Prafulla Chandra Sen
| প্রফুল্লচন্দ্র সেন | |
|---|---|
 Prafulla Chandra Sen | |
| 3rd Chief Minister of West Bengal | |
|
In office 8 July 1962 – 15 March 1967 | |
| Preceded by | President's Rule |
| Succeeded by | Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 April 1897 |
| Died | 25 September 1990 (aged 93) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Prafulla Chandra Sen (Bengali: প্রফুল্লচন্দ্র সেন, জন্ম 10 April 1897 – 25 September 1990) was a Bengali Indian politician and freedom fighter. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal during the period 1961–1967.[1]
Background
He was born in a Vaidya family in Senhati village in Khulna district, in undivided Bengal in 1897. Due to his father's transferable service, he spent his childhood in Bihar province in eastern India. He passed his matriculation examination from the R. Mitra Institute in Deoghar in Bihar. After that, he studied science at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta and graduated from that institution. After that, he joined an accountants' firm and was preparing to leave for England to be apprenticed as an Articled Clerk, when he came across Mahatma Gandhi's soul-stirring speech at the Calcutta session of the Congress Party in 1920.
Sen was extremely influenced by Gandhi's speech and after that, he abandoned all plans of studying abroad and rallied to the Mahatma's nationwide call for a mass Non-co-operation movement against the British. Later, almost immediately, in 1923, Sen shifted to the remote area of Arambagh in the Hooghly district, which became his laboratory for Gandhian experiments in Swadeshi and Satyagraha.
Political career
During the Raj
Sen plunged headlong into the freedom struggle. He was one of the staunchest supporters of the Indian National Congress Party, and led the freedom struggle against the British. He was a die-hard nationalist and was committed to Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of grass-root democracy and a self-reliant rural economy. So pervasive was Gandhi's influence on Sen, that in the 1920s, he shifted his area of social and political activity to Arambagh, an under-developed and malaria-infested area of West Bengal and worked ceaselessly for its upliftment. For his efforts, Sen earned the sobriquet Gandhi of Arambagh. he was thought to have been encouraged by the then president of the union board and the noted academic (headmaster of Arambagh High School) Nagendranath Chatterjee whom interestingly he defeated in a poll,but they never lost mutual admiration and it is reported that sen offered a pranam to chatterjee every time they met long after he was a national figure.
Sen threw himself into the freedom struggle and spent over 10 years in various jails between 1930 and 1942 for anti-British activities. During that time period, the Congress Party office at Serampore was his home and he earned virtually nothing, simply possessing one home-spun dhoti (sarong) and kurta. In the partial exercise of democracy permitted by the British in the 1940s, Sen was elected to the Bengal Assembly from Arambagh in 1944 and was deputy leader of the Opposition.
After Independence
In 1948, he was inducted by the then Chief Minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy into the West Bengal Cabinet as Minister for Food. This was a portfolio he held until 1967. He also functioned as Roy's deputy and was acknowledged as his political heir.
After Dr. Roy's death in 1961, Sen became West Bengal's third Chief Minister. Three years later, his regime faced a drastic food shortage in the state following countrywide drought. At a Food Ministers' conference in Delhi, Sen advocated introducing the politically unsound measure of food rationing in urban areas. Within months, he had introduced food-grain rationing in the state, a system which has continued with minor modifications to this date.
To build food stocks, he imposed a heavy levy on rice mills. In the process he alienated the business community. Shortages of essentials led to anti-Congress Party strikes. This was followed by violence and police excesses which further isolated Sen's government. In 1967, the Congress lost the West Bengal election to the Marxists with Sen losing his Arambagh seat in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly as well.
After this setback, Sen, although re-elected to the West Bengal Assembly, never recovered high political office. In the 1980s he fruitlessly espoused the cause of party-less democracy and although he had left the Congress (I), having little sympathy for its leaders, came around to publicly supporting the party at public forums.
His political legacy
He was strongly opposed to the Marxists. His own brother Manindra Nath Sengupta was a Undivided Communist Party Leader from South Kolkata. Both bothers are very much ideologically different from each other. But one thing is common among them both were dedicated their life towards the development of poor people of India. Even during the period of Manindra Nath's serious life-threatening illness, his family requested to present CM Prafulla Chandra Sen to provide some free health care facility in government hospitals to save Manindra Nath's life, as his family do not have money for health check up.Manindra Nath Sengupta was himself a renowned doctor of Homeopathy at that point of time. He distributes all his earning to the poor mass and offers health care for free of cost to the poor and needy people of Kolkata. No special favour was offered by Prafulla Chandra Sen but only a written letter for an ordinary general free bed in MLA quota if vacant with medical college in Kolkata was provided to Manindra Nath's family. When the above, came to Manindra Naths knowledge, he refused to take admission to Medical college for any treatment.Both brothers were ideologically different one was Congressmen and other was Communist but they are quite similar in dedication towards their party and self less sacrifices to the nation and no political advantages was given to any of the family or any other party members, which is till date is a lesson to learn for present politicians of India. He helped to transform the Congress Party in Bengal from an anti-imperialist unit into one capable of winning elections and capable governance. When the Indian National Congress was split in the 1960s by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, its more powerful faction took the name of its benefactor and was called the Congress(I), whilst the other less powerful faction, and the one that Sen joined was called the Congress(O). By the 1980s the latter had virtually disappeared. Although disillusioned with the state of the Congress(I) Party later, he remained an optimist to the end. One of his last acts a fortnight before he died was to participate, sitting in a wheelchair, in a Congress(I) sponsored march in Calcutta, to protest against the state's Communist Party of India-led government. In the year 1967 he was defeated at Arambagh by another Gandhian Ajoy Mukherjee, who became chief minister of West Bengal after Prafulla Chandra Sen. Architect of Ajoy Mikherjee's victory at Arambagh was Narayan Ch Ghosh the then students leader. Later attending birth centenary of Prafulla Chandra Sen said Ghosh (then professor) said, 'We have to learn from Prafulla Chandra Sen's life. How a man of Senhati became Arambagher Gandhi (Gandhi of Arambagh) is really surprising. Conviction of Sen is a lesson'.
A tireless Gandhian
To his last, he remained a bachelor with an undemanding lifestyle. He passionately championed the upliftment of village industry including home-spun cloth or khadi. For most of his later life, Sen wore only khadi and a week before he died, sold khadi from a newly opened shop to inaugurate its sale.
He died in Calcutta on 25 September 1990.
According to The Independent dated 28 September 1990, Sen was
a fiery freedom fighter from Bengal state in Eastern India and later the state's Chief Minister, practised a selfless and principled brand of politics long forgotten in India today.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by President's Rule |
Chief Minister of West Bengal 1962—1967 |
Succeeded by Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee |
References
- Obituary in The Independent (London) dated 28 September 1990.
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