadership to workers unions of postal, insurance and bank employees. He was the president of Bengal Motion Picture Employees Union since its inception in 1946 and served as the vice-president of the BPTUC during its critical period in 1948-49. He was also associated with leading journals. — PTI

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